Session #5/6 (Modern Korea) Reflections

[Anonymous]

This was a wonderful double session and I really enjoyed the topic of contemporary Korea. It was interesting to learn so much about Korea and it also resonated with some of the news we have been hearing about North Korea. Also after this session it is easier to understand better the Korean culture. One part of the seminar that I found very interesting and I am planning to assign as a topic for the upcoming research paper for my students is the topic about the "comfort women" of the second world war. I believe that the event, as horrific as it was, could well be used as a study to understand the interaction between both countries. I have the feeling that the tolerance between both countries, older generations, is not that great due to the events that took place during the 20th century. I am sure that the modern generations are not as touchy on this subject, but it seems that it is still a sore point between both countries. Also I got very interested in researching more about the Korean diaspora and compare to some other cultures movements. All in all I came out of the saturday session with a great deal of information and new ideas that I am planning to incorporate into my classroom. Cheers!!

[Anonymous]

I began this reading unaware that Kim Dae Jung would eventually become the president of South Korea. Upon learning that fact, I am not surprised that he rose to such levels of political office. What I noticed the most in this reading was his call for a major paradigm shift in business, politics and unification. The connection between these themes were to be achieved through a faith in democracy.

Even though South Korea has been a democracy, he did point out the flaws in the South Korean version because of the marriage between the business and political worlds. Kim called for South Korea to practice a purer form of democracy in which the granting of political favors to business dealers are done away with. He also called attention to the lack of power the working class have. He warned against the appeal of Communism when the working class is under duress.

These are lofty arguments that do not have easy and quick solutions. It is no wonder to me that he became president because of his well thought out socio-political viewpoints. His patriotism was evident in his strong desires to reunite the two Koreas. But the history that has followed his death has shown the difficulties for any hopes of reunification so far.

[Anonymous]

This was truly a wonderful session, the hours flew by. Though, Korea has a rich history, its recent past has been challenging. Watching Korea literally rise from the ashes of not one, but two wars and an oppressive occupation makes such a success story along the lines of the phoenix rising.

What I found of great and personal interest and disbelief was Japan's occupation. Not until I starting reading Lost Names by Richard E. Kim was I able to make a most remarkable connection. The picture we were shown showed the two Korean Olympic marathon medalists. Their names were Sohn Kee-Chung (Gold and then world record) and Nam Sung-Yong (Bronze). Both of them ran under Japanese names that the OIC did not change in its official records until 2011, though not the nationality. Sohn Kee-Chung passed away in 2002. At the Seoul Olympics in 1988, he was the runner who entered the Olympic Stadium with the Olympic torch; what a transcendental experience that must had been! “He came through the tunnel with the torch, and everyone knew who he was. They did not have to be told. There was this huge roar. He jumped up into the air and seemed to bound around the track.” (NY Times, 11/14/2009) As for the Japanese flag being blotted out from the Korean newspaper, the newspaper was closed down for 9 months, but continues publication today. There are a few YouTube videos, I present to you the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgAXCAWQUic

This incident also clarified for me why when the Emperor was heard on the radio not all adults in Korea could understand him but the children could-it was forbidden for Korean to be taught in schools, just Japanese. Also, I understand now why those then children now grandparents speak and understand Japanese in addition to Korean. There are these types of stories on the internet; I encourage you to read just a few. However funny and quaint at first, these stories drive a point home that only those who have lost their country, culture, language, etc. can understand; I, at best can only stand with my hat in hand and stare down as Sohn Kee-Chung did.

Finally, the richness of Korean culture can be felt in our metro area. Koreans and Korean-Americans continue to contribute to our cities, state, and country in ways that leave us amazed. Those were great video clips of Korean movies also.
edited by mcastillo on 3/5/2013

[Anonymous]

First, I would like to thank Jennifer for another enthralling lecture on Korea and Korea & Co. I know I enjoyed soaking in all that information, some of it important, some of it trivial. As a reader of history, I appreciate having the events of the last 200 years of the Korean experience fall into place. The references to the cruelty of the Japanese occupation were resonant because of similarities with the Nazi occupation of France. The experience of the war era is ingrained in the psyche of most Europeans of my generation, even if we have always lived in peace time. But I have the stories of my parents and of my grand-parents when they were alive. In addition to that I have been subjected to thousands of hours of movies, TV documentaries and dramas and museum exhibits, enough to form a once removed consciousness of what it means to be connected with countries that endured bombing and violent occupation. The Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese surely identify with that experience. Like the Europeans, resilient and resourceful, they have recovered, rebuilt and thrived. Hopefully, they have lost much of their bellicosity too. Military occupations and bombing raids are heinous acts that can rarely be justified. I was dismayed to learn of the mercenary role Korean soldiers played in Vietnam, just so Dictator Boy could bankroll his regime by pleasing Imperialist Daddy. I was dismayed to learn that Korea was number 2 or 3 major contributor in the Coalition of the willing during Iraq II. On the other hand I was thrilled to learn that Korea is a nation chock-full of protestors, hundreds of thousands turning out to rally for democracy, angry mothers demanding justice and the like. I hope to learn more about the yellow clad liberals.

