Aegyo in South Korea

If you watch any Korean dorama (a dorama is a type of soap opera that is very common in the Asian world) or go through some video clips by some famous Korean bands and singers (to name a few examples: Girl’s Generation, B1A4, SISTAR, and Hyuna) you’ll find it impossible to not notice how girls and boys talk and act and how different it is from our western world. At first sight what you will notice is that most girls and women are constantly trying to look childlike and cute and you might even think that they have a mental problem or that they are stuck in their early teens. A friend of mine once even suggested that Korean girls acted “cute” to draw the attention of older men who might find it arousing to fantasize about younger girls.  However, by having a second look at the same video clips and doramas, it should be clear that being “cute” in Korea, or as they say, aegyo, is far more than an isolated incident; in fact, it is a cultural practice that very often takes place in Korea.

Aegyo (Hangeul: 애교) is a Korean adjective that translates into English as “winsome”, which according to the Cambridge dictionary means: “(adj) attractive and pleasing, with simple qualities, sometimes like those a child has”. To put it simply, aegyo is looking cute in a very childlike fashion. However, in terms of society, there is much more than meets the eyes and being aegyo in South Korea takes a whole new dimension.  It is present in music, in their doramas, in people’s everyday life and it has affected Korean society from the way people make music to the types of plastic surgeries that are performed.

First and foremost, we have to consider that aegyo is typically South Korean and that it is usually associated to young females, though some boys are also very fond of looking aegyo, too.  According to the vlog eat your kimchi , women tend to try to look aegyo since they are very young until they are in their mid-thirties,  after that, they no longer try to sound and look cute unless they are making fun of something.  Thus, this practice seems to be related age and also to gender.  

To look aegyo is an activity that involves the whole body as well as the voice. Girls can close their eyes, pout their mouths, and pinch their cheeks, twirl their hair in order to look cute. Boys often make finger horns, duck faces, and finger hearts. To top it off, they can lengthen the duration of the vowels and slightly raise the pitch of their voices to sound childish and needy. The aim of doing all of the aforementioned changes is to captivate people’s attention by looking so cute that people are likely to get a cuteness overload by just having a glance at you.

As mentioned before, this practice nowadays is widely spread , not only on TV but also in real life. As matter of fact, people have gotten so interested in looking younger that there is even a surgery called “aegyo sal surgery” which aims at filling the lower part of your eyes so that they look bigger, therefore, making you look younger and more “aegyo-ish”. This procedure is purely aesthetic and has been criticized for many people do not understand the difference between aegyo sals and eye bags. The difference however is that whereas aegyo sal contributes to your looking good and juvenile, eye bags are saggy and darked, and most often makes you look tired. Not to mention that the only way one can get aegyo sals is by surgery while anyone can get eye bags by not sleeping properly.

In a nutshell, “aegyo” is an important aspect of Korean culture and it needs to be thought of in the light of the fact that Asian culture is somewhat different from our western culture. People need to stop looking at other people’s culture having their mother culture’s perspective. Before judging Korean girls and boys as silly and childish, one needs to understand that beauty standards differ from country to country as well as from time to time. What is considered cute in one culture may be seen as stupid or extremely unattractive in another culture’s perspective.  This said, it is important to understand what “aegyo” is if one wants to attempt to understand how Koreans see beauty and to construe all the underlying meanings of what being cute is for the majority of Korean people.

References:

http://tokyofashiongirls.blogspot.com.br/2012/08/aegyo.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Act-Like-Sunny-from-Girls-Generation

http://rainbow7.wikia.com/wiki/Aegyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKadTlr-He8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQJ0b7lSoXU

Resposta ao texto: MPF em SP pede retirada da frase 'Deus seja louvado' das notas de reais

Em primeiro lugar é preciso entender que o Estado Laico existe numa forma de criar igualdade. O motivo pelo qual é preciso tirar a frase "Deus seja louvado” é exatamente uma tentativa de tirar o foco de 1 grupo de religiões para tornar o Estado mais justo. Se fossemos envolver religião nas notas, então que sejam de todas  e não só uma especificamente. Teríamos que ter notas com “Budah seja louvado” com “Zeus seja louvado” com “Iemanjá seja louvado” e etc. A ideia é não priorizar ninguém. Só o fato de ter APENAS o “Deus seja louvado” nas notas é uma re-afirmação de um estado totalmente cristão, que, aliás, é uma ideia errônea por que temos MUITOS brasileiros que não são cristãos e que, portanto, não são representados de qualquer maneira. A maioria das pessoas podem até ser cristãs, mas e as minorias? Elas também não têm que serem representadas? Ora, se elas não são então vivemos num país desigual, e até aonde eu sei, desigualdade é exatamente o que  temos que evitar num estado humanizado e para todos. Os cristãos têm que ter voz no Estado, mas eles não podem ser os únicos a ter essa voz. O governo Brasileiro nesse quesito representa o Brasil, sim. Só que ele representa um Brasil que não é só cristão, mas plural quando se fala de religião.

