I had a friend who, perhaps some time in 2005, had the opportunity to go with a delegation of what I understood to be Korean diplomats to Korea for a week after showing them around Washington, DC for a week. During this visit, he had the opportunity to go to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, including the Joint Security Area (JSA) where the accord establishing the zone was signed and where visitors can actually cross into North Korea.
Until my arrival in Seoul, I did not know that this was something that any tourist can actually do. But I also did not know that it requires more advanced planning than the five days or so that my friend and I had when we arrived. Although visits to the DMZ are pretty easy to arrange through various companies – not only heading up to the zone but also visiting one of the underground tunnels built apparently to effect a surprise attack upon Seoul by the North – but arranging a visit to include the JSA is a bit more difficult. The main reason seems to be that this part of the border can only accept a certain number of visitors on any one day, and once it reaches the limit for visitors the area is shut down for further visitors until another day where the quota is not reached. This is true for any booking agency because it is a top-down decision, so it does not matter which agency you call or harass: once the number is reached, no one else can book travel up there.
Although the tunnel and rest of the DMZ certainly would have made for an interesting visit, my friend and I decided to forego the visit if we would be unable to also go to the JSA.
As for what we learned which will make you all the wiser about visiting the JSA: The USO runs tours to the region which can probably be booked online. We met a Canadian national who’d booked a tour through the USO which included the JSA, and he had booked about a month or two months earlier. So if planning a trip to Seoul, be sure to build this booking into your pre-trip planning to ensure that you have a chance to head up to the JSA. Also, the USO tour seems to be the best one in terms of price: with a cost around US$ 44 (or about 70,000 won at this point) this is a great deal. Other tours than run to the JSA cost about 80,000 won just for the JSA, and then to do a full-day combined tour (including one of the surprise attack tunnels) the cost jumps to around 130,000 won (about US$ 100). The USO tour does all of these at the lower price.
Besides the DMZ, I’ll probably also say a few words here about the whole situation between North and South Korea. Arriving in Korea I really did not have any idea about the nature of the North/South conflict, what caused it, what resulted, and how the relationship was between the two countries. But having visited the memorials and museums, a pretty clear picture has emerged. My overarching comment is that the Korean War, taking place mostly in the early 1950s, is really a product of a combination of economic, military, international relations, historical, wartime (WWII) and political forces. All of these together seemed to create, exacerbate and abate the conflict at various points, which underscores for me the importance of really having a good knowledge of all of these fields and their interaction when studying this conflict and probably any conflict. I was not aware of this previously. In a nutshell from what I can remember, Japan occupied Korea prior to the Korean War and I think during the time of World War II. After the Japanese were defeated, Korea was split between the USSR and the United States in order to maintain order and prepare the country for self-governance after its liberation. One question that I had when learning this and the aftermath is, how could the large powers have ever thought that, by developing such different systems between North and South Korea by the division, they could have easily unified Korea in the end rather than causing two Koreas to come about at the end of the occupations? Hopefully we will learn from history and try to avoid this situation in the future. During the Soviet and US occupations, very different systems of government arose: communism in the North and capitalism in the South (roughly). When election were eventually due, the North and South and the occupying countries could not agree to terms, and I think it was the South which first held democratic elections for its leaders, followed by the North. At this point, there were effectively two governments, and the country was effectively divided into two at the 37th parallel. After the occupying countries pulled out, the North one morning broke through the 37th parallel and attacked the South. Seeing the pre-war statistics, the North truly had most of the infrastructure (energy, development, industry, military capacity) needed to carry out and sustain a war, while I had the impression that the South was much more agriculturally-oriented and did not have the self-capacity to wage a war. Partially as a result of this I think, the North was able to quickly gain control of most of the country within a couple months of fighting, until the UN forces were dispatched and fought back. Beyond regaining control through the 37th parallel, the UN forces were pushing the North into an equally small part of land way up near Russia, when the Chinese decided to act and to join forces with the North Koreans. At this point, the conflict centered mostly back around the 37th parallel, and the bodycount kept increasing with both sides more or less at a stalemate. After one failed negotiation, another negotiation resulted in the creation of the DMZ in order to stop the war. However, since then, North Korea is suspected – or proven? – to have made attempts at the lives of the South Korean leaders both within the country and also during trips abroad. Such events have continued as recently as a major incident in 1997 which is recorded in the war museum.
