I Stand With the Wisconsin 14

Hopefully by now you have read about the 14 state senators from the state of Wisconsin that have fled the state in a desperate attempt to protect the worker's rights of state employees.  The unions in Wisconsin have given the Governor everything he wants and needs to balance his budget in concessions for how much the state has to pay for pensions and health insurance.  However, Governor Walker and the GOP do not care about balancing budgets or creating jobs, they just want to bust unions and make collectively bargaining illegal (thus making the unions entirely powerless).

It is frightening hearing about how education and teachers across America are being targeted.  How can the Governor of Wisconsin pass hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts for Wisconsin's billionaires and millionaires the second he is elected to office and then immediately attack teachers and state employees as being too greedy?  Being a teacher now myself, I do not understand how you can justify cutting teachers' salaries while simultaneously handing out hundreds of millions in tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the state.

If you are an America you can sign one of the numerous petitions going around supporting the Wisconsin 14.  If by any chance you are rich (and not a Republican), the state's Democratic party is attempting to raise money to recall state senators so the Democrats can retake the majority in the state house.

The Daily Show always has the best analysis of the situation...

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Angry Curds
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 2:

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

So?  What does a teacher make?  This is it...

Alien vs Ninja!

We have all heard of amazing crossovers in the past like Alien vs Predator and Pirate vs Ninja.  I present to you... Alien Vs Ninja.

I can't wait for Pirate vs Predator next!

KPOP Korral - [PSY] - Right Now

Park Jae-Sang (박재상) is a Korean hip-hop artist that goes by the name PSY (싸이).  He is not exactly a mainstream artist, but he has become quite popular for his sense of humor and willingness to make fun of other KPOP artists in his videos.  He received his education in the United States and attended both Boston University and Berklee College of Music.  This guy probably can speak English quite well.

His latest hit is "Right Now" and I have to compliment this guy on his amazing body.  2PM better log some more hours in the gym because they cannot compare with this guys's abs.

The Waygook Effect on Facebook and Twitter

Hey All,

It appears that it has become unavoidable to manage a blog or website and not have it be linked with social networking sites.  So I thought it would be wise to finally get myself caught up.  You can like my facebook page or friend my facebook profile now.  I also created a twitter account and we will see how much use that gets.

If you have a facebook page or twitter account and want me to find or friend you, leave a comment and let's link up.

Here is my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Waygook-Effect/151476941557034

Here is my Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/waygookeffect

My winter vacation was fantastic.  I took some fun and exciting trips.  And I am happy to be back in South Korea for another academic year.

Winter Vacation Time

Hey All,

I'm taking my two weeks renewal vacation time and am heading somewhere warmer than South Korea in February.  I won't have reliable internet (and don't want it).  I won't post anything for the next two weeks and won't respond to anyone's e-mails or comments.  As always, thanks for reading and I'll be back on in March.

The 10 Worst Dialogues of the Public Elementary School English Curriculum

If you have ever taught the elementary level in a public school in South Korea, then you are probably familiar with the textbook characters Jinho, Nami, Mrs. Smith, Peter, Joon, and Ann.  Millions of South Korean children over the last decade have been learning English from this text book series and it is finally being changed this year to an updated version designed for three hours of English instruction a week instead of two hours a week.

The expressions, vocab, and 98% of all the grammar is acceptable.  The problem with these books was the production value and quality of the videos.  There were also some awkward cultural moments and just bizarre choices made for settings and situations.  The accompanying CD-ROM for the books looked like it was best designed to run on Windows 98, and here it is still being used in 2011.  It is not even worth mentioning the role plays, chants, or suggested games and activities, which were all mostly unusable.  The main dialogues were pretty good and had nice animation (see here and here), but all the live action scenes were worthless.

South Korea prides itself on how much of a priority they have on investment in education.  The teachers here are excellent, classrooms have no shortages of supplies, lots of useful technology available, new English classrooms and language learning facilities, etc.  The problem was that everything revolved around these horrible textbooks.  These books really should have been scrapped for something better the second after they were printed.

The videos below are the worst 10 dialogues (Look and Listen 2) of the 5th and 6th grade curriculums.  If you want to see the worst 10 songs/chants/role plays/ and story time activities then (click here).

#10 - Grade 6, Lesson 7, Movie 1 - "Your mom is a cook at Popeyes Fried Chicken?"

#9 Grade 5, Lesson 7, Movie 2 - "He has a long hair... and is an animated character."

#8 - Grade 6, Lesson 12, Movie 1 - "Uh-oh, dad just got possessed again."

#7 - Grade 6, Lesson 9, Movie 2 - "Whut dead cho doo dhear?"

#6 - Grade 5, Lesson 9, Movie 2 - "Joon, quit stuffing my socks in your trunks to make it look bigger."

#5 - Grade 6, Lesson 3, Movie 2 - "Peter likes Spring because helium canisters are 20% off at Home Plus."

#4 - Grade 6, Lesson 16, Movie 2 - "I can totally tell that you love me so much."

#3 - Grade 6, Lesson 4, Movie 2 - "YOU can't play the violin, and YOU just can't act."

#2 - Grade 6, Lesson 14, Movie 2 - "Don't take off your shoes, we wear our shoes in the shower and in bed."

#1 - Grade 5, Lesson 11, Movie 1 - "Oh yeah, gurl... that's right, keep polishing dady's shoes."

KPOP Korral - [Seo In Young] - Into the Rhythm

Seo In Young (서인영) is the break out solo artist from the girl group Jewelry.  She also goes by the English name Elly and does just about everything from TV, movies, modeling, dancing and singing.  Do a google image search of her and you may agree she is one of the sexiest women in Korea.

Her latest song is Into the Rhythm (리듬속으로) The visuals in her new video make her look a little bit like Cruella Deville.

One of the first KPOP videos I ever watched online was hers two years ago.  I still like it and I think this video is pretty fun.

Violence at NBC? What is the Internet?

Hilarious.  This is a taping of the Today Show from January 1994 and the hosts are talking about the internet. How did people live back then?

This Will Not End Well

Came across this on facebook and found it pretty humorous.  I'm assuming this is a Japanese couple, but I imagine there are some universal constants here.

Koreans Don't Know Coco

Saw this on Brian's blog.  I'm not surprised young Koreans don't know who Conan O'Brian is.  I feel like action or romance stars are more easily transferable across language barriers than comedic stars.

On the January 27th, 2011 episode of Conan's new show on TBS he went to the Hollywood Blvd. Wax Museum to see how his statue is doing.  He bumped into some Korean girls and had a funny exchange.

Here is the extended clip from Conan's website.