[Anonymous]

I found this session very instructive. I have been thinking a lot about the origins of political differences. How do cultures end up with such extreme political divides? It was fascinating to see how the divisions between North and South Korea come about -- and to speculate on how much of these divisions were internal and how many were influenced by external/colonial forces. I was moved by the stories of the WWII sexual slavery. I was also struck by how long Korea was in extended states of civil war, how many different groups were in contention for power, and the role that protest still plays in shaping the country.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed all of the articles about Korea we were assigned to read prior to Saturday's session. I even read some of them out loud to my husband! I can definitely see myself using some of these articles with students, especially the one about high school students attending elite Korean schools so they can someday attend American Ivy Leagues. I also enjoyed hearing from Jennifer, the lecture was very interesting and she did a beautiful job of covering so much information in such a short amount of time! Many of my students have been asking a lot of questions about North Korea, especially those who read news headlines online, so I can't wait to relay the stuff I learned about the relationship between both countries. I anticipate to get a lot more questions in a few weeks when I begin covering the Cold War and feel much more prepared to answer some of the questions I couldn't answer in the past, for example "do North Korea and South Korea want to be reunited?" Thanks to "10 things to know about Korea" I know the answer is yes.

[Anonymous]

Learning about Korea from a Korean history specialist was pretty awesome. Not only am I impressed about her ability to lecture for practically 6 straight hours and keep me engaged, but also her ability to answer questions about almost anything. I am fascinated by North Korea, especially it’s role in the near future in East Asia politics. Plus, Kim Jong Un becoming friends with Dennis Rodman? Can’t make this stuff up. In terms of the unification of North and South Korea, seems quite impossible to me. Even though they are the same race of people, the divide between them over the last 65 years seems impossible to bridge. The mentalities of the people are too different.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the session on Saturday. There was a lot of information presented and it was all really interesting. I enjoyed the article "10 Things to Know" and liked how she used that to frame her first presentation. Korea's level of technology is amazing--the media poles, high speed internet, etc. and I think often we in America view our country as the apex of high tech. I also really appreciated her interest and knowledge about women and women's history in Korea. The details about the military sexual slavery was eye-opening and made me wonder why Korean women were specifically targeted. The whole period of Japanese domination interests me and I wonder what the lingering senitments are about that period and between the two cultures. I would be interested in learning more about North Korea over the past 50 years--and understand how people inside North Korea perceive the regime and the new leader.

[Anonymous]

Although I was only able to attend the first half of the session on Saturday, I was well pleased with the information I gathered from the teacher. In particular, I was intrigued by the first part of the lecture that was based off of “10 things you should know about Korea”. This was a nice way for me to get an introduction the Korea where each topic was discussed for a brief amount of time and then we moved on to another topic. I find this to be an excellent way to introduce a country to a new comer like me. Although in the end a detailed description of each aspect is necessary to truly understand why things came to be the way they are, when you are new to a topic the detailed approach often gets me narrowly focused and I don’t see the entire picture (or as much of the picture as someone without any knowledge of the culture can get in a short amount of time). I like how the lecture started with a broad description of Korea so I had an overall sense before she went into more narrow and elaborated topics like the sexual slavery issue.

[Anonymous]

Going into this session, I knew relatively little about Korea. I too was fascinated by the way Confucian values still permeate Korean society. The idea about ascending and descending a staircase in a certain way depending on the social position of your companion was very interesting.

