Editors Letter Campus News Cover Story: Homogeneous or not?

The Paralympic Games, A Means to Unity.

Breaking Down Social Injustice: Park Eun-soo

The plight of foreign laborers in Korea

Counteracting Violence with Tolerance

For or Against: International Students

Campus: The Dejected Life of the Rejected

BUS BUS BUS

Lost Lambs

Minorities at our campus

Arts & Culture: Four degrees of inner Theater

Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea

Edition Peters A Magic Flute Birkin-chicJane Birkin sings Serge Gainsbourg No matter what it takes

Lady Gaga - Born this way

Been to the lamb skewer place yet?

May Culture Calender

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

CONTENTS
Volume 37
April 2012

The Paralympic Games, A Means to Unity.

THE DEJECTED LIFE OF THE REJECTED

LADY GAGA

LAMB SKEWER

INTRODUCING THE NEW QUILLERS

Park So Hyun, College of Engineering What kind of supernatural power would you like to have? I have always dreamt of flying!! It doesnt matter whether I fly with wings or not. When I feel really suffocated from the harsh reality around me, especially when I am cramming for my exams or school work, I just want to fly high up and look down at beautiful landscapes and places. Some people might want the ability to teleport, but I am the kind of person who enjoys the journey to destinations. Perhaps if I reincarnate, I may be born as a bird, but this is ironic since I have a phobia of all kinds of birds + +;; Kwon Inhwa, College of Social Sciences What do you find most interesting upon entering SNU? Well, Im a freshman and lots of things are different from high school life. Out of all the various events, I find MTs the most exciting. Although Ive been to only three MTs, each of them were great. Recently, my class (Economics B) had an MT, and it was so fun. Staying up all night with drinks and snacks while playing games was really cool! Also the barbeque party was amazing! Cant wait for the upcoming MT after Midterms! Song Bohye, College of Humanities Who influenced you the most in your lifetime? My mom. Undeniably. She is the reference I seek whether Im happy or sad. She is an artist. She majored in oriental painting and draws pine trees on papers and ceramics. She is the best cook Ive ever seen. She serves all kinds of food from tteokbokki to pasta. She has excellent talent for everything related with hand. She is the most considerate and warm-hearted lady. Ever since I was young, she has told me to love people and take care of the less fortunate. Her actions come before her words. Everyone who meets my mom loves her. I believe it is because she first reaches out her hand and as a result, people genuinely understand her, trust her, and love her. As I become older and older, I keep telling myself to love all living things as my mom has done. She is the artist of my life. Ko Sung Hoon, College of Business Administration What are some of your favorite things? I like acting goofy. I like being annoying. I like to sleep, so that when I dream I can also be annoying. I like going on other people's Facebook accounts and making statuses on their profiles about how much they like to fart. I like to make situations awkward. I think I'm good at that. But in all seriousness I love reading, watching good TV shows, writing, thinking, and talking to people. People are great because they all have their individual stories. I like people.

Go Dae Ho, College of Business Administration When or what time do you feel excited or pleasant? I am excited when I anticipate about my future. Imagining myself eating delicious food or expecting to eat extra food in my free time makes me satisfied without any particular reason. Also, going to a big book store or library and taking a remarkable book to read gives me the feeling that Im in heaven. I like reading all kinds of books, especially sophisticated ones. So anyone who has an interesting book or knows one, let me know! Lee Da Eun, College of Liberal Studies What do you like to do most? Any close friend of mine would know the answer to this question as well as I do: eating! Although I do pride myself on being a gourmet, I am not a picky one at that. I enjoy eating everything: all sorts of food, from veggies, exotic fruits, seafoods, spices, hot soup and desserts to a variety of wine. When it comes to food, I tend to indulge. I go rogue. No qualms, no guilt, no whatsoever. Hopping around new trendy restaurants in town has long been a favorite pastime of mine, one of which I strongly persuade and beg my friends to join. Feel free to come to me for advice on dinner night venues. I assure you my advice is free! Kim Nu Ri, College of Fine Arts What was your most favorite pet in my life? My favorite pet was a fish named Shark. When my grandma brought two fish home, she put them in a small fishbowl. I felt pity for them. So I wanted to name them something that represented greatness or power. I named the orange one Shark, and the white one Whale. They lived in my house since when I was 16. A few months ago, Shark died. Now, two more fish and a dog live in my house, BUT I still miss Shark. Haesol Kim, College of Business Administration What do you do when you dont drink? I think and imagine myself drinking. I watch almost all dramas in Korea as well as entertainment programs. I also buy clothes on the internet and play FIFA Online 2! I like eating pizza on my own while watching movies! I am also addicted to SNS, so do both Facebook and Cyworld with great passion. I also like reading the news, especially BBC and Kyunghyang Newspaper. Now I use Facebook to read the news, and it is much more convenient. Kim Hyunjip, College of Humanities Could you give us your technical specifications? Certainly. I am a 59 Anglo-Korean model, custom-designed, high-performance, equipped with a built-in 20-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, a glossy Multi-Touch display, two 16-megapixel cameras, a USB cable, multiple language support, built according to code developed at the local library. You are advised to keep me in a cool and well-ventilated place. For more details, including information on how to purchase, contact me. Chuluunbaatar Tselmeg, College of Social Sciences If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich? Then I would have to do a lot of things, and change my work time to time. I would get bored if I do the same thing all the time. So I like changes from time to time. New feelings, more energy and more willingness. But right now, I would really want to eat my moms homemade meal. That would make me the richest person on earth.

April 2012. Vol. 37

FROM THE CHIEF

Spring is sensuous, suicidal, and surreptitious. The flowers of the Magnolia kobus trees gape open their once closed and secured bodies into a seductive pose. The Korean forsythias burst blooming like golden glitters into the spring afternoon. Cherry blossoms invade the pavement; itsy-bitsy aliens fall from the sky and fly around in their white UFO saucers. And the million unknown and hidden kinds of plants, flowers, and trees all decorate spring in their own beautiful ways. To celebrate and appreciate these indie underground plants, the editors and reporters of the Quill have decided to dedicate the May issue to the underdogs and the minorities of our society. The May issue reflects upon the unnoticed and the few on the SNU campus, and largely of our society, from international students, 11.5 students, those dejected from dormitories, to bus drivers, disabled persons, and obscure restaurants. Within the theme of societys minorities, the editors and reporters came up with topics most dear to their hearts and issues related to our everyday lives that are passed unnoticed. Since our members consist mostly of those who have experience living abroad, more attention has been given to the foreign people in our campus and in Seoul. Borrowing words from the ninth amendment to the United States Constitution, The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. In the perspective of the May issue, the social scope of the definition of minority is not limited and retained to those that the Quill have covered. In addition, because the Quill covered the certain groups of people in the May issue, it does not necessarily label or make them a minority. It is the hopes of the SNU Quill to bring light to issues once shoved away in the dark, consciously ignored by the majority. The Quill aligns itself among the minorities of Seoul National University. The Quill, experiencing an existential crisis of its own, thus expresses endorsement of any kind of struggle to live on for the mere want of living. It does not concern others whether you yield utilitarianism, nihilism, hedonism, absurdism... as Kierkegaard said, Be that self which one truly is. BY BAE SU HYEN CHIEF MANAGING DIRECTOR

THE SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

CAMPUS NEWS

uill Staff
Chief Managing Director Bae Su Hyen Editor in Chief Yoon Song-Ug Cover Story & Feature Section Editor Jeong Yeon-il Chae Yun Hwan Hwang Johannes Tae-In Kim Haesol Lee Da Eun Campus Section Editor Oh Josefina Chuluunbaatar Tselmeg Go Dae Ho Ko Sung Hoon Park So Hyun Arts & Culture Section Editor Jung Jiyun Chung Hyun Chung Maskey Abhas Kim Hyunjip Kwon Inhwa Song Bohye Cover Design Hee Won Lee Kim Nu Ri E Mail snuquill@gmail.com Website club.cyworld.com/thesnuquill Advisor Professor Eli Sorensen Sponsor SNU College English Program Printing Late Spring (02 2269 8030) Design Kim Sun Hee

Jahayeon re-opened!
Finally after months of rebuilding, the cafeteria at Pond Jaha has been reopened with new facilities and of course, higher prices for waffles.

