Dongkwan’s Advertising World

This tool is my baby. What is it? An All-in-One electronic dictionary. See, in Korea, highschool students memorize tens of thousands of English vocabs simply to take a University entrance exam. So this electronic dictionary market has grown enormously. This on in particular, which is the one I bought, features dictionaries of all sorts. Here’s what’s included:

OK. This is just a few of it. Once you’re in the machine, there’s just so much to do. Of course, you can see pictures, listen to mp3, listen to the radio, watch videos, and even watch live TV - given that you have access to DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast) services (available anywhere in Korea).

See, if you’re a copywriter, or an aspiring one, life without a dictionary is life without your hands. Learn more vocabs, more idioms, more expressions… as I’m no native English speaker, I continue to increase my vocab bank… And trust me, I was called a walking-dictionary back when studying for the SAT’s, but there’s way too many vocabs that you’ve never even heard of. There are English versions of these dictionaries made by Casio and Sharp, so you really should try get yourself one… You’ll need it I swear.

I’ve never worked in a full-service ad agency. So I watched this over and over again. It’s just remarkably funny. I wonder who the copywriter was for this… Will I be able to come up with such great things? 

I was 7, and the only non-Korean phrase I knew was “How do you do.” And I landed up in Africa, where I thought I had to hunt deer for dinner. But, luckily not. As soon as I arrived, I could see that the country didn’t look so African. I mean, there was the Sahara Desert, but no jungles. The cool thing was, at the time, I had no clue that the world was so much different.

So to my amazement, I found that there were people who believed in other religions than I, and that people didn’t eat rice every day. The biggest shock was the fact that there were women wearing white robes which covered most of their faces. I remember watching mom wear a similar outfit for a play she performed on Christmas Eve at church. But, they weren’t my mom.

The life in Tunisia was… umm… not the best. I don’t remember any place but being in school. School was my only place to walk around without having other kids jump onto us making faces. Even in my own backyard, I’d see other children walk by throwing rocks at us. I don’t know why… Oh, I do know why. Because I was Asian. And they’d use their fingers to lengthen the size of their eyes horizontally. And they’d say the only English word they knew: “China China” Well, Mr. Smelly, I’m Korean dammit! I ignored them, but really deep inside, it was the first time that I faced the reality of discrimination of races. But hey… it was OK after a while. I mean, no one, no one on earth is equal. Nothing is fair. I learned this age 7. Great lesson. And I stll know this continues…

I was born in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. I lived there until I was 4 before going to Korea. In all seriousness, I have not one single memory of living in Argentina. And since leaving, I’ve never returned to my birth home. All I know are stories that my mother told me, that I could only speak Spanish at the time - until I went to Korea, where my change in tongue totally wiped out my memory of Argentina. But who remembers their first 4 years anyway?

I don’t remember anything, but I do have this… this… what do you call it… love? No love is too powerful, but it’s something real close to that… some sort of heavenly love. I love everything Argentinian. I love Diego Maradonna. I love Buenos Aires. I hated it when Argentina was having financial hardships. It’s just part of me, and as I was born there, if one wishes to touch on my naive, purest side, then simply mention Argentina.

Argentina. Si amigos, it’s my baby-side of life.