Here's an audio documentary in two parts from CBC Radio's Ideas, on being and becoming Canadian, and the experiences of one Korean family.

So, without further ado: here's a belated Christmas present, Level One of Mastering Korean. Share and enjoy.

On a community website where I spend a lot of time, someone asked recently for advice on how to deal with his noisy neighbours. He doesn't live in Korea, but he thought that the couple next door was Korean, and that when they were shouting at each other in the wee hours, they weren't shouting in English. He reasonably took this as an indication that some knowledge of their cultural background could come in handy if he girded his loins enough to talk to them about it.

There's a new LG Telecom ad that's been playing on Korean television recently. As happens all too frequently, I'm having a little trouble telling if it's hilariously clever or dumb as dirt.

Interesting to me is the idea that the structures of a language - in this case Korean - may expand or limit the way in which one thinks about something much more important than snow (for example) : how one fits into society, and how one interacts with other humans. Is it possible that Koreans really do think differently about these things, and that this difference may spring (entirely, partially, as much or less so?) from their language?