Aqui está o link http://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2012/11/mpf-em-sp-pede-retirada-da-frase-deus-seja-louvado-das-notas-de-reais.html

Confessions...

One thing that has bothered me quite much lately is the fact that lots of Brazilian people get utterly offended when they hear that foreigners have next to no idea where Brazil is, or which city is our capital, or which language we speak. On the one hand, it’s true that Brazil is a big country and is a big influence in today’s world; therefore, people should know a thing or two about us. But on the other hand, there are HUNDREDS of countries all over the globe! Knowing everything about all these countries is impossible!

I have a question for you:  do you have any idea what language they speak in Congo, in Malaysia, in Kuwait, or in Latvia? Better yet, do you know the name of the capital of Iraq, New Zealand, or Serbia?  I bet you don’t. That is to show you that foreigners are under no obligation to know what language we speak here or what the capital of our country is! Think about it: there are lots of countries in the world; do we have to know everything about those countries? I don’t think so.

Then again, I don’t mean to say that foreigners shouldn’t care about learning about Brazil, but I do think we should stop criticizing Americans, Canadians, Argentineans and everyone else who doesn’t know much about Brazil. Instead of judging them and putting a “dunce hat” on their heads, we should be more kind and teach them a thing or two about our country! Trust me, there is a lot we need to share about us and criticizing people is not the way to sharing our rich and unique Brazilian culture.

ps:

What do you know about Brazil? ( This is exactly the type of video I hate to watch, because not only does it expose the people who were in the video, but it just restates the stereotype that nobody knows anything about Brazil- which is, as I put it before, just a mere sterotype)

Maneki Neko: a bit of Japanese culture

"Maneki Neko” is a very common artifact in the Japanese culture and roughly translates into “beckoning cat” or “welcoming cat” because of its lifted paw which is said to be welcoming people. Maneki Nekos are believed to be lucky charms and are usually placed in front of stores and inside houses all across Japan as a means to attract customers and friends.  Apart from being a lucky charm that brings love, money, and peace depending on its color and which paw is being raised, Maneki Nekos are very typical cultural artifacts from Japan and this is the reason why we chose to analyze and study them.

The history of Maneki Neko dates back from the Edo Period (1693- 1867), however, the information found from this period is scarce, which suggests that maneki nekos were not as common then as they are nowadays. Nevetheless, From the Meiji Period (1868- 1912) onwards, maneki neko becomes a very common lucky charm and registers are already plentiful, differently from the Edo Period. A possible explanation for this growth of Maneki Nekos in Japanese culture relies on the fact that in Japan during the Edo Period, brothels used to have a shelf on which the owners of the establishment would keep a large amount of lucky charms shaped as penises.  Keeping that in mind, it was quite hard for the Japanese people not to shock westerners when they visited Japan. So as a means to make Japan a more “decent” country in the light of the Western Christianism, the owners of brothels decided to change the lucky charms that were molded as penises to those of cats, since cats symbolize woman in the Japanese imagery.

On top of that, there are many myths and legends on the origin on Maneki Neko. One of the most famous legends has it that in a village there was a geisha who had a small cat whom she loved very much. One day, however, her cat started to tug at her apparently without any reason. Seeing this, a brave swordsman thought that the cat was attacking the geisha and as soon as he could, he chopped off the head of the cat, which flew to the ceiling, killing a poisonous snake that was about to strike. Needless to say, killing the cat made the geisha very sad; this touched the swordsman very deeply to the point that he asked a very skilled craftsman to carve a likeness of the murdered cat, thus making the geisha happy again.

The second story is about a noble man who was coming back from a hunt and was caught on in a very violent storm. In the midst of the downpour, the man saw a cat beckoning to him as if it were calling him. Following the cat, the man was startled by the fact that as soon as he got away from where he was, a lightening hit a tree which fell down just where he was. The cat had saved his life as a token of his appreciation he started to make carved copies of the magical cat as an homage.

