Gwangju & South Jeolla International Magazine
Gwangju and South Jeolla International Magazine I April 2020 #218 Gwangju-Jeonnam Voices: Coronavirus Version
April 2020 #218
Gwangju-Jeonnam Voices Coronavirus Version
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Gwangju & South Jeolla International Magazine
April 2020, Issue No. 218 Published: April 1, 2020 Cover Photo The Coronavirus Causing COVID-19
THE EDITORIAL TEAM Publisher Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Production Editor Layout Editor Photographers Communications Proofreaders
Online Editor Research
Dr. Shin Gyonggu Dr. David E. Shaffer William Urbanski Isaiah Winters Melline Galani Kim Yunkyoung, Oh Eun Ah Jeong Ji-yeon Maria Neliza “Ynell” Mondragon, Di Foster, David Foster, Stephen Redeker, Joseph Nunez, Elisabeth Loeck, Timothy Berg, Gilda Wilson Melline Galani Yu Yeonwoo
The Gwangju News is the first English monthly magazine for the general public in Korea, first published in 2001. Each monthly issue covers local and regional issues, with a focus on the roles and activities of the international residents and local English-speaking communities. Copyright © 2020 by the Gwangju International Center. All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by this copyright may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the written consent of the publisher.
Registration No. 광주광역시 라. 00145 (ISSN 2093-5315) Registration Date: February 22, 2010 Printed by Join Adcom 조인애드컴 (+82)-62-367-7702
Special thanks to Gwangju City and all of our sponsors.
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As the warmth and fragrance of spring imbues the air around us, we bring you a fresh issue of the Gwangju News, but at the same time that our April issue reaches your hands, a dark and infectious visitor persists in our midst. As the world struggles with this deadly intruder, we urge our community to keep up its vigilance and follow governmental directives: stay at home whenever possible, practice social distancing, wear masks, wash hands, and avoid gatherings and traveling. With due caution and diligence, we shall overcome the scourge of this coronavirus to enjoy the rebirth that spring symbolizes. As COVID-19 is presently everyone’s main concern, it is central to our April issue. Our cover feature tells how a variety of members of the Gwangju community and beyond are dealing with the viral threat. A second feature provides an American perspective on the corona crisis. Read “City News” to see what the local government is doing is response to the crisis. Our product review for this month compares a variety of face masks for viral protection. April’s “Blast from the Past” offers the Story of Chunhyang (literally, spring fragrance), a centuries-old and muchcherished Korean love story. “Lost in Gwangju” reveals a goldmine within the city limits. Another goldmine in Gwangju is a fabulous macaron shop (“Food and Drinks”). Gwangju News takes you to the United States to hear how one Gwangju-born teacher uses the Montessori Method of Education with elementary students (“Gwangju Abroad”). Our third feature inspires with an introduction to Malaysian architecture, and “Travel Abroad” takes us to Romania’s most unusual and colorful Merry Cemetery. Our “Fashion” piece proposes ethical fashion as a counter to fast fashion, and our “Opinion” piece is a tongue-in-cheek look as some words our mouths should not utter. “Language Teaching” presents teacher trainers’ views on English teacher training, and “Everyday Korean” deals with movie talk. This month we have two book reviews for you: Grit and Marrying Korean. While “Gwangju Writes” ferries us through a short story Down Under. Set your eyes on our “Photo of the Month” and our “Photo Essay.” And piece together our April “Crossword Puzzle.” Stay safe, and enjoy this month’s issue of the Gwangju News!
David E. Shaffer Editor-in-Chief Gwangju News
April 2020
For volunteering and article submission inquiries, please contact the editor at gwangjunews@gic.or.kr.
From the Editor
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The Gwangju News is published by Gwangju International Center: Jungang-ro 196-beon-gil 5 (Geumnam-ro 3-ga), Dong-gu, Gwangju 61475, South Korea Tel: (+82)-62-226-2733~34 Fax: (+82)-62-226-2731 Website: www.gwangjunewsgic.com Email: gwangjunews@gic.or.kr GwangjuNews gwangjunews
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Photo of the Month
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April 2020
ARTS & CULTURE
By Oh Eun Ah
T
he old 1913 Songjeong-yeok Market, which was originally known as the Maeil Songjeong Market, contains over a hundred years of history and is a must-see among Gwangju’s many historical sites. As a tribute to its long history, the founding year is written on the floor in front of each building. Today, the market is one of the most-visited places in the city – both by locals and travelers alike.
The Photographer
Oh Eun Ah (Urantungs) is from Mongolia and graduated from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. She now lives in Gwangju with her husband and wonderful daughter. Her interests include photography and video editing. She is a content creator for Gwangju’s Gwangsan District SNS channels.
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CONTENTS April 2020
Issue # 218
MONTHLY NEWS 04. Gwangju City News 56. Community Board FEATURES 08. Gwangju-Jeonam Voices: Coronavirus Version 12. Malaysian Architecture: A Major Source of Inspiration 16. Corona Crisis: An American’s Perspective BLAST FROM THE PAST 20. The Traditional “Fragrance of Spring” TRAVEL 24. Lost in Gwangju: Fathoming Gwangsan-gu and Its Abandoned Goldmine 28. From Abroad: The Merry Cemetery: A Unique Resting Place GWANGJU ABROAD 32. Gwangju Abroad: Growing with Montessori
FOOD & DRINKS 30. Hello L: Character Macaron Specialist FASHION 38. Ethical Fashion vs. Fast Fashion: Which Korean Brands Are Eco-Friendly? PRODUCT REVIEW 34. Mask Envy EDUCATION 31. Everyday Korean: Episode 28 – 영화 (Movies) 40. Language Teaching: Teacher Training at JIEI OPINION 44. I Ain’t Your “Bro” ARTS & CULTURE 02. Photo of the Month 19. Gwangju News Crossword Puzzle 46. Photo Essay: Spectrums 51. Book Review: Marrying Korean 53. Book Review: Grit 54. Gwangju Writes: She Departed, She Arrived
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April 2020
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Gwangju City News
MONTHLY NEWS
Reprinted with permission from Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall Photographs courtesy of Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall
Mayor Lee (center) at the launching of the Uihyang City Gwangju legal support group.
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April 2020
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Gwangju Launches Legal Support Group to Protect Citizens
ihyang City Gwangju, a legal support group, set up to protect citizens who have been victimized by “fake news” and the spread of false facts, began its operations on March 16. Gwangju City held an invitational ceremony in the business room of city hall, at which Mayor Lee Yong-seop gave a letter of recommendation to six lawyers appointed as Uiwang City Gwangju legal support members. The support group provides legal services such as legal rights counseling and litigation representation for citizens who have suffered rights infringements or psychological distress from the dissemination of false facts through SNS, fake news, and defamation. Gwangju City is the first nationwide metropolitan government to implement such a system for citizens who have been unable to exercise their legal rights due to financial difficulties despite suffering mental and material damages due to fake news.
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The six appointed legal aids are local lawyers who are active in the region and are responsible for investigating the requirements and facts of claims for damages received during their two-year terms: one-to-one counseling, litigation representation, and criminal relief, as well as performing other necessary services. Any citizen who has been adversely affected by social media may apply for counseling and legal assistance at Uihyang City Gwangju (phone: 062-613-2774), and if the claim is selected by the Civil Rights Commission after screening, the claimant can receive legal assistance through consultation and investigation. At the ceremony, Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated, “Our Gwangju is historically inclined to justice, but in many cases, innocent citizens suffer from unjust events happening in everyday life. We will once again take the lead in safeguarding justice in the human-rights city of Gwangju by launching Uihyang City Gwangju to deal with fake news more quickly and protect the human rights of citizens who have been alienated from the legal network.”
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Mayor Lee (center) at the consultations with Telstar Hommel and Infoworks.
Gwangju to Start Building Foundation for Tomorrow’s Auto Industry
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wangju City has started a full-scale consultation with Telstar Hommel, a smart-factory builder, and with Infoworks, a self-driving car sensortechnology developer, to foster the future car industry to prepare for a major transformation of the manufacturing industry in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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Gwangju City is in discussions with the Green Car Promotion Agency, KT, and Telstar Hommel to promote the smart-factory business at the Light Green Industrial Complex, while the Gwangju Green Car Promotion
April 2020
Telstar Hommel is a Hyundai Motor partner and has secured a smart-factory platform that combines ICT technology based on facility manufacturing technology in the automotive powertrain field, and the company also chairs a consortium of smart-factory platform suppliers of the Small and Medium Business Technology Innovation Association. Telstar Hommel also signed an MOU with KT in April last year to develop smart-factory solutions based on 5G Edge Cloud.
The smart-factory business is a connected system that makes use of data to cope with increasing business demands by rapidly converting various types of smallvolume production systems for mass production, and quickly producing products that consumers demand at a low cost.
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On March 17, Mayor Lee Yong-seop met with Lim Byung-hoon, CEO of Telstar Hommel, and Park Hyeonjoo, CEO of Inforworks, the company that launched the first NPU-based artificial intelligence edge computer development board in Korea, and the three agreed to cooperate in fostering the future car industry in Gwangju.
Through the smart-factory project under discussion, the city fuses and develops 5G technology while Telstar Hommel’s process, and automation analysis solutions will gather numerous types of sensor information coming from industrial sites to the Edge Communication Center to monitor the real-time process and help maintain optimal productivity through artificial intelligence analysis. In addition, Telstar Hommel is expected to cooperate to predict defect rates based on big-data analysis and efficiently maintain equipment in each process.
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Agency and Telstar Hommel have signed a business agreement and are shaping their collaboration. In the future, the three plan to recruit companies that are willing to participate in the smart-factory business. To promote the smart-factory project in Gwangju, Telstar Hommel has sent a taskforce to the Green Car Promotion Agency and is considering establishing an artificial intelligence research center in Gwangju.
Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated, “Gwangju is directing all its resources to end the COVID-19 crisis,” and adding, “On the one hand, in order to foster future business models in Gwangju, we will build a foundation for the production and research environment of future cars by building a smart factory and linking artificial intelligence with the automotive industry to develop sensors for selfdriving cars and create a solid footing for the future car production and research environment in our city.”
To ensure the reliability of self-driving systems, Gwangju City, the Korea Automobile Research Institute, and Inforworks have decided to cooperate for enhancing object recognition of self-driving vehicles that require long-term testing in poor conditions and to develop
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April 2020
MONTHLY NEWS
Inforworks is a company that has released the RK1808 chipset-based artificial intelligence embedded development board “Rex Basic” that can be used for industrial purposes and learning based on the neural processing unit (NPU), the core of the AI era.
technologies to utilize artificial intelligence-based vehicle internal and external convergence sensors to diagnose faults.
Mayor Lee (right) at the consultations with Telstar Hommel and Infoworks.
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Gwangju City Supports Agricultural Sector in Response to COVID-19
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n March 17, discussions were held with Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation) and farmers’ organizations related to using online and local food stores. City Hall held the meeting in the deputy mayor’s office to promote measures for the agricultural sector in response to COVID-19.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss damaging trends in the agricultural sector and future countermeasures at a time when COVID-19’s spread is causing continued price declines in agricultural products due to the deferred school year, a decline in the food service industry, and difficulties in securing markets for farm products.
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At the roundtable discussions, Gwangju City made plans to cooperate with the Nonghyup Gwangju Regional Headquarters and other regional agricultural cooperatives to expand direct sales through online marketing and through local food stores. City Hall plans to first encourage consumption of agricultural products that cannot be delivered for school meals due to the postponement of the school year and will continue to promote consumption of Korean products in the future. “We have arranged this meeting so that no citizen will be left out in this difficult situation due to the spread of COVID-19,” said Deputy Mayor Cho In-chul. “Let us all work together to overcome this crisis so that farmers’ financial losses can be minimized.”
April 2020
As agricultural products delivered as school meals were shipped to the wholesale market, the trading volume in the wholesale market increased 17.2 percent compared to
the same period last year, but the average price for each item was found to fluctuate greatly depending on the quantity and demand of imported goods.
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Presided over by Cho In-chul, deputy mayor of culture and economy, the meeting was attended by farmers’ organizations, including the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the local Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Pyeongdong Agricultural Cooperative Federation and Gwangju Horticultural Cooperative), and the Gwangju Farmers’ Association.
MONTHLY NEWS
▲ Nonghyup and farmers’ organizations’ representatives during discussions.
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FEATURE FEATURE
Gwangju-Jeonnam Voices Coronavirus Version Interview by William Urbanski
While there is without question a veritable deluge of media coverage surrounding the coronavirus situation worldwide, most of this information takes a bird’s-eye view. The Gwangju News felt it was important to hear from individuals in our community about how this ongoing situation is impacting their lives. Many thanks to the five individuals from Gwangju and around Jeollanam-do who took the time to answer the following four questions:
2. How do you feel about Korea’s response to the coronavirus outbreak? Do you think it is reasonable or is it too much? 3. Have any of your family members back home been concerned? If so, what do you tell them? 4. What precautions are you taking to protect yourself against the coronavirus?
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April 2020
1. How has the coronavirus affected your professional and personal life? Have there been plans you have had to change or trips you have had to cancel?
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J Asare is an American, who has been here for over six years, and works in Suncheon as a public elementary school teacher. EJ’s responses follow.
book (Johnny and Joshua Coming to Korea, available on Amazon) at festivals this spring, and that has been cancelled. Korea has so many wonderful festivals, and I was going to be a vendor at several events, but because of the virus and social distancing, that will not happen this year. But on a personal level, I have followed all instructions from the Korean government. I stayed home 1. I had professional plans for two weeks after traveling back from the U.S. Personally, to promote my English- I had to stop watching the 24-hour news stations. Now, I language children’s picture check in twice a day to see what is going on and just live my life.
