[KS] Return to Established Practice or A Brave New World......?

Mary Nasr sheejun at gmail.com
Wed Jul 21 23:11:48 EDT 2010


Hi Joobai,

No, I was not at all uninterested in your post last time. I read it all,
entirely agreed, and had it resonate with my beliefs as well. I guess I
should just apologise for having not expressed my thoughts. I've always
believed that "daetkeul" has been an excellent way of knowing what people at
the grassroots are really thinking. I'm a constant reader of the
nate.comripples, and have grown into even reading the "bepeul" (BEst
ripPLE) before
the actual article itself. It gets addictive ^^;;

And to possibly add an inch to your mile, I find that "bepeul" has become
lucrative business among netizens. Indeed, they say things like "If I am
made to be bepeul (the most voted comment-leaver) I will go somewhere and do
this (usually something humiliating in a well known public place), and I
even remember reading a news article about a man who went to Myeong-dong
half-naked on a cold night to fry some samgyopsal because of a committment
he made via daetkeul (how ironic that the news follower became the news).

Especially when their name is hyperlinked to their cyworld 'minihompi'
account, it really offers a people an intense, albeit fleeting 20-24 hours
of fame on the internet. People visit their personal sites leaving messages
of congratulations on becoming that day's most popularly voted net user,
they get their personal photos viewed by thousands of unknowns, and they
feel great about it !

Best regards,
Mary.



Hi Mary,

Thank you for the reply.

I think we share many sentiments.  The term "grassroot" captures
it perfectly and with the term "addictive" I must confess to it as well..

Would you consider sending your comments to the list.  I think
we can all benefit from your observations.  I am regretting that
I was not more careful with the wording of my post, especially
as I was hoping to open a discussion on the list, more than
a personal conversation.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Joobai
7/22/2010

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Kye C Kim <kc.kim2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Even while feeling somewhat self-conscious at responding
> AGAIN  to my OWN initial posting, with not many interested,
> I hope you will forgive me with generous indulgence.
>
> First, I would like to correct the mis-attribution of the
> statements to Prof Frankl.  It should have been correctly
> attributed to the former dean.
>
> Having responded to two of former dean's points, I realized
> that Prof Frankl had put forth just too many interesting and
> provocative ideas of his own on the table to just simply let
> them pass by.
>
> In mulling over Prof. Frankl's "random but not unrelated
> thought," I found them intriguing and seemingly filled with
> possibilities and interesting ramifications. I have to admit
> that ethnic chauvinism was my almost instinctive response.
> He is American, a foreigner, and I am a Korean.  I was
> almost sure that I could see better, because I was  closer.
> I have to wonder if the reverse is not the truth.  He may
> see more clearly precisely because he can distance
> himself further than I can.  Mulling over his comments,
> I think this is the case.
>
> I wondered why his comments were stirring so many
> thoughts on my end and wondered if I shouldn't jot them
> down and send it to the list.
>
> But after mulling over his comments and mulling over
> my own reactions, this is what I found was the thing
> that I wanted to say.
>
> I want to thank Prof Frankl for his bravery, frankness,
> forthrightness, and honesty in his observations, for
> putting distance between himself and Korea as every
> good observer should( I couldn't)
>
> I think, by any measure, this is real value: Thanks
> for being a FOREIGNER and a KOREANIST.
> .
> Regards,
>
> Joobai Lee
>
> 7/21/2010
> ,
>
>
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