Today in USA

Asia Institute Seminar with Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, University of Illinois

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“The future of Voice Recognition”

KOREA IT TIMES

 

Asia Institute Seminar with Mark Hasegawa-Johnson
 
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
 

Professor Mark Hasegawa-Johnson received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1996 and serves as associate professor in the University of Illinois department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a full-time faculty member in the Artificial Intelligence group at the Beckman Institute. His field of interest is speech production and recognition by humans and computers, including landmark-based speech recognition, integration of prosody in speech recognition and understanding, audiovisual speech recognition, computational auditory scene analysis, and biomedical imaging of the muscular and neurological correlates of speech production and perception. Professor Johnson is visiting Korea to meet with experts in academics and industry to discuss his research.

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Deb Havens & Arthur Park of Grand Rapids, Michigan call for a Korean Cultural Center

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I recently received a note from two individuals in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who have engaged in an in ambitious project to build a center for Korean culture in Grand Rapids that could serve as a hub for introducing Korea to Americans. Tragically, although Americans drive Hyundais and watch Samsungs, many know more about North Korean missiles than they do about Korean history and culture. The approach put forth is very innovative and inspired. Dr.Deborah Havens, a scholar who has taken a deep interest in Korean culture since her son Haight married an Korean woman (and she was blessed with three grandchildren with Korean roots), has teamed up with the Korean-American Professor Arthur K. J. Park to launch a new initiative for education about Korea in the United States. Professor Park has already started his own effort to introduce Korea to Americans through his Morning Crane Tea and Morning Earth Korea projects (including cultural tours to Korea).

Deborah Haven’s family: Mrs. Haven’s mother is on the far left next to her mother-in-law. She is next to her husband David Charles Limbaugh who served in the Korean War. Their grandsons Brennan and Henry are in front, next to Henna and her daughter-in-law Jungson.

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Barak Obama’s talk at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies (March 26, 2012)

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Here is the talk that President Obama delivered at the Hanguk University of Foreign Studies on Monday. Much speculation in Korea as to why he picked this university, as opposed to Korea University. Well you could say that many of the rank and file of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are from Hanguk University of Foreign Studies, as opposed to the political appointees from Korea University. But honestly, we do not know.

The speech is quite interesting because of the specificity about Korean culture and society that it brings up. A serious effort to engage in Korea.

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Report on the Asia Institute Seminar on Nuclear power in North Korea (March 22, 2012)

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Stephane Mot published this article about the lively discussion at the Asia Institute seminar on North Korea’s nuclear program held on Thursday.

 

Dr. Kim Myungja
President Green 21
(former minister of the environment; author of “The
Nuclear Dilemma”)
Dr. Sok Chul Kim
Senior Researcher
Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety
Ms. Sharon Squassoni
Director
Proliferation Prevention Program
CSIS
Mr. Scott Snyder
Senior Fellow for Korea Studies
Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy
Council on Foreign Relations

North Korea and Nukes: Back to the Stone Age?

As expected, North Korea set the agenda ahead of the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit (see focus on Seoul Village), this time by announcing for April a ‘satellite’ launch in the general direction of (Japan, thank Kim The Third for small mercies) the East China Sea.

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New York Times article on up-scale Korean restaurant in New York

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Following immediately on the New York Times article on bibimbap as a happening health food comes this article describing a Korean restaurant in Manhattan called Jungsik that has carved a new space in Korean cuisine for those in the know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The article resembles reviews of upscale sushi houses from the 1980s and is a major shift in Korea’s cultural currency. Just looking at the photograph gives some indication of how far Korea has come.

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Asia Institute Seminar with Noam Chomsky (December 3, 2011)

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December 3, 2011
Emanuel Pastreich with Professor Noam Chomsky

Asia Institute Seminar

The Asia Institute with GPYC Korea (Global Peace Youth Corps)

 

Emanuel Pastreich:  

Recently we have seen quite a bit reporting about a reengagement of the Obama Administration in East Asia and actions that are perceived as an effort to encircle and contain China. Most notable is the agreement to deploy 2,500 US Marines in Darwin announced during President Obama’s November visit to Australia. Well certainly reading through the New York Times you might think that the United States has surrounded China. But there is plenty of evidence that it is in fact the United States that is increasingly isolated from the world. We find increasingly that it is the United States that is difficult to get visas for entry and the United States that is isolated in the international community.

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