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A stylized coronavirus. (iclickart)
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Corona. (iclickart)
April 2020
3. My family is very concerned because they are watching the U.S. news. But I tell them all of the things the Korean government is doing. All the testing, the drive-thru options, making masks available to everyone through the post office, sanitizing the streets, taking temperatures before entering business offices, putting sanitizer on all the buses and subways, etc. Because the Korean government is proactive and diligent, my family knows that I am in a safer situation here.
4. I practice social distancing, wear my masks outside, only leave my house for work and grocery shopping, and continue to wash my hands. I am being careful, but I am no longer in a panic like I was a few weeks ago, when the number of cases started increasing rapidly. Now, I am cautious but fine. I refuse to live in fear.
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2. I am thankful to the Korean government for their diligent response. Their actions are not excessive. It shows real concern for the citizens and the businesses that are all being impacted. I teach elementary school and want all of my students to be safe, so if delaying school will keep our kids safe, so be it. This virus situation is having a devastating impact on Korea’s economy. There are many people, including teachers, who are not being paid and have to decide whether to stay in Korea or go home. There are business owners, mom-and-pop places, that cannot make rent because people are staying home to eat. The buses and airplanes are empty and losing money. There is a devastating economic and emotional impact on everyone. I really hope this situation is resolved soon.
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10 Saleem Ahmad is from Pakistan and has been in Gwangju for almost two years. He is a PhD student in public health (epidemiology) in the College of Veterinary Sciences at Chonnam National University.
FEATURE
1. COVID-19 has affected normal life routines all over the world, such as visiting public places, transportation, and trade. For myself, COVID-19 has not affected my personal life too much, but my professional life has been affected considerably because we were going to start our epidemiological studies in March at Jeollanam-do poultry farms, which have been suspended till the situation gets back to normal. 2. As far as South Korea is concerned, the way the country is handling the virus outbreak is outstanding and is a role model for the rest of the world for any threatening situation in the future. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic threat by WHO (the World Health Organization), so I think what South Korea is doing day and night through hard work and dedicating funds to fight the virus is reasonable, because such a rapid outbreak can destroy a country’s economy, as well as prosperity overall. So, we should pay respect to the South Korean government and all the medical professionals around the world for their tremendous performance, not only in Asia but in Europe also.
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April 2020
3. My family members back in Pakistan are satisfied with South Korea as “a hardworking and outstanding country.” 4. I personally must cooperate with the South Korean government, and what I am doing to protect myself and the community, I would like to share with my South Korean brothers and sisters, as well as foreigners: a. I always use a face mask nowadays. I use one mask as long as feasible. That is how we can cooperate with the government to avoid a shortage of face masks. b. I always keep a small disinfectant spray at hand to disinfect an area I need to touch. c. I avoid touching my face, especially before disinfecting my hands after having been outside. d. In case of visits to public places, I wash my clothes and take a shower at home after attending such spaces.
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Aisha Okatahi Abdullahi is from Nigeria and has been in Korea for over a year. 1. Well, I just got a job offer but haven’t started due to the outbreak. Personally, it’s affected our social life. The kids and I do go out for outdoor activities, but all that’s been on hold due to the epidemic. We’ve been indoors. The kids aren’t going to school anymore and it’s been crazy, but it also gives us time to bond together. 2. I think the Korean government has done pretty well in combating the spread of the virus. The way they disseminate information about ways to protect oneself and all that is commendable. 3. My family back home have been really worried about our safety over here, but we assure them that the government is doing its best in keeping everyone safe. 4. I stay indoors as much as possible. I only go out when it’s pretty necessary, using my face mask of course, washing my hands often, and using hand sanitizer when I enter public transport. Also, I avoid crowded areas when going out with my kids. They’ve been wanting to go out anyway. I sincerely hope that a cure is found sooner than expected, and that the victims are cured with no more deaths. Patrick Michael Whittier is from Georgia in the U.S. He has been in Korea for eight years and will be leaving when his current contract ends in June. He works for the Jeollanam-do Language Program (JLP) in Gokseong County. 1. The coronavirus hasn’t affected any travel plans because I didn’t have any trips planned after the virus made it to Korea. Before I signed my current contract, I negotiated to take my winter vacation early and went to the U.S. in December. I returned to work in January. I haven’t seen a student since December 20, and that makes me sad because I really enjoy working with my students. I haven’t had to cancel any plans, but I also haven’t been able to make any because all my friends have been in self-quarantine. JLP made it so that any of their teachers, regardless of which countries they visited over winter vacation, had to selfquarantine for two weeks upon returning. (I didn’t have to do this because I traveled before the mandate.)
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11 2. I think that Korea’s response is both remarkable and over the top at times. I get no less than four extreme emergency alerts each day, reminding me of things that have already been sent in messages from the previous day. I think that 75 percent of these messages are unnecessary and a waste of the emergency alert system. As for testing and treating, I think they’ve done a fantastic job with that. Another thing I don’t understand is the lack of travel restrictions. This illness is apparently contagious even before symptoms appear, and yet Korea didn’t restrict travel for visitors to Korea. However, when others did so to Korea, they became quite furious. To me, it seems like the government should’ve done more in this area. Lastly, I do see everyone wearing masks, but they’re usually down around their chins. I’ve also seen so many people remove them to spit. I’m worried that a lot of the things that people are doing to appear safe are just that, only for appearances.
4. I’ve been ordering more online and shopping in stores less in order to avoid crowds. I’ve been staying outside of the bigger cities and doing activities (like hiking) in the mountains in order to get out of the house but without increasing my chances of getting sick (from any illness, not just the coronavirus. I don’t want the flu, either). Since I don’t have many more masks, I’m saving the ones I do have for when the students return. Again, it’s not about preventing the coronavirus specifically, but preventing any illness. Before school ended last year, six homeroom teachers were out with the flu. Students come to school even when they’re sick, so it’ll be interesting to see if that behavior changes when the students return.
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4. I have a mindset about going out into public places. I wear a mask as to not touch my face. When I come back inside, I wash my hands immediately. With this mindset, I feel fairly safe. My wife hangs the masks up by a window, and we reuse them each week. But, I don’t know what I’ll do when classes start again. That will feel like being in a public place all the time. Photographs courtesy of the respective interviewees.
The interviewer
William Urbanski, managing editor of the Gwangju News, has an MA in international relations and cultural diplomacy. His preferred appellative is not bro. Instagram: @will_il_gatto
April 2020
1. It was strange timing because I had a bad cold this winter. On the one hand, the school was closed, so I didn’t just work through the illness like I usually do. But I was afraid to go to the hospital. Finally, I went to Chonnam University Hospital. They immediately sent me outside to a makeshift lab to be tested for the coronavirus. The test was negative. I was able to get care at a hospital the
3. My son went to the U.S. this winter and got back before the virus escalated. My family at that time was not concerned at all about the coronavirus. But now my brother is emailing me that his school may be closing and asking about what’s going on. When I told them about my cold, my family thought the hospitals here dealt with it well.
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Brian McClure is from the U.S. and has been in Korea off and on since 1996. He works at an elementary school.
2. I was in China during SARS, and I remember having to get around roadblocks to make it to the airport. Korea’s response is not as drastic as that. I think Koreans are becoming well informed about the virus, and this is working to slow the spread.
FEATURE
3. I haven’t been contacted by anyone back home except my sister, who sent a short email to ask me what I thought about it. I think the media back in the U.S. is doing a pretty good job of making this into an extreme crisis for them, so I guess they don’t have the energy left to worry about anything else right now.
next day. Also, I had to cancel the private lessons that I do in my house.
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Malaysian Architecture A Major Source of Inspiration
FEATURE
Written and photographed by Cami Ismanova
Sri Maha Mariamman Temple: “Gopuram” the gateway decorated with depictions of hundreds of Hindu deities.
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April 2020
“There are 360 degrees. So why stick to one?” — Zaha Hadid
T
he foundation of diverse architecture is a diverse culture. We can truly observe this by visiting Kuala Lumpur, the hub that merges several major cultures into one. The incredible skyline catches your eye immediately after you land in the capital of sunny Malaysia. While walking around the city, you can see dozens of mosques, Hindu and Chinese temples, churches, and postmodern buildings that make you both genuinely inspired and astonished. Since I have fallen victim to the irresistible vibe of Malaysia’s flamboyant and disparate architecture, I would like to share what I have learned about it. I have decided to begin with the biggest fish in the pond: the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world, designed by Argentine architect Cesar Pelli. These twin towers were once the tallest buildings in the world from
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1998 to 2004, but later they were surpassed by Taipei 101. The construction of the towers started in 1993 and finished in 1996. Their official inauguration was held in 1999 by the prime minister of Malaysia. What makes the Petronas Towers so special, besides their obvious height, is their “tube in a tube design,” which was invented by Fazlur Rahman Khan. Moreover, the influence of Islamic art (a reflection of the country’s religion) smoothly interlaces with the postmodern style of the architecture. The height of each tower is exactly 451.9 meters (1483 feet). The buildings are owned by KLCC Holdings and cost 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that South Koreans contributed to the construction of the Petronas Towers. In fact, Samsung Engineering and Construction was employed as the contractor
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Merdeka Square: Every year the Merdeka Parade is held to gloriously celebrate Malaysia’s Independence Day.
for the second tower, while the building of the first tower was supervised by a Japanese corporation. The Petronas Towers serve as office space for many local and international companies in finance, business, banking, law, and other fields. The towers also house the shopping malls Suria KLCC and KLCC Park. I highly recommend hanging out at family-friendly KLCC Park in the
evening when it is cool and the musical fountains are on to entertain you. The night view of the illuminated towers is worth a thousand words. It is spectacular! Another extremely unique architectural feat is the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple located in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. Initially, it was built as a private temple for
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April 2020
Sultan Abdul Samad Building: The cultural heritage of British Colonial, Indo-Saracenic, and Neo-Mughal cultures.
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14 the Pillai family in 1873. Later, in the 1920s, the family opened the doors of the temple to the public. The main deity, Mariamman, is commonly worshipped by Indians abroad, especially by the Tamil people (an ethnic group that constitutes 5.9 percent of the population in India). The deity is believed to protect her worshipers during their journeys to foreign lands. Based on the popularity of the temple, it is fair to say that it is probably the oldest and richest temple in Kuala Lumpur. The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple is a building of Dravidian architecture. This particular style emerged in South India, and it consists of temples with pyramidshaped towers that are constructed of sandstone, soapstone, and granite. I think the most incredible and beautiful part of the temple is the Gopuram, the gateway that towers up to 22.9 meters (75 feet). It was decorated with depictions of Hindu deities by South Indian sculptors. The chief sculptor, the late S. T. Muniappa, is the creator of 228 idols on the Gopuram.
The Textile Museum.
Last but not least are Merdeka Square and all those buildings around it! Yes, it would be a shame to walk through Merdeka Square and not have a look at Sultan Abdul Samad Building or Masjid Jamek.
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April 2020
The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple is incredibly beautiful inside. Especially, its decorated ceilings will impress you, and undoubtedly you will notice its onion dome and gorgeously decorated Gopuram from outside. The temple is full of visitors during Deepavali (The Festival of Lights) and the holy day Thaipusam, when visitors bring milk as an offering to the God of War, Murugan. Admission is free for tourists. It is a must-visit place while you stay in KL, I say.
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Mariamman Temple: Meticulous work by South Indian sculptors is shown in the details of the building.
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15 I would like to emphasize how conveniently the square is located. It is surrounded by so many attractions, such as the Textile Museum, KL Gallery, and several magnificent mosques, yet it is not crowded at all! Since 1957, Dataran Merdeka, or Independence Square, has annually held the Merdeka Parade, calling out all citizens of Kuala Lumpur. The Sultan Abdul Samad Building was built in 1894 as offices for the British colonial administration. It was designed by A. C. Norman, R. A. J. Bidwell, and A. B. Hubback in Indo-Saracenic, Neo-Mughal, and Moorish styles. In 1974, it was named after the reigning Sultan of Selangor, hence the present name of the building. Nowadays, it houses the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia as well as the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. And now, my favorite building: Masjid Jamek, also known as the Jamek Mosque. The mosque is located at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers. It has to main minarets with a white and pink pattern formed of plaster and brick called “blood and bandage.” It majestically stands illuminated by the fluorescent lights of the “River of Life” at night. It creates a fairytale-like atmosphere! During my short stay in Kuala Lumpur, I walked around the mosque a half dozen times for it was a major source of inspiration to me. In conclusion, Kuala Lumpur pleasantly surprised, enchanted, impressed, and inspired me. Whenever and wherever you walk in the city, there is always a place to visit! Regardless of your beliefs and tastes, this city has sights to offer. Like it did with me, its diverse culture and architecture is sure to plant deep roots of inspiration in your mind.
Petronas Twin Towers The Petronas Towers were built on the world’s deepest foundation.
