Archive for June, 2008

Texting during a video phone call

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Yesterday, I was waiting to meet someone at a coffee shop and was looking around, bored. I noted unsurprisingly, that half the people were on their cell phones. I was intrigued, however, by the girls sitting next to me. They looked like they were in their early twenties and they were having a video call with a boy using a cell phone. The girls took turns talking with the boy but interestingly they spoke very little; instead, looking at the boy’s face on the screen, they rapidly used their thumbs, engaging in a text conversation.

That struck me as being very weird- is it faster for them to text than talk? I was puzzling over this thought in my head- if that were indeed true, what an evolutionary milestone in communication that would be! My curiosity finally got the better of me and when they were over with the phone call, I asked them why they were texting instead of talking.

The answer turned to out to be a simple one- result of technology and etiquette. The girls said that in video phoning, they had to speak a little louder for the phone to catch their voice since they were holding the phones in front of their face; not directly next to their mouth. Because of this, it was more difficult to hold private conversations and they didn’t want to disturb the people around them.

-But then why not have a regular conversation instead of a video one? Isn’t video phoning more expensive?
-Yes, but he wanted to see my friend too.

Ah yes, video phoning makes it very difficult to lie about where you are and whom you are with. Not that people do…or do they?

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Mad crowd opposing mad cows

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

The ongoing mass protests regarding the import of U.S. beef is becoming a “culture” that I strongly oppose. (They are not opposed to all U.S. beef. Just those that are over 30 months old, because people fear that some may be affected by mad cow disease. The Korean president unexpected signed a deal with Pres Bush on April 18 to resume imports of U.S. beef regardless of the cows’ age.)

I understand why people are angry and are trying to display their emotions through such mass rallies, but I don’t like how they are turning these demonstrations into a carnival- with festivities such as singing and dancing that extend into wee hours. Parents are bringing their children out to these “events” of tens of thousands of people, proudly saying that they are paving the way for a better democracy. In the course of all the activities that are taking place, however, I wonder if people are not forgetting why they are there in the first place. To me, these rallies are so reminiscent of previous candlelight vigils such as those for Hwang Woo-suk or the two girls that were hit by a U.S. army tank.

The scary thing is that while most people are unhappy about the deal, people are also torn about how we should think or deal about the situation. And while some believe that the democratic way is to take to the streets and protest, they are not being open to other people’s opinions about their actions. The extreme manners in which people are abusing others who have differing opinions has reached a frightening peak to the extent that those who are not radical opposers are silenced in ways that are far from rational.

The Internet may give the impression of being a place to freely express ones thoughts, but the backlash that it brings both online and offline, oppresses freedom of speech. This wild populism rampages further online; even now, I feel bullied into staying silent because I am afraid of what could happen to me.

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Translating and Journalism

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

The following is a comment I made to Ethan Zuckerman’s post on Financial models for “difficult” journalism.

Translation, I believe is a profitable service, whether it be an English media seeking foreign news or foreign media seeking English news. Many news companies in Korea attract readers through translation of specific foreign news (Daum, for instance, translates Wired). The translating team at Reuters Korea is larger than the reporting team.

But while translation serves as a revenue source, I don’t think a model where reporters serve as translators would work out.

At the JoongAng Daily (an English daily newspaper that is a sister paper to the IHT and run by a media mogul), reporters were translating as a side job because the salary of a reporter never was (and as we perceived never would be) enough for us to carry out the lifestyles that we wished. Reporters make very good translators because they have command of both languages; translating is quite profitable because there is always a consistent demand and not everyone has the expertise.

When the company, however, tried to get reporters to do translating work as part of the job, most were very opposed to doing so. It was not just because translating for the company would not create side revenue for the reporter (although that was certainly one of the reasons). It was more because reporters had pride in what they considered to be the role of a journalist. In the end, full-time or part time translators were hired. It was interesting that while a part-time translator would earn more money, reporters who were able to do that job opted to be a reporter and not a translator. I suppose I am still old-school in that I believe that journalists, like firefighters, are not (or should not) be in it for the money. In that sense, I support the 5% model.

Going back to translation, I think it is a good source of generating revenue (such as hosting marathons). More than a decade ago, the Korea Herald operated for a long time a translation company that was quite profitable; the people there, however, all left and created their own company.

(cross-posted on arcticpenguin)

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