It would be interesting to hear the North Korean side of the story. We gleaned a small part of it from the aforementioned Canadian, as he had been to North Korea twice before this visit to South Korea. He noted several things. One, that going to the JSA from the North Korean side is not nearly as strict as it is from the South Korean side (where there is a dress code and strict passport controls before going there). Second, he said that the North Korean war museums mostly recount the progress of the war in the same way as the South (he visited the same war museum that we’d gone to), with the difference being that the North claims that it was the South which first crossed over the 37th parallel in an attack on the North.
I’m not sure how I would feel about living in South Korea or in Seoul, a city in a country where the northern counterpart clearly still would like to lay claims on your life and lands and makes attempts every once in a while to make this happen. And recent history proves even more terrifying, that the North Koreans claim that they have developed nuclear weapons capability. Having just visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is a terrifying prospect. What more effective way to bring a country to its knees, causing a massive number of people to burn in a fire probably comparable to that of Hell and forcing a country to come under your control? The prospect is truly horrifying and this makes me understand why the United States and the international community have taken such a hard line against allowing North Korea to develop its nuclear capability. With a “rogue” nation which arguably – and historically – has had very few scruples when confronting obstacles to its goals, and no exercisable popular controls on its political decisions, the prospect of using those nuclear weapons against South Korea is terrifying indeed. I do think that I would like to go to North Korea some day to see the differences with the South.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
再见 Shanghai!
November 14, 2008 was my last day studying in Shanghai and I hope to offer a quick word or two on how the experience ended, my thoughts on progress in Mandarin, and also some thoughts inspired by my visits to date of Beijing, Korea, and Japan and thoughts on whether my strategy of learning Mandarin prior to travel in Asia was a good one.
First, words on language acquisition. After seven weeks of intensively studying Mandarin in Shanghai, I think that I have reached a solid understanding of basic Mandarin and that I have the tools to both remember and build upon what I know about the language. I’m trying to figure out how to best go about not forgetting what I’ve learned, and I feel that a very important tool will be all of the notes that I took down while in Shanghai. Not only are they filled with new words, but idiomatic phrases that offer further insights into the language and which are best “internally” understood – i.e. to be understood as being within the Mandarin language and not just through translation. In addition, my notebooks are also filled with Chinese characters and musings upon the characters: playing around with them, repeatedly writing them, “studying” the different parts and proportions, and taking notes on similar characters. All of this work being encoded in written form gives me hope that even just a simple review of the notes will, in the future, quickly bring me up to speed to where I was in learning the language if I am ever able to take up further formal studies of Mandarin.
After leaving Shanghai, I went first to Beijing by train (in a hard-seater carriage, where I sat for thirteen hours without getting up until we had arrived at the capital!). On the train I tried to pull out my notes for continued studying, particulary of characters, but I quickly found that the limited space around me was not too suitable to take the notes that I wished to take, and also I saw that as soon as I brought out the materials several people around me were interested in conversation. Some of the conversation I could follow and other parts were very difficult. As in any country, the manner in which Mandarin is spoken varies widely by geographic location, education and class, and situation, among other factors. Whereas I had grown very accustomed to my Mandarin teachers’ spoken variety, the streets of Shanghai were filled both with Shanghainese and also the Shanghai accent of the Mandarin language. On the train, I was suddenly exposed to the Beijing accent where, to be bluntly honest, it sounds as if every spoken word is immediately eaten up somewhere in the middle to the back of the mouth of the speaker, making it quite difficult to understand what is spoken. It is this Mandarin that you will come across mostly with cab drivers, on the street with food sellers, with shopkeepers, etc. As such, therefore, it is necessary to become accustomed to it, although outside those very interactions it is difficult to come across these types of difficult accents because both on television and in the classroom, it is standard Mandarin which you hear and study.
In any case, arriving in Korea I realized just how much of Mandarin I had learned. I had immediate and instinctive responses as to what to say in most or all situations – be it in interactions with shopkeepers, in restaurants, on the street – where anywhere in China I could have easily used Mandarin but in Korea we were mainly left quite … silent. It was both frustrating and encouraging at the same time – frustrating because I suddenly could not communicate with those around me, but encouraging because it left me to realize exactly how much I had learned while in China. In addition, in Korea there are some Chinese-derived characters in use, although mostly in historical or very official contexts it seemed.
