July 7, 2011: Korea Day 1 - Kyungbok Koong, Kyung Hee University

July 7, 2011: Background: My primary purpose for visiting Korea is to meet old friends and students from the time I taught English at Kyung Hee University in Seoul from 1973 to 1977 (four school years). As was true for Malaysia, I found my years in Korea to be among the most formative years of my life.

My red eye flight from Cambodia took off early and landed in Incheon, Korea early. Although I was seated in a row where I was the only passenger and could therefore stretch out on all three seats, I still was not able to sleep so I had a very tiring flight. Upon landing, I was amazed at how advanced Korea has become -- gone are the days when I deboarded the plane (in 1973) carrying my bags across the tarmac to the terminal. The Incheon Airport is humongous and it requires walking on a moving walkway in the airport just to reach Passport Control after ten minutes. Finding the bus to Seoul was easy and I was on board a very comfortable coach with a flat screen TV giving me the news that Pyeongchang, Korea is the site selected to hold the 2018 Winter Olympics. My host to Korea in fact is/was in Durban, South Africa working on reporting this news at that moment, meaning I will meet him for the first time in two days, after he returns to Korea. From the bus, I could also see Koreans playing golf, and several new enormous bridges under construction. Soon we were in Seoul and boy has it become congested! The bus dropped me off in Myeongdong, the part of Seoul that is quite active for entertainment and I asked around to find my hotel, again easy.

Unfortunately when I tried to check into my room, I was informed that checkin time was 3:00 and that all the rooms were booked so I could not check in during the morning. I desperately needed a shave and shower, especially before meeting a department chair and his students at Kyung Hee University where I had taught English from 1973 - 1974 (My remaining two years in Korea were spent teaching the English Lit students). After my former student's daughter arrived to meet me at the hotel, I decided to go native (like when I had lived in Korea in the 70's) and use a public bathhouse. The only thing is that the price to do so was considerably more than in the 70's -- 10,000 weon in 2011 vs 350 weon in the 70's. Oh well, I needed the shave and shower. Minjong waited for me in the hotel while I shaved and showered. However, I did take the luxury of soaking in the hot water rinsing tub for several minutes so that I could limber up. It turns out that my appointment with the department chair was delayed so we had some time to kill anyway. I suggested that we go to Kyungbok Koong, one of the ancient palaces. We arrived on the grounds at precisely 11:00, the exact time that a Korean band appeared to change guards at the gate of the palace, so we had a nice show to watch:

Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

After the show, we walked through the different buildings of the palace:

Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

Minjong at Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

Kyungbok Koong (Kyungbok Palace)

After that we decided to have lunch -- bee bim bop (mixture of rice, vegetables, and seafood) for Minjong, and suntubu (spicy boiling tofu soup) for me... mmm! Then since we still had more time to kill, I convinced Minjong for us to take a subway to Kyung Hee rather than taxi. This required changing lines once (little did I know that Seoul now has 9 subway lines instead the only one that was in existence when I lived there). I was amazed at how sophisticated the subway ticketing system is (just like London's) and in particular how much time we spent underground walking from one subway line to another -- it must have been a 15 minute walk!). Eventually we made it to Kyung Hee and had a cup of coffee before going to the main gate at Kyung Hee to meet my host, Dr. Taeyong Kim, the department chair of mass communications.

Kyung Hee University Front Gate

He greeted me and drove me to his college, passing by a huge banner on the side of his college welcoming me back:

What a nice greeting! He escorted me into one of the rooms in his department in which there were a number of students, some of who will be going to Fullerton for a three week course next Friday. 

Mass Communications Students

And just like old times, these students were extremely shy in asking me questions so it took a little time to open them up. But by the end of the day, they all seemed to be at ease in talking, although they seemed to have their tongues tied when trying to express themselves using English. Soon some school newspaper reporters arrived and I was interviewed for the school paper. They videotaped my entire time with them, even when they showed me around the campus walking from building to building. They asked me about the differences between Kyung Hee and Korea of the 70's compared to what it is like now. Here are some of the differences I mentioned even after having been in Korea for less than one day:

