Bomb English! 폭탄영어!, Bomb English #1 – Host Introductions!

Michael: Welcome to ‘Bomb English.' (We da bomb!) With hosts Michael and Jennifer podcasting direct from Seoul. Jennifer: Real people, real topics, real English. Michael: Hello. And welcome to the first episode of ‘Bomb English.' Jennifer: You can find us online at www.bombenglish.com. Michael: ‘Bomb English!' (We da bomb!) So the purpose of this show, why are we doing this show? We want to have, like you said, real English conversations, with real topics, and we are real people, right? Jennifer: I hope so. The last time I checked the doctor didn't tell me that, you know, I had cyborg parts installed or anything… Michael: You're not a robot. We are real people. Jennifer: And we're going to talk like real people. It's not the over-enunciated, overdone, educational broadcast style. We want to bring you real English, the way real people actually use it. Michael: So, we are going to talk about actual topics, the topics we think that you will actually be interested in, and again we're not going to do the “Hi, welcome to EBS really, really boring English class.” Jennifer: “This stop is 종로3가, 종로3가.” Michael: So we're going to talk about real things, and this episode is just self-introduction. But, every episode we will be talking about not how much we like 인사동, although 인사동 is fine. Not about 경복 palace or how much we love kimchee. Or the difference between 추석 and Thanksgiving. But, what, what are some things we will talk about? Jennifer: We're going to talk about politics… Michael: Controversial things. Jennifer: Controversial things. Gonna bring up sex, violence. Michael: Oh~ But things adults, who are in their twenties, thirties, you went to university or you studied English a lot, actually want to talk about, right? Jennifer: Hopefully a little bit of English your mother won't approve of. Michael: English your mother won't approve of, this is good. And we should talk about our backgrounds. Jennifer: It's important to know who's actually bringing you this English. Michael: So, and many Koreans will wonder: Who are these people, where do they come from, did they actually go to school? Jennifer: Are they letting crazy people make podcasts? Michael: Well, yes some crazy people make podcasts. Jennifer: Yeah, Michael and Jennifer. Michael: But, we are crazy people. We have gone to college. We are… Jennifer: We have? Michael: Yes. Jennifer: Oh, is that what happened when I sent the money to that guy through PayPal? And I got that paper in return it said something, but since I can't read. Michael: No fake degrees. Jennifer: No fake degrees. Michael: We have real degrees. So the people in the newspaper you read about, the foreigners who have fake degrees and they smoke marijuana. Jennifer: Pot? Oh my god! No! Michael: No pot. We want to offer a different image of foreigners as well. So first, I'm….eh, Michael. Jennifer: You forgot your name already? Michael: Yes, see? I'm an unqualified foreign English teacher. But first of all, I'm not an English teacher. I came to Korea for the first time after graduating from Brown University in 1994, a long time ago. Jennifer: A very long time ago. Michael: And I was interested in Korea. My mother is Korean and I was interested in Korea. So I applied a Fulbright fellowship and they had a program called the “English Teaching Assistantship,” and at that time no foreigners could go into Korean public schools to teach. Except for the old Peace Corps, and the Peace Corps was the 평화봉사단. And they would send English teachers in, but otherwise only ETAs, until ‘95, could teach inside Korean schools. So they also send the Fulbrights to the countryside, usually, small towns. And I was in 제주도, the best place in Korea. Jennifer: Eh, eh, eh. Except for 경상도. Michael: But we have better weather. And beautiful women, wind, and stones. Jennifer: Well, there's an advertisement, you guys have rocks. Michael: We have stones, lava rocks, and a long tunnel, and a dragon's head, and lots and lots of beaches, with lots of rocks. Anyways, sorry… a little 제주도 pride. Woo-hoo! But I stayed in 제주도 for 2 years. I learned Korean in 제주도 and I then became interested in studying Korea in graduate school so I went to UC Berkeley in 1996, and I am now completing a Ph.D. program from there. And my dissertation is about Korea. Dissertation is 학위논문. So, I came back to Korea in 2002 and have been here ever since. Jennifer: Working on his dissertation, ever since. Michael: Yes. So I also do lots of photography. I'm interested in new media and I run blogs and other podcasts. So that keeps me really really busy. And I should be finishing my dissertation. Ah~ So Jennifer, who are you? Jennifer: Well, my name is Jennifer. And I went to a very tiny, women's liberal arts college. Michael: Small. How many people? Jennifer: When I started we had about 650 students. The semester I graduated, we had our largest graduating class ever. The entire student body plus graduate students, the whole school altogether if you counted everybody, had an enrollment of 901. Michael: Oh wow. Jennifer: The school's gotten a lot bigger ever since. We've now got over a thousand students. Michael: But the small schools have advantages. Jennifer: Some very big advantages. I was able to do a lot of really cool things and had a lot of opportunities pointed out to me by professors that I wouldn't have had if I went to a larger school. One