Having now arrived in Japan, there are many more Chinese-derived characters in use (kanji) but they are difficult to decipher for several reasons: (1) they are often or always intermixed with phonetic Japanese characters; (2) they appear to often or always be of the traditional Chinese variety; and (3) it seems that the meaning of some of the characters is not exactly that as used within Chinese. But despite these, my eye does tend to be drawn to them and sometimes it helps to recognize some of the characters on products or menus to at least begin to get a sense of what’s there. As a result, I’m again happy with my choice of studying Mandarin first – and spending time with the characters – and then traveling through East Asia.
The remaining tests will be Taiwan and Singapore. In Taiwan, Mandarin is spoken but traditional characters are used, so I will be very happy to be able to use my Mandarin once again. I will probably also resume studying my notebook of words and some phrases to continue increasing my spoken vocabulary, and hopefully I will remember the structures that I learned while studying in Shanghai.
And to finish off this entry, just a couple words on what I did my last day or two. On Friday, November 14, one of my classmates from France, Brigitte, had the idea to head to Shanghai’s art district (sort of like Beijing’s 798) and have a look around and grab some lunch. This turned out pretty great – the area is rather compact, free to get in everywhere, and the café we chose had food that was great and well-priced. The sculptures – contemporary for the most part – were stimulating and interesting. There were several studios we stepped in as well. I posted photos from this visit onto my Facebook account.
That same Friday evening we also did our traditional meal at the hotpot restaurant, returning to the Nanjing Lu location. Armed again with our translations and also memories of the previous week’s successful and not-so-successful orderings, we had a great time for even less money than before, or about 35 RMB per person (or under US $6). With plenty of left over, a smaller group then continued on to one of what seemed to be a popular ex-pat bar, not far from Nanjing Xi Lu but the name escapes me. We were able to get in a couple beers and also Sebastian, one of my classmates, and Ben, a roommate, encouraged us to try flaming up some Sambuca shots in our mouths.
Here’s a brief explanation of that process: You buy a shot of Sambuca. Don’t light it in the shotglass too much or the alcohol may be burned away and not leave enough for the cool part. Then, in a quick succession of movements, do the following: (1) dip a finger into the shot, (2) pour the shot into your mouth as someone simultaneously lights your finger on fire, (3) poke your finger into your Sambuca-filled mouth (as your head is tipped backwards so that the flames don’t burn your upper lip or nose), lighting the Sambuca inside, (4) put out the fire on your finger, which will begin to burn a little by this point and has probably singed off any hair you had on your finger. (Doing this on your own might be hard, so just have a friend “spot” you and help you put out your finger-fire.) Having done all of this, you don’t really feel the flame rising out of your mouth, and you can hold it there for a while I think.
* A serious word of caution, though: Do NOT blow the Sambuca out of your mouth, because everything it hits might potentially catch on fire. All you need to do to put out the flame is close your mouth – which shuts off the oxygen supply to the flame and promptly and safely puts it out. If you spit anything out, you might burn your face and have anything else onto which the alcohol lands catch on fire. Just to illustrate an angle of this, when I had one of my Sambuca shots lit on fire, as I picked it up, it spilled a little bit onto the table and my jeans – spilling not only the sticky liquid but also a blue flame. Quick action put it all out, though.
So that was my last night in Shanghai. The next morning and throughout the day I was able to post my belongings out back home which saved on space and weight in my suitcase to prepare for my next phases of travel. I also had a bunch of errands to run, including setting up finances and all of that to last the rest of my trip. This being done, I bought some snacks for the long train to Beijing, and headed off in the early evening after enjoying some dumplings with my flatmates.
First, words on language acquisition. After seven weeks of intensively studying Mandarin in Shanghai, I think that I have reached a solid understanding of basic Mandarin and that I have the tools to both remember and build upon what I know about the language. I’m trying to figure out how to best go about not forgetting what I’ve learned, and I feel that a very important tool will be all of the notes that I took down while in Shanghai. Not only are they filled with new words, but idiomatic phrases that offer further insights into the language and which are best “internally” understood – i.e. to be understood as being within the Mandarin language and not just through translation. In addition, my notebooks are also filled with Chinese characters and musings upon the characters: playing around with them, repeatedly writing them, “studying” the different parts and proportions, and taking notes on similar characters. All of this work being encoded in written form gives me hope that even just a simple review of the notes will, in the future, quickly bring me up to speed to where I was in learning the language if I am ever able to take up further formal studies of Mandarin.