I was also fascinated by the incredible use of technology and the internet in South Korea. It seems to me that technology is a more widespread element of the very culture of the South Korean people than it is in the United States, even though we make such a huge deal over the omnipresence of social media. Professor Jung Kim shared with us a story about a grandmother using a smart phone. My own grandmother has trouble using her old flip phone. It's hard to imagine smart phones in the hands of all Americans, regardless of age or socio-economic status. I can't help but wonder what the implications of this disparity are for the futures of the education system in both of our countries. It was also interesting to know more about North Korea. I came across this today and also wanted to pass it along: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/03/05/173499169/live-from-north-korea-an-instagram-feed

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the lecture given on Saturday by Professor Jung-Kim. I know it was in the reading, but i still enjoyed her introduction of Edward Shultz’s “Top Ten Things to Know about Korea in the 21st Century.” I thought the opening was appropriate, especially for those who do not know too much on Korea, like me! I appreciated her personal insight on specific examples, for example she shared that in Korea they have media towers in busy cities to assist people charge their devices, use the internet, take pictures, etc. Then when she addressed the last point of Koreans wanting unification she showed us what the new flag would look like.

I was also shocked at the amount of money that families put into education. Up to $1000.00 for tutoring in addition to school tuition is amazing. It really puts things into perspective as to what is the highest priority. Unfortunately, I feel like my students do not value education as much. I plan to use all this information and show my students that Korea is not a copy of China and all the good things they are known for.

[Anonymous]

The session on Korea consisted of new information that touched upon politics, culture and beliefs. I was looking forward to this session because there was so much information that I wanted to learn about. For instance, I found the stories about women to be very empowering. I liked the story about the young fifteen year old girl (Yu Kwansun) who stood up for her beliefs and is now looked upon as an important historical figure is what makes this culture significant. Moreover, the film YMCA Baseball was funny and entertaining. This film reminded me of a children’s book called Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, in which a young boy learns to play baseball after his family is relocated to an internment camp. This sport is what enables the young boy to deal with the conflicts that result during World War II. Furthermore, the images and the stories on the courtesans and their style of dressing were nice to look at. The information on the military brothels was something that was new to me. I found this topic to be interesting and I would like to conduct further research.
I plan to incorporate a cultural unit with my students that consists of their historical background, cultural traditions, beliefs and values. I believe that I should learn more about where my students come from and make connections with my Korean students.
edited by dcoronel on 3/5/2013

[Anonymous]

I was happy to see Professor Jung-Kim again. Throughout the lecture, I took notice of several ways to compare the Korean experience to other areas under imperial control (i.e. India, Vietnam, South Africa).
My mother was raised in South Korea and still harbors some resentment towards Japan due to the experiences of her ancestors. To better understand her feelings, in college, I took a Korean American history class. Part of the class included reading Clay Walls by Kim Ronyoung. It’s about the plight of Koreans who fled during Korea in the 1920s to settle in Los Angeles . A link to the book: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-26/books/bk-1314_1_kim-ronyoung
In addition, my sister recently wrote an article about the restoration of the Korean Bell in San Pedro. If you've never dropped by to visit this impressive structure, I highly recommend it. http://www.sanpedrotoday.com/2013/02/28/repairing-the-ring/

[Anonymous]

I learned a lot that I did not know before about Korea. I had no idea that they had just elected their first woman president! Too bad she is conservative and comes from a dictator father. What has really been the most interesting to me about all of these sessions has been learning about how different our cultures are; especially in attitudes towards education. I loved seeing the pictures of the mothers holding signs to wish them well on their tests! Practically, the whole town shuts down, as to not to distract any students. Imagine if we did that for the CST's? I bet our test scores would go up a bit! Right now, my students are learning about intolerance. I could definitely add the treatment of women in the military brothels to my list of areas to study in the world that have shown intolerance to another group of people.

[Anonymous]

Thank you first of all to professor Yung-Kim for taking her time on Saturday to come talk to us. Really loved the class and slides that was presented. So much info. Fascinating to learn more about Kim Jong Il and the "deification" of Kim Il Sing and the ow the people reacted to the regime. Amazing how the north and southern sides have become almost petty. Loved to hear more about the territorial disputes that Clay mentioned in class and why all the fuss about and nice to see the slide of the islands/rocks. Also enjoyed watching portions of the YMCA Basbell film it was light hearted and quite fun to watch. I am really excited to see that the slides are now readily available and will certainly use them this semester in my Geography class.

Also an interestingnote is how Confucian based Korea is, and how all the good and bad is blamed on the president. Reminds me of the ancient China class and how much iunfluence Confucian thought had and continues to have.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the class was the military brothels and the enslavement of women during the war. Can't believe that the Japanese subjected so many women to that abuse and just how unaware the word community was at the time, certainly would be interesting to see how the world wouyld react today with all the modern technology and whether the international community would even notice. Once again thanks Professor Yung-Kim for a great day!!

[Author]

Posts