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Welcome to PC Bangs!
Hello, welcome to the PC Bangs website and my apologies for the delay in getting things started. I have now been in Seoul for what seems like an eternity but which has actually only been two weeks. Over time, I hope to describe some of the aspects of Korea's unique 'PC Bang' culture. Here, 'bang' is a word that means something like 'room' so 'PC Bang' translates roughly as 'computer room' or, more helpfully, 'internet cafe'. Over the course of the next four months I'll be visiting various examples of the PC Bang phenomenon and hopefully taking some pictures of the really cool signwork they have here (you can see an example on the top right of this page). First things first, though. I arrived at Incheon International on Saturday 27 August on a hot and muggy day. The only thing that I can really remember about the airport is seeing a sign reading "Gateway To Asia" and thinking - hang on, isn't that Darwin's claim ...
Who'll Come And Waltz With My Tilda?
As part of my Australian Culture course here at Sogang University (in which I now teach approximately 40 students), we spent some time learning the basics about Australia: the capital city, the system of government, what the flag and coat of arms mean and, naturally, the national anthem. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I sang the first verse of "Advance Australia Fair" a capella and pointed out that the original version of the song in fact contains six verses only two are printed on John Howard's website). I used this as an example of the way in which history in Australia seems to be "buried" deep in obscurity; a little like the phrase 'the tip of the iceberg'. I then sang both versions of "Waltzing Matilda", and related to my students that for some people, this is their preferred national anthem. This song, too, contains layers of meaning - while the song is called "Waltzing Matilda", the swagman within the song is also s...
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