SNU Portal and eTL redesigned

After redesigning the SNU Portal in December last year, the office of Information Systems and Technology launched the new eTL site on the 29th of March due to massive complaints about the old eTL site.

Re-Election!
The 54th Student Council will be re-elected on the 17th, 18th, 23rd and 24th of April after last years election results was not passed due to a lack of voting percentage. A new change is that the student council allowed candidates the use of SNS services such as Twitter and Facebook.

BY YOON SONG-UG EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Cover Story

April 2012. Vol. 37

Koreans often praise themselves as being a very homogeneous people. But this is only true to a certain point.
BY YOON SONG-UG EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Homogeneous or not?

Migrant Workers protesting for their rights

orea with about 50 million inhabitants seems to be a very homogeneous country in linguistic and ethnic terms. But the history of its treatment of minorities can be traced centuries back with the treatment of religious minorities. During the Choseon dynasty, (1392-1910) the government tried to remove Buddhist influences in order to promote Confucianist ideals and later when the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in Choseon at the end of the 18th century, Christianity was regarded as an additional threat to Confucianism. At the beginning of the 20th century, additional native religions came into existence such as Chondogyo, a movement with its roots in the peasant uprisings of Donghak which were aimed to fight Japanese occupation and Wonbuddhism, which combined elements of Mahayana, Zen, Neo Confucianism and Christianity. Another minority group beneath the religious minorities is the small population of Chinese (Taiwan) heritage with about 20,000 (CIA World Factbook, 2007 estimate) who were mostly concentrated around big cities such as Incheon (but now move more and more into Seoul). During the rule

of President Park Chung Hee (1961-1979), these people had restrictions on the businesses they could carry out and the ownership of land which resulted in the emigration of about 10,000 people into the United States or into Taiwan and other countries. But the legal context for minorities in South Korea has improved greatly as it began to focus more on the incorporation and implementation of human rights guarantees as it became more democratic. As an example, one can mention the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights after 1990 which was directly applicable in the Korean court. Such measurements have meant for most religious minorities that they have no significant area of limitation or any situation of governmental discrimination. In addition, the creation of a National Human Rights Commission and the establishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality have done a fair amount in putting initiatives to promote non-discrimination towards any minority groups. But while constitutional, legal and human rights guarantee that most religious and other minorities are well protected,

migrants and newer religious movements still have to fear discrimination. One example is the problem of military service for members of the Jehovahs Witness movement or the Seventh Day Adventists since legislation does not allow any exemption or alternative service for religious objection. This resulted in imprisonment of about thousand refusals in 2005 and 2006 (there were 1,044 Jehovas Witnesses in prison for not fulfilling military service in 2005). Some progress occurred for migrant workers in August 2004 with the entry of the Employment Permit System Act, which provided the first legal framework to control and monitor migrant workers and protected basic labor rights. The legislation would also permit the immediate detention and deportation of undocumented workers who have stayed in South Korea for more than four years (between 2003 and 2004 about 3,000 migrant workers were deported and the voluntary departure of about 10,000 took place). Furthermore, the state of migrant workers seemed to improve when the first Migrant Workers Trade Union was formed in 2005 but the government responded by arresting and detaining the leaders of this organization until 2007 when the High Court finally legalized it. In addition, the government introduced the National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and the Act on the Treatment of Foreigners in Korea with the help of the U.N Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) The state of the Chinese minority, while much improved in general , is still subjected to discrimination in the areas of employment and citizenship. While many of them have been born in South Korea, or are even the descendants of early settlers arriving in the country more than 100 years ago, they cannot be naturalized unless they prove their financial ability, have the endorsement of high-level South Korean officials and go through a complicated process.

Under current labor laws, migrant workers are only permitted to change their jobs with the permission of their employer; and work contracts have to be renewed each year, with a maximum stay of three years. According to a 2007 report by Amnesty International, many employers take advantage of these restrictions to exploit migrant workers making them work long hours in poor conditions, withholding salaries and seizing passports and work permits, to prevent them from looking for jobs elsewhere. This may also be a reason why Korea is one of the top countries in human trafficking. South Korea is a destination country for women trafficked from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries for sexual and labor exploitation. Some women and girls were trafficked to become bribes for South Korean men or to work in sex tourism. Some victims were recruited by false promises of employment in the entertainment industry but were later coerced into exploitative conditions. Many NGOs expressed concern about sex tourism in South Korea. Although South Korea has extra territorial laws to prosecute South Korean citizen for sexual child exploitation overseas, there have been almost no prosecutions. In recent years there have also been a growing number of international marriages between Korean men and foreign women, mainly Vietnamese, Filipina and Chinese women who face serious problems of discrimination and often lack fluency in Korean.

Cover Story

April 2012. Vol. 37

The Paralympic Games, A Means to Unity.

BY JEONG YEUN-IL

ave you ever heard of the Paralympic Games? Yes, it sounds a bit similar to the Olympic Games but slightly different. In fact, the Paralympic Games are the Olympic Games designated to athletes with physical disabilities. It is one of the biggest major international multisport events and is held every 2 years. (just like the Olympics) The Games are held each consecutive two years and are held in winter and summer in turn almost right after the regular Olympic Games are over. When the time comes, athletes with certain physical disabilities gather around to participate in this massive sporting event. The idea is to use all the facilities that were utilized in the Olympic Games. Though not recognized as much as

its counterpart, the Paralympics have a long lasting history with an exceptional background. It all started when a neurologist from Germany hosted a rather small sports competition for British World War II veteran patients with spinal cord injuries. Dr. Ludwig Guttman was concerned that these veterans would eventually lose their health and selfdignity due to the disability of their lower part of body. Appointed to be the director of the National Spinal Injuries Center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire in the year of 1944, he then started this humble sporting event and eventually words spread out just so that by 1952, the event would grow to host over 130 international athletes. Noticed by the Olympics officials, the first national

Paralympic Games were held in the year of 1960 when the Summer Olympic Games were held in Rome. Then, however, the Games were only available to those who were equipped with a wheelchair. That is to say, the rules about who should be competing in the Games were not so definite back then. It was not until 1972 that athletes with disabilities other than the wheelchair required ones were accepted to compete in the events. By then, there were now 1,600 people participating in the Paralympics. The term Paralympics has two explained origins. One is that the word

parallel was combined with the Olympics since the event is to be held alongside the original Olympic Games. The other explanation is that the word derives from Paraplegia, the terminology used to describe the condition of having ones lower body paralyzed. The Summer Games of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the term Paralympics came into official use. Competitors of the modern Paralympics are categorized into five different types; mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their respective Olympic Games and apart from the IOC, there exists the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) who governs the events. Currently, the event covers 19 different summer sports and 5 different winter sports ranging from soccer, ping-pong, swimming and yachting to ice-hockey, cross country skiing and so on. Though it started as an ego-booster for the injured war veterans, the main goal of the modern Paralympic Games has come a long way and had turned into something much more grave then its original objective. The IPC claims that the true meaning of their expedition is to let the disabled and the abled feel the sense of unity and for that matter, its first objective is to let them compete in same competitions. In fact, throughout the history of the Paralympic Games, there had been several individuals who had succeeded in getting to compete in the regular Olympic Games. When the whole concept of the Paralympic Games was not yet presented to the world, athletes with disability had had no other choice but to compete in the regular Olympics. The first athlete to do so was an American gymnast George Eyser in 1904; he had one

