“My Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Korea” A short third draft outline December 15, 2014 2014 Copyright © Ronald J Chapman All Rights Reserved. If you wish to use, reprint this or any part of the article. Please contact me for permission first. My Facebook Address is https://www.facebook.com/ronchap “My Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Korea” “Torn Between Two Lovers” A long distance relationship with the place too far away in years and miles for me to ever visit in this lifetime. Since June of 2012 after discovering Korea by accident. Many people ask me. “Why do you love Korea? Because I can not love my country as much as you do.” First I wish to point out that I love my country The United States of America very much. Without which. I would not have a happy and comfortable life. The place where I was born grew up and worked. But I have also fallen in love with Korea and her unusual and tragic history. “The Land of the Morning Calm.” The place where many of my dreams and writings come from. The place I have only been to in my dreams. When I think of my feelings for Korea, these quotes always come to my mind. “Have you ever been lucky enough to figure out where your dreams come from? I have. I've written many poems about a place that I have only been to in my dreams. This beautiful place is called Korea.” - Ronald J Chapman “I'm in love with cities I've never been to and people I've never met.” - John Green, “Paper Towns” “Is it possible to miss a place you've never been? To mourn a time you never lived?” - Jack Harper, “Oblivion” I have also discovered that I am not the only foreigner (American) to feel this way about Korea. While studying Korean history from the early 1900's. I came across the story of a young lady who visited Korea in 1907. She was a young missionary student. Her name is Ruby Kendrick. “A year later 1908, Ruby Kendrick died of appendicitis at Severance Hospital in Seoul.” Ruby Kendrick, loved Korea so much that she requested to be buried in Korea. Her last words home were, “If I had a thousand lives, Korea should have them all.” For myself. I only wish I could find a way to give Korea whats left of my life.
Page 1 of 6
Because I feel this way, I have been called a romantic and crazy. I do understand. Korea's history is not that being portrayed in the historical dramas such as “The Moon that Embraces the Sun.” However, when I look at old photographs of the Korean people. Many of the pictures show who I think are a contented people living in a less complicated world. They worked very hard to survive every day of their lives. I do not believe I could have lived in such a time. However, I do have dreams of being a poor Korean farmer and envy their simpler lives. With that being said. Let me try to answer the question. I think I would need to write a book to respond to this question adequately. “Why do I love Korea?” 1. The People: The first thing that lead me to falling in love with Korea was discovering by accident or I feel maybe it was the fates sending me on my destiny to Korea On a summer morning in early June, 2012 I was searching for the song “Rolling In The Deep” by Adele. The first song that I found was not by Adele. But rather by the young Korean Singer “Tiffany Hwang.” from her June 1, 2012 TV appearance. I feel that the strange but interesting thing about this discovery is. I have re-done the same search many times since then. Tiffany's video has never shown up again to this day at the top of the list. Coincidence, serendipity or a higher power at work, who knows? Finding and falling in love with Tiffany and seeing how the people in the audience also loved her very much. I decided to look for more of her music.. Next, I discovered the group “Girls Generation (SNSD).” I fell in love with this group. SNSD made me feel young again, and I had never seen such a group here in the USA. After this. I began ordering SNSD's CD”s and CD's from other Korean Singers. Buying the CD's began to cost me a fortune. It was suggested to save money. I should look for a Korean internet radio station. I searched for an English language Korean Radio station that played SNSD. To my great luck. I found Arirang Radio broadcasting in Seoul. I met the wonderful show hosts SeeAn from Sound K, Jenny from Morning Call now Sunnyside UP and Lisa (LK) from Travel Bug along with the other hosts. All who treated me with such incredible respect and kindness and went out of their way to answer my questions about Korea and who I will always remember and always thank for introducing me to Korea. I also thank SeeAn very much for encouraging me to write poetry. SeeAn read my messages every day for almost a year and thanked me for my poems every day. Through Arirang radio. I had the great pleasure to meet. My friends Barry and Maija Rhee Devine. Ms. Devine is the author of “Long Walks On Short Days” poetry collection and the award winning Novel “The Voices of Heaven.”
