If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the news, you’ve probably heard about the recent events just off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. Just a few months after tensions between North and South Korea ratcheted up another notch with the sinking of the Cheonan, an hour-long exchange of artillery fire took place on Yeonpyeong Island, about 350 kilometers northwest of Daejeon. Being through both of these incidents, the thing that strikes me most is how little my Korean co-workers actually talk about it. Yesterday, the day after the exchange of fire hit international news airwaves, no one at my school even mentioned it. Life went on as usual.
To my friends and family, don’t worry. The US Embassy (and the embassies of my friends from other countries) has not raised the alert, not warned us that we should be packed and ready to go in an instant if anything gets worse. While the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents are significantly worse than any between the Koreas in several years, they still come as a reality of living in a country that is technically at war with its only bordering neighbor. The fact that the regime within that neighbor is feeling increasingly insecure, and now threatened by only its second hereditary shift in power (a very risky proposition when the internal stability of the country relies upon a personality cult so powerful that many of its citizens look upon their leader as a sort of God-king) will only serve to make them more likely to lash out. But South Korea is a stable country with loyal and powerful allies. I feel safe living here, and I don’t feel any less safe now than I did last week.
On to brighter, sunnier things! First off, I would like to congratulate my students in the JinJam Middle School English Drama Club for first of all winning their preliminary round in Daejeon in September, and going on to place 2nd in the nation earlier this month! We beat out teams from Seoul, where the national view is that English ability is higher, and we laid waste to high school teams, as well! We’re like the Mighty Ducks of acting! Only in Korea!
In addition to helping the drama club grab some glory, I was asked to teach Korean English teachers during a training session about using drama techniques in the classroom. Given that theatre was one of my areas of study in college, I jumped at the chance. Plus, I truly believe that using drama to teach a second language is a very effective technique. It builds pronunciation, vocabulary, listening skills, and fluency all at once, and it’s a ton of fun. And now I’m officially a trainer for the Korean public school system!
I also mentioned in my last post that one of my stories, a flash fiction (under 1000 words) piece called ‘Judas Wrote a Blank Check’, would be posted up on a website called The Flash Fiction Offensive. Well, you can read that story right now! Leave a comment if you want to curry my very valuable good favor, but beware that some people who have read it have found its content to be objectionable.
That’s all I really wanted to say this time out. Sorry for the lack of pictures, cartoons, and off-color jokes. I hope you’ll forgive me. Have a happy Thanksgiving! ‘Til next time!
