Question your ‘Minjok’

Minjok Essay

Korean history starts in B.C. 2333. When HwanOung, son of an almighty sky god HwanIn showed interest in saving the human world, HwanIn gave him three god-made objects for controlling wind, cloud, and rain along with 3000 people. As he came to the human world and ruled over the world wisely, a tiger and a bear came to him to become humans. He gave them mugwort and garlic and told them to live hundred days without seeing sunlight. Contrary to the tiger who could not endure the painful 100 days, the patient bear could finally become a female human being after 100 days of waiting. This bear-woman married with HwanOung and gave birth to a son, whom she called ‘Dankun’. ‘Dankun’ later came to Pyongyang and established a nation which he called Chosun, and he ruled the country for 1500 years.

three 'god-made objects for controlling wind, cloud, and rain' - called Cheon Bu In

All Koreans know this so called ‘Dankun Myth’, for this is one of the very first knowledge on Korean history that children are encountered with. The story repeatedly comes out in many school history textbooks and it is considered one of the most important parts, consisting at least a number of questions in tests and quizzes whenever there is one. Another part that is viewed as important as the ‘Dankun Myth’ or even more important is the history about how Koreans freed themselves from Japanese colonization. All Korean history textbooks says that Koreans could achieve independence through resisting the Japanese without giving up for decades, based on their strong belief of being the unified descendents of DanKun, sharing the same blood. It is in this nature, Koreans call themselves ‘danil minjok’, meaning ‘one-blooded ethnic group’. This belief prevalent in Korea to the present date and young students are currently being educated in this way. I, being a Korean myself, have lived my entire 17 years of life believing myself to be a proud danil minjok Korean, who thought of the biggest characteristic of Korea as being a unified, blood sharing minjok – very different from any other ethnic groups(minjoks). However, I now begin to question this aged belief of mine.

The first step was to rethink about the word, minjok. 'Minjok’ is a Korean word which can be easily translated into the term ‘ethnic group’, having the exact same dictionary definition, ‘a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like’. However, I feel it essential to differentiate between the two terms, for minjok may have a slightly, but surely different meaning for typical Koreans, compared with its dictionary definition. As mentioned before, most Koreans confuse the meaning of minjok with danil minjok. It may be easy to understand to think that 'one-bloodedness’ immediately pops up to their minds after they hear the word minjok. It is even to the extent that Koreans prefer to use other words than minjok to describe ‘a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like’, such as ‘community. However, this may seem natural if one considered how and when the concept of minjok appeared.

Shin Chae-Ho

In the past, in which I mean no longer than 60 years ago, when Korea was under Japanese colonization, people were extremely confused and afraid, and the Korean society was in a deep chaos. However, with the intention of freeing the country, public leaders for independence like Shin Chae-Ho had to unite the people. The best method for unifying people was to emphasize their country’s grand birth myth and history to the people, highlighting their motto ‘Danil Minjok’ all the while. The result was successful, for Shin Chae-Ho could establish a sense of unity among the people, and ultimately gain independence from Japan. However, after what seemed like an endurable 50 years, Korea had yet to face the separation to North and South Korea. With everything devastated in both countries, especially South Korea used people’s still remaining belief of one-bloodedness to achieve a miracle-like economic boom. Thus, if one also took into account the countless invasions from surrounding countries along with the Japanese colonization, it may be reasonable to think that Koreans were forced to form a belief that they are a tightly bonded group of people, sharing the same blood.

After the Korean War

The second step in questioning my shared belief was to think about how this concept of minjok how it will or has influenced Korea. The first thought was that this idea of minjok will be very beneficial to Korea. Korea, in its present state, is overflowing with many things from countries all over the world. As Korea being the top country in internet technology with most of the population having access to internet, people are encountered with abundant amount of information, products, people, etc., from all over the world. At the same time, Koreans are increasingly taking their positions where they have to compete internationally. With more encounters with things from other countries, it is becoming more and more important to be able to take pride one’s own country and its traditions or cultures. Therefore, I thought this strong belief of minjok arising from national pride may be a great help in dealing with such situations.

