Now, there are lots of places to meet foreigners in Korea, especially in Seoul. But if you’re looking for a different, more intellectual atmosphere than striking up conversations with random people, you should really try the Royal Asiatic Society. The Royal Asiatic Society here in Korea was founded in 1900, and is one of the oldest groups dedicated to Korean studies. If you’re looking for a way to meet diverse people united by a scholarly bent and a deep interest in Asia, this is the place to do it.

What does the RAS do?

Every other week in Seoul, they host a public lecture by scholars and experts on different subjects. They’ve had everything from lectures on marketing to mountaineering to mudang. Come to the informal get-together afterwards to sit down and chat with the members and lecturers over a beer or two.

They also run the most interesting, unique, and enjoyable tours of Korea (and other places in Asia). Forget Korean style touring where by the time the last person has gotten off the bus, the first person in line has been hustled back on so everyone can move to the next site. These tours are led by experts who have detailed, in-depth knowledge of the area, and really take the time to let you get the feel of it. No wham, bam, on to the next place here!

They also have a great library, with more books on Korea in English than just about anyplace else. Need a book on 한옥? They’ve got it. Trying to find English resources on 산신? They’re probably the ones who published it.

So go take a look at the RAS. It’s a great way to meet lots of people who speak English, and to learn more about Korea.

Before UCC . . .
Before the internet . . .
Before the television there was . . .

RADIO DRAMA!

For most of the 20th century, radio was one of the most popular forms of entertainment. In addition to music, news, and talk shows there were also dramas and comedies and variety shows. It was a venue for serious works and the best known actors to show off their skills, be inventive, and connect with audiences at home. The popularity of these radio shows declined when television became popular and affordable, and the radio drama almost died.
Thanks to the internet and podcasting though, radio-style dramas are easy to make and put out there for anyone in the world to enjoy. They’re an excellent way to practice your English while enjoying fun programing. New theater companies are forming all the time and putting their work out for you to download, while others are working to preserve and resurrect classic shows.

Here’s a short set of links to get you started!

Classic Radio
Radio Lovers hosts all the best and most famous classic radio shows like, The Shadow, Gunsmoke, Buck Rogers, and Burns and Allen, as well as renowned adaptations of books like Les Miserables.

The Mercury Theater was the most famous radio theater group of the 1930’s. Led by Orson Wells, they made well-crafted dramas using the best talent of the day, including the infamous War of the Worlds.

Dramapod is one of the best resources to find contemporary audio theater programs. They have a very comprehensive listing of works produced by all sorts of companies all over the world.

Audio Theater not only lists American companies doing audio drama productions, but also has an introduction to using podcasting for making audio plays.

Wow. Double wow. A cure for cancer within a few years? And from a retiree without a college education or medical background? You gotta watch this story. Truly inspiring, truly. You can also read the story while listening to the video. Also, you can double-click on any word, and the definition will pop up. Thanks, CBS News. This is great for English study!

That’s simply unbelievable. And I mean that in the sense of being incredulously hopeful, not cynically dismissive. Thank you, Mr. Kanzius. You just might be the man who saves billions of lives. And all from banging around pots in your kitchen.

If you’re in the mood to try some really, REALLY difficult but very real English, you should try checking out Car Talk.

Not only is it my favorite radio show, but for once people agree with me, and it’s a very popular program. But what kind of program is it?

Well, do you have a car?

If so, . . . well, whoop-di-do! Even if you don’t have a car, you can enjoy Car Talk. It’s a call-in advice show for people having trouble with their cars, run by “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers” a.k.a. Tom and Ray Magliozzi. They joke, they have puzzles, they play games, and sometimes even solve people’s car problems - sometimes in very unusual ways. They’ve even gotten calls from celebrities, and once from an astronaut on the space shuttle. No foolin’!

One caveat: We’re recommending this program to more advanced listeners. Why? First of all, the hosts of the program speak very quickly. Why do they speak so quickly? Well, because they also use a VERY thick Boston dialect. If you’ve already mastered listening to standard American English pronunciation though, this is a great new challenge. Also, there’s a lot of puns and verbal jokes in this series that you have to be pretty fluent to understand. But to give you a little taste, here’s some of the cast and crew of their show:

Creative Director Drew A. Blank
Warrantee Claim Adjudicator Candace B. Rittenoff
Accounts Payable Administrator Imelda Czechs
Arbitration Expert Viola Fuss
Automotive Medical Researcher Dr. Denton Fender
Chief Legal Counsel Hugh Louis Dewey of Dewey, Cheetham & Howe

If that strikes you as funny, you will like this show. It also means you’ll probably get along well with me! Uh-oh, that means you probably need mental help (I recommend grief councilor Ariel Bummerman, hahaha!)

And along the way, you might even learn how to fix your car . . .

I wrote an article about Lee Soyeon’s having become the 1st astronaut, after Ko San was removed by the Russians. Soyeon deserves her place, and is an amazing candidate, but unfortunately, few people have had the chance to get to know her. Now, you can.

Here’s the link to the Ohmynews.com article I wrote about her, based on the ONLY interviews done BEFORE she was chosen. I think the interviews show just how qualified she is, as well as just how great of a representative she can be for the Korean people.

Made for a video podcast I started in 2006 called SeoulGlow, the videos are always subtitled so that any Korean or English speaker can watch them. Like Bomb English, it is good study material that is interesting content as well.

Enjoy!

Mike has already recommended some great shows and podcasts to listen to, so I thought I’d put in my two cents as well.

I love A Prairie Home Companion!

This show has been an NPR mainstay for years now, because it has a little bit of everything, all done well. The host, Garrison Keillor, is great for non-native speakers to listen to because he speaks very, VERY slowly and deliberately, so he’s easy to understand. The show is based on his stories about a fictional town in the American Midwest called Lake Woebegon (the little town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average"), and gives listeners a unique and frequently funny view of culture and daily life in America. In addition to his stories and "news" podcast  from Lake Woebegon, Keillor also travels all over America to interview interesting local people and listen to local music. It’s the best way to hear the best of Americana, folk, and traditional styles of American music.

So go check it out!

prairiehome.publicradio.org

Do you know about “Voice of America” and their “Special English” content? If you don’t, you should. We think it’s another excellent source of English education materials, and absolutely free.

VOA’s content is news, read by an announcer in very slow, very clearly-pronounced English, along with the written news article, like a transcript.

It’s different from our podcast in that VOA’s “Special English” consists of news reports, while we concentrate on real conversation. Also, they speak unnaturally slow, but that can be useful to intermediate learners. For advanced learners, it might feel a bit too slow for you.

We recommend VOA’s “Special English” not as conversation, but as news reports made for ESL learners. These are a good complement to our Bomb English materials, so you can get both news and conversational material together.

(Thanks, Brendon, for the tip!)

That’s “National Public Radio.”

It’s an American radio network that specialized in news, interviews, documentaries, and many other great kinds of content. This will be the first English-language resource to go in our links list!

Don’t listen to CNN!
I know many Koreans listen to CNN, but I actually think it’s not so great for English study. Why? First, news is the hardest kind of thing to understand, in ANY language. Why would you pick the hardest kind of content to study with? Second, CNN is slick, fast-talking, and very “over-produced.” It’s hard for me to understand, with the special effects, blaring music and taglines, and fast, stylized talking.

NPR is much, much better. Why?

(more…)