• In the 70's, my classrooms in Kyung Hee University had no electricity and of course not only do the rooms of today have electricity but they also have all of the latest computer equipment.
• In the 70's the classrooms had no heating. In fact there was a yeontan (long lasting piece of coal used for heating) stove in my classroom that we would gather around for lessons. In those days, my students had to wear gloves even when they had to write a dictation. Now days all the classrooms are heated.
• In the 70's many homes (mine included) were heated by yeontan. The houses back then were built with chambers under the floor so that when the yeontan block was lit and placed under the house, the heat from it would pass through the chambers and heat the floors. Korean homes of the 70's rarely had chairs in them since everyone sat on the floor on cushions. The floors were all papered with thick rice paper that was lacquered so that carbon monoxide from the yeontan could not escape into the rooms where people lived (As you can imagine, carbon monoxide poisoning was one of the main reasons for death back then). People also slept on the floors on yeos (thick padded mats) and you can't imagine how comfortable it was to sleep on a mat heated by yeontan during the winter. Of course now days, Korean homes are more western in style with chairs, beds, etc. and no yeontan.
• In the 70's houses didn't have bathrooms. In fact my first house had no bath or shower and an outdoor toilet (squat pot). In those days, Koreans went to the public bathhouses. Sunday was a particularly popular day for the baths and Koreans normally took only one bath per week. (Of course I went more frequently than that.) Now days, Korean homes have western bathrooms; I'm not sure whether squat pots are still used today in Korea.
• In the 70's, there was a tabang (coffee house) on every corner -- social appointments always seemed to start and end at a coffee house. In fact, back then, I thought "Wouldn't this be a great idea for the US to have?" only to have Starbucks come along years later -- if only I had acted on that idea when I first thought of it! Now days, there are coffee houses but not nearly so many. And, Starbucks is popular in Korea.
• In the 70's when I traveled to other cities, I always stayed in a yeokwan or yeoinsuk which is a small inn where one would pay for a room and use a common toilet. Of course this was the cheap way to travel. However, now days there are NO yeokwans or yeoinsuks. In fact, hotels in Korea are quite luxurious and there are also so called "love hotels" that young couples can use for an hour or so that are quite popular.
• In 1975 I became a graduate student in mathematics at Kyung Hee. Since there were no Xerox machines in those days, I had to write my thesis by typing it on special paper that I would then use as a silkscreen. I can remember putting the typed pages of the silkscreen of my thesis on top of paper, using a roller to roll ink over the silkscreen to print the page underneath the silkscreen, setting the pages in the office to dry, and then assembling my thesis when the pages were dry. As you know, Korea now is one of the world leaders in producing equipment that prints documents, so the silkscreen technique is no longer needed.

After we had talked for quite a while, Dr. Kim instructed them to give me a tour of the campus (even though it started pouring). Having the students alone with me without Dr. Kim, they had to open up more. On the way of our tour, however, I learned that the dean of Dr. Kim's college wanted to meet me since he was a former student of mine in 1973, and also the vice president of the university, Dr. Joung Man Kim, wanted to meet me since he, too, was a former student of mine. Dr. Kim and I talked for several minutes about when he was a student of mine. He pointed out how I had always encouraged the students to try speaking even if they made mistakes. In particular, he remembered a specific lesson I was teaching where I asked someone to come to the board and explain in English how to get from Kyung Hee University to Sam Il Ro. It turned out that Dr. Kim volunteered and he said that that was what started him to learn English earnestly.

Dr. Joung Man Kim, vice president of Kyung Hee University

After a while of talking about old times (He told me that he really appreciated my encouragement to speak English back in 1973, something that subsequent teachers seemed to squash in him), he presented me with a bag of gifts: three packages one containing a beautiful mother of pearl box, one a pair of matching metal chopsticks and spoons, and the last a mother of pearl business card container. I was speechless.

The students and I continued our tour:

Kyung Hee University

Concert Hall at Kyung Hee - purportedly the largest concert hall in all of Asia holding 2000 people

Kyung Hee University

Kyung Hee University Administration Building

Kyung Hee University Administration Building

Kyung Hee University Library

Kyung Hee University Library

Kyung Hee University

Kyung Hee University College of Music

After the tour, we returned to the room to talk some more before dinner, a Chinese banquet at a nearby restaurant. 

We had a great time talking and after dinner, two of the students escorted me by taxi back to my hotel. I bade them farewell and took the elevator to my room. I noticed that just as in old times, the elevator skips over the number "4". This is because the word "4" in Korean is the same as the word for death. I recall that in the 70's some buildings not only wouldn't allow a floor to have a "4" in it, but they also honored the superstition of "13"; therefore, when I sent to teach some private students on the 15th floor back in the 70's, I would take the elevator as high as it would go to floor 12 and then walk up one flight of stairs to floor 15 (omitting both a 13 and a 14).

And now for a well deserved night of sleep!