On the other hand, in the same nature, I could also see the negative influences of nationally prevailing concept of minjok. In ‘in the same nature’, I mean to say globalization, especially the aspect of meeting people from other countries. Because of globalization, annually rising number of foreigners are coming into Korea to start a new life. Over two million foreigners are currently living in Korea, and this includes children from multi-cultural families. However, the problem starts here. Some Koreans, not much used to people of other origins, begin to show their belief in danil minjok to such foreigners who are not ‘pure-blooded’ as much as they are. This xenophobic phenomenon is becoming a serious problem, acting as a deterrent in interacting with growing population of foreigners, especially to members of multi-cultural families.

A comparison between OECD countries on rate of increase of foreigner residence - you can see that Korea has the highest rate, with 19.86% rise.

The last step I took was contemplating on how we, as ‘unified’ Koreans should deal with this concept of minjok – danil minjok. Seeing that there is not only bad, but some good in it, and also because it is practically impossible to do so, I believe that trying to entirely eradicating or changing the concept of danil minjok from Koreans is implausible. However, I believe that encouraging Koreans to really think about their history and ‘questioning’ their beliefs regarding minjok is the best of what we can do. This is mainly based on my experience in writing this essay. 

Now, when I first sat down to write the essay and read articles that talked about how Koreans are almost obsessed with their ideas as one blooded people, I rejected the idea from the bottom of my heart – I thought holding such belief was an obvious thing! I thought it was natural to think that way if you loved our country. However, as I did more and more research and readings, I found myself gradually agreeing to how this belief looked like, seen from a third person view. Then I suddenly realized that everything I knew about Korean history was based on three books. One history textbook from my elementary school, and two from my middle school – which were all supervised by the nation. I realized that I was simply accepting the truth that was given to me. That is why I ask all Koreans who read this to ‘question’ it. Question minjok. Question danil minjok. Then, question yourself. 

:-)

a-a-b-a' Pattern in Korean Ballad Songs

What kind of music do you listen to the most? What kind of music do you like the most?

My favorites have changed a number of times throughout my life - K-pop ballad, K-pop dance songs, American pop songs, sometimes classic piano concertos, and so on. I have fallen in love with Korean ballads and American ballads back and forth with varying length of time. These days, I only listen to Korean ballads, and from listening to various and numerous songs, I have found out that there is a certain pattern that Korean ballads follow: a-a-b-a’.

This is lyrics from a song titled ‘청혼하는 거예요’ by 포맨

오늘을 위해서 나 한참을 기다렸죠 
그대 내꺼 되길 또 소망하고 바랬죠
정식으로 프러포즈를 할까 아님 생일날 깜짝 파티를 할까
나 두근두근 설레던 그날이 오늘이죠 

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요
그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요 

------------------------------------------------------------------a

예쁜 카페를 빌려볼까 아님 시청 앞 많은 사람들 앞에서 
꽃을 줄까 반지를 내밀까 고민하던 나였죠

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요
그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요

-------------------------------------------------------------------a

살다 지쳐 힘들어도 또 내가 지긋지긋해 진다고해도 그대가 안아줘요
미안하고 또 고마워요 그대 내 옆에서 이렇게 손잡아줘서 날 위로 해줘서 

-------------------------------------------------------------------b

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요 
나 청혼하는 거예요

-------------------------------------------------------------------a’

And a link to a youtube music video page of the song

If you listen to the song keeping in mind the a-a-b-a’ pattern, you will be able to easily point out which part is a, which part is b, and which part is a’.

Korean ballads start with part a, consisting of introduction part and one chorus. Then, another part a follows, the only difference present in lyrics. The two a parts are then followed with a new melody – part b. Part b is usually used to connect the two a parts to another part a, which I refer to as part a’. The reason I differentiated the two as a’ and a is because a’ is not completely same as part a. a’ part is usually variations of part a, such as change of chords, or repetition of chorus in different lyrics. K-pop group, 포맨, the singer of the song ‘청혼하는 거예요’, uses this pattern of a-a-b-a’ in many of their ballad songs.

Childhood in the Middle Ages

"This is a presentation I did in Mr. Ganse's class. We were each given different topics regarding the Middle Ages, and mine was 'Childhood in the Middle Ages'. After the presentation, which consists of a 10~15 minute brief summary of what you have found through research on the topic, we are to write a long, over 20 page paper, which will probably suck my life out. But, for the presentation, I actually got a comment from Mr. Ganse that my presentation was pretty good, so enjoy!"

Childhood in the Middle Ages

131136 Woo-Hyun Cho

   

1.    Definition

<from dictionary.com> : the state or period of being a child, a person between birth and full growth.