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April 2020
▲
Cami Ismanova is a student at Chonnam National University majoring in economics. She loves writing, listening to jazz, reading non-fiction books, and traveling around. She can be found on Instagram @camidisman
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The Author
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Corona Crisis An American’s Perspective
FEATURE
Written by Tom McGinn
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2020
Photo by Captionery. (Unsplash)
L
et me explain COVID-19 situation from not only my point of view, but along with actual events that are ongoing here in Korea. My point of view is not just mere opinion but based on exposure to daily life here, the news and government alerts through text messages, as well as academic information gathered online. Before I go on, it should be known that this virus can be contained and its prevention rests on the basic fundamentals of personal hygiene and social distancing in terms of human contact. You are your own best line of defense. Once I came to understand that testing is the key to learning just how quickly this COVID-19 is spreading, I changed my outlook. I was not initially that concerned, as it seemed that the quarantine in China of 50 million people had shown a direct ability to control the virus, though the Chinese government is likely under-reporting
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the numbers. But failure to restrict movement and to test people opened up Pandora’s box for the rapid spread of this virus. If you are not testing, you do not know if it is spreading. Just as it is difficult to prove that exposure to nuclear radiation causes a specific cancer, in the same way, it would be just as equally difficult to prove that COVID-19 caused someone’s flu symptoms or death without the requisite testing. Many foreigners here have posted on social media that they want to leave South Korea. Not me. The reason is simple. The government here is all over this thing. The reason there are new cases reported here is due to the fact that they are testing. If you get tested and actually have the COVID-19 virus, the government pays in full for your treatment. The South Korean government has tested over 210,000 people. As of March 12, there are 7,470 active cases here.
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17 Of those cases, sadly, 54 patients are in serious or critical condition. The number of those fully recovered is starting to slowly grow as time passes. This is due to ample time after testing, diagnosis, quarantine, treatment, and release. South Korea (population 51 million) is testing about 10,000 people per day and was working to increase that to 15,000 to 20,000 per day as of February 27. They are installing drive-through test facilities, which minimize hospital pressures and keep potential patients out of the system until they need access. Health authorities on February 27 have also started testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji religious group in Daegu. The timeline is important on this one, which is useful for judging the reactions by some countries versus others. As an American, I feel compelled to call into question the inaction of my own government. I am the first person to attack the failures of the U.S.’s mainstream media. Yet partisans use the media when it is convenient and then call it “fake news” when they disagree with it. Partisans jump in and boast that it is not the government’s job to do this or that, yet that is false. Most U.S. public health laboratories are governmentally run. The U.S. government is also responsible for issuing visas. The government is responsible for who gets on those planes and flies into or out of the U.S. Once COVID-19 became global news in early January, the U.S. did nothing. Inaction in the face of trouble is at best negligence. And do not take my non-partisan word for it.
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Can you now see how the U.S.’s response to COVID-19 is, at best, negligible? When learning of coronavirus spread in China, there were no restrictions or monitoring going on between these two countries. When thinking of this virus, one must think in terms of contact and people moving around – and not just moving around in general but where they are moving to and from. Follow the money. The U.S. political system is all about the money, and President Trump had openly downplayed this virus due to wanting to calm the markets. On February 25, he took to Twitter and said the stock market was good and COVID-19 was under control. His exact tweet that day went as follows: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” He made it political. But before he tweeted this, his own CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) refused test kits from around the world as the CDC and American companies wanted to produce their own. Yet the CDC-produced sets were ineffective to say the least. They were giving false positives from the tests much in the same way the police charge people with drug possession
April 2020
Even with all this going on, the South Korean government still took heavy criticism from the opposition parties for the so-called slow response. Six weeks and three days later our friend Nicholas, who is also living in South Korea, had just traveled to New York. He posted this on Facebook. “March 4 at 4:52 a.m. – JFK Airport didn’t ask me anything when I arrived. No one checking for corona.
Now please consider these facts: The U.S. and China are the world’s biggest business travel spenders. Americans make more than 405 million long-distance business trips per year. This means about 1.1 million people are traveling for business every day in the U.S. The Big Apple – New York City – is the most common business travel destination.
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What is extremely important is how the information about COVID-19 has been available to global health officials. My wife and I were in the remote countryside of Thailand from December 27, 2019, and returned to South Korea on January 19, 2020. I only offer this as I, with very limited Wi-Fi, was able to get news on COVID-19. This was in early January. It was pressing enough that we had to wonder about our flights. We did not overthink it, needed to board those aircraft, and so kept our guard up. Upon arrival on January 19, there were health officials and monitors at the airport. People were being screened. Body heat detectors were placed in multiple areas to detect if someone had flu-like symptoms. Specific countries were targeted. They were simply doing their due diligence as far as the COVID-19 virus was concerned.
The World Health Organization declared on January 30, 2020, that COVID-19 was a global emergency. It was only on January 31 that the U.S. finally took its first measures by restricting some travel from affected areas for inbound travel to the country.
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18 after finding the sugar from a glazed donut in their car. Working hard and very smart? Then over five days, the stock market lost three trillion dollars. Of course, the market was due for a major correction. It was not just COVID-19 or Saudi Arabia pumping oil – it was going to happen regardless. On January 26, 2020, almost one full month before the stock market plunge, an article by Laura Hoy was posted out of Norway on CCN.com titled “History Says a February Stock Market Crash Is Inevitable.”
FEATURE
There you have it. The market was already due for a major correction. Yet what the pundits in the U.S. will try to have you believe is that the COVID-19 issue is what caused the stock market to plummet. President Trump is now scapegoating the Federal Reserve as another reason for the crash. How long will it take President Trump’s administration to declare a national emergency? There were only 57 cases in the U.S. when President Trump said COVID-19 was “under control.” As of March 12, there were 1,339 cases and still growing.
that it is truly “under control”? The U.S. death rate for COVID-19 currently stands at 2.8 percent, but the death rate from closed cases is 71 percent! This virus is real. It is deadly for the elderly. It can be carried by younger people and transmitted to older people who are the most vulnerable. The problem in the U.S. will get worse – and likely much worse. That was a cemented guarantee when the U.S. federal government openly downplayed it. The seriousness was mocked by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives when he wore a protective mask in the House chamber. Two days later, one of his constituents died. The right-wing media is calling this an overreaction, and President Trump even called COVID-19 the “new hoax” from the opposition. Does the context even matter? President Trump is still reluctant to declare an emergency as he now fears it will cause a panic. Yet people are now openly fighting at supermarkets over toilet paper. Panicked yet?
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April 2020
▲ Photo by Markus Spiske. (Unsplash)
Pundits are trying to shield President Trump and his administration. They are also screaming into their bullhorns that the media has created this crisis in the U.S. There is a clear history of media-fueled hysteria in the U.S. However, I find it humorous since it was this same media that created a frenzy back in 2014, right before the midterm elections, and then silenced the Ebola scare when the election was over. Picture Forrest Gump sitting and waiting for the bus: “And just like that, the Ebola virus disappeared from the news.” On March 1, the CDC stopped reporting on the number of Americans tested for COVID-19. Then it updated these numbers and retroactively said that the CDC itself tested 3,516 people before March 1. They conducted thousands of tests but failed to report them to the public? This is President Trump’s moment to declare a national emergency, yet he and his administration openly contradict their very own experts. Do you still think
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South Korea is two full months ahead of the U.S. in their reaction to the virus and is still getting new cases. The U.S. has shown open indifference through apathetic leadership, with a lack of transparency tossed in on the side. The alarm bell has been rung. It is still ringing. It tolls for thee. Many are apparently deaf to its sound.
The Author
Tom McGinn is from Michigan, U.S.A. He has degrees in criminal justice, law enforcement, and history. He spent ten years in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and drill sergeant. His wife, Wip, is from Thailand, and their rescue dog, Tokki, is from Busan. They hike, farm, and help animals and people. Instagram: @ BrutusSpartacusMaximus. Note: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. They are not to be construed as those of the Gwangju News, the Gwangju International Center, or Gwangju City Hall. — Ed.
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CROSSWORD PUZZLE Created by Jon Dunbar
ACROSS
1 COVID-19 2 Berlin-based NGO 3 Picard’s chief engineer 4 Agency fighting 1 Down 5 Purple McDonald’s mascot 6 Korea-based teachers’ group 7 Make ___ of 11Enclaved country within South Africa 12 Type of crossword 13 Gwangju’s nickname (3 words) 16 Historic sites protector 18 One of the 12 Western Zodiac signs 20 Berry used in gin 22 Hyundai Motor exec Chung Euisun’s father (hyphenated) 26 Pillage 27 Shim Hyung-rae’s 2007 movie 28 “Are we there ___?”
April 2020
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DOWN
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1 King’s fortress 4 Korean noodle dish 8 Exclusive 9 Louisa May Alcott’s “___ Women” 10 3 or V 12 World Baseball ___ 14 Hearing organ 15 Choi Ik-wan’s 2005 film 17 Gwangju News writer Mondragon 19 “Alley-___” 20 Goes with Jackson or Inter-planet 22 Cafe Fantasy’s location 23 “___-polloi” 24 Korean Buddhist martial art 25 The last letter in 4 Down 28 Hidden gem space in downtown Gwangju (2 words) 29 University in Iksan 30 Michael Jackson horror song 31 Song Il-gon’s 2004 film “Spider __”?
ARTS & CULTURE
Look for the answers to this crossword puzzle to appear in May in Gwangju News Online (www.gwangjunewsgic.com)
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20 LBlast from the Past
The Traditional “Fragrance of Spring”
I
t is April, and we are in the middle of spring. If you take a walk through one’s of Korea’s beautiful parks, you are sure to smell the flowers. Here in Korea, the term “spring fragrance” (chun-hyang, 춘향 / 春香) has a very special meaning; it is the name of a female figure in one of Korea’s most cherished folktales. Chunhyang is not only a Joseon-era folktale, it has also been adapted to operas, pansori, plays, and movies, and you can find it in almost every Korean folktale collection. It is also a part of the Jeolla (Honam) area culture: The story is set in Namwon, in what is now North Jeolla Province.
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times was Confucianism. It stressed the so-called three bonds and the five moral rules in human relations.It had a strict social stratification made up of four classes: the scholars, farmers, artisans, and tradesmen. The scholar class was monopolized by the yangban (양반, literati). The gisaeng (기생, geisha) belonged to the cheonmin (천민, “vulgar commoners”) class, the lowborn class that included slaves, entertainers, butchers, and shamans. They all received their status through heredity. The gisaeng were female entertainers engaged in singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, and a variety of other activities, both official and private. They were trained in special gisaeng schools, and some even attained high literary fame. (Such social stratification was abolished in 1894 as a result of the Gabo Reforms.) The two lovers involved in this story are often referred to as Korea’s Romeo and Juliet. But unlike Romeo and Juliet, this story has a melodramatic happy-ending. The love story begins at a chance meeting of Yi Mongryong (aka Yi Doryung), the son of a local magistrate, and Seong Chunhyang, the daughter of a retired gisaeng. The scene of their first encounter was at Gwanghallu in Namwon (Jeollabuk-do), a scenic pavilion surrounded by a lotus pond. Mongryong, the hero, fell in love with Chunhyang, the heroine, at first sight, just like Romeo and Juliet. However, the encounter of the young lovers had a tragic element at the beginning of the story in that they came from polar-opposite classes, similar to Romeo and Juliet, who came from feuding families. And like Romeo and Juliet, they decided to marry in secret.
April 2020
blast from the past
It is April, and it is spring in Korea. In this installment of Blast from the Past, we bring you Korea’s most beloved traditional love story, Chunhyang (춘향, literally, “Spring Fragrance”). What follows is a compilation of two earlier articles that appeared in the Gwangju News fourteen years ago but are as relevant today as they were then: “Spring Fragrance” by Sandra Wyrwal, which appeared in our April 2006 issue (para. 1 & last 3) and “The Story of Chunhyang” by Prof. Shin Sang-soon (1922–2011), which appeared in the December 2006 issue of the Gwangju News. The city of Namwon, where the story is set, features a Chunhyang theme park replete with the setting’s pavilion, statues, museum, and even a shrine to Chunhyang. While the folktale is fiction, it very much represents the ethos of the time. — Ed.
Chunhyang Story movie poster,1955. (Korea Film Archive)
The original Story of Chunhyang depicts the romance of two young lovers, both aged 16. The writer is unknown, and the story is presumed to have originated during the reign of Yeongjo, (1724–1775), the 21st monarch of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). The national creed of the
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Their happy days continued off and on until Mongryong had to leave Namwon to accompany his father, who was transferred to Seoul. Being the son of a magistrate, Mongryong pledged that he would study hard in Seoul to pass the gwageo, a civil service exam, and return to fetch his young bride. In Seoul the lovesick young Mongryong was constantly tormented by the image of his beautiful bride and had
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21
Lighted paintings in Chunhyang Museum in Namwon. (koreattrack.com)
possible. His job was to right injustices instigated by local administrators. He disguised himself as a beggar clad in rags and went on his journey outside the capital.
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many sleepless nights. He lost his appetite and became bedridden with illness, whereby two years were wasted. Remembering his firm pledge to his lovely bride, he made up his mind anew to study in a desperate effort to pass the civil service exam. The lovelorn young bride during those two years was tormented by the newly arrived magistrate of Namwon. Upon arriving at his new post, the magistrate proclaimed orders to summon all the gisaeng under his jurisdiction, but none could satisfy him. Someone suggested young Seong Chunhyang. He immediately sent for her. He was stunned by Chunhyang’s beauty but accused her of not responding promptly to his summons. She countered by saying that she was no longer a gisaeng since she was married to a yangban son. The magistrate discounted this as nonsense. At that time, a marriage crossing social classes was taboo. The magistrate continued to charm Chunhyang with honeyed words at first, but then threatened to ruin her life when confronted by her adamant chastity to her husband. Once she boldly asked the magistrate, in front of numerous officials, if he had not learned the precept that a loyal subject never serves two masters, nor a faithful wife two husbands. He was beside himself with indignation and ordered Chunhyang to be tied to the torture board and given resounding lashes across her back. Later she was put into prison where she languished for a lengthy time.
