D'oh

Imagine my chagrin. A couple of days ago, I was slamming Korea for being pretensious for holding a 'biennale'. On Arirang TV, one of the western commentators also commented on this odd Korean use of an Italian word by people thinking that perhaps it was English. This came to light because of the Gwangju Biennale 2006, and I remember thinking, "Oh, yes. Tell it like it is. This is so pretentious." In all my years, I had never heard this word and I thought that meant it wasn't a real English word.

However, this is from Wikipedia:

The name Biennale is Italian and means "every other year", describing an event that happens every 2 years. The most important Biennale is an art exhibition that takes place for three months in Venice — the Venice Biennale — but there are numerous others:

• Manifesta, European Biennale of contemporary art in different European cities
• Berlin Biennale, international exposition of contemporary art in Berlin
• Bucharest Biennale, Bucharest
• Münchener Biennale, international festival for new music theatre in Munich
• Internationale Architektur Biennale in Rotterdam
• Biennale of Sydney
• Bienal de São Paulo in Sao Paulo
• Mostra di Architettura di Venezia, International bi-annual Architecture Exhibition in Venice
• Moscow Biennale in Moscow (Russia)
• Liverpool Biennial
• Kwangju Biennale in Kwangju (also spelled Gwangju), South Korea
• Ljubljana Graphic Biennale in Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Singapore Biennale, in Singapore
• Tirana Biennale, in Tirana, Albania
• Istanbul Biennial, in Istanbul, Turkey
• Biennale of Iranian Graphic Designers, in Tehran, Iran
• Biennale of Miniature Art, in Czestochowa, Poland
• Göteborg International Biennial For Contemporary Art Sweden
• Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, in Vancouver (Canada)

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And, did you notice that last one - from my own hometown. How pretentious is that? I would like this to be a big, big mea culpa. I'm sorry Korea. I was wrong.