October 9, 2012
This escaped my radar when writing about Koreans seeing European action over the weekend: according to Bolton striker Marvin Sordell, he along with Lee Chung-Yong, Darren Pratley and Benik Afobe were all subjected to racial taunts in last Saturday’s match at Millwall’s stadium. He heard this while warming up on the sidelines and reported on his twitter account:
Chungy, Pratts, Benik and i had all sorts of things said to us. The police were standing yards away and did nothing…
— Marvin Sordell (@MarvinSordell) October 6, 2012
He went on to say this:
Putting the match aside, its 2012 in england and people are still shouting racial abuse at a football game!? #Shocking
— Marvin Sordell (@MarvinSordell) October 6, 2012
Bolton and Millwall are looking into the matter, as well as the FA as part of a possible criminal investigation. Sordell for his part received racial abuse documented on his twitter account afterwards, getting called ‘slave cunt’ amongst other offensive remarks. At this point, not much else is known about Sordell’s accusation and what exactly he is telling investigators, including what was alleged to have been shouted at the players last Saturday. To our knowledge, Lee has not made any public comments about the incident. Currently he’s in Iran training with the rest of the Taeguk Warriors for their World Cup qualifier against Iran next week. Seeing as it is probably going to turn into a police matter, might not hear much more until the results from the clubs, the FA and police conclude their investigation.
The Trotters were in for more shock this morning when they received the news that manager Owen Coyle had been sacked. Say what you will of Bolton’s form of late or their miserable 18th place in the 2nd tier of professional English football -Owen was a class human being. His nightmarish run in the 2011-2012 Premier League is not to be envied. He dealt with early season devastating injuries to Lee Chung-Yong and Stuart Holden, leaving Bolton in a deficit all year. Add to that Fabrice Muamba’s near death experience on the pitch at the English FA Cup quarterfinal against Tottenham and you have a manager who experienced hell and back. He was well regarded in assisting Muamba’s recovery effort from his near fatal cardiac arrest. Then the season ended just as Lee came back from his injury, and just one goal separated them between survival in the League and relegation. That and Joey Barton’s last game idiotic display that cost QPR a possible win against Manchester City –and with the result, the last spot in the table for Bolton slipped away just like that. You had to feel for the guy, who put so much on the line for his club. Certainly he has to own much of their new season’s woes, and while promotion now seems a long way off, the Tavern gives a tip o’ the hat to Owen – who offered grace and grit for the club. Bolton Academy staffers Sammy Lee and Jimmy Phillips will temporarily be in charge while they hunt for a new permanent manager.
We’ll turn our attention to the Taeguk Warriors and their October 16th clash with Iran in the Tavern soon enough, but the Tavern wants to take time to celebrate Hangul Day! That’s right, it’s the Korean language’s birthday and she’s 568 years old. King Sejong wanted to increase literacy for the masses and in 1446 he made a concise phonetic language that the aristocracy initially opposed. They wanted to keep literacy only for the elites, and they wanted to keep with a Chinese centric way of operating, which was incredibly feudal and oppressive for the Korean people. The Language Log blog describes King Sejong’s game changer this way, “For the king himself in such a society to create the means for mass literacy, knowing full well its liberating effect, is absolutely stunning.”
South Korea celebrates Hangul day on October 9th, while North Korea celebrates it on Janurary 15th (following an older and historically inaccurate based celebratory day). As late as 1930, Korean scholars thought, according to conversions of the Korean calendar to the gregorian one, that the date King Sejong put the language in play was October 29th. After a few more adjustments and a new discovery in 1940 of the original Hunmin Jeongeum Haerye, it left no doubt that October 9th was the actual birthdate. And in case you don’t know how to celebrate Hangul Day, I’ll refer again to our friends at the Language Log blog, “If you like to celebrate with a drink, I suggest some 막걸리 makkeolli, a kind of rice wine also known as 농주 nong-ju “farmer’s wine”. It is triply appropriate. It is particular to Korea, it is the drink of ordinary rural people, and its name is similar to that of the late Jim McCawley, one of the few non-Koreans to celebrate Hangul Day.” Don’t ask me who Jim McCawley is, I’m not a linguist-head by any means.
So tip one Makkeolli back for Hangul Day and we’ll see you at the Tavern later this week. There’s formations to talk about, Park Chu-Young’s prayer post-goal celebrations to debate about and much more. Hey,this makkeolli is pretty sweet…
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