By Jihae Lee
Actually I am a member of group 3 last time interviewed with eie teachers for asking their past job. I wrote sue's interview in that article. We heard that Sue has ever taught English in North Korea, and asked a special question. This question is not related with last article so we deleted it, but I want to share this contents because it's so interesting.
Special Q1. We heard that you have ever taught students in North Korea. Is it right?
Oh, yes! It’s right.
Special Q2. Can you explain what was different with South Korea and North Korea?
Umm.... I can’t say exactly what is different between North and South Korea because everything is completely different.
First, textbooks are different. It has only the story which make people regard Kim Jung Il(김정일) as a divine person. In addition, their books just describe how terrible the outside is. Now there are many good changes but they say merely a long before world such as the fact that black people suffer from discrimination yet.
Second, students are different. They are the smartest and rich students in North Korea. But they want to learn so desperately in a narrow classroom with 60 other students even without a fan. I should change my class system and couldn’t ask any question because they of course do homework perfectly and even prepare lessons all the books.
Third, the situation is different. I saw many poor people suffered from starving outside a bus. They looked so hungry but I couldn’t do anything for them. There were a lot of very high buildings and it looked glamorous but actually it wasn’t. Wherever I turned my head, I could see poor people.
We, the party of changing professors, always were objects of monitoring. They knew even when I slept last night. We couldn’t tell all we know like a real feature of South Korea and couldn’t talk to each other professor.
Though the language, pronunciation, thinking are all different, I think the most different point is that they are poor.
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Interviewing with Sue, I can satisfy our curiosity about North Korea. To me as a South Korean, North Korea is mysterious place. I hope that this interview would be a very interesting article to you also. Thanks for Professor Sue Im, Professor Bruce, my group 3 members and You.