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Jo Mi-ryeong as Chunhyang and Lee Min as Mongryong in 1955 movie Chunhyang Story. (Korea Film Archive)
April 2020
Meanwhile, after intensive study, Mongryong passed the civil service exam with highest distinction and immediately became the king’s favorite. He chose the post of an undercover emissary of the king among other prestigious positions, hoping to meet his bride as soon as
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22
Statue of Chunhyang and Mongryong at Namwon’s Gwanghallu pavilion. (koreattrack.com)
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
On his mission, he heard of his wife’s distress. He rushed to her home, but his mother-in-law did not recognize him in his rags. When she realized who he was, she heaved a deep sigh and lamented her daughter’s plight, pounding the earth with her fists. Coincidently, the following day was the magistrate’s birthday, and there was to be a banquet where Chunhyang was to be dragged out for her final questioning. In the midst of the banquet, a strange beggar presented himself asking for food. Attendants tried to chase him away, but he resisted adamantly demanding a sheet of paper, ink, and a brush. He composed a poem in Chinese characters reading: “The wine in the golden cups is the blood of the people. The tasty morsels are made of the people’s sweat. The candles drip with the people’s tears, and music drowns the people’s moans.” The scholarly officials in attendance immediately got the message, but the magistrate who was engrossed in self-absorption did not. Chunhyang was dragged out of the prison to be tried at the court without knowing of Mongryong’s presence. The “beggar” threw off his rags, revealing himself as the king’s emissary and ordered the
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▲ Poster of 1968 movie, Chunhyang.
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23 arrest of the magistrate. With this, the story ends happily. This story with its happy ending shows how true love should be and that love is not squelched by problems, different social positions, or distance. The main characters are like stereotypes: the rich, highly educated, handsome hero and the poor, intelligent, beautiful heroine. What a couple! Of course, they are both in love and faithful, so they can hold fast against all obstacles. Interesting is that Chunhyang is the person with more power even though it is a man who rescues her. She is independent, maybe not in her love relationship but in her faith, and that is what gives this story such popularity. It is very idealistic, and this is exactly the magic of folktales and fairy tales. We like to hear about perfect couples even if we know that their story is too good to be true. And so few stories show us life with a happy ending. A folktale about a quarreling couple might not be so popular as a tale about true love. People like the romantic, and they like it even more when tragedy is involved. Of course, Romeo and Juliet is one of the most romantic and tragic love stories that we all know. It is not a folktale, but even Shakespeare had his sources. And in this case, one theme is the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid (b. 43 B.C.), a Roman poet, who penned their story. So the tale is much older…
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April 2020
One can see Pyramus and Thisbe as the “grandparents” of Romeo and Juliet. The sad end to this story is a very important part of literature around the world today. You can find the theme of forbidden love in a multitude of movies and TV dramas. Chunhyang and Yi Mongryong, in contrast, can be happy that their storyteller let them live, since it seems to be a rule that when one dies, the partner has to follow as proof of their true love. This is very idealistic, but people do not want to hear about ordinary life, as that is the mundane that they experience every day.
Arranged by David Shaffer
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
In Babylon, Pyramus and Thisbe were lovers, but their families lived in enmity, so the couple could not live together. One day, they decided to run away. Thisbe was the first to arrive at the meeting point, a mulberry bush. Suddenly, she saw a lion and was very scared, so she hid in a cave not far away. As Pyramus arrived, he saw Thisbe’s footprints and the lion, and there was blood everywhere. Pyramus also found her cloak, his gift to her. He thought his only love had died, so he took his sword, Thisbe’s gift to him, and killed himself. At this moment, Thisbe emerged from the cave and found her lover dying. She took his sword and died with him. In memory of this couple, their love, and the misunderstanding, the mulberry bush colored its berries red from their former white.
Interestingly, in these love stories, there are always misunderstandings that can bring the tale to either a happy or a tragic ending. As such, these folktales not only show us how a perfect love could end, they also show that faith in oneself and communication are the most important elements in solving problems. Sadly, if Yi Mongryong had spoken with his father, or Pyramus and Thisbe with their families in a self-assured way, as Chunhyang spoke to the magistrate, then maybe we would not have such popular tales in our cultures. It is good to see that perfect couples are not so perfectly perfect after all.
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24 Lost in Gwangju 24
Fathoming Gwangsan-gu And Its Abandoned Goldmine
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
TRAVEL
Written and photographed by Isaiah Winters
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25
T
he names of Gwangju’s administrative districts are pretty easy to intuit, with each corresponding to a point on a compass: Buk-gu (North District), Nam-gu (South District), Dong-gu (East District), Seogu (West District), and Gwangsan-gu (uh… Central District?). The latter is, of course, a prominent outlier as far as district naming is concerned. So, what does Gwangsan-gu actually mean, and what sets it apart? Embarrassingly, I only recently stopped to consider this after discovering a gaping hole in one of its mountains.
TRAVEL www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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April 2020
The steep incline of Yongjin Mountain’s Seokbong peak.
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26 era, and this made the nearby village of Imgok quite wealthy by the standards of the day. The sign further states that the area around Yongjin Mountain was where Gwangju’s local euibyeong (의병, Righteous Army) was based. Raised in the cause of justice, this army was just one of many manifestations of active resistance to Japanese occupation, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Today, the occupation and mining exploits are long over, but the village of Imgok still remains. Sadly, the only thing that subsequently kept the village on the map – Imgok Station – was closed in 2015.
Entrance to the abandoned goldmine.
Usually, when I think of Gwangsan-gu, I reduce it to its surface-level urban planning, which I’m not overly fond of. Comprised largely of sterile, high-rise apartments, it manages to blend modern, high-density living with poor suburban walkability for a soulless finish. Given this arrangement, it’s essentially built around the preferred mode of transport in North America: the automobile. After having lived in Gwangsan-gu for two years – one with a car and one without – I’ve noticed that the bus rides I used to take downtown felt more like trips to another city. Ultimately, it was just a place to work and sleep, while other districts were where the fun was.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
That perception partly changed once I found myself staring into the abyss before me – a wide open drift mine that quickly turned colder and blacker with every meter. Located a ways up the side of Yongjin Mountain, this former goldmine sits on land still owned by Doosan Group (a large conglomerate) and Sebang Global Battery (a large battery maker), both of which have proudly flanked the local trailhead with signs stating the area is where “One Company, One Mountain Love of Nature” is put into action. Whatever that actually entails is beyond me – I just hope they use protection. At first, I thought the existence of this and other mines in the area explained the meaning of Gwangsan-gu – after all, gwangsan translates to “mine” in English. However, someone far brighter than me with knowledge of hanja (Chinese characters) set me straight: Based on the hanja, the gwang (光, 광) in Gwangsan-gu is the same as the gwang in Gwangju, so the full name actually means “Mountain-of-Light District.” Therefore, it seems that “mine” gwangsan and “mountain of light” gwangsan are just coincidental homonyms. Though not much seems to exist online about the goldmine’s past, another sign at the trailhead mentions that it was quite active during the Japanese occupation
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Contrary to my nature, I haven’t gone inside the goldmine and don’t plan to do so. Entering would require an investment in gear, like rain boots, a raincoat, and a headlamp – and hauling all that up to the mine would draw suspicion from passersby. What’s more, the mine entrance is right next to a rest area with facilities that attract many hikers – and there’s always someone everywhere in Korea, so good luck fitting on a raincoat, headlamp, and pair of boots without drawing attention. Another issue is that the floor is submerged in water with more constantly dripping down from the low, jagged ceiling. What exactly is in that water and what effect it would have on me and my camera are things I don’t want to find out. On top of all this, there are the obvious dangers of getting lost or trapped, not to mention the worst possible outcome of all: horrible-looking flash photography. Eek! Lest you think I’m a saint (or a coward) when it comes to mines, I had my share of subterranean adventures while living in Eastern Europe. The first abandoned mine I entered there was at Roșia Montană in Transylvania, Romania. Closed in 2006, the formerly state-owned goldmine became a source of controversy in 2013 when a Canadian-based mining company by the name of Gabriel Resources sought to resume mining there, which would’ve put the area’s ancient Roman mines at risk and worsened the region’s cyanide pollution. Today the battle rages on, with Gabriel Resources slapping the Romanian government with a $4.4 billion lawsuit and said government working to get the area recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its protection. On my visit to Roșia Montană in 2016, we had arrived too late to tour the Roman mines and so opted for some trespassing instead. Following detonation wire found in the rubble, we noticed that the numerous drift mines had all been blasted in, though not fully enough to prevent us from slipping through cracks in the boulders. Using the evening sunlight’s favorable slant to light our way, we continued walking in until we heard something dripping from above. Earlier, we’d noticed a tailing pond of bright red liquid above that exact mine, so with that in mind, we wisely left before any of it could drip on us. That memory
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27 is just one of many that prevent me from entering the far wetter goldmine in Gwangsan-gu. Of course, the old, abandoned goldmine isn’t the only alluring aspect of Yongjin Mountain, so there’s still reason enough to make the journey out there. Hiking is particularly good in the area, with the twin peaks of Tobong and Seokbong being nice climbs of roughly 300 meters each. Seokbong offers a particularly dramatic view of the surrounding area, as it shoots up almost vertically with nothing around to obstruct the view. Despite the rockiness of its sheer, windswept peak, there’s a little bamboo forest at the top with a trail running through it – a rewarding complement to the excellent view of Gwangju from its Mountain-of-Light District. P.S. A big thanks to Warren Parsons for tipping me off about the goldmine’s whereabouts.
The Author Originally from Southern California, Isaiah Winters is a Gwangju-based urban explorer who enjoys writing about the City of Light’s lesser-known quarters.
▲ A view of Gwangju beside Seokbong’s reed grass.
A deeper view into the abandoned goldmine.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
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28 From Abroad
The Merry Cemetery A Unique Resting Place
TRAVEL
Written and photographed by Melline Galani
The Merry Cemetery. (Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)
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29
M
any people think of cemeteries as gloomy places of mourning, and I agree with them, especially since I used to often go to places like those back home. But, in the small village of Săpânța in northern Romania (Maramureș County), there is a quite unusual cemetery. Rather than a colorless, sad site, this cemetery seems bright and lively, as most of the burial places are decorated with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people laid to rest there as well as scenes from their lives. Legend has it that the cheerful attitude toward death is a custom of the Dacians (Romanians’ ancestors), who believed in eternal life – for them, death was just the transition to another world. They did not see death as a tragic end but as a chance to meet the supreme god Zamolxe (or as a passing to a better life). Therefore, celebrating the lives of the deceased is part of the Romanian tradition, hence the original idea of creating something as unique and colorful as the Merry Cemetery. Stan Ioan Pătraş (a Săpânța villager) founded the Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel in Romanian) in the 1930s. He began creating colorful, crossshaped tombstones and writing epitaphs in 1935 for the village people who had passed away. Now, the cemetery contains over 800 similar grave markers. Each tombstone is painted with a signature blue-colored base, and then detailed with brightly colored lines and patterns. The epitaphs are silly, but the meaningful lyrical poems describe something significant about the people’s lives. The poems are not irreverent and do not mock the grave or its tenant, but some of them do seem somehow indiscreet, telling witty stories of infidelities, indiscretions, and a fondness for alcohol.
▲ Stan Ioan Pătraş Memorial House
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The Merry Cemetery
Here is an English translation of the Romanian inscription on one: Under this heavy cross Lies my poor mother-in-law Three more days should she have lived I would lie, and she would read (this cross). You, who here are passing by Not to wake her up please try For if she comes back home She’ll bite my head off But I will surely behave So, she’ll not return from the grave. Stay here, my dear mother-in-law! Pătraş died in 1977, having carved his own cross and left his house and business to his most talented apprentice, Dumitru Pop. Pop has since spent the last three decades continuing the work and has also turned the house into the Merry Cemetery’s workshop-museum. The wood used to carve the crosses is exclusively oak. After cutting, it is processed and left to dry for 4–5 years. After the oak wood takes the form of the cross, the color known as Săpânța blue is applied, and later the elements of decoration, rhymes, scenes from the deceased’s life, and the reasons for death are added. Other predominant colors are red, yellow, green, and black – colors that perfectly integrate into the symbolism of Maramureș: red for passion; yellow for fertility; green for life; black for death. All the work is done exclusively by hand. A cross could cost $400 – $600, depending on the complexity of the work.
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30 Now a popular tourist attraction, the Merry Cemetery serves as a beautiful way to keep the village of Săpânța alive, transforming it into a notable tourist attraction. Cherished memories of the past are celebrated in this cemetery, providing a link between this world and the next. It feels odd to call a cemetery “merry,” but this one really is. The last time I visited the Merry Cemetery was seven years ago, together with my children, and it is among my favorite places in Romania. I do not think there have been many changes since then, especially in terms of its uniqueness. Even though the epitaphs are written in Romanian, there are also pictures accompanying them, so one might get an idea of the deceased’s life. Being already an important tourist point, the Merry Cemetery has a visitation schedule (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily) and a modest entrance fee of about $2. TRAVEL
For more information in English, please access this website: http://en.sapantamaramures.ro/about/.
Merry Cemetery epitaph of a tenant whose death was caused by alcohol.
Maramureș, the county in which Săpânța village is located, is almost by definition a genuine sanctuary of Romanian spirituality. In this region, the fables, fairy tales, and traditional stories told by the fireplace become reality. I would argue that this area is the most traditional part of Romania, where even today, all the old customs and traditional beliefs are still held dear.