In conclusion, Maneki Nekos are very cute little catlike charms which are said to have the power to bring luck, money and heath depending on their color and on which paw it is raising. They are ancient cultural artifacts and reflect a very nice aspect (perspective) of Japanese culture: their supersticiousness. So, if you ever happen to visit Japan, make sure to buy yourself some maneki nekos, you never know when you may need some extra luck.

 ps: The Pokemon Meowth is based on the Maneki Neko! 

DISCUSSÃO: Somos conscientizadores ou professores?

Eu sou professor de inglês e em uma discussão com um colega estávamos pensando sobre a nossa função como professores e sobre o fato de que muitos professores de língua levam em consideração somente a proficiência lingüística que o aluno consegue produzir em suas avaliações.  Essa discussão motivou esse poste e eu gostaria de expor a minha opinião e saber a opinião de meus amigos professores e também de alunos sobre essa questão.

Primeiramente vale lembrar que perante tantos problemas sociais, há uma pergunta. Os professores conseguem ensinar o conteúdo que eles tentam passar?  Se sim, a educação se resume somente ao um conjunto de conhecimento que um aluno deve entender? E as ideologias que são perpetuadas no seu discurso enquanto docente em sala de aula? E as práticas sociais que são reafirmadas dentro da sala de aula? O professor deve problematizar essas práticas ou somente ignorá-las e passar o conteúdo proposto pelo PCN ou pelo currículo da escola?  

No meu contexto, como professor de línguas em um centro de línguas de uma universidade federal, o objetivo é ensinar língua e desenvolver as habilidades receptivas (ouvir e ler) e produtivas (falar e escrever) dos alunos. Contudo, o que é língua e para que/quem serve essa língua?  A língua inglesa seria somente um conjunto dos sistemas gramaticais e de vocabulário?  O professor tem que se importar mais com que o aluno diz ou com as estruturas gramaticais com as quais ele diz o que diz?

Será possível ensinar só língua? Será que ao ignorarmos questões de sexo, raça, gênero, e igualdade na sala de aula não estamos na verdade é reafirmando que essas questões não existem, assim contribuindo para a sociedade machista, racista, e homofóbica na qual nós vivemos?  Será que ensinar focando somente na língua inglesa não é uma maneira de negar o papel transformador da educação? Mais importante ainda é questionar: o ensino de línguas em cursos de idiomas é ou não é parte da educação? Pessoalmente, eu acredito que sim e queria finalizar esse poste com uma pergunta que eu fiz há muito tempo atrás enquanto eu estudava alguns teóricos do ensino crítico em minha aula de língua: O que adianta os alunos saírem das nossas salas de aula como indivíduos proficientes na língua alvo, mas se eles não têm nada interessante para dizer? 

Have you ever gotten tired of yourself?

            Have you ever gotten tired of your looks, your favorite songs and even your favorite friends? Have you already gotten to that stage in your life when everything which once seemed to be so much fun seems to you utterly uninteresting and you can’t help but feel bored whenever you’re alone?

            I believe I’m in this stage of my life as you read this post. Most college classes don’t cheer me up any longer, many books don’t seem to interest  me much, music is okay but it’s nothing  that really touches me or makes me cry in the middle of the night, and even my favorite food has become somewhat tasteless and my looks have never looked plainer to me.

            I don’t know if you’re in the same situation as me, but in my case there isn’t much to be done, I suppose. The only way for me is “to pull the Madonna” and to reinvent myself.  From now on, I will buy different types of clothes ( and hopefully they’ll look good on me), I will go to different restaurants  and taste different flavors of ice-cream, I will even try taking different paths in my love life, all so I  can feel alive again. So I can feel my blood running through my veins and reminding me that I am not a lifeless corpse sitting on a couch.

             I guess you’re never too old for reinvention. Maybe this sheer boredom that every so often comes unto us is a sign that we can never settle to being something definite. How sad would the world be, should we only have to be one type of person from cradle to tomb? I don’t want to be this person who gets a college degree, worse yet, a high school degree and keeps that same old drab job from his graduation day until the day he retires from the same position he/she got 40 years ago.

             I want to be someone new with every year that comes by, with every book that I read, and most of all, I want to be someone who will always be able to surprise both myself and the people around me during every day of my life.

=)

Unrequitted love in post-modernity

(through Facebook, on my Ipod)

It’s hard to see’im online

And not send’im any hi

To see’im  go offline

And not to send him bye

Oh my oh my

So, I feel like callin’im

But I know he won’t pick up the phone

So I feel like textin’im

But I know that he is not alone

Oh my, I cry

Danilo Neves