artificial leg. Karoly Takacs was a Hungarian shooter who competed in shooting events in both the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He was right-arm amputee and was able to shoot left-handed. Another disabled athlete to appear in the Olympics prior to the Paralympic Games was Liz Hartel, a Danish equestrian athlete who had contracted polio in 1943 and won a silver medal in the dressage event. One of the most famous athletes of the Paralympics who gained access to the regular Olympic Games was Neroli Fairhall, a Paralympic archer from New Zealand, who had competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. And the most recent athlete to be concerned with such matter is Oscar Pistorius, a South African Sprinter. Pistorius had both his legs amputated below the knee and races with two carbon fiber blades. You might have heard of him being referred to as the Blade Runner. His first relationship with the international able-bodied sporting event was in 2007 at the 400-meter race at Romes Golden Gala and he had finished second. His most recent engagement in such event was the 2011 World Championships in Athletics held in Daegu, Korea and he

was awarded a silver medal at the 1,600-meter relay. Now, he is trying to start his official Olympic Games participation at the 2012 London Olympic Games. As seen above, the Paralympians strive for equal treatment with nondisabled Olympic athletes. What is deeply placed within this act is the idea that the disabled are not so distinguished from the abled. They would like to spread out this idea in a manner that is very widely used; engaging in sports. For the athletes, competing in sporting events indicate that they also have the valid ability to engage in physical activities just like the abled. For the community of the disabled in whole, engaging in sporting events could lead to a more harmonious way of life among the others. This profound idea was precisely what the founders of the great sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games had had when they first actualized their schemes. Now is the time when the world took notice of their endless efforts and in addition, recognize the sheer fact that the disabled are not people with special requirements but rather, just plain human beings.

Oscar Pistorius, the Blade Runner at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics held in Daegu.

Cover Story

April 2012. Vol. 37

Breaking Down Social Injustice:

Park Eun-soo
BY CHAE YUN HWAN
three decades, Parks personal crusade to expand welfare programs for the disabled has moved the nations conscience, bringing about great attention and awareness towards the social grievances of the disabled population. Despite his frantic schedule, the lawmaker welcomed the SNU Quill for an interview to share his personal experience and insight

n the myriad of offices in the parliament building, one room breaks up the daunting atmosphere of bureaucracy. Two wheelchairs lie beside the office, singling it out from the overwhelmingly mundane rows of cubicles. The office is occupied by Representative Park Eun-soo, 55, an ardent champion for the rights of the disabled in South Korea. For the past

into the progression of social welfare regarding the disabled population in South Korea. As a childhood victim of polio, Park lost the use of both his legs at an early age. He described his early years as a particularly difficult period for the disabled. In the 1950s and the 1960s, there was no government agenda or even interest to address the problems that the disabled faced; all that was offered was merely sympathy. The lack of public infrastructure for the handicapped limited the social involvement of the disabled community. Park described numerous experiences of discrimination that he faced growing up, from failing a physical education class for being unable to participate, to being denied admission at schools for the sole reason of being handicapped. However, despite the obstacles, Park persevered and received admission to our very own Seoul National University (SNU). The graduate of the class of 75 was wistful of his time at SNU, lightheartedly lamenting the fact that buses werent allowed in campus during his time, Its not easy to go around the Gwanak campus on foot, let alone a wheel chair! Concluding his studies, Park

graduated with a degree in law in 1979 and went on to pass the rigorous bar exam to pursue his dream of becoming a judge. However, despite his performance and experience in the exam and the field, the judiciary review committee rejected Parks appointment as a judge simply due to his disability. That was the final straw, Park recalls, prior to that incident, I had tried to appease and fit in to the system, but from then on, I realized that I had to fight for the rights I deserved as any other citizen. This was clearly a social injustice. The following year, Park sued the judiciary review committee with great support from the public and the press. After six months of legal battles, Park finally succeeded in his case and the Supreme Court appointed him as a judge. The victory left the young judge as one of the few who achieved social change through the court system. However, Parks win over the government did not simply remain as a personal achievement, but would also mark the beginning of his quest to fight for the rights of the disabled in South Korea. Since the beginning of his career, the former judge of Daegu has served as an icon for the development of welfare policies for the disabled. Park has revised numerous laws in order to include the disabled population, as well as campaigning for new initiatives for the government to progress in its social welfare programs. With the gain of confidence through the win in the Supreme Court, Park and his supporters successfully pushed for the Comfort for the Disabled Act, which ensures the safety and well-being of

those with disabilities by making support infrastructure for the disabled compulsory in public facilities. Furthermore, more recently, during President Roh Moo-hyuns administration when issues of social welfare were of great significance in Korean politics, Park ensured the passing of the Employment for the Disabled Act. The law encourages the disableds involvement in society through affirmative action programs by hiring persons with disabilities as public servants. However, out of all his achievements, Park was most proud of his involvement in the policy of Adult Guardianship. The law serves for the mentally disabled, giving them the exclusive right to have a guardian even during adulthood, unlike non-mentally disabled persons. The guardianship is supervised by the government, thus the mentally disabled person is ensured of a comfortable quality of life. Park called the rights for the mentally disabled as one of the final steps of social welfare and claimed that society must evolve to protect fundamental human rights, regardless of the type of disability. When asked about the current status of the disabled, Representative Park was focused on changing the publics dogmatic perspective on the disabled community. The lawmaker was particularly concerned with the perception of the disabled as the needy crowd of society, Having a disability is nothing special, it can happen to anyone and everyone has a potential disability. Physical limitations must not hamper ones own access to his or her rights as a human being. Park

expressed that the laws for the disabled do not exist as a sympathetic gesture but for the protection and aid for the disabled to freely exercise their rights as citizens and human beings. Park also pointed to the aging population of South Korea as another reason for the need for a swift change in the publics perception. The aging population directly leads to the prevalence of disabled people, thus a changing perspective on the disabled needs to be imminent. Parks determination and dedication to the fight for the rights of the disabled has made him a symbol of hope for the social minorities in South Korea. His personal battle for his own rights as a handicapped person has manifested into a social crusade that has ultimately served to ensure the rights of the disabled community of the nation. Hopefully, Parks efforts will lead to more proactive engagement from society to safeguard the fundamental rights of all people, irrespective of their physical or mental limitations.

The lawmaker has also published a book on his experiences.

Another day at the office for Representative Park Eun-soo

Cover Story

April 2012. Vol. 37

The plight of foreign laborers in Korea

BY KIM HAE SOL

society. In fact, substantial numbers of business owners solely regard immigrant workers as easily exploitable, replaceable and bargain source of labor. In addition, foreign workers are constantly employed in industries where local people are unwilling to labor in. Real wages and working hours are inferior to that of the locals with appalling living accommodations a daily abhorrence for the workers. Indeed, workers suffer from living in the so called containers provided by their employers known to be minute in size, excessively cold in winter and excessively hot in summer. According to the study conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) in Busan, 64% of migrant workers live in rooms that are not even 6.6m 2 large and more lamentably, must share the room with at least three other people. 20% of the workers deplored the reality of having to spend the night in office buildings or even temporary building structures. Not only are companies utterly inconsiderate of their employees but the equivalent study confirmed that 52% of the migrant workers alleged that their company had seized their passports in order to halt them from escaping, whilst 53% replied that companies customarily violate employment contract such as working hours and salary. Such conducts are a manifest violation of most intrinsic of human rights. So rife is the practice of verbal abuse, physical violence and sexual harassment towards foreign workers that it is seldom reported to the authorities. One such example carried in the 2006 Amnesty International Research Report by Rajiv Narayan affirms that while foreign

he phenomenal economic growth that South Korea has managed to endure for the past several decades has meant that labor demand for the manufacturing industry in particular has soared. Lured by both the Korean governments initiation of the domestic labor market and alleviation of the formerly strict labor law concerning foreign workers, workers from abroad began to inundate Asias fourth largest economy from the late 1980s. Moreover, with their nations' economic growth slowing compared to that of South Korea Koreas annual income per capita had surpassed $20,000 - , foreigners, prominently from South East Asia, contemplated moving to Korea in

order to improve their living standards. Today, the majority of foreigners living in Korea are from China, predominantly ethnically Korean in nature. They are followed by Vietnamese, Filipinos, Thai and Indonesians respectively (by percentage). The other acknowledgeable foreign communities are Burmese and Cambodians. Yet regrettably, the apparent bulk of foreign workers recruited in their new land of opportunity work illegally. Such misfortune is essentially due to the stringent labor law that does not conveniently issue work visas to foreign workers; the Korean government was clearly anxious of employing its own nationals. Illegal