After leaving Shanghai, I went first to Beijing by train (in a hard-seater carriage, where I sat for thirteen hours without getting up until we had arrived at the capital!). On the train I tried to pull out my notes for continued studying, particulary of characters, but I quickly found that the limited space around me was not too suitable to take the notes that I wished to take, and also I saw that as soon as I brought out the materials several people around me were interested in conversation. Some of the conversation I could follow and other parts were very difficult. As in any country, the manner in which Mandarin is spoken varies widely by geographic location, education and class, and situation, among other factors. Whereas I had grown very accustomed to my Mandarin teachers’ spoken variety, the streets of Shanghai were filled both with Shanghainese and also the Shanghai accent of the Mandarin language. On the train, I was suddenly exposed to the Beijing accent where, to be bluntly honest, it sounds as if every spoken word is immediately eaten up somewhere in the middle to the back of the mouth of the speaker, making it quite difficult to understand what is spoken. It is this Mandarin that you will come across mostly with cab drivers, on the street with food sellers, with shopkeepers, etc. As such, therefore, it is necessary to become accustomed to it, although outside those very interactions it is difficult to come across these types of difficult accents because both on television and in the classroom, it is standard Mandarin which you hear and study.
In any case, arriving in Korea I realized just how much of Mandarin I had learned. I had immediate and instinctive responses as to what to say in most or all situations – be it in interactions with shopkeepers, in restaurants, on the street – where anywhere in China I could have easily used Mandarin but in Korea we were mainly left quite … silent. It was both frustrating and encouraging at the same time – frustrating because I suddenly could not communicate with those around me, but encouraging because it left me to realize exactly how much I had learned while in China. In addition, in Korea there are some Chinese-derived characters in use, although mostly in historical or very official contexts it seemed.
Having now arrived in Japan, there are many more Chinese-derived characters in use (kanji) but they are difficult to decipher for several reasons: (1) they are often or always intermixed with phonetic Japanese characters; (2) they appear to often or always be of the traditional Chinese variety; and (3) it seems that the meaning of some of the characters is not exactly that as used within Chinese. But despite these, my eye does tend to be drawn to them and sometimes it helps to recognize some of the characters on products or menus to at least begin to get a sense of what’s there. As a result, I’m again happy with my choice of studying Mandarin first – and spending time with the characters – and then traveling through East Asia.
The remaining tests will be Taiwan and Singapore. In Taiwan, Mandarin is spoken but traditional characters are used, so I will be very happy to be able to use my Mandarin once again. I will probably also resume studying my notebook of words and some phrases to continue increasing my spoken vocabulary, and hopefully I will remember the structures that I learned while studying in Shanghai.
And to finish off this entry, just a couple words on what I did my last day or two. On Friday, November 14, one of my classmates from France, Brigitte, had the idea to head to Shanghai’s art district (sort of like Beijing’s 798) and have a look around and grab some lunch. This turned out pretty great – the area is rather compact, free to get in everywhere, and the café we chose had food that was great and well-priced. The sculptures – contemporary for the most part – were stimulating and interesting. There were several studios we stepped in as well. I posted photos from this visit onto my Facebook account.
That same Friday evening we also did our traditional meal at the hotpot restaurant, returning to the Nanjing Lu location. Armed again with our translations and also memories of the previous week’s successful and not-so-successful orderings, we had a great time for even less money than before, or about 35 RMB per person (or under US $6). With plenty of left over, a smaller group then continued on to one of what seemed to be a popular ex-pat bar, not far from Nanjing Xi Lu but the name escapes me. We were able to get in a couple beers and also Sebastian, one of my classmates, and Ben, a roommate, encouraged us to try flaming up some Sambuca shots in our mouths.
