March 26 is a special day (with Eunmi Park)

March 26th is a special date in Eunmi Park's life, for two different reasons, as she will explain one day. It was also special for us today because we (FSI co-founders Casey Lartigue and Eunkoo Lee) got to spend it with her.

We set a new record today: Eunmi spent almost seven hours at our office this lovely Saturday afternoon-turned-night.

Most evenings when she records a video she is at our for three to five hours

Today she recorded two more videos for her YouTube channel.

After years of silence, Eunmi has posted six YouTube videos her first two weeks of speaking out and now has three more videos recorded to be uploaded next week. They run the range of emotions. One video is heart-warming and inspirational, one is infuriating, and the last one... I am not sure how to describe it without giving away the story, but there are some sensitive points in it.

To get ready for the video, Eunmi first sends the script to FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee. She translates it, then I (and sometimes one of our volunteer staffers) edit it. After editing, we review everything in it to confirm that the translation and edit have fully captured her points. Eunkoo is not a professional translator and I am not a professional editor, so we take care to make sure we don't distort her message. We are doing this in addition to our full-time jobs as co-presidents of FSI and Eunmi does this after her full-time job or on weekends.

After editing, Eunmi then practices, over and over again. When we start this process remotely, then I or one of our office volunteers will record it for her to listen to the pronunciation.

When this is done on-site, then she will practice and practice, then she does a recording without anyone in the room.

With her first couple of recordings, she didn't want me in the room. English is her third language, it can be a bit intimidating to have a native speaker sitting there listening while you try to speak in a language that you still aren't that familiar with.

The didn't sit in for the first few recordings, but from the fifth or sixth video, I sat in anyway. That is usually the toughest recording because I stop her often and have her repeat some sentences again.

Sometimes she puts her head down on her desk in frustration, at other times she laughs, and at other times she just stares at me trying to figure out what the difference is between what she said and what I corrected.

She is still new to the world of YouTube, but is determined to make her channel great. At first, the video recordings were happening to her, but now she is happening to the videos!

Then we do the real recording. She is usually happy with the corrections, but sometimes... I am glad she is not a violent woman. Just in case, I may bring some boxing gloves with me next time so she can let out some frustration when I am having fun correcting her pronunciation.

Eunmi and Eunkoo then will review the recording together.

Then finally, done!

Well, not exactly done. Back at the office the next day, an FSI staffer will edit the video, make the video thumbnail, flyer, I will set up Facebook events to notify people in advance, we need to do other things such as come up with an appropriate title, and whatever miscellaneous things I can't recall at the moment.

Then she uploads the video! Her schedule is Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 10 pm KST. So set your alarms!

https://www.facebook.com/events/520034369487998

www.fsi21.org/?donate

P.S.: In the last photo, she was trying to stand on her tippy-toes to make herself look taller, so I did the same thing and also used her shoulder to make myself even taller.

The Casey Lartigue Show

Guests scheduled for May NOTE: Check here for updates on Memorandum 46! Future Shows Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution This is my first attempt at putting together my own promo , it was rejected because of the sound quality May 19 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show We had a great show yesterday, probably the best so far. The topic: Malcolm X. The occasion? Anniversary of his 82nd birthday. Eliot Morgan and I had a great time talking with the callers. Deneen Borelli called in on our special guest line. You can download the file here. We posed the question: What did Malcolm X do? We contrasted the viewpoint and legacies of Malcolm X and Thurgood Marshall. The one mistake I made was not to focus on the question that Marshall asked: What was the one concrete thing that Malcolm X did. In segment 3, callers begin to get personal with us. May 12 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show Featured guest: Don Boudreaux of George Mason University Promo for the May 12 show May 5 edition of the C...

Does a flower turn to the sun?

I tend not to address points raised by people commenting on posts. In the back-and-forth of such discussions, people sometimes say things they don't mean or take extreme positions. In other cases they are just trying to be provocative, especially when they can remain anonymous. But a discussion on Greg Mankiw's blog caught my attention. That's because a couple of the folks suggested that parents don't really have the knowledge to make decisions about the quality of schools. Between 2002-2004 I was actively involved in the fight to get school vouchers for families in DC. I often heard the argument that parents don't know how to choose between good and bad schools and that, anyway, parents had enough choices with the school system's "out-of-boundary" options and charters (that had also been opposed). Without getting too deep into the out-of-boundary program, I'll point out that Woodrow Wilson HS, considered one of the best schools in the city, recei...

Korea Fighting!

Years ago I read an article about a man who kept a detailed diary about his life. I think it was 70 years of diaries. Nothing was too insignificant for him to mention. I remember reading it and wondering, "Yeah, but will anyone ever read those boxes of diaries about him going to the bathroom?" I guess he often wrote about himself writing... These days I'm having the opposite problem... I'm living it up so much that I don't have time to write... Can you really enjoy life and record it all? If I had time I would blog about... * going swing dancing * getting treated at the Kkunnori restaurant in Jamsil by two friends who insist I'm the luckiest man alive because I know them. * then getting treated to an hour or two at the Luxury noraebang near Kkunnori . * the "call" button in Korean restaurants * Koreans ordering too much food whenever they eat together * Meeting with Gong Byeong Ho (공병호) for the first time in 10 years. * how damn energetic Seoul i...

Common Sense on North Korea (Korea Times, April 2, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. As interesting as Kookmin University professor Andrei Lankov’s writings are, there is nothing quite like attending one of his lectures. He can barely restrain himself behind the podium, often pointing and waving his arms. I also enjoy his unscripted speeches, but his answers in Q&A sessions are like the difference between watching Michael Jordan shoot baskets in warm-ups and an actual game. I have finally discovered the secret behind Lankov’s consistently solid analysis about North Korea: Use common sense. At an Asan Institute conference last summer, he argued that North Korea watchers should try to understand North Korea from its perspective. Don’t most people know that you must understand the mindset of others you are dealing with? Yet, common sense in theory gets ignored politically. From the North Korean perspective, nuclear weapons are the best thing they’ve got going. They will NOT give them up easily, even if President Obama ...

Double Dog Daring Dellinger

Heller has been heard by the Supreme Court, now the justices will read and re-read briefs, and conference, and supposedly give us some kind of decision in June. To reiterate my prediction: Ban overturned, reasonable restrictions allowed, probably "rational" scrutiny of any laws, and no major effect nationally. That said, and setting aside my concerns about the court's treatment of Miller , as something for another day, I was interested in this bit : In addition to the handgun ban, Washington also has a trigger lock requirement for other guns that raised some concerns Tuesday. "When you hear somebody crawling in your bedroom window, you can run to your gun, unlock it, load it and then fire?" Justice Antonin Scalia said. Roberts, who has two young children, suggested at one point that trigger locks might be reasonable. "There is always a risk that the children will get up and grab the firearm and use it for some purpose other than what the Second Amendme...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

Search This Blog