For the Kunsan University Herald

What did you want to be when you were little? A ballet dancer? A fireman? I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader or an Egyptologist. In a way I have gotten both of my dreams in terms of what I like about each of those jobs. I’ve just had to be flexible about the label of my job. I am a Visiting Professor at Chonnam National University in the Department of English Language and Literature and I am proud to say I’m a little bit of a cheerleader and a little bit of an archeologist.

As a professor I teach English to English majors. I teach Interpersonal Skills and Jobs Skills. My Korean students, despite years of studying English, are often shy – reluctant to use their spoken English ability. In my classroom, on campus, and in my community, one of my skills that I call on everyday is that of a cheerleader – someone who encourages others to win the game. I clap, I yell, I cry as my students journey up and down the basketball court of conversation. I jump, I shout, I stamp my feet to help my students keep their energy high to meet the uncomfortable challenges of spoken English productions. Whether my students win or lose a particular game is always a heart-pumping experience. Knowing my students are always winners because they showed up to the game, made their best effort, and stretched themselves out of their comfort zone is an experience of inspiration that always keeps me coming back to the teaching game no matter how tired or drained I might become. Physically, mentally I might be exhausted, but emotionally I ride an adrenaline high every time I see the “light bulb” go off above a student’s head who has been struggling to share their ideas in English.

The cheerleading aspect of teaching is fun and easy for me, but the archeologist component is difficult and dangerous. Just as my students arrive in my classroom with lots of English studying experience, they also come with lots of resentment against English. Digging into my students’ feelings about English is difficult; many times my students are suspicious of me, a foreigner. Other times it’s dangerous. My students may have had really negative experiences about English – teachers who have yelled at them and embarrassed them in English or perhaps they did not receive scholarship money because they didn’t receive a high enough English exam score. But archeology is a branch of anthropology – the study of man, well . . ., people. I always point out to my students that English is only a tool, just like a farmer uses a plow. Korean society and economy are buffeted by the winds of globalization, making crisis and opportunity for its citizens. Students who have tools such as college degrees, computer skills, language skills (not just English, but Chinese and others), part-time job experience, volunteer experience, and a network of friends, “seniors,” and teachers are equipped to battle any situation and create an opportunity out of it.

So, when you grow up, what do you want to be? Think outside of the box of government official, teacher, or university professor. Be that ballet dancer or fireman. You never know what the label of jobs will be in your future and how you can live your dreams in those occupations.

-Maria misses all of her students that she taught at Kunsan National University (August 2004-August 2006).

Bull Island

Black Shiva Bull
Dokdo Korea



Bloody Bill
by Dennis Lee
You say you want to fight me?
But think I'd rather not?
Then listen to the story
Of another guy I fought,

And maybe you'll appreciate--
I don't like blood and dirt
All smudgy on my fingertips
And dripping down my skirt.

A famous pirate captain
By the name of Bloody Bill
Was marching up the sidewalk
On the old Spadina Hill.

He had a sort of eye-patch
That was caked and flaked in blood.
And he ground his teeth together
And he spat out bloody crud.

He wore a bloody dagger
In his muddy, bloody belt,
And on his back I saw the track
Of thirty bloody welts,

And he slooshed his soggy boots
Till blood ran down the hill;
I figured, by the look of things,
It must be Bloody Bill.

And Bloody Bill was roaring drunk
And Bloody Bill was loud
And Bloody Bill was picking fights
With people in the crowd.

First I tried to walk around him
Like a common passer-by;
I'm quite a gentle person
And I wouldn't hurt a fly,

But Bloody Bill got wilder, like
A bully and a crook,
And by the way, I meant to say
He had a bloody hook.

He spied a frail old gentleman
And seized him by the feet
And shook him upside-down until
His change rolled in the street,

And then he pitched the gentleman
Across a grotty sewer,
And no one had the nerve to speak
Severely to the boor.

Now, I was out to buy some milk
To take home to my Mum,
But I could see I'd have to teach
Some manners to this bum

For pirates are a pleasure
In the safety of a book,
But meeting one is much less fun,
Especially with a hook.

And so I turned to face him,
With a sigh of utter boredom,
And flicked my little finger, and
Immediately floored him.

And holding back a yawn, I seized him
By his smelly snout,
And I flipped his nose, and flicked his toes,
And turned him inside out,

And wound him round a tree I found
And beat with might and main,
Till all the booze and tobacco juice
Had had a chance to drain.

(I know that bullies often come
And boss around a kid.
But that's the way I do things:
So that's the thing I did.)

I pelted him with melted cheese
And fourteen deviled eggs;
I tied spaghetti to his hair,
Lasagna to his legs,

And then, because I didn't like
the way he'd used his fists,
I danced upon his ears, until
He asked me to desist.