<what I am going to talk about> : the state or period of being a person from birth to age 14, or until they reach adolescence, or until they leave home.

2.    Wrong held beliefs about children in the Middle Ages.

There are two wrong held beliefs

A.   Some people say that there was no recognition of childhood as a distinct category of development in the middle ages. – this idea comes from some medieval artwork of children dressed in adult clothing (if children wore like adults, they must have acted like adults, too)

The idea that children were treated like miniature adults as soon as they could walk and talk is a common one.

NOT TRUE – some medieval laws protected the rights of orphans and medieval medicine had different treatment standards for adults and children. à Children were recognized as vulnerable, and in need of special protection, just like the present modern days.

B.    Another wrong belief held by some people is one that says children were not valued as much as they are in the modern days by their families in the Middle Ages. – This idea comes from rarely mentioned childhood details in biographies and literature works. Childhoods of heroes are rarely mentioned, if not at all, and this also applies to the movies that we watched – they don’t depict childhood too much.

NOT TRUE – In the Middle Ages, one of the most important works for a family was farming. Thus, having more workers was always better. Therefore, children were one of the primary reasons to marry. Plus, due to high mortality rate in children also raised the value of children; it has been suggested that 25% of them may have died in their first year, half as many (12.5%) between one and four, and a quarter as many (6%) between five and nine. 

3.    From Birth to Grown-up

A.    Birth

i.         Due to the reasons I mentioned just now, childbirth was usually a joyful thing, but there were many possibilities where the birth could go wrong. Birth defects, breech births, and many other complications could cause both mother and the child to die.

ii.         In the room where a mother would give birth to a child, there were only women. Midwives would assist the giving of birth, and female relatives or friends would be also present to wish the mother good luck.

iii.         If everything goes well, the baby is swaddled in a way so to help the baby’s arms and legs grow straight.

B.     Children before teenage (~12)

i.         Children at ages near seven ‘played’ most of the time. However, children at this age group also had increased responsibilities to do house chores, especially if they were peasant children.

ii.         As children grew up, parents taught their sons and daughters manners, personal hygiene, and other skills to get along with other people. This applied especially to nobles, where polite manners were considered very important. Later in the Middle Ages, instruction manual books came out, which included many different things that are needed in daily lives.

C.     Children from age 12 ~ 14, to adolescence

i.         Children at the age 12 sometimes left their houses. There were various reasons to it, and here are some of them. For children of noble birth were sometimes sent to live with family that they were engaged to marry. Sons of knights started training in the castles, and they could start the training as early as seven, to as late as eighteen. Children of poor births sometimes went out to earn money by working as servants for high-status families. Lastly, apprenticeship also started from age thirteen, and some children left their homes to follow their masters and teachers. Those who did not leave their home stayed in their households to do serious work, assisting in agriculture and crafts.

4.    References

A.    Orme, Nicholas. "Historical Essays: Childhood in Medieval England." Historical Essays: Childhood in Medieval England. Nicholas Orme, n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/medieval_child.htm>.

B.     Snell, Melissa. "The Medieval Child." About.com Medieval History. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://historymedren.about.com/od/medievalchildren/a/child_toc.htm>.

C.     Hanawalt, Barbara. Growing up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

D.    Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.

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     Here is a documentary from BBC four, titled "Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages". This will really help your understanding of medieval children, as much as it did to mine! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jtg6k

However, it says 'media selection request failed'... 

So, I googled it, and here is the link to the actual video that you can watch! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/47174103

A Visit to Wellington College

Result of writing bits and bits from time to time after the Vision Trip...

A Visit to Wellington College

          Beautiful green plain stretching to meet the end of the clear blue sky, sheep and cows here and there, merrily enjoying themselves, and a group of birds flying as if to boast their freedom was what England showed me on the way to Wellington College, on the second day of the vision trip. We went to Wellington College after a pleasant tour around Oxford, and we were expecting the tour of Wellington to be as much joyful. However, the tour to Wellington gave me more of a lingering feeling of anxiety, instead of a cheerful surprise.

