해피 화이트 데이!

Today is white day, I hate white day it is a commercial, bastardisation of the calendar and not only do I have to figure out something to buy my wife - who doesn't like chocolate or sweets - but this year I have the added burden of getting something for the girls in the office... and as white day is exactly 1 month after valentines day (Girls buy chocolate for boys) I have to give gifts back an to make matters worse there are 14 females in my office (Yeah like thats a bad thing!) So a small box of chocaltes is about 4,000\ times that by 14 and... well its 56,000\ more than I want to spend!

So after several days pondering this problem I found the solution 1 pack containing 4 bars of chocolate 4,000\ x 4 = 16,000\ + (and this is why I love Korea) plastic presentation bags with gold ties (15) 1,000\ cute cat shaped post-it notes (loads) 1,000\ + 30 mins to write a message on the post-it notes stick them on the chocolate bars and put them in the bags and tie them up... and job done! - 18,000\ and 14 girls get a personal gift from me for white day... - You may think I am tight but the way I look at it - I just saved my self 48,000\

HAPPY DAYS!

The message I wrote on the notes was - 해피 화이트 데이 ~ 로버트 x - and I think they look really good..

Just need to get the wife something.. I am thinking a plant - I had a look online for a florist and 80,000 ~ 210,000\ for a bunch of flowers put me right off that idea - (Ok - I admit I am tight!)

Amazing Things #33 ultraviolet light sterilizer

Amazing Things #33 ultraviolet light sterilizer

 This nifty device seems to be able to ZAP everything from bedbugs to dust mites...with its amazing ultraviolet light an no doubt it would be useful for identifying fake fivers...

Amazing Things #32 - Kindergarten Graduation

Amazing Things #32 - Kindergarten Graduation

My son graduated this week...  Yeah, he starts Elementary (Primary) School in March. But he had a graduation ceremony, complete with Mortar board and robe.  I find both those things amazing - he is 7 but so grown up...

That (Selfishly) is my Amazing thing for this week!

The hat incident... and the recital

Amazing things #31 - Wall mounted CD Player

Amazing things #31 - Wall mounted CD Player

One thing that Apartment dwelling Koreans don't have a lot of, - is space... and one thing they can't make a lot of, - is noise, so big floor standing speakers and hi-fi systems are not as common as in other parts of the world... This nifty gadget gives you a clock, CD player /  mp3 player,  with micro SD card / usb support and speakers in a 9" round device you can hang on the wall, in a range of colors... Amazing!

Training

My short 5km(ish) training run last night...

                                   
               

       
 

Work Pressure and Sunday classes

Here is a post from my language learning blog, but as it is about my life in Korea rather than being just about Language learning, I thought I would post here too...

The original post is here: http://korean-learning.blogspot.com/2014/02/work-pressure-and-sunday-classes.html


Yesterday I had a new teacher for my Sunday Sogang Level 2A class.

Her Teaching Style is different, FAST!  We did the whole of chapter 6 in 1 hour 30 mins, to be honest I struggled a bit even some of the vocabulary, I wasn't sure of but I think I managed ok - the other student in the class (yeah - there is only 2 of us!) is more advanced than me so probably easier for him!

When going through the grammar sections where you have to complete a sentence, the pace was so fast that she was practically giving the answer while I was still working out the grammar form, then we ran through the page reading the answers and she corrected pronunciation, etc.  If I keep up the self study using these sections of the book, then maybe it will be ok. But, for me Sogang class was about studying in a class environment and just doing a reading / listening as homework - this gave me time to study the TOPIK, Business and writing types of study that I am currently attempting.  But the lesson is FREE and it is a great help, I really think I need to attend a Hagwon class for study or get a private 1-2-1 teacher.  But it is something I can't afford at the moment, in terms of time or money.

Work pressure

Transferring to a new team at work, whose focus is not on language and translation it is sales and marketing for Overseas clients (English speakers). I attended my first meeting last week - it was in KOREAN and I  understood he morning sessions in varying degrees that I was quite pleased about - but by the afternoon I was lost...  In the evening was a welcome meal for some new employees and a farewell meal for a manager who is heading to south America to set up a new branch - the new colleagues and a couple of other younger employees speak English really well but I can't expect them to translate everything for me during the course of the day..
I bought a new book  Essential Korean for Business Use.
You can look at the first few pages >>Here<<
It seems an interesting book great for supplementary self study...

Amazing Things #30 Magic Spoon

Amazing Things #30 Magic spoon 

When I first saw this, I thought it must be a mixing spoon or a measuring spoon - Spoons are pretty functional and the design seems to have passed the test of time and there is not much room for improvement.
It functions well but it is Just a spoon!  

But what if a spoon was not for eating your cereal or mixing your Bi Bim Bap...  Then it has the potential to become...  MAGIC...  and therefore makes the list as Amazing thing #30.

I give you the Magic Spoon Massager:

and this is how it works... but why is it a spoon?

And of course we all know that in order to sell a product - we need some westerners to endorse it - I thought these two were particularly SCARY!!!