And when I turned him right-side-out
He scuttled down the hill
And never once looked back at me--
Just ran, did Bloody Bill.

And me, I washed my fingers
Of blood and scum and rum,
And bought a quart of two per cent
And took it home to Mum.

So though I'd love to fight you,
I am really very shy,
And leaving you all black and blue
Would likely make me cry.

I don't want to turn you inside-out,
Or wrap you round a tree:
Why don't you take your strong right thumb
And suck it peacefully?

From Garbage Delight, published by Macmillan Canada, 1977.

Synchronicity

From flow at www.soulfulliving.com

to

Movie recommendations for my class: The Pursuit of Happyness
from www.makingchanges.com.au

to

a technological display of readiness to be happy:
"With wisdom we are more able to muster our resources, less fearful about the consequences as we are more likely to be successful....By removing life's main worries, happiness springs forth from within us." www.womanlinks.com

to

signs in the form of a book recommendation:
"The Glass Castle: A Memoir " by Jeannette Walls
"Jeannette Walls's father always called her 'Mountain Goat' and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In 'The Glass Castle', Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. "

I am a mountain goat hopping from precipice to precipice. And I just wrote an article on Rosemary.

Ask. It happens.
Show up. Do the work.
Let go into the flow.
Learn to navigate collaboratively.
Look and listen. Without going anywhere, you have arrived.

Call me when you're Sober

Punctuate.
Walk Away (Paula DeAnda)
Pack
Close
Mongolia?
Camels and cold
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Thank You Kevin Johnson

Thank you, Kevin Johnson, wherever you are.

"Things Change."

Happy

I'm happy. I'm really, really happy.
Without worrying, without fussing, without fixing.

jpg by http://nitchkins.multiply.com/

Clowns scare me

My brother Kevin sent me a list of bad puns. One in particular made me laugh.

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

All I can picture is Stephen King's "It" chowing down on Krusty the clown. "Hey, kids, it's story time! Ah - my arm, my arm!"

Fear

Fear is no place to live.

Sometimes you have to fight the fight.

Piggy New Year!

Miho - my Japanese teacher - sent me this photo of pigs in a pod from Wando.

Pigs mean happiness and wealth in Korea.

So far this year and am filled with both. Hope you are too!

Mountain Goat Maria

I am Maria the Mountain Goat springing up the mountainside in my new platform shoes. I have been unleashed and am unshackled. I am free. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!


Illustration by Nika - http://nitchkins.multiply.com/

It's all in a grain of rice

I can't use a fork well anymore.

One of the things I love most about Korea is that I don't shovel food into my mouth with a fork. I can get exactly that one piece of fried rice, a noodle, a pea that has escaped the gochujang. I have control and savory enjoyment of a miniscule moment of prepared nutrition. Not an overloaded sensory, fat saturated & sodden moment to distract from my issues. I know what I am doing. Working for it. And aesthetically obtaining it.

My last days at Gwangju Dae are enormously insightful why I have chosen Korea as my home. The culture pressure of ever changing norms to "catch up" coupled with the cadence of the unself-conscious disclosure of roots. Enthralling. Ravishing. So incredibly beautiful.

A tapestry. A Persian rug can hint at the culture permeating people, habits, and behaviors. But in Korea I have something much more ethereal and impossible to catch and adequately communicate to those I most want to understand me and what I am going through. "Impossible" I am so often told here. I finally understand. Impossible is it to nail down, categorize and dismiss the nuances once you can taste the differences between the assorted kimchee on offer.

Variety of Choice

Same ol' thing. Variety.

Never lock in.

Purple Teeth

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. -William Dement, in Newsweek, 1959

http://www.swoon.com

Purple: Purple is a forerunner to happy social affairs.

Teeth: Even and/or very white and beautiful teeth forecast happiness and prosperity. Brushing your teeth indicates the clearance of obstacles that have been holding you back.

Or is it just
Major Vagina dentata?

jpg by www.christopherkuhn.com

Hello New GIC Interns

Welcome to our new GIC student interns:

Su Hyeon, a Political Science major from CNU, has joined GIC for the winter to practice her English and get some NGO experience. She is the editor of the CNU Korean newspaper and has spent a few weeks in the USA.

Our new 6 month intern is SongGon. He is a senior in the business administration program at CNU. He spent two months in Australia as a database management intern. He will be a familiar face around GIC, so make sure you take some time to meet him and buy him a nok cha.

SeRyung (TTTTTTTTTTTTom), an Electronic Computer Engineer major from CNU, has commited to spending his winter vacation assisting GIC. He just wants to help our community. He spent a year in Florida studying English.