Page 2 of 6
Over the last few years. I have received many gifts from my Korean friends. Koreans are such a generous people. They are always willing to help. I thought this was amazing particularly after learning of Korea's tragic history. 2. Korean Literature is the best I have ever read. I am so very glad lots of the stories were translated into English. Thank you, LTI Korea One of the first gifts I received was the book “Inside Korea Discovering the people and Culture.” This beautiful book introduced me to Korea. But to be honest. The next book I read almost chased me away from Korean literature. The book was “I Have The Right To Destroy myself by Young-ha Kim.” It was well written. But the stories were too dark and disturbing for me. "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." A friend told me that after I read this book and learning of the high suicide rate in Korea. Because I did not run away. I must feel love for Korea. I guess this was the first time someone else realized that I had strong feelings for Korea. I didn't give up, and my friends suggested some other books for me to read. The next book I read was “Folk Tales from Korea.” I thought that the stories were fantastic, and I even told some of the stories to my nephews who also enjoyed the tales very much and made them laugh. Over the past couple of years, I have read many other books about Korea. Some of my favorites are: “The Wind and the Waves – Four Modern Korean Poets” by Sung-Il Lee “Long Walks on Short Days” by Maija Rhee Devine There are some very shocking and unbelievable stories that are part of this collection. One in particular is on pages 10 and 11. “The Voices of Heaven” by Maija Rhee Devine The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly: A Novel by Sun-mi Hwang. I also thought the film adaptation was beautiful “Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild.” “Korea The impossible Country” by Daniel Tudor “Letters from Joseon” by Robert Neff “Eerie Tales from old Korea” by Brother Anthony of Taize “The Poet” Yi Mun-yol translated from the Korean “At least we can Apologize” Lee Ki-ho translated by Christopher Dykas “Nanjung Ilgi war diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin.
Page 3 of 6
3. The Korean Miracle: The missionary and author of “Korea and her Neighbors”, Isabella Bird Bishop, once described Korea as “Hopeless.” Today South Korea provides hope, love, and friendship to the whole world. With her Kindness, culture, music, food, education, and beauty. Korea has come so far so fast. I only pray she receives the miracle of a unified Korea someday soon before I die. The Korean children's grandparents, parents aunts, uncles and others have been through Hell and given so much of their lives so that the children will be happy. “Everything is for the children.” I think it is, so amazing Korea even stops airplane flights during days of big student exams. 4. The food: I was always amazed to see that there is so much access to food and drink in South Korea. There is lots of talk about food every day on the television and radio cooking shows. I thought about this and realized the reason for this must be. So that the children never have to worry about looking for food every day to stay alive again. This year 2014. I had my first taste of kimchi and soju. I love the taste of Kimchi, and I have to be careful I don't drink too much soju. My Korean friends told me liking kimchi and soju is an acquired taste. However, when I first tried kimchi. I loved the spicy-ness and flavor. I felt strange. Because. There seemed something familiar about the taste. It was like I had it before but couldn't remember when or where. I also made some Tteokbokki from ingredients I bought at the store. It tasted like candy to me. I enjoyed this very much. I love that when you go to a Korean restaurant. They give you lots of side dishes for free. I sometimes wonder how they can do this or how people can finish all the food?
5. Shopping: I discovered that you could find almost anything by shopping in South Korea. I have also found that I can mail order and place internet orders to buy items directly from Korea. No items were ever lost and are always packed well. I have also received written notes and cards thanking me for my purchase. In my entire life. I have never received a thank you note for buying something by mail order or in a store here in the USA. I have also been able to send flowers, birthday cakes and gifts to my Korean friends from here in the USA by contacting Korean merchants. The gifts always arrived in perfect condition, and the flowers are always fresh. 6. Convenient Place To Live: When you live in Seoul, everything is so convenient. You can buy food and other items by making a phone call. The items are delivered to you very fast. Sometimes within minutes for food.
Page 4 of 6
Every place there is high speed WIFI internet. Korea has one of the fasted networks in the world. There is a cafe on every street corner. The public transportation system is incredible. I don't think you even need to drive a car in Seoul or want to.
7. Work Hard Koreans work very hard to keep their country clean. They respect and take care of everything. Koreans also play very hard. It is a very fast and competitive country. Koreans are very proud of their country. 8. Jeju-do Jeju island is the most beautiful place I have ever seen on earth. The most beautiful place here in the USA is The Grand Canyon in Arizona. Which I had always considered having the most beautiful view until I saw pictures of Jeju island. Jeju has the most beautiful beaches. Jeju is the second largest chocolate museum in the world. I think if I ever visited Jeju. I would spend all day trying the different kinds of Chocolate. There are also all the beautiful walking trails. We can't forget about all the wonderful seafood and food tours. Or Jeju Loveland!
9. Safety: After speaking to many of my Korean friends. They told me that they go out shopping late into the night sometimes past midnight to markets and never felt afraid. Like anyplace, sometimes you see fights among people. But as long as you keep aware of your surroundings you will be safe. 10 K-POP: Yes, I have to admit. I love K-POP too. After all, if it wasn't for K-POP. I would not have found the home in my dreams Korea. One of my poems was read live on Arirang radio by the singer G.N.A
Thank you for taking the time to read “My Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Korea” To recap the ten reasons are: 1. The People 2. Korean Literature 3. The Korean Miracle 4. The food 5. Shopping
Page 5 of 6
6. Convenient Place To Live 7. Work Hard 8. Jeju-do 9. Safety 10. K-POP
A short third draft outline December 15, 2014 2014 Copyright Š Ronald J Chapman All Rights Reserved. If you wish to use, reprint this or any part of the article. Please contact me for permission first. My Facebook Address is https://www.facebook.com/ronchap Ron
Page 6 of 6