Let’s be honest here. My students help me endure the many frustrations of my job. I not only love having the opportunity to teach them what I know, but I also get an opportunity to learn more about them, about who they are as individuals. I assigned the two most advanced classes an essay “What are you passionate about and why,” which I am now grading. I wanted to post some of the essays that have made me laugh and intrigued me. I’ve corrected them on paper, but I’ve left them here in their original form.
Luna:
“ I’m passionate in English. In fact, it’s not all that true. Studying English is not interesting but boring and hard. But I have to be more passionate in studying English for my future. I am not a genius for science, music, sports, art, and ets…. Also, I’m not slim or pretty so I can’t be a actress. The way that only I can choose is studying English.
One of my hopes is traveling the world and communicate with foreigners freely. English is common language for whole world, so I can communicate with foreigners if I study English very hard.
Also English helps me to achieve my future dream translater. I want to notify our language’s charm through translating Korean books to English books. To notify our language’s charm, I have to know many English expressions to translate. Even if I can’t speak English well, I am trying to be passionate in English. And I wish my dreams to be come true as English.”
Joe:
-funny because you have to know that he is a very very tall, very quiet 16-year old who always wears a rolling-stone ring and looks like he should be a bad boy.
“ I’m crazy in rope-jumping. I like it and I’m proud of rope-jumping. I started rope-jumping at 12 years old. I was attached to rope-jumping club. I participated rope-jumping competition, but I wasn’t first place. I have been played rope-jumping. So, I am taller than other many people. Certainly, if you play rope-jumping regularly, you are tall. I play rope-jumping today. Rope-jumping is very very interesting for me. I prepare our school festival. I prepare our school festival. I will go to the stage by rope-jumping.”
Eddie:
-16 year-old boy who wants to study economy at university and who’s been the biggest figure skating fan in korea
“When I was six grade, I was watch Yuna Kim’s 08-09 season’s first competition. She was doing ‘Dance Macabre’ in short and Scheherazade in free skating. First jump is 3-3 combination jump. I was fall in love with figure skating at that time. Figure skating make me crazy. First it has music. Every skater is playing with music. Some of them are playing very intense music and some of them are playing very lyrical music. They must consider about her music. It can make figure fan satisfy. Second, if the competition is finish, many skater doing ice-show. It is different from competition. Many skater are playing each other. It is good for watching. They are playing with music. When I see that, that is very beautiful.”
Chris:
-15-year old girl who never really pays attention in my class because she’s too busy talking all the time…probably telling stories ;)
“I’m passionate about writing and reading books. My dream is to be a global writer. When I was 9, my mother gave me ‘Harry Potter’ books by J. K. Rowling. At first, I don’t want to read those books because those books were very thick and they have very small letters. So I thought it will be very boring and difficult. But after I read them, I became J.K. Rowling’s ardent fan!!! Her imagination was wonderful! Her world of magic was fantastic! And then, I thought ‘writer’ is very interesting job. I wanted to write a very fun and unique story for everyone in all of the world. And I hoped everyone who read my books become to love my books. After that, my dream is to be a global writer like J.K. Rowling and my favorite things are writing and reading fun stories. And because I want to be a global writer, I have to speak and write in English very well. So I really want to study hard. (But it’s too difficult!) That’s why I’m passionate about writing and reading books.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
DMZ
Two weekends ago, I took a trip to the DMZ. The tour was through the USO and consisted of stops to several key areas around the DMZ including Camp Boniface, the Joint Security Area, an observation area, the third tunnel, and Dorasan station. Lee and I checked in at the tour office in Camp Kim at 7 AM and were well on our way to Panmunjeom by 7:30. Despite the fact that I was sleep deprived, I was excited, nervous, and a little bit scared. With the sinking of the Cheonan, tensions between the North and South have been increasing, and I was about to go into what felt like to be the belly of the beast.
We arrived at Camp Boniface around 9 and were told we would be riding an army bus to a briefing about the JSA at Ballinger Hall. What was the first thing that really hit me? It was the first line of a thin sheet of gray paper that the US army military police asked us to read and sign. In summary, “You are entering a hostile territory and we are not liable for injury or even possible death.” If those words don’t make a person think twice, I don’t know what words would. One of the MPs then gave a very educational albeit a bit tense presentation on the history of the DMZ. The history didn’t do anything except further emphasize just how tense the situation was between the North and the South Koreans.
After the briefing, we took a short bus ride to the JSA itself. If you look at the pictures below, you can clearly see just how little the distance is that separates the soldiers from both countries. We entered the T2 MAC building (one of the most interesting places I have ever had the chance to stand inside) where we had the opportunity to actually stand in North Korea. The table where many meetings between the North and South have been held had microphones that were symbolic divisions of the military demarcation line. On one side of the table, you were in the south and on the other the North. Of course there were soldiers patrolling and watching everywhere. I don’t think I can truly do the scene justice in words so the pictures are below. On the way back to our regular tour bus, we passed the North Korean propaganda village, the freedom village, as well as the bridge of no return.
The next stop after the JSA was the third tunnel. A North Korean engineer defected and gave information of tunnels that the North Koreans were digging towards Seoul. The North Koreans painted the walls with black paint and tried to cover the walls with layers of coal to claim that it was actually the South Koreans who had dug the tunnel. We were able to walk down into the tunnel itself and see the blockades. The walk down was not for the faint of heart seeing as how you were going 25 stories underground and was a bit steep. I have to say though that the walk back up was probably the best exercise anyone could get in one day. I’ve never seen so many sweaty, tired people.
We went to an observatory just before lunch where we could see the North Korean propaganda village through binoculars. The last stop of the tour was to Dorasan station. It was a station that the South Koreans had built to connect to Pyeongyang. One of the tour guides said that they had done tours using the train up until 2008 when a South Korean woman who walked away from her tour group was shot by a North Korean soldier.
It was an experience that made me feel reverence and awe. Someone asked the tour guide if any South Koreans were ever able to go to the JSA. The woman told us that a native South Korean would only be able to go on a tour of the JSA after 6 months of intensive background checks to ensure no familial ties to any North Koreans and no grievances from the Korean war. This made the experience even more special for me. I realized then that I was truly lucky for getting to have such an amazing experience.
The Bridge of No Return where South Korea and North Korea returned prisoners of war after the Korean war and gave them a choice. Once they chose their country, they were unable to return.
The North Korean propaganda village.
Lee and I standing in North Korea.
The South and North koreans looking at one another.
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