The Author
Melline Galani is a Romanian enthusiast, born and raised in the capital city of Bucharest, who is currently living in Gwangju. She likes new challenges, learning interesting things, and is incurably optimistic. The Merry Cemetery’s church. (Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)
2020�4��(April).indd 30
▲
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
This place reflects one of Romania’s greatest sayings, a face haz de necaz (to make fun of a painful situation), which in translation loses its rhyme and true meaning. The main idea is that if we lose someone close, we comfort ourselves by remembering the good or funny things about the deceased. We try to cherish their memory by celebrating the lives they had lived.
3/27/2020 2:43:06 PM
31
Everyday Korean Episode 28: 영화 (Movies)
By Harsh Kumar Mishra 데지:
Grammar
Daisy:
어제 본 영화가 어땠어요? [Eo-je bon yeong-hwa-ga eot-tae-sseo-yo?] How was the movie you watched yesterday?
~는, 은/ㄴ, 을/ㄹ: These are suffixes that attach to a verb, transforming it into an adjective. 는 gives the verb present-progressive tense, 은/ㄴ past tense, and 을/ㄹ future tense.
먹은 음식: the food (I, you, etc.) ate 갈 곳: the place (I, you, etc.) will go to
Vocabulary
영화 movie 주인공 protagonist 주로 mainly 요즘 nowadays 상영 중 screening/showing (in theaters) 잔잔하다 to be calm 추천하다 to recommend 따뜻하다 to be warm 예고편 trailer/preview 마음에 들다 to like
Vocabulary Terms Related to Movies movie ticket(s) movie theater subtitle(s) science fiction (SF) adaptation (of a novel, story, etc.) horror film(s) director actor/actress
데지:
아 그래요? 주로 어떤 영화를 좋아해요? ? [Aa geu-rae-yo? Juro eot-teon yeong-hwa-reul joa-haeyo?]
Daisy:
Oh, really? What kind of movies do you usually like to watch?
정민:
내가 공상과학 (SF/에스에프) 영화를 좋아해. 너는?
[Nae-ga gong-sang-gwa-hak yeong-hwa-reul joa-hae. Neo-neun?] Jeongmin: I like science fiction movies. What about you?.
데지:
저는 로맨틱 코미디를 좋아해요. 요즘 상영중인 영화 중에서 추천할 만한 영화가 있어요? [Jeo-neun ro-maen-tik komidi-reul joa-haeyo. Yo-jeum sang-yeong-
Daisy:
jung-in yeong-hwa jung-e-seo chu-cheon-hal man-han yeong-hwa-ga is-seo-yo?] I like romantic comedies. Have you got any recommendations for movies showing these days?
정민:
넷플릭스에서 상영중인 ‘결혼 이야기’ 봤어? 잔잔하면서 따뜻한 영화야. [JNetflix-eseo sang-yeong-jung-in ‘gyeor-hon i-yagi’ bwa-sseo? Jan- jan-ha-myeon-seo tta-tteut-an yeong-hwa-ya.]
Jeongmin: Have you seen Marriage Story on Netflix? It’s a heartwarming movie.
데지: Daisy:
아니요, 못 봤어요. 예고편을 보고 마음에 들으면 이번 주말에 볼 거예요. [Aniyo, mot bwa-sseo-yo. Ye-go-pyeo-neul bo-go ma-eum-e deu-reu- myeon i-beon juma-re bol geo-yeyo.] No, I haven’t. I’ll check out the trailer, and if I like it, I’ll watch it this weekend.
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April 2020
TOPIK GUIDE (topikguide.com) is the most comprehensive website devoted to the TOPIK exam. It has been helping Korean language learners pass the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) for more than eight years. On our website, you can get all the TOPIK updates, grammar and vocabulary material, and study tips.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
영화 표 영화관 자막 공상과학 각색 공포영화 영화 감독 영화 배우
볼 만 했어. 내가 좋아하는 주인공이 나와서 더 좋았어.
[Bol man haes-seo. Ne-ga joa-ha-neun ju-in-gon-gi na-wa-seo deo joa-sseo.] Jeongmin: It was worth watching. I liked it even more because my favorite protagonist was in it.
EDUCATION
Ex: 읽는 책: the book (I am, you are, etc.) reading
정민:
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32 Gwangju Abroad
Growing with Montessori
Gwangju Abroad
Written by Yul Kim
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
I
am a very typical Korean, as I spent most of my life in Korea. During my time in Korea, I was not a bad student, but studying was not my strength. I did not know why I had to study, and this problem caused me to have a difficult time, just as it has for so many other Korean students. After I realized the fact that studying was not the purpose of life, I started to have an interest in education – when I was 28. Soon after, I started my master’s degree in the U.S. and studied about Montessori education. This amazing experience naturally led me to a teaching career, and now I am teaching elementary students in the U.S. Here, I will go over some of my impressions of teaching in the U.S. while reflecting on my experience with the Korean educational system as a youth. The school that I work at is based on the Montessori educational philosophy, and there I teach lowerelementary students from the first to third grades. Despite the unique nature of the Montessori philosophy, with mixed-age students (6–9 years old) sharing the same classroom, the negative aspects of this system are surprisingly few. This is because, unlike in Korea, it is not a vertically structured system, ranked according to age. As a result, there are positive outcomes from mixedage student interactions that hierarchically structured systems lack. This is the biggest difference that I feel every day in my classroom.
2020�4��(April).indd 32
The comparatively equal structure of American culture is well integrated in the school – the space where children learn – which enables them to speak up in class. Not only are our Montessori schools encouraging mixed-age classrooms, but all other types of educational institutions in the U.S., including universities, are based on a more horizontally aligned culture. After having been through the Korean educational system as a youth, I can appreciate the different strengths of both systems. Another difference in education that I have experienced is the sheer variety of educational methods that foster creative-thinking skills. Although specific teaching methods and goals exist, they can be adapted and differentiated to match individual student proficiencies, limited only by the teacher’s ingenuity. This may, of course, depend on the guidelines of the school or the educational goals that the state seeks to pursue, but what has been observed in many schools so far is that, at least the Montessori method is strongly reliant on the teacher’s ability. Rather than obtaining data to judge students through the results of different types of tests, it is highly desirable that the observation of students’ activities in real classroom environments becomes a major evaluative measure. Few would challenge that test results are an important resource for measuring students’ understanding and
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33 achievement, but test scores do not represent everything that students do. From a personal point of view, it is quite unreasonable and ridiculous to want children to do everything well. Even adults who have spent much more time learning and experiencing are not perfect, so how can they expect children to be perfect? In her book, Maria Montessori states, “The child’s mind is not the type of mind we adults possess. If we call our type of mind the conscious type, that of the child is an unconscious mind. Now, an unconscious mind does not mean an inferior mind. An unconscious mind can be full of intelligence.” Rational thinking and logic can be acquired through the process of trial and error or the process of life learning. However, emotional thinking and self-awareness should be introduced through communication and sharing, not through studying alone.
There are different kinds of education in different countries around the world, and so it is within the United States. This article is written from the viewpoint of someone who has experienced both the United States’ and Korea’s education systems and is not meant to suggest educational superiority of either country. Each country’s method of education is built on its history and cultural background, and neither is ultimately superior or inferior to others. However, if a teacher has a chance to guide students in a better direction or toward a brighter future, I think it is a good idea to keep in mind the potential for further development using different methods. Resource
Montessori, M., & Claremont, C. A. (1969). The absorbent mind. New York, NY: Dell.
THE AUTHOR Yul Kim is originally from Gwangju and currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a Montessori Elementary teacher who believes education can change the world.
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The Gwangju International Center (GIC) is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to promote cultural understanding and to build a better community among Koreans and international residents. By being a member, you can help support our mission and make things happen! Join us today and receive exciting benefits! • One-year free subscription and delivery of the Gwangju News magazine. • Free use of the GIC library. • Free interpretation and counseling services from the GIC. • Discounts on programs and events held by the GIC. • Up-to-date information on GIC events through our email newsletter. Annual Membership Fee: General: 40,000 won; Student: 20,000 won; Group: 20,000 won (min. 10 persons). Inquiry: member@gic.or.kr / 062-226-2733
FOOD & DRINKS
Teachers and adults are supposed to teach children how to express their emotions so that they can be fully aware of their minds and understand themselves. Especially, we aim to teach them how to express their negative emotions to lower their stress and help them develop a positive outlook. As a person who never went through this process at all, I did not have the opportunity to face my emotions directly in my childhood. I believe that this has been a huge loss in my life, as well as in terms of expressing my emotions.
Support the GIC! Be a Member!
Send the Gwangju News to your loved ones back home! The Gwangju News has been serving the community since 2001 by delivering news and information to the international communities of Gwangju. Send the Gwangju News to your family and friends back home, and let them know about Gwangju! Annual Subcription Rates: • Asia and Australia: 40,000 won (US $40) • Europe: 50,000 won (US $50) • America, Africa: 60,000 won (US $60) Payment can be made through bank transfer, cash, or Paypal. Bank Transfer: Kwangju Bank (사)광주국제교류센터: 134-107-000999 Paypal: gic@gic.or.kr Inquiry: gwangjunews@gic.or.kr or 062-226-2733
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34 Product Review
Mask Envy
PRODUCT REVIEW
Review by William Urbanski
F
or many years, I thought this whole idea of wearing disposable masks to protect against germs or air pollution was silly. Recently, however, due to a set of unforeseen circumstances, including an injury to my countenance, I was forced to accept that donning a mask for a few weeks was in my best interest. During this time, I noticed a strange phenomenon: A lot of the kids I taught had masks that looked better and were more stylish than mine. This case of “mask envy” not only made me realize I should stop comparing my accessory choices to those of ten-year-olds but also got me wondering about the intrinsic differences between masks. So, over a couple of weeks, I tried out a number of disposable masks and compared them across four metrics in an effort to answer the age-old question: Are all masks created equal?
The Ninja Mask
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
At the low, low price of nine for 2,000 won, these black masks were overall not bad, but the place where the
2020�4��(April).indd 34
mask met the elastic ear bands was not fused together very smoothly. This very small area stuck out and rubbed my face in the exact spot where I had just gotten stitches removed. What I ended up having to do was to glue a piece of cotton on the inside, which greatly improved the comfort but was still a bit of an inconvenience. One might even say I traded a pain in the face for a pain in the neck. Pros: Great price, ninja-inspired style. Con: Rubs against face.
The Big Grey
Playing right into the hands of coronavirus paranoia, I decided to break out the heavy-duty gear. This tank of a mask would stop any germ that was not attached to a bullet, though just barely. Pros: Best build quality, tight fit. Cons: Condensation builds up, not ideal for jobs that require talking, kind of expensive.
Kitchen Towel with Elastic Bands
Tired of paying outrageous pharmacy prices and imbued with the DIY spirit, I decided to take matters into my own hands. All it took to put this bad boy together was a few common household items and 30 seconds of my time. The fit was surprisingly snug, and I feel that with a little work and design innovations involving a pair of scissors, it could be extremely comfortable. The other advantage of making your own mask is that you could draw cool pictures on it. Also, if you were going somewhere really crowded, you could add a few more layers of paper towels to keep yourself safe, I suppose. Pros: Rock-bottom price, fully customizable. Con: Makes wife question decision to marry a foreigner.
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35
The Great White
At eleven masks for 2,500 won, this was a low-cost leader and probably my favorite. It had three plies and ear bands that were comfortably fused into place. Not unlike an accordion, this mask could be spread out vertically to cover more or less of the face. Breathability was a huge plus for the Great White, and it was the only one I felt comfortable wearing to the gym and working out in. And of course, wearing it all day at work was no problem with absolutely no condensation build up. Pros: Fantastic price, good build quality, and lightweight. Cons: Does not create a “seal” around your maw like some of the high-end masks; the color white is just so 2019.
This is the granddaddy of them all and a status symbol of the bourgeoisie. The ultimate in luxury, it is highly coveted and can sometimes be hard to find. Apparently, these are so popular that unscrupulous hustlers have actually been making imitations and selling them on the black market. Now, normally I would never drop my hard-earned coin on a product so blatantly designed and marketed to perpetuate conspicuous consumption, but it just so happened that my wife, who works in nursing education, was gifted a few. Compared to the other masks, this had a much sturdier feel but without the thickness of the Big Grey. The closest thing I would compare the shape to is the oxygen mask that drops down when a plane loses cabin pressure. And, to be fair, the sense of urgency one would experience while putting on an oxygen mask is probably the emotional response that the manufacturers were trying to trigger in desperate, coronavirus-fearing consumers.
Pro: Gives others mask envy. Con: Four-thousand won a pop.
2020�4��(April).indd 35
Graphics by William Urbanski
The Author
William Urbanski, managing editor of the Gwangju News, has an MA in international relations and cultural diplomacy. His preferred appelative is not bro. Instagram: @will_il_gatto
April 2020
So which mask is best? To answer this, consider the following idea: quality is not an all-or-nothing proposition. People too often get fixated on getting something of the highest quality because they are special little snowflakes whose needs are so particular that they require nothing but the best. The problem with going for “top quality” products is that once something meets
There is a lot of mask hype and mask fear-mongering going on lately. Certain keyboard warriors who hold advanced Googleology degrees from Facebook University would have you believe that certain types of masks (read: the most expensive ones) are the only ones that actually protect against germs and that simple and cheap masks are ineffective. Such blithering and unsubstantiated notions have zero basis in scientific fact or reality. It is up to you, as responsible and productive members of society, to cut through the ubiquitous mask misinformation and have the audacity to dream of a world where all those who wear masks, regardless of price and perceived quality, are treated as equals.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
This was not the most comfortable mask, mainly due to the bulging-out shape that resembled some kind of dog muzzle. While not heavy per se, it lacked the lightweight feel of the Great White and the tight fit came with the tradeoff of not being adjustable along the y-axis.