workers are not eligible for legal right of the country therefore evidently not protected by laws of the country. Thus when the employer delays their salary payments or physically abuse them, they cannot report to police of fear that they may be deported to their country of origin. This is a little different from the adversity that illegal teenage workers encounter. Unfortunately, such loopholes of the legal system have indirectly incited some of the employers to persist in violating the fundamental labor rights of the foreign workers. Furthermore, part-time workers from abroad of Korean origin (Kyopo) being bestowed the F4 visa (family visa) and NonKorean ethnics being handed the E2 visa (working permit, expiring within a year), the predicaments concerned with South East Asian workers are not constrained to the undocumented group of foreign workers. Low-skilled foreign laborers are habitually discriminated and due to their difference in cultural background are unlikely to be welcomed with heart by the local community. It is little surprise that migrant workers who merely appear deprived are neglected by the status-conscious Korean

workers in Korea face a myriad of abuses and perilous conditions at the workplace, scarcely are they accordingly compensated for. The report discloses an accident encountered by a Nepali man named BS, who worked for Misung Industry, a plastic manufacturing company in the Southern city of Daegu. Due to an impromptu industrial accident BS lost his hand. Yet outrageously, this was kept a secret to the outside world and after just five months, the company even halted payments for BSs treatment. BS has still not recovered fully and is refusing to leave for his country before he is fully compensated for. According to the report, this is just one of thousands of similar cases in Korea. Of course, foreigners have attempted, in vain, to participate in demonstrations and labor protests. However, the law regarding foreign workers forbids them from forming labor unions. With evidence rarely fully obtained, foreign workers have had no choice but to persist in their present work places with aid nowhere to be found. Last but most definitely not the least among the drawbacks facing foreign workers is the hindrance of changing work place. Under current labor law, foreign workers are only allowed to change their work place three times during their stay in Korea. In fact, foreign workers are denied the right to change their work place merely to better their standard of living; they must have a legitimately documented reason for moving such as concrete evidence of being abused by their employers. Even if a company goes bankrupt or even if their employment permit expires, foreign workers must stay put in their present work place if

they had a precedent of moving work places 3 times. Hence such inflexibility of the Korean labor market means foreign workers have little choice but to work undocumented if they want to alter their work place and aforementioned, a myriad of predicaments ensued from undocumented labor. Even foreign employees who owe large debts to recruitment agencies back home cannot move to a better work place without appropriate rationale. If the government sincerely yearns to keep the foreign workers on Korean soil happy and attract even more laborers from abroad, it must urgently come up with policies to improve the lives of the foreign workers. More substantively, it must formulate more ground for foreigners wishing to stay in Korea and outsiders wanting to visit Korea for a new life in a new country. For such to materialize, first and foremost, the government should cooperate closely with the embassies of the country of origin of the migrant workers. Likewise, the regulation prohibiting migrant workers from moving work places more than three times should be revised. The basic right of a laborer working in a developed country should never be deprived of. Finally, like in the majority of other OECD countries, labor unions should be permitted to be formed among foreigners so that they too can have their voice heard. There is no rationale for this to be prohibited as it is a patent violation of the United Nations labor law.

Cover Story

April 2012. Vol. 37

Increasing foreign workers in Korea calls for more acceptance and less prejudice

Counteracting Violence with Tolerance

Harmonizing foreign workers and students into Korean society
BY LEE DA EUN

he fair treatment of foreigners in our convention-bound society has long been a hot potato among us, especially one that has called for raising public awareness and attention toward less prejudice and more acceptance. We have heard foreign students or workers often complain about the racial bias they face at their workplaces; some say that they have actually had to endure severe physical or verbal violence. These complaints are not groundless lies. Korea, historically a nation known for its reserve and heedfulness toward foreign influences, poses some unexpected problems for an average immigrant worker or student from abroad. It is also true that despite the ongoing clash of jaundiced views and unprotected rights, there have not been adequate measures taken to protect the foreigners residing in our nation. Especially with the compromised status many have as illegal immigrants, it becomes harder for them to stand up for themselves and seek solutions via legitimate authority. The result is a perpetuating cycle of hate and violence. Few recent outbreaks of misdemeanor have yet again brought peoples attention back to the recurrent issue of foreign residents in Korea and the rightful place they deserve in our society. Two months ago in Korea University, three foreign students were caught smoking marijuana and a few other drugs in their dormitory rooms. Their stealth activity was only

revealed when one of them was carried into the hospital emergency room after smoking a joint and showed symptoms of hallucination. The Korean society, much less susceptible to and familiar with drugs than Western cultures, considers marijuana a very severe drug that it has almost become a taboo for open discussion. Besides the drug itself, what shocked people the most seemed to be the fact these foreign students had the nerve to do it so carelessly inside school premises. And only last month, the whole nation went into a frantic seizure when the details of the Suwon murder incident were undisclosed. It turned out that an angry Korean Chinese Chosun-jok laborer had deliberately planned and carried out a murder on an innocent passerby, to revenge all the mistreatment he had received in Korea. He was found to have chopped up the dead body and dispersed it inside different bags. Besides the bungle of a job the police made in the aftermath of the incident, much attention was drawn to the fact that the murderer was Korean Chinese. With the frequent occurrence of such criminal offenses by foreigners in our nation, strong voices of concern and insecurity are resurfacing. These sorts of incidents are rapidly increasing by the year and tend to exhibit similar patterns in their prime motives. According to the department of police, foreigners crime increased from 9100 in 2004 to approximately 27,000 last year, an astonishing threefold increase in eight years. Among them, rape charges increased from 50 to 308, a six-fold increase, and physical violence, by 4500 in five years, roughly a three-fold increase. The surge in foreigners crimes cannot only be explained by the increase in foreign residents; it can primarily be explained by the racial discrimination,

exploitation and harsh ignorance they face living as foreigners in Korean society. However, it has been known that the position of foreigners in Korea, especially that of the Korean Chinese, has become compromised more than ever due to the effects of the Suwon murder incident. All kinds of deprecatory language directed at the criminal are springing up on SNS communication. According to an SNS intelligence company called the Social Matrix, after a thorough analysis of 3.5 million tweets in between April 1st and 9 th, it was revealed that negative recognition of the Korean Chinese had increased. Again, these harmful repercussions will work to incite the suppressed, marginalized foreign workers in Korea, perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence and counter violence. Many assert that foreigners must go through more rigorous screening procedures in order to be accepted into our country which will lower the possibility of them going rogue. Some people say they should face stronger punishment for their criminal offenses. However, none of these deal with the already existent bias toward their presence. No matter how thoroughly they are screened or how strongly they are punished, violence will persevere as long as these prejudices remain. Instead of a temporary remedy, we should look towards reforming the inherent social structure from that of a closed, conservative society to a more tolerant, reconcilable one.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

For or Against:
International Students
BY KO SUNG HOON

ow do people see international students at our school? As most of you probably know, Seoul National University, like some other universities in Korea, has a special system for accepting foreigners and overseas Koreans. About 70-80 Wae-Teuks, as those whove been accepted through this system have come to be called, are admitted each semester. (In September of 2010 the wholly Wae-Teuk class of 2010.5 was initiated, followed by the class of 2011.5 last fall. A class of 2012.5 is scheduled for this autumn as well.) Because these students are accepted into SNU differently from those admitted through the standard procedure, Wae-Teuks have unavoidably been the topic of some controversy amongst native Koreans.