Here’s a brief explanation of that process: You buy a shot of Sambuca. Don’t light it in the shotglass too much or the alcohol may be burned away and not leave enough for the cool part. Then, in a quick succession of movements, do the following: (1) dip a finger into the shot, (2) pour the shot into your mouth as someone simultaneously lights your finger on fire, (3) poke your finger into your Sambuca-filled mouth (as your head is tipped backwards so that the flames don’t burn your upper lip or nose), lighting the Sambuca inside, (4) put out the fire on your finger, which will begin to burn a little by this point and has probably singed off any hair you had on your finger. (Doing this on your own might be hard, so just have a friend “spot” you and help you put out your finger-fire.) Having done all of this, you don’t really feel the flame rising out of your mouth, and you can hold it there for a while I think.
* A serious word of caution, though: Do NOT blow the Sambuca out of your mouth, because everything it hits might potentially catch on fire. All you need to do to put out the flame is close your mouth – which shuts off the oxygen supply to the flame and promptly and safely puts it out. If you spit anything out, you might burn your face and have anything else onto which the alcohol lands catch on fire. Just to illustrate an angle of this, when I had one of my Sambuca shots lit on fire, as I picked it up, it spilled a little bit onto the table and my jeans – spilling not only the sticky liquid but also a blue flame. Quick action put it all out, though.
So that was my last night in Shanghai. The next morning and throughout the day I was able to post my belongings out back home which saved on space and weight in my suitcase to prepare for my next phases of travel. I also had a bunch of errands to run, including setting up finances and all of that to last the rest of my trip. This being done, I bought some snacks for the long train to Beijing, and headed off in the early evening after enjoying some dumplings with my flatmates.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Mandarin House Shanghai Program - Accommodations Comments
This is for anyone who is Googling the Mandarin House Shanghai program in an effort to get current student reviews and comments. While I do have a rather glowing review for the program as a whole -- which I intend to write a full entry for later -- I feel that it would be helpful to provide would-be Mandarin House attendees with the following information.
If you are going for the language program plus accommodation, find out where exactly they plan on putting you up during your stay. If it's at the GuangXi Bei Lu address, then ask what floor. If the 20th floor, then be adamant about not being put into Room C of that apartment. Apparently there is some problem with the plumbing within the bathroom in Room C, and as a consequence the entire room stinks. Opening the door will at times also lead the rest of the apartment to stink.
The school has known about the problem for at least two weeks now, but the problem has not yet been fixed. The current resident in the room indicates that he will be put up at a nearby hotel (although the school wanted to put him up at a hotel 30 minutes away) for perhaps three days while the school arranges for someone to fix the problem.
Again, this is not reflective of my general opinion regarding the Mandarin House program in Shanghai, but it is only a caveat emptor warning for future students so that no one has to be stuck in a smelly room during their stay in Shanghai.
I hope that in the near future I can post an update to say that the problem in the room has been fixed.
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(Коротке слово по-український: Курс китайської мови, який я слухаю в Шанґгай, під назвою схожу на "Мандаринська Хата". Чомусь, одна з наших кімнат смердить. Я про це тут говор'ю, щоб майбутні студенти пізнали ситуацію і щоб Школа щось нам зробила за сморід.)
If you are going for the language program plus accommodation, find out where exactly they plan on putting you up during your stay. If it's at the GuangXi Bei Lu address, then ask what floor. If the 20th floor, then be adamant about not being put into Room C of that apartment. Apparently there is some problem with the plumbing within the bathroom in Room C, and as a consequence the entire room stinks. Opening the door will at times also lead the rest of the apartment to stink.
The school has known about the problem for at least two weeks now, but the problem has not yet been fixed. The current resident in the room indicates that he will be put up at a nearby hotel (although the school wanted to put him up at a hotel 30 minutes away) for perhaps three days while the school arranges for someone to fix the problem.
Again, this is not reflective of my general opinion regarding the Mandarin House program in Shanghai, but it is only a caveat emptor warning for future students so that no one has to be stuck in a smelly room during their stay in Shanghai.
I hope that in the near future I can post an update to say that the problem in the room has been fixed.
------
(Коротке слово по-український: Курс китайської мови, який я слухаю в Шанґгай, під назвою схожу на "Мандаринська Хата". Чомусь, одна з наших кімнат смердить. Я про це тут говор'ю, щоб майбутні студенти пізнали ситуацію і щоб Школа щось нам зробила за сморід.)
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