PRODUCT REVIEW
The NW94
a reasonable standard, incremental improvements that make a product one or two percent better actually do not really change jack squat but certainly boost up the price. The NW94 is good, but keep in mind that it is more than 20 times as expensive as other masks that do pretty much the same thing. Is the NW94 twenty times better than the Ninja Mask or the Great White? Not by a long shot. The point I am trying to make here is that while people may think that they deserve premium quality, what they really need is something of appropriate quality. So, the Great White gets my vote as the best of the bunch. Also, while a person may be tempted to reuse an expensive mask many times, the Great White also has the advantage of being disposable without a second thought, which from my understanding, is how these things are supposed to be used anyway.
3/27/2020 2:43:08 PM
FOOD & DRINKS
36 Restaurant Review
Hello L
Hello L
Character Macaron Specialist Reviewed and photographed by Melline Galani
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
L
iving in Gwangju for almost three years now, I must say I am familiar with many coffeeshops in the city. I have also tried diverse desserts, especially macarons, and drunk many gallons of cappuccinos, coffees, caramel macchiatos, and so on. I think I have become somewhat picky in choosing desserts and coffee. Therefore, recommending a place to eat or drink is not that easy anymore. I first discovered Hello L through their Instagram account. I was searching for a coffeeshop in Seoul but discovered a better one in Gwangju. Seeing from their posts a variety of colorful macarons in cartoon shapes, I thought it was the perfect place to bring my children. We went there on a warm, sunny day and discovered a cozy place in relaxing colors (predominantly yellow tones). Luckily, it was not crowded, so we were able to choose the best spot near the window with a comfy sofa. They had a wide offer of macarons, each one cuter than the next,
2020�4��(April).indd 36
so choosing was a really hard thing to do. Eventually, we decided on a mango smoothie and character macarons with coffee filling, Oreo filling, strawberry, and vanilla cream. Both the beverage and the macarons were really nice; the mango smoothie was not sweet but refreshing – perfect for a hot summer day – while the macarons were tasty with soft delicious cream. The outer shells of the airy meringue sandwiches were smooth and crisp, and on the inside, the abundant fillings were a variety of fluffy creams. While the taste of the macarons was good, they were not the very best that I have had. We loved the fact that they came in a variety of flavors and characters to choose from. My kids decided upon Doraemon, Rilakkuma, Snoopy, and Crayon Shincan’s baby sister. Hello L also sell cakes, brownies, scones, and other desserts. For those interested in baking or just making their own funny macaron characters or cookies, this coffeeshop
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37
Hello L inside view.
Mango smoothie and character macarons.
offers baking lessons (the schedule and themes are posted on their blog). These are also provided at the coffeeshop, in a separate room with a wide window so customers can watch the progress of the lesson. I think it would be a very interesting experience, especially for children, to make their own favorite desserts. More information about the prices, operating hours, and reservations can be found at their Instagram account. Be forewarned that the prices are a bit expensive: macarons are listed at 2,800–3,300 won a piece, while beverages start from 3,000 won. Still, I think it is worth visiting at least once. The coffeeshop is very close to 5.18 Memorial Park in the Sangmu district, so a walk in the park is more than welcomed after a nice dessert.
Address: 3-22 Sangmuminju-ro 32-beon-gil (Sangmu-1dong), Seo-gu, Gwangju 광주광역시 서구 (상무1동) 상무민주로32번길 3-22 Instagram: @hellol_official
FOOD & DRINKS
Hello L (헬로우엘)
The Author
Melline Galani is a Romanian enthusiast, born and raised in the capital city of Bucharest, who is currently living in Gwangju. She likes new challenges, learning interesting things, and is incurably optimistic.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Sweets on display at Hello L.
April 2020
2020�4��(April).indd 37
3/27/2020 2:43:10 PM
38
Ethical Fashion vs. Fast Fashion
FASHION
Which Korean Brands Are Eco-Friendly?
All photos of RE;CODE at the 2018 Gwangju Biennale: “This Is Not Just Fashion.” (recode.com)
Written and photographed by Cami Ismanova
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
H
ands up if you like to go shopping more than four times per year. Wait, maybe it is even more frequently. Shopping is a form of therapy that draws friends closer and alleviates stress levels. But is it as healthy and relaxing as we think it is? Ladies (and maybe gentlemen), we know that sometimes we can get slightly obsessed with it. How many times do you stand in front of a mirror in a shop, holding a blouse in each hand, feeling unsure which one to choose, when in fact all you went to the store to buy was turmeric powder? Been there, done that! We all want those gorgeous one-pieces even though we have thirteen hanging in the closet. Heels, too, we want to buy but will never wear because, let’s admit it, there is a high chance that our feet might fall off while wearing them. Fast fashion encourages large retailers like Zara and H&M to reduce the time between producing and selling clothing to every four to six weeks, and to invest more and more in visual merchandising, to turn us into brainwashed moths flying directly into the flame. How did this trend of fast fashion even emerge? In 1980, mass-market retailers developed a “quick response” concept based on trends from the catwalk. The main objective was to deliver a designer product to a mass market at a relatively low price in a relatively short time.
2020�4��(April).indd 38
If Fashion Weeks are held four times a year worldwide, then the market-based, quick-response strategy should provide new collections at least 1–2 months later. There are several brands that ride on the wave of fast fashion. I am sure you have heard of or bought from Zara, H&M, Topshop, C&A, and Peacocks. Zara, the Spanish massmarket retailer, is a role model for this continuous seasonal production. Like any other mass-market retailer, Zara’s strategy consists of several crucial aspects: visual merchandising, market timing, cost, and buying cycles. According to research, 75 percent of shopping decisions are made in front of the item in three seconds. This fact proves how successful investments in the visual merchandise of the aforementioned brands are. How big is the market? Well, the revenue in Korea is expected to be $18.8 million in 2020 alone, with the largest segment being women’s apparel. Growth is expected to increase by 2.8 percent annually. A basic rule of economics states that there might be nothing wrong with fast fashion. The more we produce, the more we consume, the better our living standard. Yes, maybe in some alternative reality, it is a totally harmless philosophy. But in our reality, fast fashion has a long list of negatives that include water pollution, the decay of synthetic fabrics, child labor, and poor working conditions in developing countries. As a result, we witness tragic events such as the collapse of the Savar building, a garment factory in Bangladesh, with a death
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39
▲ RE;CODE’s Spring–Summer 2020 Collection. (recode.com)
toll of 1,134 in 2013. How can we slow this phenomenon down? Two words: slow fashion! Slow fashion is a form of ethical, sustainable fashion where you make conscious shopping decisions. How does it work? Firstly, quality over everything! This trumps quantity, price, and lack of self-discipline. Slow fashion advocates the purchase of high-quality clothing items that will last for years. It is, therefore, a good financial decision. Secondly, try to buy products that are eco-friendly. Nowadays, a group of Korean designers is following a “green” path in its attempts to slow down K-fashion trends by creating a slow-fashion collection called Wear Grey.
Another Korean vegan fashion brand is Not Ours, which uses alternative fabrics instead of leather, fur, and silk. The founder of the brand, Park Jin-young, has said, “This is the brand we started because we needed it ourselves.” Not Ours remains one of the few vegan brands in Korea. Last but not least, remember alternatives like secondhand shops and recycled clothing. It will be more environmentally friendly if you donate items of clothing that you no longer wear so that they can be reused. You can always participate in the GIC Freecycle to do just that. To conclude, it is, of course, a personal choice of individuals whether they want to go out of their comfort zones and explore more eco-friendly ways of shopping. It may be challenging to start, especially when the number of “green” brands in Korea is limited. However, it might be the right time to take the first step towards ethical sustainable fashion. As Anne Lappe once said, “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”
The Author
2020�4��(April).indd 39
April 2020
The collapse of the Savar garment building, Bangladesh, 2013. (Wikipedia.org)
Cami Ismanova is a student at Chonnam National University majoring in economics. She loves writing, listening to jazz, reading non-fiction books, and traveling around. She can be found on Instagram @camidisman
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
Another brand that is worth attention is RE;CODE, the leading sustainable fashion brand in Korea. The RE;CODE slogan is “This Is Not Just Fashion,” and the brand supports this slogan by using innovative methods like upcycling deadstock for new use.
RE;CODE’s Spring–Summer 2020 Collection. (recode.com)
3/27/2020 2:43:13 PM
40 Language Teaching
Teacher Training at JIEI The Jeollanamdo International English Institute Interview by Dr. David E. Shaffer
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
EDUCATION
In this issue of the Gwangju News, we have decided to interview two members of the GwangjuJeonnam Chapter of KOTESOL who are teacher trainers at the Jeollanamdo International Education Institute (JIEI). The JIEI is a government-funded training center in Yeosu serving the entire province and is now in its second year of operation. Kristy Dolson and Peter Lucarotti graciously agreed to this interview to tell us about JIEI and their teacher-training experiences there.
Gwangju News (GN): I’d like to first thank you both for so happily agreeing to do this interview. Could you start by giving us a bit of information about your lives before Korea? Kristy: It’s an honor to be interviewed by the Gwangju News, thank you for the opportunity. Korea has really shaped who I am and how I think of myself as a person and as a teacher, so I think it’s safe to say that I had no life before Korea. Peter: Thank you for reaching out to us for an interview. I’ve been in Korea for a while now, so it’s honestly a bit difficult to think about what I was doing before moving here. I’m originally from the east coast of Canada and moved out west to pursue a career in journalism. That didn’t work out, and Korea allowed me to move my life in a different direction. I’m incredibly grateful for that opportunity. GN: What brought you to Korea, and what did you do before joining the teaching staff at the Jeollanamdo International Education Institute (JIEI)? Kristy: I figured out in middle school that I wanted to live in Asia, and teaching English overseas seemed like the best way to attain that goal, so I attended Brock University’s Concurrent Education program to test my passion for teaching. After graduating with my Bachelor of Education in 2011, I applied to the Jeollanamdo Language Program (JLP). I taught for five years in the Foreign Language Center of Hwasun Elementary School, which turned out to be a perfect training ground for teaching EFL and
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provided enough downtime to allow for the pursuit of my personal and professional goals. Peter: Honestly, I never had any intention of living abroad. I moved to British Columbia to study journalism and began working as a sports writer at a daily newspaper. Unfortunately, I got into that business just as the 2008 recession hit and that whole industry went through really tough times. I was lucky to keep my job, but the hours were insane. It reached a point where it was obvious that I couldn’t keep going. Korea offered me a chance to reassess what I wanted to do. I had friends in Beolgyo who spoke highly of the JLP program. I was placed in Boseong at the Girls’ Middle School. I taught there for seven years before taking time off to study Korean and spend some time with family back home. I started at JIEI the following summer (in 2018). GN: Why did you decide to move from teaching English learners to training English teachers? Kristy: To be honest, when I left the Foreign Language Center [in Hwasun], I thought my EFL journey in Korea was over. I figured I’d gone just about as far as someone who wasn’t inclined to get a master’s could go. And then, while I was back in Canada trying to figure out my next step, a colleague reached out and suggested I apply for the position at the Jeollanamdo Education Training Institute (the pre-cursor to JIEI) that she would soon be leaving. It was the job of my dreams! So it wasn’t so much
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41
Kristy and Peter planning out activities for the upcoming camp program at JIEI. The institute hosts 20 three-day camps over the course of the school year.
a conscious decision as a well-timed opportunity. Peter: It was a well-timed opportunity for me as well. I was going through the process of getting hired through EPIK when I saw the posting for the JIEI positions on Facebook. It seemed like a step up on what I had been doing and, after teaching mostly by myself for seven years, it was a chance for me to be a part of a team with other teachers, and that appealed to me. GN: Where do the teachers come from that you train at JIEI? Kristy: The Korean English teachers (KETs) come from all over the province of South Jeolla and the native English teachers (NETs) come from the major English-speaking countries of South Africa, USA, Canada, England, and Australia/New Zealand.
In my experience, another difference is that the Korean English teachers usually have more constraints placed on them by the school curriculum and what they have to teach. There have been times where I’ve thrown out an idea for a lesson or suggested some educational technology to try, and I was either told directly in class or pulled aside afterwards (always kindly, of course) and told why it wouldn’t work in the context of a Korean classroom. It’s actually been a great eye-opener for me. I think it can be easy to make incorrect assumptions given some of the criticisms a lot of expats have about the
April 2020
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GN: I know that it’s difficult to make generalizations, but what would you say are some of the biggest differences in training Korean English teachers and expat English teachers? Peter: Despite having some PD meetings and orientation presentations, we don’t do a ton of teacher training with expats. With that being said, however, I haven’t found there to be much of a difference. Most of the teachers that I’ve worked with, whether Korean or expat, have been receptive to new ideas and teaching methodology. The biggest difference has been in the level being taught (elementary, middle, high school), or the age of the teacher, as I’ve found that older teachers tend to have a harder time with educational technology.
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GN: What kind of training programs does JIEI offer and how long are the training programs? Kristy: We offer a lot of different training programs. Our biggest – and best, in my humble opinion as head teacher – is the six-month Intensive English Program for KETs. Secondary KETs come from all over the province to immerse themselves in English language study and practice, while also learning about new teaching methodologies with the goal of taking them back to their schools when they complete the program. Throughout the year, we also run three- to five-day English workshops for primary and secondary KETs, principals and vice principals, and administrative staff. Our team of native instructors is also largely responsible for giving presentations and watching teaching demos during the JLP and TaLK orientations.
