Comments on: Hanbando

By: Muninn » 2006 - Year in Review

Muninn » 2006 - Year in Review — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 08:41:27 +0000

[...] Most of the summer of 2006 I spent in Korea, continuing my study of the Korean language at Seoul National University’s intensive summer program (I did level 3/6 in 2005, and 4/6 in 2006). I stopped in Tokyo on the way to Seoul and stayed a week there at the end of May. I should have been relaxing but I spent much of the time cooped up in my friend’s apartment trying to finish a lit. review paper that my orals preparation had kept me from writing. Sayaka joined me and we lived in a very small apartment near Naksŏngdae station, which is about half an hour walk or a short bus ride from campus. The summer was wonderful, though, even if I feel that my Korean did not improve as much as I would have liked it too. I think that after attending many language programs in China, Japan, and Korea, I’m getting worse and worse at concentrating completely on language study. I hope to give formal study of Korean a last chance this coming summer, however, and the rest I’ll have to pick up on my own as I go. I made a number of blog postings while I was there (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11). Sayaka and I visited a lot of museums, met with friends, went on long walks around the back-streets Naksŏngdae, and spent a lot of time in coffee shops. I often regret that the fact I don’t drink alcohol and my strong sensitivity to cigarette smoke has made it almost completely impossible for me to socialize to any great degree in Korea, but until smoke-free bars catch on in Seoul it is something I will have to live with. [...]

By: Antti

Antti — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 05:40:05 +0000

My impression of Kim Hye-yeong has been that she has had the curiosity value of a DPRK-born actor, but that has never been enough to lift her to the mainstream or give much work in the acting business. So I see she’s taken the role of the cultural North Korean, which should suit well for an entertainer.

By: Muninn

Muninn — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:18:52 +0000

Antti, that is very interesting. I wish we could hear more about these kinds of stories over on your blog too! I have to admit, I have never heard of her. But that would me just one drop in the bucket of my ignorance here :-)

By: Antti

Antti — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 05:33:17 +0000

Interesting! Back in ’99 when Kim Hye-yeong had defected (with his family) and gone through all the accommodation projects, I went to interview her with a Finnish journalist. Her father had been working in a foreign currency earning enterprise in DPRK, and they had decided to defect for economic reasons, as she explained in the presence of her minder and a NIS (국정원) representative.