Complaints include (but are not limited to) how these international students get accepted more easily into SNU than regular students, and also how certain classes accommodate Wae-Teuks more than they do native Koreans. Recently I talked about the WaeTeuk topic with two native Koreans, not just for the purposes of this article but also because I believe that understanding other points of view is a way in which we can become better people. They talked to me more specifically about the problems they think revolve around these international students. English Literature major Yeon-Soo Kim said: I think the biggest problem we have with this special system [for foreigners] is that it evaluates

international students differently from us native Koreans. We feel like they are admitted to our school more easily. For example, the acceptance rate for international students is around 20%, but for us natives the rate doesnt even reach 1%. So a lot of us cant help thinking that Wae-Teuks enter Seoul National University more comfortably than native Koreans do. English Literature major Bo Hyeon Kim remarked: I think another problem is that some courses at our school provide more for international students. Theres a College Korean course, for instance, specifically for Wae-Teuks. But theres no College English course just for native Koreans; international students can take it too. And because they often have more experience with English, its hard to compete for grades with them in these courses. Either College Korean should be the same for all students, or native Koreans should be given the opportunity to take College English separately from Wae-Teuks, many of whom come from American or international schools. Thats only fair. Yeon-Soo also conveyed to me what she heard from other native students about Wae-Teuks and foreign exchange students behavior in the dormitories. According to complaints,

some international students have been disruptive in areas like the dormitory pubs and study halls. (Recently the problem has been brought to the attention of the school, which erected a sign in front of Kimbap Heaven and other dormitory restaurants requesting all students to be more quiet after dark.) Lastly, several native Koreans have seen that some Wae-Teuks tend to hang out mostly with just one another. Native Koreans are thus caused to believe that Wae-Teuks feel that they dont need to transition into Korean society. And since many of these international students are fluent in English and maybe more comfortable with it, some natives cant help feeling that some Wae-Teuks consider themselves too foreign, or perhaps even superior, to try to converse with native Koreans, some of whom are not fluent in English. I feel like some Wae-Teuks dont try to adapt to Korean culture, expressed Bo-Hyeon. They have their English, which is becoming a global standard, so I feel like maybe some of them dont think Korean culture is worth learning about. Though these complaints, resentments, and problems are reasonable, are they right? I wholly

sympathize with native Koreans, and I believe they have a right to feel angry or disappointed. but not at WaeTeuks. It is not our fault (I am a WaeTeuk, too) that we entered the school differently. It is not our fault that we were raised in another country. Being angry that Wae-Teuks entered Seoul National University via a system implemented by the school is like being angry that people are born into this world as rich or poor, dumb or smart. Its less on how we arrive at a place and more on how we work to improve ourselves. I ask everyone whether he be Wae-Teuk or native not to attack, defend, or judge us international students on the method by which we came to Seoul National University, but by the content of our individual character. After all, students from international backgrounds can offer different opinions, different ideas. The purpose of a college has always been to educate students. And Seoul National Universitys motto, veritas lux mea, or the truth is my light, is I believe for the promotion of new, varied thought, not against it. Though Korean education is top-notch and excellent, it is only one type of education in a platform of many kinds. There are many truths ready to be found in this

world, and to be able to be exposed to all of them we must be open to different people and their ideas. I am neither for or against international students, just as how I am neither for or against native Korean students. Rather than grouping a person into certain schemas, I think its essential to assess him individually, regardless of ethnic, cultural, or social background. To see a couple international students being disruptive in the dormitories or hanging out with only one another, and then to generalize these behaviors to the rest of Wae-Teuks, is narrowminded thought. On the other hand, it is also parochial to blindly support Wae-Teuks simply because one is one. Veritas lux mea: the truth is my light. Being objective being truthful is difficult, but if we want to follow what the founders of our school believed in, we must learn to be open-minded, to evaluate others as individuals, not generalizations, and at the same time to relent and let go of some of our beliefs, and try to see other peoples perspectives. Then perhaps we can find the truth.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

any students of SNU confess that it is almost life threatening to see that they are 100th or 200th or even 300th person in waiting for the schools dormitory. Especially for a freshman, this announcement dwindles hopes and joys gained from being accepted into Seoul National University, numerous worries begin to arise. Some fortunate individuals, 1064 female undergraduate students and 1366 male undergraduate students, are granted each year with the privilege to live in the SNU dormitories. However, the vast majority who apply with desperate hope are met with disappointment. There are some students who would choose to live by themselves outside

school or in their long distance homes, but it is unsettling to see that many apply for dormitories and are still rejected. Students who have homes in the country and are not accepted into the dormitory have the most difficulties. Their hardship starts in looking for their new living places. Especially for a freshman this can be an overwhelming stress. Some apply for student dormitories run by provinces but most have to live alone or stay in boarding houses. There are three main districts where students of SNU find their homes: Nok-du, Seul-ip and Nakseoung-dae. Students who are new to the school and the areas around the campus have vague idea of where they

should live. Lee So-Young, College of Nursing, 11, tells us about the difficulties she had in looking for her first home. When my friend and I first looked around for our home, we didnt even know where Nak-SeoungDae was or Nok-du was. We had to ask real estate agents in the area about the pros and cons of the different districts but werent sure if their information was unbiased or true. On top of this, students face economic burden. The expense of living by oneself outside school is much more that of living in school dormitories. The cost of living in the school dormitories ranges from five hundred thousand won to six hundred thousand won per semester, while the

The Dejected Life of the Rejected

those who dont get into dorms, & what they have to say
BY PARK SO HYUN

cost of living in Seul-ip costs on average four hundred thousand won per month. Deposit has to be made also and is returned after a full year term. For a third party, these might be the only numbers apparent, but additional cost is added to the monthly rent and deposit. More expenditure is assigned to buying necessary furniture and kitchenware. Maintenance fees including electricity, gas and phone bills also have to be taken into consideration. Students living by themselves outside schools also have to cook for themselves. Except from the fact that these students are less restricted to the time of their meals, this is inconvenient and much time is spent on shopping for ingredients, cooking the food and washing the dishes. Many cooking ingredients like vegetables come in bundles and much gets left over after a meal. Lee Ji-Youn, College of Engineering, 11, says, I am fed up with all the leftover food and smelly garbage, I would rather starve. Many prefer to dine outside and this leads to further increase in cost of living. Compared to meals in dorms which cost around three thousand won on average, food outside school is at least over five thousand won. Large number of students especially male occasionally skip their meals especially their breakfasts. Mental and social disadvantages should also be regarded. Many people in dormitories have frequent meetings and gatherings with their dorm mates. People living outside are not given the opportunities to take part in these activities. Students especially freshman feel isolated living all by themselves in a new environment, they strongly long for company. Unlike SNU which offers dormitories to few of the

schools students, universities like KAIST offer dorm entrance to all the students of the school. Many students of our school who have visited KAIST to meet their friend say that because the university offers dormitory entrance to all their students, they seem to have a stronger feeling of solidarity and many are enthusiastically involved in extra-curricular activities. This is also part of an issue regarding students who live in Seoul. Not only do they lack the opportunity to hang out with dorm mates but they find it difficult to take part in after class activities due to the long distance travel to and from school to homes. Many students living inside Seoul take over one or two hours to come to school by bus, subway or both. Many live in homes that are more distant than students living in suburbs of kyoung-gi do.

In selection of its dorm students, the school seems to overlook this matter. To solve all of these problems, it is necessary for the school to build more dormitories or give more support to students who are left out. The difficulties they have in settling to the new world could be aided with little more attention.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

BUS
these buses, most students know very little about their bus drivers. BY GO DAE HO

BUS

BUS

Photos of students who were wating for shuttle bus

Shuttle bus which is passing through front gate

Most SNU students take the bus to go to SNU. Although they are familiar with

very morning long rows of students wait at various bus stops in Seoul to get to school. Though they struggle to take the bus and to be on time for lectures, many students complain about the long waits. At the same time they admit that these buses are indispensable for living in and around SNU due to the sheer size of the campus, these buses are a valuable means of transportation. Generally, there are three different kinds of buses which pass through our school. First, there is the school Shuttle Bus which circulates around SNU, taking students to the SNU subway station, Hye-Hwa campus, Nok-Du streets or to Naksungdae. Then there is the Kwan-Ak 02 Bus, which drives from Naksungdae through the Dormitory up to Building 302, and lastly there are the green colored city buses 5511, 5513 and 5516. When it comes to Shuttle Buses, the central operating body is the Office of Student Affairs, based on Verse 4, Article 27 of the SNUs Regulations. Shuttle Bus drivers are thus considered

as technical service government employees (level 10). Currently there are more than 25 Shuttle Buses at SNU and more than 30 Shuttle Bus drivers. But not all of the current drivers are permanent workers; some are only temporarily employed during the semester. In comparison, town and city buses are run by private companies with their own interests. In 2011, the company responsible for line 5513 tried to change its route due to the fact that it was not profitable. But after a weeklong discussion between the school, student organizations and the bus company, a solution was found with a different time schedule. The working conditions of private bus drivers are worse than that of our schools Shuttle Bus drivers. Most of them are in temporary positions and both their job security and their wages are poor as well. Additionally, because most companies send their least experienced or soon-to-retire drivers to the town lines, these drivers have to endure harsh working conditions. Of course, every student has to get to class on time. And though taking

the bus to school may be inconvenient at times, and may cause people to be frustrated at the bus system, we should be aware of the bus drivers circumstances and to understand that the school is trying to improve its transportation system in order to accommodate the constant influx of new students

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April 2012. Vol. 37

Lost Lambs
BY OH JOSEFINA

What hakbon are you? they ask. I am a 11.5. What? A 11.5? What is that?

