A while ago (eons?), I lived in Korea for 3 years. Before that I worked at a big game store in Vancouver...and had been fascinated by Go. I had wanted to learn, but never did.
Then came Korea, where they take this game mighty seriously (as seriously as Japan? Don't know). They have a Go channel, with the camera on the board, hands moving in, placing tiles, running commentary in that voice shared with golf announcers. Seriouser and seriouser.
So one day, I went to a Buddhist temple with a su-nim (Buddhist monk) I had met. [One of my very few regrets in life is that I've lost touch with her -- my fault.] We popped into her friend's room before dinner (yum...Buddhist monks are well-fed...no garlic, hot pepper, or onions though, might heat the blood!), and he couldn't talk because he was so totally wrapped up in the game on the Go channel. 'Twas funny, but also taught me about my preconceptions of Buddhist monks...but that's another post.
Anyway, the point to all of this is that I found a great site today that teaches you how to play Go. So check it out, and if you come to visit one day, maybe we'll be able to play!
Lori
Sunday links
7 hours ago
4 comments:
"worked at a big game store"... I pictured you surrounded by a staff of bears, moose, lions...
Lori-
I'm fascinated. I also have wanted to learn "Go" ever since I ready about it in Trevanian's Shibumi. It just seems like such an interesting challenge. Now that I've come across this link of you posted to "GO-RED", I'll definitely check it out. Thank you!
I'm also very interested to learn about why you moved to Korea, and why 3 years later you moved to Canada. Do you speak/read/write Korean? Did you enjoy your time in Korea? When you moved there, was your intention to stay only for a few years? Do you ever regret moving back to Canada?
I've been living in Shanghai for a bit over a year now. When I moved out here, I did it with the intention of staying indefinitely. I do have clients in the USA and do have to travel there a few times for business, but I do feel like Shanghai is home... I suppose we'll see :-)
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Ryan Erwin
Shanghai, PRC
PJ -- ah, ambiguity. The word 'big' was modifying the phrase 'game store'...duh! :p
Ryan -- thanks for stopping by. I'm Canadian, and lived in Korea for 3 years as an English teacher (no points for guessing that!). Korea full time? I thought about it, but found I needed to be among familiar things again, after awhile. Koreans are wonderfully wacky people, with utterly delicious food, and I would guess now they're more used to having foreigners learn their language -- 'cause when I was trying to learn it, everyone wanted to speak English to me.
I'll take a buzz by your site, check it out.
A Go channel? That has got to make watching golf on tv look like piloting a Formula One. But cheaper than sleeping pills for sure!
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