National Assembly Skirmishes, Korea's International Image

Today we had some pretty interesting discussions about the ethical implications and international reception of the recent fights in the Korea National Assembly between the Grand National Party (GNP) and Democratic Party (DP). Some of the key points that were brought up include:

• Physical fights undercut the basic idea of democracy.
• International reception will probably distort the story and make it appear worse than it is.
• When assembly members fight it can negatively influence the youth by letting them believe that violence can solve disputes.
• Potentially terminating officials who fight would have a very negative impact as it would force new elections.

Pointers:

1. If you propose some kind of solution to a problem, you can simply describe the first one or two things you would do, but when it's a large domestic issue like the one mentioned above, don't end your solution weakly and say something like "I think that would be an okay solution." State your points with confidence, and if you are not entirely positive you can always state that, "This complex problem has no simple solution, but I think step A and step B are the first actions to take to make sure that we move in the right direction."
2. Eye contact, eye contact, eye contact! Look your interviewer in the eyes and speak with confidence.

We also had a discussion about the government's current plan to give up the old Korean branding phrases of "Dynamic Korea" and "Korea Sparkling" for something more applicable and perhaps more useful. We generally looked at this issue from the perspective of protests, discrimination, and cuisine.

Concerning protests, some people argued that Korean citizens are too quick to protest and when protests turn to violence it often reflects poorly on the international level. At the same time though, protests are one of the key signs of a healthy democracy, so if the international community cannot recognize the benefits of a population that is able to protest, then perhaps it's not a community worth trying to appease.

Also along political lines, we examined the motivations of Lee Myung-bak's restoration of the Cheonggyecheon River while he was Mayor of Seoul in 2003. One thing that was mentioned was that rumors exist that the city government used some forceful and gang-like tactics to evict residents of the dilapidated stream to begin construction. Ultimately though we decided that no matter who the President is, and no matter the accomplishments, the person who holds the title of President will always face heavy criticism from the public because of some kind of cultural imperative to constantly criticize. We referenced how this kind of criticism often goes too far in the case of President Roh's recent suicide and how moments of crisis in history often trigger great changes in the status-quo and fundamental beliefs of societies.

Concerning discrimination, we unanimously agreed that there are many underlying stereotypes, racism, and xenophobic tendencies in Korea. After working our way through this point we decided one of the major mechanisms powering this discrimination was the Korean Education System's concept of "one blood", or Korea existing as a "pure" race.

Concerning cuisine, when asked how Korea might be able to make Korean Food more international we agreed that the best way to get people abroad to like Korean Food is to let them taste it. Whether or not the government can spread an appreciation for Korean food seems debatable. We also decided that when Ko San became the first Korean in space the inevitable media hype surrounding the fact that he carried "kimchi" with him was laughable. Because the kimchi was not true kimchi (read: fermented goodness) it was just a media ploy that actually undercut some aspects of the accomplishment.

Finally, when asked how to make Korea famous for "International Cuisine" we decided that the best way to get authentic food from other countries into Korea is by opening up immigration opportunities for foreigners.

Keywords
(n.) prowess / exceptional or superior ability, skill, or strength; he showed true prowess as a debater
(adj.) disparate / distinct in kind; essentially different; dissimilar; the father and son had disparate philosophies

Criticism & Thoreau

<-- Thoreau, brave enough to sport "neck-beard"

We recently had an interesting essay topic concerning the value and importance of criticism. Here is a short excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Walden that we covered in class which has some relevance to the topic,

"But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes, -his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say, richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes... ...Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives."

To quickly summarize Walden, for more than a year Thoreau went out to a pond near his hometown, Walden Pond, built a hut and lived on his own away from society. He didn't have to spend any money and was in complete solitude. He was mostly interested in exploring the possibility of escaping the rules and expectations of society to explore an individual life.

In this quote Thoreau makes an interesting point by making us think: Why do we buy new clothes when our old clothes work just fine? A lot of this has to do with expectations - we want to fit in, we want to look as nice as other people, we consider ourselves "fashionable". But Thoreau seems especially interested in how clothes are connected to our work. If we buy new clothes we are probably doing so because we don't want to face the criticism of dressing differently from everyone else. We want to fit in with the crowd. Once we fit in, we escape criticism. But Thoreau wants us to consider changing our souls before we change our clothes.

You might argue that Thoreau wanted to escape all criticism and only deal with self-criticism, he felt the best critic was internal because it knows itself best.

Greetings

Hello students!

I wanted to put together an online resource to keep track of some of the lessons that we cover about writing and interviewing in preparation for your Foreign Language High School applications that are coming up this November. I'll be posting some supplementary information, lessons, keywords, ways to organize essays, and exemplar essays with analysis for you to peruse through at your leisure. I'll also include links to interesting issues in Korea with some analysis and general summary as well.

All this with the long (or at this point, I suppose short) term goal of helping you become confident in writing interesting essays and confident enough to talk about issues an interview and demonstrate that you are a global leader. So stay posted and any feedback is appreciated.