Peter: Kristy and I have also given presentations at the first two professional development meetings that were held for re-signing NETs in the JLP program. The teacher trainers here also alternate teaching an eight-week course to any Yeosu citizens interested in learning English. The JLP and TaLK coordinators also play a big role in that.
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42 Korean educational system. But, a lot of Korean teachers have those same criticisms and are trying their best to engage and educate students within that system.
been taught. I try my best to give the teachers at JIEI writing activities that are engaging and fun regardless of age. It’s always great to see teachers have fun with a writing activity, especially when they produce something that’s so good they even surprise themselves! GN: Which area or areas of English skills or teaching methodology do you feel that your trainees are most in need of improving? Kristy: As the micro-teaching instructor, my biggest focus is giving simple and clear instructions for activities that have a big language payoff. I spend a lot of time working with the trainees on simplifying their language and analyzing textbook activities in terms of engagement and of setup versus payoff. If teachers reflect on these two areas, they can see a lot of improvement in their classes.
EDUCATION
Peter: I think there’s room for improvement in how writing activities are approached. I like to show trainees how they can scaffold writing activities from word to sentence and, finally, to paragraph level to help students reach their learning objectives. Also, I like to show how things like visual supports in activities such as a picture walk activity can help give students the boost they need to produce fun, and more importantly, coherent stories.
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April 2020
Kristy brewing up pumpkin chai lattes for Halloween Culture Night at JIEI.
GN: We often talk about “magical moments” that occur in the EFL classroom. Have you had similar moments during teacher training classes? Kristy: The moment when KETs realize they don’t need to provide constant verbal English input to their students. This is called “running commentary,” and it occurs all the time in EFL classes. The teacher narrates the class by verbalizing everything he, she, or the students are doing. This is simply not necessary because it’s overwhelming for language learners. They need time to think in silence. But most teachers are very uncomfortable with silence in the classroom – especially a language classroom – so this takes a while to sink in. But when it does, it’s a real magical moment. Peter: I teach writing and educational technology. Trainees tend to love the latter but overwhelmingly list the former as their least favorite thing to teach and as something they hated in their own language learning. Writing is important though: It gives students time to think and really use the grammar and vocabulary they’ve
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GN: How receptive are your teacher trainees to being taught? Is there a sense among them of “I’m a teacher, I don’t need training”? Kristy: There have been a few cases of that, certainly. But for the most part, the KETs who apply to our program are highly motivated to improve themselves and help their students achieve success. Peter: Yes, I agree with Kristy. GN: What’s the most difficult part about doing inservice training, and are you glad that you made the move from teaching EFL? Kristy: Like I said earlier, teacher training is my dream job, so it’s really tough to identify “the most difficult part” without veering into “petty complaints” territory. I guess
Kristy and Peter introducing KOTESOL to new NETs during the most recent orientation at JIEI. Kristy presented on questioning strategies and simple activities, while Peter taught an introductory Korean class.
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43 I’d have to say how critical it is for me to stay up to date on the latest research, methodology, and technology for education. Keeping current with education trends so that I can better serve the KETs and NETs who attend our programs can seem like an impossible task on days when I’m struggling to just clear all the basic responsibilities from my plate. Peter: I’m glad I made the move over to teacher training. It’s been a challenge, and I feel I’m a better educator as a result. I do want to get back into the EFL classroom, however. Both have their pros and cons, but – despite the classroom management issues that can arise – I miss seeing students have that ah-ha moment when they really get something they didn’t understand before.
I really want to thank you and the people of KOTESOL for creating and maintaining that community of “teachers helping teachers.”
GN: And I thank both of you for the wealth of information you have provided about teaching teachers and about the JIEI programs. It sounds like teaching and taking courses at JIEI are both highly rewarding experiences.
EDUCATION
Peter: Getting to the monthly KOTESOL meetings prevents me from getting apathetic about my professional development. There’s such a wide variety of subject matter in the presentations that I’m constantly being challenged in different ways. Even the smaller presentations like “swap-shop,” where people quickly share ideas and activities, have been hugely beneficial. It’s been a great networking tool as well, as you’re surrounded by experienced educators every time you go. Finally, being a part of the local chapter has helped motivate me to get to the national and international conferences as well, which have been fantastic for a number of reasons. I’m grateful to be a part of the KOTESOL community. It has helped me immeasurable in the nearly two years I’ve been a member. It’s something that I can’t recommend strongly enough to other teachers here. Thank you for reaching out to us and giving us the opportunity to talk about this with others!
GWANGJU-JEONNAM KOTESOL UPCOMING EVENTS Check the chapter’s webpages and Facebook group periodically for updates on chapter events and online activities.
GN: As you are both active members of KOTESOL, I would like to ask how being a member might have impacted you and your teaching?
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David Shaffer has been a resident of Gwangju and professor at Chosun University for many years. He has been with KOTESOL since its early days and is a past president of the organization. At present, as vice-president of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of KOTESOL, he invites you to participate in the teacher development workshops at their monthly meetings. Dr. Shaffer is presently the chairman of the board at the Gwangju International Center as well as editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News.
April 2020
Kristy: Luckily, as an active member of KOTESOL, I can take a lot of that work and responsibility off my shoulders by attending the monthly meetings in Gwangju. I joined KOTESOL in 2013, and being a member has brought immense benefits to my personal and professional life. Not only have I grown my support and resource networks, but it’s also given me multiple opportunities to share my experiences and expertise, allowing me to really grow into the career EFL teacher that I am today.
The interviewer
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Peter Lucarotti in his writing and educational technology classroom at JIEI.
For full event details: Website: http://koreatesol.org/gwangju Facebook: Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL
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Opinion
I Ain’t Your “Bro” Written by William Urbanski All the “bros” and “holla-back” girls gotta know that “incentivizing” the following words is “unacceptable.”
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April 2020
OPINION
very year, Webster’s Dictionary includes a few new words, officially recognizing them as part of the English language. Some of these, like buzzy or gig economy, make quite a bit a sense, while others such as gocup are just ridiculous. The bookworms over at Webster’s seem to have forgotten the first half of the old adage “out with the old and in with the new,” which means it is up to me to propose my picks for words and terms that are so misused and overused that they should forever be struck down from the English language and the common consciousness. Bro – There exists considerable confusion and, quite frankly, willful blindness surrounding the appropriate context in which to use this word. Derived from the word “brother,” it is often and ineffectively used in an attempt to make one’s English sound more colloquial. Bro is a quite questionable word for anyone to use, but it is especially problematic for EFL speakers for a number of reasons. First of all, it is one of the more context-dependent words that I am aware of. Generally, when used between native speakers, there is an understanding that its use is purposefully ironic, harkening back to one summer in the 1980s when the word was part of the common vernacular. Second, bro is a clear example of a word belonging to a sociolect; that is, it identifies an individual as a member of a certain group. Are most EFL learners seventeen-yearold surfers from California? I do not think so. Last and most importantly, bro implies a very high level of social familiarity, which causes further problems for speakers of languages like Korean (and many European languages, for that matter) where things like social status and age are coded into language use. So, how could a non-native speaker reasonably be expected to deduce if he is socially close enough to someone to warrant calling him bro?
In conclusion, if you see me on the street, please remember that I ain’t your “bro.” Incentivize – I feel conflicted about this word because it actually sounds pretty cool. As well, I used to employ this word on occasion before reading the book What Money Can’t Buy by Michael J. Sandel. Sandel explains that the problem with incentivize is that it is actually an economic term that has been misappropriated into other spheres of life. The word has a rich and storied history dating back to the earliest works of Maynard Keynes, the father of modern-day economics, in the 1950s, from which point its usage has only increased. In economic terms, an incentive is a reward (usually financial) that promotes a certain behavior. In essence, it means that the more you pay someone, they more they will work. Here is an example: Let’s suppose a person gets 500 won for each piece of gum they scrape off the sidewalk. If one day the payment goes up to 5000 won per piece, it is reasonable to expect that more people will be willing to perform this unfulfilling job. On the surface, this idea makes a lot of sense, and one could be forgiven for assuming that paying people will result in more people performing any activity or unpleasant task. Alas, this is where economic theory diverges from reality. In What Money Can’t Buy, Sandel explains how Switzerland, which heavily relies on nuclear power, needed a place to store nuclear waste. Naturally, few people would welcome a nuclear waste site in their neighborhood, yet the residents of certain suitable areas were willing to accept the sites as part of their civic duty. After all, they and all their fellow countrymen were the beneficiaries of nuclear power.
To be fair, I am not completely opposed to the locution itself, as long as it is used as a prefix and not a standalone word. Bromance? Fine. Are you a scientist conducting an experiment using bromide? Fair game. Do you like movies starting Josh Brolin? Me, too. But for crying out loud, please stop calling me “bro” the second time we have met. “Bud,” “buddy,” “homeslice,” and “man”: These are all viable and perfectly innocuous alternatives to the term “bro.”
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45 Economists, who wanted to study the impact of financial incentives on the number of people welcoming the sites, spoke to these residents. Even when offered substantial amounts of money, the number of people willing to accept the sites actually decreased! This happened because there are certain things we, as members of society, do because they are either societal norms or they are just the right things to do. Nobody pays us to do these things, but if someone did, it would “crowd out” our sense of civic responsibility and result in us doing them less, not more. As well, countless experiments have shown that paying people to lose weight, stop smoking, or read more books is effective at the start, but as soon as the payments stop, people revert to their old behaviors. In this sense, certain activities are immune and even resistant to rewards!
you can “shout out” and “give mad props” to your HBGs, you sound ridiculous. Please just stop using this term. So those are my choices of words that have not stood the test of time and need to be summarily eschewed from the English language. There are a few other words that I think push the limits of uselessness, such as proactive and inappropriate, but that is an issue for another article. Until then, I would like to leave you with a quote from Mr. Mark Twain: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
OPINION
Most people are probably unaware of the denotation and increasingly complex connotations of the word “incentivize,” so here is a little trick to help you remember: Just do not use it. Unacceptable – This word has just gotta go. No other word in the English language reeks of self-aggrandizing arrogance as this one. To even utter this nonsense, mishmash of letters when referring to someone’s behavior is a clear sign of stupidity. When someone says that something is “unacceptable,” it is clear that he or she has no linguistic aptitude or the ability to parse even the simplest of ideas or concepts. Using this judgemental and emotionally charged word requires two erroneous presuppositions: First, that the speaker is in a superior enough position to make a condemnation; and second, that others care what he or she thinks.
The other thing that drives me absolutely up the wall with this word is that it sounds so stuffy and makes the speaker sound so self-important when there are so many awesome-sounding alternatives: horrendous, atrocious, gnarly, egregious, and lousy, just to name a few. Even the very formal and technical-sounding suboptimal spares the speaker from sounding like a sanctimonious harridan.
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Graphics by William Urbanski
The Author
William Urbanski, managing editor of the Gwangju News, has an MA in international relations and cultural diplomacy. His preferred appellative is not bro. Instagram: @will_il_gatto
April 2020
Holla-Back Girl (HBG) – The female equivalent of bro has all the stigma of its male counterpart with none of the concision. When all you ladies out there are “raising the roof ” at the club and grab the DJ’s microphone so that
The term “Holla-Back Girl” (HBG) has its genesis in the unfortunate musical exploits of the early 2000s. The above picture shows a HBG in her traditional regalia.
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The only fathomable correct usage of this terrible word is when it refers to an object that does not fit into a physical space. If by some cruel twist of fate, this word were to remain in the English language, an imagined proper use of the term would be along the lines of “The can was too big to fit into the trash receptacle. The can was unacceptable.”
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www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
ARTS & CULTURE
46 Photo Essay
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Spectrums Written and photographed by Johan Kim
The photographer
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April 2020
Johan Kim’s photographic journey began in the land of the long, white cloud, New Zealand. The world is a bizarre place, and he seeks to present a frame of mind through the viewfinder by documenting his lifestyle and his surroundings. Based in Gwangju, he is currently fulfilling his Korean military service.
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T
here exists an essence in all spectrums of life. Every scene and each emotion reflects upon the elements of human nature and their surroundings. Whether rich or poor, crowded or empty, joyful or disheartened, every subject narrates an atmospheric mood, perhaps a message. Sometimes answers to life aren’t as black and white as these photographs are, but comprehending with an insightful frame of mind helps us to navigate through our journey.
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www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
ARTS & CULTURE
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ARTS & CULTURE
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April 2020
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ARTS & CULTURE
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Book Review
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Marrying Korean Reviewed by Rhiannon Howell-Matwichuk
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ARTS & CULTURE
tefano Young’s first foray into writing comes to us as Marrying Korean, a short-form memoir about the author’s journey of enmeshing himself into a new culture for his future wife. It is a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl and then chaos ensues. The chaos of Young’s variety is a particular brand – the kind that happens when a white person marries into a traditional Asian household. Cultural norms are challenged, genderroles are upheld, and the couple is plagued by questions of how their compatibility is affected by their distinctive backgrounds.