Im just a lost .5

nd so the explanation begins. I received twelve years of my education abroad, and from where I come from the school year begins in fall. So I entered SNU in September. I explain. Since I entered in the middle of the year, I am a .5, a half. Then questions flood in. How does that system work? How old are you then? When do you choose your major? (Since I am in the College of Social Sciences, where we apply for a major after our first year.) It doesnt cease to amuse me that the fact that I am a .5 is so intriguing to the students of SNU. But what sure is not amusing is that being a .5 creates a lot of inconvenient, and uncomfortable, situations. Socially, of course, we are set in ambiguous circumstances. In a society that emphasizes the year that one enters university, what happens in our case? I remember feeling disconcerted because I didnt know if those who had entered in 2011 were my friends or if I should treat them as seniors (sunbaes). And now that freshmen have entered in 2012, I still am not sure if I am a sunbae to them. But these situations are merely uncomfortable. What is worse is when being a .5 seems to affect us in practical aspects. Take course registration, for example. For the regular freshmen who enter in spring semester, the school leaves extra seats in essential courses such as Korean and Advanced English. When I was registering for courses most of them were already filled, as the school had scheduled our course registration to be a week after the normal students had already

finished. Panicked, and with no knowledge of even the layout of the campus, my peers and I were told we would have to rely on choanggis , worksheets asking professors to accept us in their class. We were lost lambs wandering in the vast field of college life. Whats worse is that our herders were not even aware of our identity. When I stopped by the Social Sciences administration to ask a question, the faculty worker reprimanded me and said I should already know the answer to this question. When I explained that I had recently begun college (this was only a couple of weeks after I had entered) he said, What do you mean you just entered? Are you a transfer student? to which I answered, No. I am an international Korean student. I entered in the fall semester. Without skipping a beat he declared, There is no such thing. What do you mean, enter in fall semester? Our school has no such thing! Stunned, all I could do was scurry out the door like a startled lamb. Maybe I should have come up with a snappy retort to the faculty member, but in reality it is not entirely his fault for not knowing. After having begun the project of accepting .5 students in 2010, the SNU administration has not been entirely thorough in ensuring that the admitted students, regular students, professors and faculty members are all on the same page. Heck, sometimes it seems like nobody knows of our existence but us! This may be because we simply do not amount to a large portion of the SNU student population. Around 60

students entered in the fall of 2010 while less than 70 students entered in the fall of last year. Out of the 16,000 undergraduates in SNU, the .5s do not even make up one percent of the population. But if SNU is to continue the .5 program, as it has stated, then it should attempt to make improvements for the future generations. What is needed is a clear explanation of our situation, at the very least to the faculty members. An orientation would be helpful for .5 students to be informed of basic school functions ( ehem , SNU administration that did not give us an OT!) The difference between having an OT and not is like the one of a herd of lost lambs versus a colony of ants that knows clearly its trail to follow. Being a .5 is certainly a challenge, but one that makes me truly appreciate the tight bond I have with my 11.5 colleagues. I would rush to their side if one of them broke her pinkie toe by banging it on a chair (you know who you are!) Lost lambs are lost only when the field is unknown to them. But what is important is that we are in the field, surrounded with fellow companions who will help us get to our destination. And that is, in my opinion, the greatest bond anyone in the university could ever wish for.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

Minorities at our campus

SNU is a mix of people from various and diverse backgrounds. Some backgrounds are not as well represented as others and people with lifestyles very foreign to Korean society can sometimes struggle in their daily campus life
BY HWANG JOHANNES TAE-IN
hard. Germany is known for eating a lot of meat, but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. In the beginning I didn't feel full after I had eaten, and I felt like I had to eat a lot not to get hungry immediately. After only a few weeks, however, I noticed my body was feeling a lot lighter. I started talking more to my friends about vegetarianism. I read a bunch of books on eating meat. I can recommend Johan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals". There is a whole slew of reasons why we should eat less meat today, the most important to me being the impact the meat industry has on the environment as well as the health benefits that come from being a vegetarian. country. We eat much more meat than we did before. The increased demand for meat has led to more pollution, and led to unethical factory farming. To keep the massive number of animals from getting diseases we give them antibiotics among many other drugs. This eventually transfers to the humans and can make us more resistant to antibiotic treatments. Antibiotics are one of our most important means to fight against many infections. Some of the diseases we see as unproblematic today may become a challenge to treat in the future if the massive meat consuming trend continues.

my German friends did for me.

How is it to live at SNU campus as a vegetarian?

After I discovered the vegetarian buffet in the music cafeteria it has been a lot easier. Before that I relied on Bibimbab, ramyeon and vegetable sandwiches.

to many other Koreans I have met. They know how it is to sacrifice. This is what vegetarianism is about. You sacrifice the pleasure of eating meat for other private and social benefits. I feel like SNU tries to take every individual opinion into account, and respects that people often make different choices from the majority.

What are the most common hardships?

Language is definitely the most common hardship which is understandable but unavoidable. Other than that there are mostly minor problems that people bring up to SISA. For example they dont know how to rent the soccer field or want the school to provide a water dispenser in the BK house. Some more major problems is that the Muslims of SNU have a hard time finding halal food and would like the school to provide it.

How is it to be a vegeterian in Korea compared to other places you have lived?

Honestly, it is a challenge here. In Berlin there is a vegetarian trend going on, and in Norway the government has initiated a project called "meat free Monday". There is almost always a vegetarian option available, and I feel like people respect the choice of not eating meat. In Korea it is harder to find options without meat in them. Even when I ask if there is no meat in the food and get a yes from the cooks, there is usually spam or chicken in it. It seems like Koreans have another perception of what meat is than we have in Europe.

Do you think SNU takes well care of minority groups in general?

Ooi Xin Ying is the current president of the SNU International Students Association (SISA) and a senior in the department of Economics. While working for SISA she has been in touch with many minority groups of our school. I would say yes. For the disabled people they have a room designed specially for their convenience. They have a designated shuttle bus as well. For the Muslims the dormitory has provided a room which can be used as a prayer room. Im not saying its their room, but it can be used if they make reservations. Also the school keeps opening new lounges for international students. In my opinion, it is not that the school is not trying to do something, but even if the school tries, people dont know about it. A piece of advice, if u need something, ask for it, if u want the school to do something, give suggestions. I dont guarantee changes, but at least they will be aware of the problem and will always work to improve of the school for everyone.

eidi Elisabeth Kristiansen Bekjorden is a Norwegian exchange student at SNU currently in her second semester in the department of Political Science. For this issue of the Quill she has shared her opinions on living as a vegetarian at the SNU campus.

Would you like to see any changes?

A resounding yes! As a matter of fact I am beginning to see them now. Not just only in Europe, but also here in Korea. There are several vegetarian restaurants in Seoul, and many of the canteens in SNU try to provide a vegetarian option. This makes me happy!