SuHyeon and SeRyung are GIC winter interns. GIC and CNU collaborate to offer these internships. Students who participate in the winter program receive a score and obtain 15 credit hours for their commitment.

Leading GIC is SingSing Kim. Famous she is. Kind she is. SingSing is the GIC Coordinator. She oversees 9 of 12 different GIC programs:
GIC Talk Series
GIC Culture Tour Program
Counseling services for foreign residents
GIC Day
Fundraising Concerts
International Youth Exchange programs
Financial assistance to Third World countries
Collaboration with Asian Human Rights Commission
Translation Services

Dr Shin keeps the English Library in order. Minsu Kim does Gwangju News Magazine layout and leads the administration for our Korean classes.

Snow

Scene from my apartment at Gwangju University.

Unblurry in Jeonju

Sandra made a Christmas party. To all the Europeans in Jeonju: Thanks for the wine and giggles. Roman, Sven, Xavier, Stella, Sandra & Mathew.

Goodbye Yong Ho

Yong Ho has helped GIC for the past six months as our Lead Student Volunteer. We will miss him. And know that he will have a killer final year at Chondae. Good luck, Yong Ho!

Pulled Apart or Imploding

When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
Since I come up North de
Whole damn world's turned cold.
-Langston Hughes


Age
by Robert Creeley
Most explicit--
the sense of trap

as a narrowing
cone one's got

stuck into and
any movement

forward simply
wedges once more--

but where
or quite when,

even with whom,
since now there is no one

quite with you--Quite? Quiet?
English expression: Quait?

Language of singular
impedance? A dance? An

involuntary gesture to
others not there? What's

wrong here? How
reach out to the

other side all
others live on as

now you see the
two doctors, behind

you, in mind's eye,
probe into your anus,

or ass, or bottom,
behind you, the roto-

rooter-like device
sees all up, concludes

"like a worn-out inner tube,"
"old," prose prolapsed, person's

problems won't do, must
cut into, cut out . . .

The world is a round but
diminishing ball, a spherical

ice cube, a dusty
joke, a fading,

faint echo of its
former self but remembers,

sometimes, its past, sees
friends, places, reflections,

talks to itself in a fond,
judgemental murmur,

alone at last.
I stood so close

to you I could have
reached out and

touched you just
as you turned

over and began to
snore not unattractively,

no, never less than
attractively, my love,

my love--but in this
curiously glowing dark, this

finite emptiness, you, you, you
are crucial, hear the

whimpering back of
the talk, the approaching

fears when I may
cease to be me, all

lost or rather lumped
here in a retrograded,

dislocating, imploding
self, a uselessness

talks, even if finally to no one,
talks and talks.

Uijae Museum of Korean Art

Uijae Museum of Korean Art is located on the way up to Mudeunsan (Mountain) near Jeungsim Temple in Gwangju. The Exhibition Cave as the museum building is called has a floating walkway leading to a tea area to enjoy a fragrant green tea before or after a view of the museum. Glass windows in the tea area panel the view of the mountainside, creating a natural painting, just as Master Uijae himself would have painted although in traditional Korean style with paper, ink and brush. The trapezoidal building leads the visitor through the collection in an intuitive meander, as if enjoying the outdoor paths up Mudeunsan.

In the Samaehun Buidling sit on traditional Korean flooring, a lovely warm wonder of ondol heating in the winter while enjoying the scent of Choonsul Tea. Uijae's spirit invites you to spend time in thought and talk about the artists' compositions, using traditional materials with modern subjects.

Korean traditional painters with natural materials of paper, ink and brush chose to paint nature as it is seen with the eye. Historically having sloughed off the Chinese philosophy of utopian paintings of nature, modern Korean artists continue the rebellous tradition of finding their own way to share their experience of modern life through traditional materials.

Special thanks to SooJung for this afternoon adventure. It was also nice to meet Siyon Jin of the Uijae Resident Program. Sharing time and tea in the artists' studio viewing his media presentations of changes in modern life, its confusion, violence and beauty, was a great way to enjoy a chilly winter afternoon. I'm looking forward to the opening of the current resident artists program on December 20, 2006 at 4:30pm.

The Uijae Museum of Korean Art and the Gwangju city government welcomes artists, Korean and international, for four month residencies. This residency program is funded for one year while Gwangju continues its development strategy of becoming an Asian cultural hub.

Check out www.ujamstudio.net

Gwangju International Center

After a long day of pushing and nudging, the Gwangju International Center staff and volunteers stop for a photo outside of Jeonil building, GIC's home and in front of the downtown tree.

Special thanks to Jiwon, our "precious" volunteer, Tae Hyung, our office redesign architect, and SingSing, GIC Coordinator .