When I was living in Korea, I was always conflicted around this time of year. We were emerging from the dreadful winter cold, an uncomplicated joy, but that emergence was a process. From one day to the next you’d go from shorts weather to peacoat weather, and since Seoul is a fashionable place I did not feel comfortable wearing shorts with a peacoat.
But in this seasonal tug-of-war is a linguistic opportunity that Koreans took full advantage of. There is a specific word for cold springtime weather: 꽃샘추위, or ggotsemchui when spelled in English. I like it when languages have single words for things that require several in English (the only language I actually know). I even got one tattooed on my arm.
But ggotsemchui is a particularly cool word. Broken down into parts its parts: 꽃=ggot=flower; 샘=sem=jealousy; 추위=chui=cold. Together it means "the cold that is jealous of flowers," though often it’s shortened to something like “winter’s jealousy.” Those brisk April days did feel like an act of jealousy, a petty tantrum of unrequited love.
Although this last winter in Kailua did get down to the relatively frosty low-60s (16-17 in celsius), I no longer live in a place that gets very cold. I’m glad for this, but I’m also glad to have experienced winter’s full embrace, if only to have also experienced its parting envy.
Creating poetry from the small, annoying and uncontrollable things in life seems like a good way to get through.
February and March reads
Polar bears move into abandoned Arctic weather station — photo essay by Dmitry Kokh, The Guardian
Kids Have No Place In A Liberal Democracy by Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic
The 110 Greatest L.A. Albums by theLAnd Magazine
The Harsh Realm of “Gentle Parenting” by Jessica Winter, The New Yorker
The Millions of People Stuck In Pandemic Limbo by Ed Yong, The Atlantic
Selected Negative Teaching Evaluations of Jesus Christ by Amanda Lehr, McSweeney’s
Grieving His Mother’s Death, Ocean Vuong Learned to Write for Himself by Nicole Chung, TIME
What You’re Feeling Isn’t A Vibe Shift. It’s Permanent Change. by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Buzzfeed
The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads by Kimon de Greef, The New Yorker
February and March books
Funny thing. I was informed that my post was too long, so I had to cut my book reviews. What happened was, I was worried about having to read a book a week in grad school (btw, going to grad school), so I wanted to see how many books I could read during my spring break. Turns out, I read too many to fit into this post. But fear not: if you are interested in my reviews of the following books, they are on my Goodreads page.
Hawaiʻi Is My Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific by Nitasha Tamar Sharma
300 Arguments: Essays by Sarah Manguso
Black Gods Of The Asphalt: Religion, Hip-hop, and Street Basketball by Onaje X.O. Woodbine
I’m Waiting For You by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu
On Being Hawaiian by John Dominis Holt
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West
I Will Take the Answer by Ander Monson
Writing
I interviewed Dr. Nitasha Sharma about her book Hawaiʻi Is My Haven.
There has been an increase in negative student behaviors, specifically fighting. It's important to distinguish between problems that schools cause and social problems that schools simply have to deal with.
I don’t think the Educator Effectiveness System is very good, and I think there are easier ways to make sure we have good teachers.
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