Although I knew that Wellington College was one of the most prestigious high schools in England, I, and probably most of my friends, were sincerely awed by the size and quality of Wellington. However, there was one more thing that awed me, that left me in sheer admiration; the students there were all handsome and pretty in so much mature way. Boys, tall boys, almost 190cm tall, with beards and an adult-like look in their faces, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, tall nose. Girls, also tall girls, with a womanly shaped body, and the same thing like the boys for their face shapes. – Well, every one of them were very close to our, Koreans’, standard of ideal beauty. When I looked at me, and my friends, and our teachers after seeing these ‘attractive’ ‘western’ students, I felt - ‘ashamed’. I was ashamed of myself and my friends because, well, we looked so childish compared to the mature-looking western students. All the time during the tour, I could not help myself staring at those western kids, and it got to the extent where it felt like those kids were condescending when talking to us, and I felt inferior towards them. And all the while, I was envious of their attractive appearances, hating Korea’s extreme lookism at the same time. It got worse when I realized that I had to compete with them in foreign universities; I felt miserable.

But suddenly, I stopped. Then I wondered, ‘Why am I -?’ Why was I comparing these things with them? What am I doing? I realized how stupid I was – feeling miserable because somebody else looked handsome? Then, I could think straight. Those white, big-nosed hairy big boys are what western people look like. Us, the proud Asians look like the way I look. It’s just a difference of how fast your body grows up. No need to care. Done. Well, this time, I felt ashamed for a totally different reason.

Having come back from the vision trip, I talked to my friends about what I felt at Wellington College, and to my surprise, he told things that I believe are notable, and very fit for what I am trying to say.

“So when we went to Wellington, these students came to talk to us, and everybody was like wow they look so handsome and pretty. But what I think is that these reactions show how much we are tainted by this way of thinking of western people as superior. If you think of it, we say someone is handsome when that person resembles people from western countries. In the same nature, even though KMLA has its own unique merits and strong points, and the same for Wellington, everybody’s like KMLA sucks and Wellington rocks. Personally, I think if Wellington students came to KMLA, they will also be impressed by our traditional buildings and stuff. And it’s real sad cause most people don’t have this pride for our traditional stuff but instead they go looking for these western culture things. Of course, it’s understandable cause the medias all show us cool things from western culture like Hollywood movies and stuff, but ……….”     - (recorded, then translated)

Monthly TOEFL Essay #2

Topic for the response: The 21st century has begun. What changes do you think this new century will bring? Use examples and details in your answer.

     “Welcome to the 21^st century!” This saying is used some times, usually to someone who is surprised at recent technology, new electronic devices, or special functions in those devices, meaning – you are in the 21^st century; what’s there to be amazed about? Just as this saying shows, yes, we are in the 21^st century, in the year 2013. Even though we are only 13 years into the 21^st century, there have been changes, and enough of them to let us be able to at least speculate on what the remaining 87 years have in store for us – which are; change of idea on ‘sex’, and increased gap between the rich and the poor.

     First of all, 21^st century will bring about a change of ideas and attitudes toward the concept of sex. These days, because of the increased accessibility to adult movies and videos, even the youngest children are becoming to have certain amount of knowledge on sex. Also, due to growing recognition on human rights and freedom, gay and lesbian marriages are slowly, but certainly, being accepted to people these days. Like such, young people are becoming more and more exposed to unfamiliar concepts of sex, and they perceive the idea open-minded. Thus, later on in the 21^st century, it is my belief that people will think of ‘sex’ as nothing to be embarrassed about, but rather as something legitimate, acceptable, and nothing out of ordinary.

     Moreover, the gap between the rich and the poor will become even bigger. This I believe will happen due to various kinds of causes, but the most primary factor depends on accessibility to information. As the world now is currently going through so-called ‘information revolution’, companies and even nations are competing to obtain high-quality/quantity information. At the same time, due to highly developed information technology and medias, there actually is more than enough information on the internet that people can use – if they can access the internet in the first place. Although numerous people are enjoying the privileges of using the internet, there are still many countries where majority of its people do not. Thus, while the rich with access to the internet can gain information, and if they want, do further, intensive research, the poor do not even have the fundamental arrangements to start.

     The changes that 21^st century will bring cannot be organized into a number of ideas. However, one can guess in what direction the 21^st century will go to, and my idea is that the changes that will be made in this era will heavily depend on media and accessibility to internet. Only when taking for granted this development of information technology, we can guess the changes, such as more openness towards ‘sex’ and intensified social polarization. 