of those opportunities was to come to Korea. Michael: Wow. Jennifer: So I came to Korea as an exchange student twice when I was an undergraduate, and after I graduated I did the same program that Mike did. I went as an ETA to Korea and spent two years in 경상도, otherwise known as the best province in all of Korea. Forget rocks, wind, and women. We had the 도산서원. Michael: Oh. Jennifer: We have 하회마을. We have, oh, the oldest observatory in all of Korea, old palaces. Michael: Oh yeah. Jennifer: You know, we were only the center of power in Korea for, I don't know how long, because we're just that cool. Michael: Ah yes, we have beaches. Jennifer: We have beaches too. We have lots of beaches. We have more famous beaches than you have. Michael: Hmmm. Jennifer: True. Michael: Maybe true. Anyway, moving on… The name of your school? Jennifer: The name of my school was Agnes Scott. Michael: Agnes Scott. Jennifer: And I got my degree in anthropology and sociology. It's not really a double major at my school because we're so small that we don't have separate departments for anthropology and sociology. Michael: So you get it automatically. Jennifer: I automatically got a double major, and I have a minor in history. Michael: Ah, history was my major. Jennifer: And all of it I tried to concentrate on East Asia. Michael: Ah. Jennifer: And after I graduated, as I said, I went on the Fulbright ETA program and spent two years. One in 안동 and one in 경주. So I'm a 경상도 girl at heart. Michael: Wow, “at heart.” Jennifer: At heart. Michael: So, and then you went to a place called “Ukla.” Jennifer: Ahhhh don't say that! Oh my ears hurt. Michael: Uk~la. So after 안동 and 경주 you went to? Jennifer: U-C-L-A. Michael: Ah. Not Ukla. Jennifer: University of California, Los Angeles. Please don't call it Ukla. That's like spitting in church. Michael: Ooh. Spitting in church? That's bad. Jennifer: That's really bad. You don't spit in church, and you don't call it Ukla. Michael: Ukla. So~ Jennifer: I went to UCLA and got a masters in East Asian studies with a concentration on Korea. And then I came back to Korea, on a grant this time from the Korea Foundation doing Korean language studies. Michael: So Korea gave you money to come here and study. Jennifer: Thank you Korea! Michael: And you went to Korea University? Jennifer: Yes! 고대! Woo! Michael: 고대's good. Jennifer: 고대's very good. Michael: Um, and now you are a student actually, still? Jennifer: Yes. Michael: And you are Level 6 of Korean language. Your Korean is good. Jennifer: No, I figured out how to bribe the teachers. Michael: Bribing teachers? 뇌물? Anyway… Jennifer: No, I really am in Level 6. Michael: And, I speak conversational Korean but I won't do it very much here since this is not Korean class. Jennifer: He's being modest. His Korean is excellent. Michael: Thank you. Jennifer: It's better than mine, by far. Michael: Hah! Anyway… Jennifer: I'm going to stop complimenting you if you do that. Michael: That's the last time you're complimenting me. Jennifer: No more ego-stroking. Michael: Now, um I'm good at ego-stroking, um, so this podcast will be weekly. And we should maybe explain that this is a podcast so it's “iPod” plus “broadcast.” Jennifer: Internet radio, basically. Michael: Yes, so you can listen to us directly from the website, bombenglish.com. You can also download us as a podcast to your iPod to subscribe and automatically get weekly updates. Jennifer: Or you can download it to any other kind of mp3 player. Michael: Like your Yepp, your Cowon, any, your cell phone. Jennifer: Iriver. Michael: So from the site you can also download directly. So you can see there will be a download link for every episode. Jennifer: There will also be a transcript available for every episode. Michael: Transcripts are going to be very useful. So the entire conversation will be written and available in your iPod, on the website, and you can take it, print it, listen to this podcast in the train, on the subway, on the bus, walking to work, and really use your time well. Jennifer: In addition to having everything we've just said on this episode, the transcript will also include explanations of slang and colloquial terms we use on the program. Michael: So, every post will have an interesting phrase, or colloquial terms, or slang, or just anything interesting that we say that is part of real English. And our conversations are not planned, but our topics are. So it's free talking, but with focused topics. Jennifer: If you have any suggestions or comments, including topics you'd like us to discuss in further podcasts, please visit the site and let us know. Michael: Yes, and bombenglish.com. You can always write comments. So please register and write comments to us. Jennifer: My favorite comments are “Wow, Jennifer! You have such a sexy voice. Please give me your phone number.” Michael: Urk…umm… Jennifer: You were saying something? Michael: Please don't write me comments because too many beautiful women already write me every day. Jennifer: Ha ha ha ha. Michael: Yes, they do. But if you would like to write me or call me, you can call me at 016… Jennifer: So basically you get a lot of e-mails from your mom? Michael: No. I don't get any e-mails. But please do leave comments and you can write in Korean, that's fine. We can read the comments. And until next time, any last words? Jennifer: See you later, alligator. Michael: Okay, after awhile, crocodile.