Whatthebook

It must be the laxity that I am getting from work these past weeks (thankfully) that suddenly pushed my whore-ish tendencies over books, and it made me itch for new paperbacks to read. It actually started with this Facebook (FB) application that I found out from somebody else’s profile. It’s called WeRead. I kind of liked it, so I added it to my FB profile, listing there all the books that I remember having read. I know I have not listed all, though. I then said that it would be nice if I could add more to my list, and so the search for new books to buy started. I am missing the books that I left back home in the Philippines.

Read More...

The Good Ole Address Book

One may not appreciate how the most conventional and cheap-looking telephone and address book could do wonders in saving the most precious treasures in this world:

People. Connections. Relationships.

But take it from someone who has lost her mobile phone, and wasn’t able to back up her contact list in it. That’s one lesson learned already, to always back those numbers up that I add in my everyday dealings or new meetings with people. I never know when I'd be needing them. Now in deciding the source for the back-up, I think it still pays to rely on the good ole ways. Hence, the notebook! Haha.

Read More...

Survival Korean

I’ve had this little Korean book with me since this whole I-want-to-work-in-Seoul saga, and this has so far been a mainstay in my bag wherever I go. I’ve always been the type who bring books for what I call “emergencies”, in times when boredom strikes or when I have to do some waiting anywhere when I am out of the house.

I remember having bought this out of a gift certificate from one of the famous upscale bookstores in the metro, which I got it as some prize from my previous work.

This phrase book can really come handy for short-time travelers in the country, enough for anyone to throw common greetings and probably survive a minute or two at a convenience store buying something. You’d have a hard time doing bargains and price haggles though.

In my first-time January trip to Seoul, there were just three phrases I think that I had the bull mouth of speaking out loud to converse and be understood:

Annyong haseyo (hello)
Kamsa-hamnida (thank you)
Yong-O-rul hashimnikka? (Do you speak English?)

Thanks to the book. But if I am to push my way into living with Koreans in my everyday work (for at least a year), then I think it’s time to buy a bigger, more comprehensive text.

Geez, all this waiting for the visa. It’s driving me nuts.

END OF POST. NO MORE

Read More...