The Group

Back Row left to right: Solah (KC), Margot (O), Amanda (O), HeeJeen (KC), HyoungJuu (KC), Tom (O), Taykun (KC), Toshi (O).
Front Row left to right: Mr Wee (YA), Kyoung Me (KC), David (O), and Tommy Chweh (YA).

O: St. Olaf Student
KC: Korean Cohort from Yonsei
YA: Yonsei Administration friends

Follow up on "School Pride"

On the night of the last sporting event the streets of sinchon (sub-town of seoul, where yonsei is) swarmed with yonsei and korea university students bordering on hysteria. It's a tradition that the students, still garbed in school pride, run around in packs screaming leader-call mass-repeat messages to the local resturant, bar, and sometimes even shop managers. If they belly out their cheering songs loudly enough times they're met with free food, drinks, or supplies. we hit dunken doughnuts, baskin robins, numerous resturants, a few bars, and even got free hairgell from a beautician shop. a display which, im afraid, wouldnt fly in northfield if conducted by oles or carls.

School Pride

The rivalry of the 3st and 2nd best universities in korea, korea and yonsei university respectively, battled this weekend in the greatest sporting spectacular of the year. every fan of yonsei wears blue, and korea red. they pack the stadium on oppisite sides.

during the week leading into the sporting events the schools respectively held cheering practices. ive never heard of such a thing. people pack the ampitheatre and follow the unquestioningly "cool" cheering squad (akaraka) perform the set of songs used continuously throughout the anticipated games. although the rivalry is there, an unexpected comradery is also present. for instance, at the last cheering practice korea university students joined yonsei students and they taught each other cheers, and then danced and sang together into the night.

The most interesting twist to the scenario surfaced when i realized cheering and fan freemasonry were perhaps more important then the various sporting matches themselves. The crowd sings and dances uniformly throughout each game (even before and after the game, during halftime, or while there is no play whatsoever) - i still dont know how the players could concentrate with the blaring music, boisterous crowd and occasional pyrotechnics.

Yonsei University...

the land of the prodigious. driven by themselves, their parents, or fear, yonsei students perform in their field with alarming specialty. one can see assiduity printed across their forehead as they haste around campus. the pressure builds and at night on many a side street in seoul one can easily find the corollary: a student hanging on a couple friends shoulders stumbling back home, or off to the side spewing out the 3 bottles of soju that recently replaced stress with inibriation.

most of them know some english, that key to a better future. the pianists here are absolutely astounding. they're on a completely dfferent level than the student pianists ive met anywhere else. the language teachers here know at least japenese, korean, and english. their various inculcated aptitudes can make one feel inadequate from time to time.

how are these students so smart? like the 9 year old daughter at my hasukchip, they start english, piano, korean, and other studies as young as possible and then are pushed really hard. ive been told high school is the apex of the severity (8am-12 midnight studying). and if admited to one of the unanimously lauded univerities, the sweat is off their back and the pace slows. but if they dont make it...well, apparently the suicide rate for post-highschool and precollegiate teens is pretty high.

The Language

the korean language is the largest part of what makes koreans how they are. confucianism is directly built into the language. when you greet somebody who's age you can't determine, you must ask so that you know what societal hiearchery within the language to use. an elder recieves a new set of honorific terms, nouns, verb particles, and sometimes new verbs altogether. likewise a youth is met by lower speech. for example, "to speak" in romanization respectively differs as follows: "malsum hashimnida", or "mal hay." 6 sylables vs 2. In modesty one introduces one's wife literally as "house person," while the guest uses an honorific term. I was told there are 8 or 9 different levels with which to communicate.

i was serendipitously invited to accompany antonio pomba-baldi and 6 other pianists from yonsei to a fine korean resturant in iteawon. one of the pianists impressed upon me just how overwhelming the lingual class systems can be: "sometimes it's just too much!"

How do I look?

Koreans are openly concerned about their appearance. the image of a korean checking their hair, face, makeup, or clothing is unnecessarily concealed by a private moment. it happens in the subway, class, or in a random shop window (surrogate mirror) on the street. They always want to look their best so they'll dress up: females in dresses, makeup, and high heals (even to traverse the rough roads of seoul), and males in buttonups, dress pants (sometimes a full suit). Appearence often parallels status (but this is the case in most places).

at home i think most of us are just as visually self-concerned. in fact, the person who casually denies the concern of their appearance ironically adheres to an aesthetic that aims to casually deny that they are concerned with their appearence. in other words, they are concerned about not looking concerned. the difference is that koreans are open about it and void of embarressment, while our vain upkeep lurks in the solitude of our minds and bathrooms. one's not better than the other; both are beauti-concious. all it means is that over here you can check yourself out publically.

Antonio Pompa-Baldi Masterclass

yes, it just so happens that the 2nd place winner of one of the most prestigous piano competitions, the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, conducted a masterclass today at the yonsei music building. thankfully for me the Italian, ignorant of any korean, delivered his thoughts in perfect english (with a translator at his side for the crowd). his comments were always clear and his demonstrations to the students droped my jaw to the floor. he spoke of a schubert sonata being very introspective and voiced his music like an orchestra. he emphasized that the bach bussoni chaccone, although busoni's arrangement, needs to be played in bach's style (because it's his piece). lastly, he likes to imagine a late scriabin sonata in terms of lighting effects: dark at times, then transparent, or playfully shimmering.

there are many students that are good pianists here. all that ive seen have been technically proficient. it's slightly daunting, but by now im fairly used to it since i went to brevard last summer.

you can now post comments! my apologies for unknowingly restricting them earlier.

Vacation from vacation

The trip couldn't have gone better. for the first time all the korean cohorts and oles were together, and the 5 days provided the adhesive to found the begining of an extended rapport. many highlights decorated the sojourn: walking through clouds on a mountain, in dynastic tombs of antiquated nobility, near buddhist temples and the aural meditations from within, among naked asian men in an authentic full-scale sauna, through a colorful seafood market, around an old korean folk village of kindred inhabitants (a chain subsisting from centuries ago), in the Independent Hall of Korea which illuminates their history (with special emphasis on koreans tortured by japenese - a claim which japenese textbooks still do not acknowledge).

were us oles ugly tourists or welcomed parts? im not sure, but i think we were closer to the later by dint of our company and partial knowledge of the language.