How is the current situation for the international students at the university?
In general, I think the school is working hard to accommodate the international students. Compared to four years ago, when I first came, the school administration has improved quite a lot. This year, the school organized a two day long orientation especially for international students (freshmen) and the whole program was very well structured. I didnt have that four years ago. So I am glad that the new international students do not have to struggle as hard as I had to with finding information regarding classes or graduation. So I would say the school is working hard to improve the situation.

Could you talk a little bit about what it means be a vegetarian and why you chose to become one?
It all started out as a bet. I went to Berlin to do volunteer work for one year, and met a lot of vegetarians. They all challenged me not to eat meat for one month. At that time it seemed

What do you consider to be the biggest issue?

In 1990 South Koreans ate approximately 25 kg of meat per capita. Today the volume is 48 kg. This means in 20 years South Korea has doubled its meat consumption. The tendency is similar in almost every

Have you met many other vegetarians at campus/in Korea?

I have never met a Korean vegetarian, and when I tell people I am a vegetarian most people don't understand why. But they ask questions and I am happy I can share my experiences with them and maybe create some interest in the topic, like

Do you think SNU treats minority groups well?

I think SNU students are a little different than other Korean students. They worked extremely hard to get where they are. It seems like they have a more open mind set and an interest in things that are different compared

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April 2012. Vol. 37

Four degrees of inner Theater

With more than 10 million albums sold worldwide, 2.1 million in the US alone, 2000 shows in over 50 countries and counting, the American progressive band Dream Theater is in a long musical dream marathon. And those lungs still seem to work just fine. BY MASKEY ABHAS

fter more than a quarter century of writing and composing, Dream Theater (DT) has truly withstood the test of time. With a band line-up that is a melting pot of some of the most musically apt, technically sound and incredulously experienced artists of our time, DT is the pioneer of modern progressive metal/rock music. They have managed to set the level so high with their crazy experiments with time signatures, shreds, incredibly long tracks and jaw-dropping versatility on the stool that it is hard to fathom if there will ever be a band with such flare and intensity.

First Degree: Appetizer. Intro

Although the amount of accolades the band and its members have received is just a mere tribute to what the band has accomplished over the years, it is worth mentioning. The band was inducted in Long Islands Hall of Fame in 2010. Guitarist/back vocals John Petrucci has been called up six times for G3 tour, more than any

invited players in the tours history. Named as the No.2 Best Metal Guitarist in Joel Mclver in his book The 100 greatest metal guitarists and enlisted as the top 10 list of the Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time by GuitarOne Magazine, Petrucci is simply irresistible. Bassist John Miyung was voted the greatest bassist of all time in a poll conducted by MusicRader as recently as 2010. Former drummer and founding member Micheal Stephen Mike Portnoy is even more decorated. He is the second youngest person to have been inducted into the Rock Drummer Hall of Fame and has gone on to win 23 awards by the popular Modern Drummer magazine. Current drummer Mike Mangini has previously set five World Fastest Drummer records and is currently holding it. With dynamic, ever experimenting Jordan Rudess on keys and with the amazing vocals of Kevin James LaBrie to complete the lineup, DT is as explosive as dropping a mentos in coke

Second Degree: First Course. History

John Petrucci and John Miyung were both high school friends from Long Island and used to jam together before they decided to enroll in the Berklee School of Music in MA. Thats when they ended up meeting Mike Portnoy. I was going through this hallway when I heard someone play a Rush cover in drums recalls Petrucci, I took a peak from the doors small window and after a while I said to myself that this is the guy we were looking for. After a brief introduction at the schools cafeteria they instantly gelled up and started practicing from six a.m. to midnight, all week long. They loved to work

Rush and Iron Maiden covers. The amount of dedication, diligence and work that they put up coupled with the satisfaction and gratification of doing what they were really passionate about created the very base and foundation to what was to come in the future. DT was initially named by the trio as Majesty. According to an interview given by the band in its 20th anniversary documentary The Score So Far, the trio was waiting in line for tickets to a Rush concert at Berkley Performance Center while listening to Bastille Day on a boom Box in 1985. Portnoy remarked that the ending was majestic and so they decided that their novice band should be named as Majesty After convincing Kevin Moore (Chroma Key) to play keys and a friend from home Chris Collins (Oblivion Knight) to do the lead vocals they played in some local gigs but ended up firing Chris soon after. They auditioned vocalists and ended up with Charlie Dominici, someone who they worked with in their first record album When Dream and Day Unite with Mechanic Records. A band with the same name threatened to file a lawsuit and soon after they found themselves scraping over some names for their band. Thats when Portnoys father recommended the name Dream Theater referring to a movie theater out where he lived and the rest, as they say, is history.

Third Degree: Main Course. Albums

After a series of disappointments with Mechanic Records and even more with Charlies stage presence and vocal limitations, DT started working without vocals, composing instrumentals and practicing together. Charlies obvious departure meant that DT had to now go through another depressing period of auditioning and

playing with different vocalists. They were not satisfied until finally they listened to a tape sent in by Kevin. Portnoy recalls, I said to myself that this guy could sing! and as I pulled out his picture that he had sent, I said that this guys good looking too! With the vocal department sorted out for good and with change in the Label, DT was gearing up for some fun. 1992, Images and Words: With the addition of Kevin James LaBrie, DTs breakthrough album where the band really nailed their prog-metal sound. The gold-selling album gained much airplay across the world with their brazen displays of musical aptitude. 1994, Awake: The industry takes a toll on DT as they follow up on a major hit record. The pressure was on as they seemed to realize that there was a fan base that was expecting something better than the one before. Eventually Kevin Moore (keys) had to leave. Fortunately though, Derek Sherinian (currently Planet X) came in and picked up where Moore left off. 1999, Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory: Jordan Rudesss first album with DT on keys after they let Derek leave was a kind of renaissance album after they finally got hold of Frank Solomon, (their current manager),freed themselves from all constraints that labels and external music producers had placed and let the creative, progressive and dynamic juices flow. The album managed to reach new high as all artists exploded out with all guns blazing. An impeccably polished album. They found a particular pattern that they could never get out from: write, record, tour, repeat. What followed were some very impressive records. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in 2002, Heavy-bombastic-darker Train of Thought in 2003, Lighter more subtle Octavariam in 2006 and A Dramatic Turn of Events in 2011 (Mangini in drums)to name some notable albums.

Fourth degree: Dessert. Post Portnoy Era:

Mike Portnoys departure came as a shock to the band members as well as to the fans worldwide. DT felt utterly devastated as one of their influential key figures and founding members decided to leave them in a wake of an impressive tour with Deep Purple and were planning on a new album. The connection that DT had with Mike was not just professional, there was a deep personal understanding between them and him leaving was something they could have never anticipated before. However the band had to move on and documented attempt to attract the best in drums to DT was brought forth. Seven of the worlds most technically gifted, dynamic drummers including the likes of Derek Roddy (Nile) and Macro Minnemann (Paul Gilbert) auditioned for that one spot. Mike Mangini clenched it with ease. The down-to-earth drummer was later found quoting, I never came here to replace Mike. With an impressive debut on the album A Dramatic Turn of Events released last year and now on a global tour, Mangini is now clearing the dust that had been lying around ever since Portnoys abrupt departure.

Dream Theater is performing this April 19th in Olympic Hall, Olympic Park 8pm onwards after nearly four years of absence in Seoul.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea :

expos are promoting their countries through the expos and pursuing the worldwide peace and unity.

Make It Your Unforgettable Moment This Summer in Yeosu!