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In other sections, however, Young explores the delicate and very personal intricacies of navigating a new culture from a very unfamiliar place to most foreigners in Korea: a serious romantic relationship. In one moment, Young shares the details of a fight with Garam over a “near miss” while test-driving a new car. Being an inexperienced driver, Garam expected Young to take the wheel when she asked. As she was to be the primary driver of the car, Young assumed, without prior knowledge of her driving abilities, that she should be the one to test the vehicle. The resulting conflict that followed the almost-accident takes what was seemingly a minor scare and turns it into a microcosm for bigger problems in the relationship. At one juncture in the fight, Garam laments that “a Korean
April 2020
For those who are hoping for some light and fluffy tales about Korea, this book does not disappoint. For example, a chapter is dedicated to the author’s experience visiting a Korean bathhouse, or jjimjil-bang (찜질방), with his fatherin-law and the distinct feeling of (literal) naked outsiderness that comes along with that. In another chapter, he recounts an anecdote about his first stay at a love motel, offering any expat reader a sympathetic chuckle in response to his shock at certain provided amenities in such establishments. At times, such moments read as a Pinterest list of “Must-Do Things While in Korea,” but his experiences are wholly accurate in their narration of the easily recognizable differences one would find on a foray to the Land of the Morning Calm.
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Young’s purpose in writing this book seems to be a simple one: Allow the reader to act as a voyeur while he recounts snapshots of his relationship. Spanning from the first trip Young and his then-girlfriend Garam made to Korea together to their eventual marriage and creation of a family, Young organizes the book to read as small, altogether charming glimpses into a newcomer’s experience of Korea. As the book progresses, the order of events jumps around quite generously, but in the end, returns to its starting point. In general, he accurately identifies the thought process that occurs when a person first encounters Korea from a non-tourist lens. The new tastes, smells, and ways of life he is subject to help teach the reader about aspects of Korean culture they may not have been aware of previously.
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guy would’ve [done what I asked].” This sentiment poses questions of masculinity, gender roles, and cultural expectations that highlight the less-amusing struggles of an intercultural relationship.
The author’s tone often relies on humor without bite; merely stating things as they happened and how they were funny in the moment without any further personal reflection. At times, the lack of personality in Young’s writing left me feeling disinterested in the subject matter. Overall, Young’s Marrying Korean accomplishes what it seemingly sets out to do. It provides a humorous look at his particular life experience. I would recommend this book to any newcomer to Korea. To paint the expat community with a broad brush, most who find themselves here are not here for the long haul; they find themselves at a transitory period in life, looking for some adventure.
The ebook is available on the following platforms: Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Scribd.
교보문고, 리디북스, 북큐브, YES24, 알라딘, 반디앤루니스, 인터파크 도서.
Young’s website: http://stefanoy.com/writing/books/
The Reviewer
Rhiannon Howell-Matwichuk is an avid reader and lover of all things journalism. Her passion for new experiences lead her to Korea, where she currently resides in Gwangju working as an English teacher.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
ARTS & CULTURE
These sections of the book were the ones that I found at once the most compelling, yet deeply frustrating to read. Young brushes the surface of these complicated issues but fails to truly dive deeper into them. He gives the reader a taste but then seemingly falls short of ever giving a truly vulnerable summation of his feelings at that time, choosing instead to lean on a simpler, droller narration.
What makes Young’s perspective compelling is that he finds himself on the opposite side of this spectrum: He is considering making this life as a foreigner a permanent one. He encounters a different set of challenges that make his voice unique yet familiar, bridging the gap between presenting a new viewpoint and speaking to the universal expat experience of being an outsider.
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Book Review
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Grit
The Power of Passion and Perseverance Reviewed by Kristy Dolson
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Luckily, I recently read Angela Duckworth’s amazing non-fiction book on this very subject. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance compiles Duckworth’s years of research in the service of defining and explaining how readers can harness grit to increase their happiness and success. Early in the book, Duckworth invites readers to take two survey tests to determine their grit score as well as their passion and perseverance rankings. The book then goes on to explore how readers can grow their grit from the inside out, and how parents, teachers, and coaches can help their charges cultivate grit from the outside in.
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In addition to helping me identify my personal goals, I found this book extremely useful as a teacher and mentor – especially with respect to using praise to foster grit. Recently, I’ve taken a keen interest in motivation and growth mindsets among learners, and this book provided me with some thought-provoking studies and stories to chew over as the new school year approaches. I highly recommend this fascinating read for everyone seeking a more meaningful and satisfying life, but especially to those who teach, coach, mentor, or parent.
The Reviewer
Kristy Dolson lived in South Korea for five years before taking a year off to travel, read, and spend time with her family in Canada and Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Education and now lives in Yeosu.
April 2020
Duckworth’s thesis statement is that people who hold the same top-level goal for a very long time have a lot of grit. A top-level goal is one that harmonizes with a person’s life philosophy and serves as the pinnacle of the achievement of many low- and mid-level goals. For example, my life philosophy is to “Serve others,” and
One of my favorite things to do is connect people with books I think they’ll love. By reading more books, I have a bigger and more diverse pool of recommendations to choose from. I also write reviews for the Gwangju News. Not only does that serve those who work for the magazine, but it also – hopefully – serves the readership. And by selecting interesting books, I’m continuously advancing my knowledge base, which I can then share with others in personal and professional contexts. Therefore, if my life philosophy is to “Serve others,” then reading more books this year provides robust long-term benefits in terms of my upper-level goals – even if I’ve yet to fully define those goals.
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I took the test and scored rather highly, with my passion score outranking my perseverance. When I look back on my life journey, this makes a lot of sense. True, I have a lot of passions, but I’m not incredibly focused on a singular goal. I want to be a great baker, singer, friend, actor, writer, and teacher! Duckworth calls these passions our inner compasses but claims that we all need to choose one compass to guide our decisions and actions in life. Two competing compasses will cause internal conflict and distract us from reaching our upper-level goals. My experience seems to align with her claim. So, now I need to pick a top-level goal and narrow my focus.
if my top-level goal is to “Be a good teacher,” then my mid-level goals might be things like “Attend KOTESOL,” “Read educational literature,” and “Start a teaching blog,” whereas low-level goals involve small-scale, daily habits, such as “Be on time,” “Reflect on class,” and “Engage with peers” that each serve as small steps toward those upperlevel goals. So, where does my reading goal fit into all of this? Well, by reading more books, I’ll be building my physical library and my knowledge base.
ARTS & CULTURE
inish a book every week.” This is the sole concrete goal I set for myself in 2020. And so far, January and February have provided the ideal conditions to achieve it. A relative lull in workload, coupled with COVID-19 delays, has produced the opportunity and incentive to burrow into my blanket fort and blaze through my to-read list. But when the new semester commenced in March, I faced tough decisions. Should I allocate extra effort toward work projects, hang out with friends, or achieve my daily page counts? As my free time slowed to a trickle, I started to doubt if this self-imposed goal was worth it. In other words, I began questioning my grit.
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54
Gwangju Writes
She Departed, She Arrived Written by Saul Latham
ARTS & CULTURE
S
he was in the wind from the south, under the wings of seagulls – pure seagulls that floated quietly in natural sophic essence. Underneath, she was the atmosphere of the near-complete moon, of clouds decorated by light rays beamed from a carnival in the vivid heart of a Melbourne night. In port was the Spirit of Taz, now behind its scheduled departure time of 8:30 p.m.
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April 2020
She waited in the car, first hearing, then seeing three motorbikes and another eight nipping past her window, through the lanes of eager humming vehicles that queued on the pier. Above, on deck, a shadowy silhouette stood looking out over hurried customs attendants who crackled “checks” and “rogers” over the radio.
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“No fresh fruit or veg?” asked the turbaned official leaning into the car. “No apples allowed?!” thought Pappa with a quizzed expression – “We’re going to the apple isle after all!” He looked across to her with a straight comedic glare. She laughed to herself then, through the rearview mirror, saw a driver eating what looked like a very tasty donut that disappeared in seconds.
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55 Wave’s lips broke into sinking songs of white from the depths of the water, reflecting sharp oranges and blues that wobbled in sporadic turns. Now the night sky was tempered with the semblance of a bright day and the distant rumble of fireworks echoed over the water from the city’s festival. The Spirit was now an hour late. The Spirit of Taz had known troubles over the years: It had been in the news for mismanaging polo ponies and been accused over the death of dogs. “The old ship was once called the Princess,” said Pappa proudly. “She was replaced by another called the Empress. Then we got the Spirit. Once there were three Spirits, but no one used the one to Sydney. So now there’s just two.” The large colony of seagulls left calmness and appeared as snowflakes crowning the bridge, chirping and squealing, anxiously anticipating the ship’s departure.“It’s not a competition,” she joked in a memorized cheek.
Now, they moved into the public area on deck seven and observed: the two house pinots like orbs in a hand, a Mexican beer overflowing onto a crossword puzzle, TV
The Author
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“Pappa, is there a ghost on our ship?” said Stephanie, suspended between excitement and fear. She could see in Pappa’s reaction, his existential limbo was not too different from hers. “Time for bed, Stephanie,” he replied softly. That night, the ship swayed, and Stephanie felt sick. Pappa had suggested, “Concentrate on your breathing,” and so she did. Soon enough, the evening’s drama faded as she passed into sleep, her sickness eased, and the swaying flattened. The next morning was seared orange by a rising sun on the horizon. Into it emerged the coastal hills of northern Tasmania, hovering like clouds in the obscurity of light. From the south, a reliable wind howled through the Spirit as it passed quietly and closely by the front yards and lounge rooms of the bay. Devonport slept under the blanket of Sunday morning, and she was there with the people, in their dreams.
April 2020
Saul Latham is a writer/journalist from Tasmania, Australia, who lived in Gwangju once – part of him is still there, cycling downtown beside the Gwangju Stream on a glorious day.
The animated banter of the motorcycle group subsided into a puzzle of bewildered looks and hesitant chuckles. Seconds later, they soon forgot and began debating the theme for the club’s tenth anniversary party.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
In cabin 8012, they settled into their berths. Out the cabin window was the world, but inside the cabin was their world. After a wash, they rested for a while, examining the oddities and features of it all. Lying on his back, facing the dead white ceiling, Pappa wondered how long he could last on a ship like this. Then with a jolt and a jar, the port’s lights moved slowly out of sight. It was 10:37 p.m., and the Spirit, now departed, began slicing through the cold waters, heading south to rough Bass Strait.
At 11:07 p.m., there was a notification from Captain Davis over the speaker: “Dear passengers, we do apologize again for the late... members... of my crew…” the line crackled and much of what he said was not heard. “We do take seriously… concerns… wish… the Spirit… see the coast...”
ARTS & CULTURE
“It’s definitely a competition,” said Pappa, frustrated by the vehicles moving on in the next lane: the big American truck and glamping trailer, the blokes pulling a fishing boat, and the long-haired hippies in a colorful bus. Near the end of the line, Pappa’s little blue Hyundai finally ramped up onto the stern and into a great steel stowage area. It echoed with engines, the appeals of dogs in brigesque cages, and an announcement from Captain Davis, “... forecast winds of 15 to 20 knots and a low swell of one and a half meters.” It was now 10:02 p.m. and the Spirit was still docked.
sets (on one a thriller, another national news, and the other an actor with a tiny moustache saying, “No one understood me”). Out of the gaming lounge stumbled a face as pale as one shocked by a ghost. Stephanie nibbled slowly on salted crisps and listened to a group of boisterous, heavily accented motorcycle pilgrims traveling for a tenth anniversary tour of the island state. The area was busied by a thousand words a minute from conversations at every table. She heard a group of greyhaired men talking about government, law, a spirit, and perfection – she thought the crisps were perfection.
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Community Board
Have something you want to share with the community? The Community Board provides a space for the community to announce activities and special events. Please contact gwangjunews@gic.or.kr for more information.
Gwangju Art Class
Hello, Gwangju Art Lovers! Do you have experience with arts and crafts and, are you itching to get involved in the community? We are looking for volunteer instructors who are interested in inspiring creativity around them. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/GwangjuArtClass/ for more info!
Pen in Ten
One-to-one counseling services hosted by GIC for international residents in Gwangju. Due to the COVID-19 situation the counseling sessions are currently available online.
For more information and application registration visit www.facebook.com/gwangjuic/ or http://eng.gic.or.kr.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2020
The Gwangju Performance Project will produce a 10 minute play festival to celebrate 11 years serving the Gwangju community through the medium of Theatre and Performance Art. The Festival will be held on June 20, 2020. We are looking for directors, actors and stagehands. If you are interested in getting involved send us an email at gpp.plays@gmail.com or visit www.gwangjutheatre.com for more information.
Talking Helps
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KONA English Center
KONA Storybook Center The KONA English Center (KEC) is an educational center for English reading and culture exchanges. The KEC will guide any family and their children to develop a love for reading and to explore foreign cultures.
KONA English Center 코나영어센터 KONA Storybook Center 영어독서교육연구소 UNESCO KONA Volunteers 유네스코 코나 자원봉사단
The KONA Storybook Center (KSC) is a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged children to learn English independently through storybooks and storymaps with UNESCO KONA Volunteers (UKV).
Programs: 1. 영어독서멘토링 (Mentoring in English Reading) 2. 영어로 배우는 과학 (Science in English) 3. 영어로 배우는 위인전 (Biography in English) 4. 코나비전특강 (KONA Vision Talk) 5. 외국인과 함께하는 문화교실 (UNESCO CCAP)
Tel: 062-434-9887 광주광역시 서구 상일로 37 37 Sangil-ro, Seo-gu, Gwangju
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May 18 May 18 Movement The 40th Anniversary
ⓒ 5·18 기념재단 The May18 Memorial Foundation
Dear comrades have gone; our flag still waves. While working for days to come we will not be swayed Streams and mountains remember though the years pass by Waken’d spirits are calling us as they shout this cry: “We are marching on; keep faith n follow us.” “We are marching on; keep faith n follow us.” From “March for Our Beloved” Lyrics by Baek Gi-wan / Translation by Dr. Robert David Grotjohn
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