Rhetoric Device - ANTITHESIS

Rhetoric Devices- ANTITHESIS

Antithesis

:   the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas

Examples) 

• "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
  (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
• "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours."(President Barack Obama, election night victory speech, November 7, 2012)
• “Give me liberty or give me death

Such rhetorical devices can often be seen many times in speeches, especially in those given by presidents. One of the examples is president Obama's 2nd inaugural speech, which you can see right now, right here - 

I also found a very helpful site that mentions all the rhetoric devices used in president Obama's 2nd Inaugural speech, and the link is 

http://wholebrainpresentingblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/rhetorical-devices-used-in-president-obamas-2nd-inaugural-speech/

Just to give you an example of how it is done, here is a short excerpt from the entire script: 

"We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away (TRICOLON & POLYSYNDETON) in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security (TRICOLON), these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us (ANTITHESIS). They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks (ANTITHESIS) that make this country great."

Nacirema & American = ?

     In Horace Miner’s essay, ‘Body Ritual Among the Nacirema’, he talks about the strange, or even inhumane practices held by the people of Nacirema - which I thought he was doing, at my first glance of the essay. Even, I enthusiastically wrote a reflection of this essay on how people become submissive to certain authoritative powers, even if they are forced to do something that is out of logic. I thought I was very fortunate to not have been born among the Nacirema. However, at finding out that Nacirema was actually American spelled backwards, I was thoroughly ashamed of myself for not noticing this very obvious fact, this acute sarcasm that the author put right under our nose. It was not too long before I found out that I actually was born among the Nacirema.

     Horace Miner describes the American society, especially the lookism that was present in 1956. If he had just written about this American society, as any writer would, there would be nothing significant about his essay. However, just flipping through the page is enough to notice his use of diction; one thing that makes Horace Miner a significant writer. In the essay, three words come up continuously; religious, ritual, and magical. These ‘ancient-ish’ words contribute in creating the atmosphere of mystery throughout the entire essay. It makes the essay sound like it is talking about a group of people, totally opposite from that of Americans -  Holy shrines, charm boxes would never have anyone think about Americans. Holy-mouth-man, medicine-man? These are words that come out when studying anthropology 101 in college, especially the first few chapters that talk about the start of civilization. However, one should never overlook the significance of the word Nacirema, reversed spelling of American. Once one notices this small fact, everything, from words to sentences change itself and links together to form a giant hammer of sarcasm that strikes the readers’ head so hard it nearly blows their minds. It is then do the readers finally realize that Horace Miner was sarcastically, but critically playing with the lookism of the American society.

     I was one of these readers, and I believe myself to have been hit with that sarcasm-hammer with full impact. The idea of American culture being the world’s most developed and prominent one, was just a pretty wrapping. Nobody can ever conclude or decide on what is inside the wrapping, but only have a vague idea on what it is, which in this case, so-called American culture. My reflection of this essay is that with a different wrapping, this whole idea can look entirely different, and ‘Body Ritual Among the Nacirema’ is just one of the many wrappings available. No one culture can be superior to the other - with just a two-page essay, one can degrade the world’s best culture to an uncivilized, barbarous culture!

     

     Below is an example, rather an incomplete one, written by Professor Chowh, about the Almk tribe, living in the territory between the China and the island of Dokdo.

Misery of the isolated, ancient Almk tribe

The Almk tribe is known to reside in mountains, avoiding any contact with the outside world. However, they have been discovered by a Korean man, who invested all his life earnings in finding the tribe. The Almk tribe is best known for their refusal to accept the developed culture and technology. Until this point, Almk tribe may not sound too special. However, they carry out astonishingly cruel and painful practices and here are some of them.

1.     Young adults, usually from the age group 17 to 19 is forced to participate in a fighting practice that requires them to run, jump, shout, and fight ferociously. They believe these practices enhance their hunting skills and defense skills that will be required in mortal combats that take place very often. These practices take place very early in the morning, and many young adults meet their physical limits while participating. Two grown-ups train these young adults everyday and the young adults are usually under the tyranny of these grown-ups who may treat them in any way they want according to their daily emotions.

2.     After the fighting practice, these young adults are forced to come out of their houses, and are required to learn methods and skills for magical charms. This teaching of knowledge is carried out by one of the grown-ups in the Almk tribe. These grown-ups, usually called ‘charm-masters’ are highly respected, and young adults are required to bow respectively whenever the meet one of them. In circumstances one of the young adults do not listen attentively to the charm-masters’ teachings, they are ‘cursed’ by that charm-master, which puts the young adult under severe stress. When the cursing takes place often to the same young adult, a ritual is held to banish that young adult from the tribe.