Kimchi Mamas

Why pull the fire alarm when you can send a bomb threat?

The more common method of a last ditch effort to avoid a final examination is the good old fire alarm. Get one of your friends to pull it or something. I dunno, I've never actually done it but there were several during my college years.

Well, I guess that doesn't cause enough chaos for some people. This person decided to send bomb threats to Harvard officials to avoid his final exam.

That final exam can NOT have been worse that what he is going through right now.

Reminds me of the time in ninth grade Spanish class. I didn't quite feel prepared for a test and I wrote some conjugations on the desk. The test had barely gotten started and I totally got caught. The teacher told me to stop and to come back later to take the test. She would knock off a whole grade as punishment.

I got an A+ on that test. I didn't miss a single quesiton. (It was downgraded to a B+.) And I never cheated on a test again. I guess I should thank that teacher for helping me learn a valuable lesson when the consequences weren't so high. Thank you Mrs. Brown!

- Mary

Mouth. Watering.

I don't know exactly how old this website is, but you gotta check out Seoulistic.com! The videos and articles are hilarious and ring OH SO TRUE! (Old school Korean punishment, anyone? Thoughts on dating? . . . )

This is the article that got my mouth watering: How to Eat Galbi the Right Way . . .
What's your level?

 

Angie in Texas enjoys Texas barbeque and Korean barbeque and considers herself a Grill Master.

 

The Software Doesn't Match the Hardware

As a parent of a ‘tween I found myself at the mall with my daughter the other day. It was right after school and she was still in her all-girls school uniform.

As we walked by one of the kiosks, a young man stopped her and asked if she went to ABC Private School – he recognized the uniform as the uniform of his all-boys high school alma mater’s sister school. He was indeed correct – except my daughter is in the sister school’s middle school. 

Maybe it’s the “Asians don’t look their age” stereotype or maybe it’s because she was in uniform or maybe because she’s tall for her age but as she said yes and I gave my best KDS (Korean Death Stare) to this young man and gently guided her down the hall, I had a mix of remembering the feelings of being mistaken as older at that age and what it may mean for my daughter..and me as her mom.

With the faster-than-the-speed-of-light economic growth in China, and young people flooding in from rural areas to the bustling cities in search of jobs and opportunities, a saying has developed about this group of new-to-the-city young women: The software doesn’t match the hardware. Kind of creepy when you think about it. Here’s a young woman in search of opportunity and she has been reduced to an electronic, a cliché, because she’s attractive but innocent/naïve.

We here in the United States are guilty of perpetuating some of that concept, too. Look around: magazine covers, tv shows, music . . . Have you tried shopping for “cute” girl clothes recently? Listened to the actual lyrics of some popular songs. Next time you’re at the grocery store take the time to glance over the covers of magazines specifically designed for your teen!

My fellow moms and I complain about the lack of appropriate clothing, the pressures our girls face to wear make-up, shave their legs and have first dates/first kisses, etc. And because many of these concepts were foreign to my mother, the "right" way to navigate through them are in many ways foreign to me.

Do you remember the first time you were mistaken as being older than you really were (as a 'tween/teen)?

 

Angie in Texas is practicing her KDS for all future boys...

 

Hump Day Links

Kristen Chase over at Motherhood Uncensored gives some perspective to the perception of Dads and our roles as Moms. (Did you know she's a Kimchi Mama? Probably explains her HAWTNESS.)

 

Speaking of sexy: I guess women of colour aren't sexy anymore? According to VS we're not . . . When I grow up I want to be Jen and Diane at Disgraisan.

 

Is the kid in this video Kimchi? Someone help me out here.

I *heart* this video because:

1. I love Green Day - don't care what you say, takes me back to high school and college

2. I love that this kids gets to play on stage with the band

3. I wish I had muscical skillz...

 

--Angie in Texas is going to practice her trumpet now. (Because trying to learn a new instrument at 30-something is FUN and not TOTALLY FRUSTRATING, okay?!

 

 

 

Because Middle School is Tough . . .

Just in case looking and talking with your own Small Talk isn't enough:

http://vimeo.com/40923539 

Gah! My ovaries!!

Angie in Texas considers making more babies when she sees videos like these!

Dumbfounded

I am the LAST person on earth to be posting about a rapper but here I am. Dumbfounded, a Korean rapper, is rather good, I must say. Hubby agrees. What do you think?

 

- Mary

Look Mom! We're Famous! - Featured in The Korea Times

Kimchi Mamas are featured in The Korea Times - a newspaper for Koreans living in America! The whole thing was printed in Korean so I translated it for you below. Two awesome Kimchi Mamas, Julie and Stefania are pictured and some others are mentioned. Yay! I'm not a professional translator or anything but I'm pretty sure it'll be better than Google Translate.

"Ajumma Power" Lets Korea Be Known

Online consortium of Korean Women, Kimchi Mamas Power Bloggers

Julie Kang's popularity soars, leading discussions on mainstream media and Korean articles.

Kimchi Mamas power blogger, highly popular Julie Kang.

 

Kimchi Mamas founding member, Stefania Pomponi Butler.

There is a power blog featuring Korean culture and food. An online consortium of Korean women bloggers who raise Korean American kids voice their opinions on Kimchi Mamas. The most active Kimchi Mama among them is Julie Kang of Geisha School Dropout.

Asians in the library

Saw this on Facebook. Have you seen it?

 

 

I thought this video response was pretty hilarious. Warning: profanity

 

I appreciate her "apology" and am glad that at least with the benefit of hindsight, she realized she made a HUGE mistake. What in the WORLD possessed her to post such a thing in the first place, I'll never know.

- Mary

Ethnicity is not important

"Simon says it's best not to invest too much of one's identity in ethnicity."

 

I am an avid listener of NPR and think that they are the best source of news, most of the time but this story was just... just... so... biased and bad.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129301982

As some of the commenters already pointed out, this story breaks the #1 rule of journalism, that the journalist be objective and have no bias. I guess journalism gets meshed with a bunch of other kinds of writing nowadays and this isn't the biggest problem I have with this article but... ANYWAY.

 

That quote up there. That pressed a button. My first thought, who the hells is HE to tell ME that it's not best to invest too much of my identity in ethnicity. DUDE. Being Korean is one of the most important things for my identity. When asked to draw a picture of "me" in a high school art class, I drew a big picture of the Korean flag as a part of the collage. Being Korean isn't THE most important part of my identity but it's certainly more important than a bunch of other things and I certainly do invest a lot of my identity, time, energy, and money into being Korean.