Photos of Emblem(top) and Mascots(bottom) of Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea

<International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012> now releases on 12th of May in Yeosu, South Korea. The Expo is held under its main theme of The Living Ocean and Coast. Through the Yeosu Expo, the global society seeks to come up with sustainable alternatives for environmental issues regarding to the oceans and coasts. In specific, it is looking forward to focus on these three main sub-themes: coastal development and preservation, new resources technology, and creative maritime activities. BY SONG BO HYE

Planning a Trip to Yeosu along with the Southern Region of Korea

<Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea> is an international event and thus opened to all Koreans and foreigners. To give an advice for foreigners who havent been to southern part of Korea, visiting Yeosu Expo along with the other Korean cities near Yeosu will bring memorable experience this summer. JeollaNamdo, the state where Yeosu is situated, is famous for its beautiful natural landscape and cultural heritage. First of all, Yeosu Expo will be a very distinctive expo compared to the other expos held worldwide. Under the name of The Yeosu Project supported by BIE, the expo will help the developed and developing nations to cooperate to deal with the climate change and improve the marine environment. Although some of the past expos may have tried to pursue the improvement of marine environment, none of them had actually taken the coastal issue wholly as the main theme of the expo. Thus,

diverse shows prepared by the countries will cover various kinds of cultural events such as musicals and operas concerned with oceans. Also, every night during the expo period, new media shows on issues about the global peace, harmony, hope and coexistence will be presented in Big-O, the main stage of the Expo. All the facilities are creatively designed to present interesting and meaningful experience for the participating guests to learn the value of the marine environment and the possibility of adopting scientific technology onto the marine activities. Therefore, Yeosu Expo is not constrained to displaying each countrys historical heritages as the usual expos have done but also encourage global citizens to experience the marine world and understand the value and possibility of the oceans and coasts.

beautiful clean nature and its unique geographical features including the archipelago allow the visitors to experience the extreme beauty of Korea. If you are thinking of a longer trip during the vacation, Jeju Island, recently appointed as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in the world, and other states around JeollaNamdo are also splendid choices to include in your itinerary.

A Photo of Dadohaehaesang National Park

Photos of Big-O(top) and Korea Pavilion(bottom) in Yeosu Expo

he Expo will provide various kinds of exhibitions and activities prepared by many different countries. A hundred and five countries will be participating in Yeosu Expo from Asia, Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa and additionally ten international organizations will be joining. The Expo will be held for three months, having its wrap up on the 12 th of

August. Historically, the first World Expo was held in the Crystal Palace of London in 1851 to encourage the development of sciences and technology. To prevent the nations from excessive competition on becoming the host of an expo and alleviate the different interests of the nations, the global society has established BIE (The Bureau of

International Expositions) in 1928. Since then, the world expos have contributed greatly to the economic and scientific advancement to the global world. Since the history has stepped into the twentieth century, the global society has started to provide new ideas for sustainable development and played a leading role in enhancing the cultural and technological creativity. Moreover, the hosts of the

Furthermore, the beautiful historical cities along the southern coast of Korea are worthwhile to visit. JeollaNamdo has gone through hundreds of years with Korean history and born many famous historical sites. Most cities are known for their own typical Korean food and traditional cultures. Moreover, Korea is originally known for its picturesque mountains and seas running across the whole Korean peninsula. In JeollaNamdo, the

The official website of Yeosu Expo (http://www.expo2012.kr/main.html) provides guidelines on travelling southern coast and gives detailed information on accommodation and transportation. Get the ticket to Yeosu Expo and entertain yourselves and learn the beauty of the marine world and Yeosu. Do not hesitate to enjoy the opportunities waiting for you in South Korea. Help spread the Yeosu Expo to your friends through twitter, facebook, me2day and more! All the pictures and information are cited from the official site of Yeosu Expo (http://www.expo2012.kr/ main.html) and the official site of Korea National Park Service (http:// main.knps.or.kr/main/main.do).

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April 2012. Vol. 37

Edition Peters
A Magic Flute
BY KIM HYUN JIP

Birkin-chic
Ax Korea, 22 March 2012
BY KIM HYUN JIP

Peter Brook, LG Arts Centre, 15-17 March 2012

Jane Birkin sings Serge Gainsbourg

eter Brook the director has been known to cook with cream, blood and spices. His recent production of Mozarts opera tastes more of skimmed milk, still water and a pinch of salt. Old masters, after all, often end on a quiet note. Take Beethoven, for instance, whose last musical word was not the Ninth, but a string quartet. Brook too is an old warhorse, at eighty-seven, and he is showing the right symptoms. A solo pianist Franck Krawczyk replaces an entire orchestra. Krawczyk plays charmingly, unobtrusively and, as is soon revealed, not the whole opera, to the purists most probable chagrin. All three ladies, boys and the chorus are gone. So are the overture and the finale. In the end, less than 90

minutes of music remain. On stage shoot up a dozen or so bamboo trees, which serve as palace, temple and a cage. The audience is likewise obliged to imagine the actual notes behind the singing, such as Sarastros, at times. This celebrated opera has never felt more fantastic. Here is a grave case of heresy, perhaps, as is low-calorie diet to gastronomes. With steak, red wine and the decadence of a voluptuous dessert removed, it would make a dull meal. Lack, however, was not at all my impression of the evening. Quite on the contrary, the production was all artistic fertility. Almost any contemporary performance of The Magic Flute I predict to be as tasteless as a dish served every Friday night, so numbingly familiar has the opera-goer become to its musical material and plot. The flatulent consumer can take no more. Yet Brook overcomes this, easily, by dint of his novel arrangement. Even the most famous arias (as, for example, Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon ) appear out of a wondrous uncertainty and enjoy the breathless attention paid to a song never heard before. A Magic Flute takes away the cream and the spices, I feel, not for the sake of their absence,

but to bring out the forgotten taste of bread and water. For all the excisions, the experience was a productive one, to the shame of many another director of our age. A vogue exists, both in theatre and elsewhere, to strip and reduce, to forcibly effect a vision that sees one or two aspects of an artwork, whilst being blind to the rest. This may be compared to a photograph, as Jules Renard writes in his Journal, which only captures a deadstill instant in the whole movement. Brooks latest production, though outwardly reductive, is not limited to any single reading, and resembles the entire motion of something organic. Perhaps its serene and inexplicably moving conclusion, in which all the characters pick up the fallen bamboo trees, symbolises the celebration of growth, and a rebirth. For us, weary of cold mechanicism, such thought is precious.

n air of laissez-faire marked a rare evening of Jane Birkin. Her hair in a cogent mess, dressed in a white blouse, and loose black trousers, she beamed her trademark smile: the audience swooned and screamed posthaste. It is curious, I noted, such simplicity should stir and excite so readily, drugged to insensibility as we are by Lady-Gagan pyrotechnics. This is what one means by French-chic: the charm of fluent effortlessness. Such is the view, in any case, as one would hold it in Korea of the

accomplished French metropolitan female. Whether this should be a cliche is of little import, for it nonetheless expresses a truth not only about fashion but artistic excellence in general. It is told that the Zen Masters in practising archery preferred to say that the arrow shoots rather than I shoot the arrow. A neat line in the Tao Te Ching sums up the thought: Doing consists of not doing. Superior writing and music, I conceive, hinge likewise on this eloquence of ease. The appeal of the French-chic as commonly imagined works too on the principle of not doing, or at least of appearing as such. Style aside, musically it is Birkins four Japanese friends who merit praise. I can only marvel at these remarkable musicians. Their virtuosity alternates between a kind of spruce precision and spates of wild gusto, just as Gainsbourgs shimmering variety requires. The pianist and composer Nobuyuki Nakajimas rearrangement of the songs is brilliantly apt, in tune with Gainsbourgs smoky melancholia (especially in the early chansons), which Birkins previous collaborators on record categorically failed to be. Gainsbourg has at last met the right disciples to enshrine him.

As for Birkin herself, she is as ever, and lends no great surprises. She retains her distinctive voice like spunsugar and faithfully a la franglaise. In comparison with her band, she is not so adept at full changes of gear. Even so, she unveils on some occasions (as notably in Laquoiboniste) a salty tone of voice, taking brief departures from her usual, feathery practice. In addition, Jane Birkin still has a gap between her front teeth. Had she been born Korean, the suspicion is that she would have had it fixed by now. Would she have looked so chic then? It is a question that all the Korean ladies who filled the concert hall that night, visibly in their 30s and subscribed to some form of tuition at the Alliance Francaise, should very well contemplate.
Jane Birkin was born in 1946. Her relationship with Serge Gainsbourg (19281991), one of the most important figures in French pop culture, lasted from mid-1968 to 1980. Their daughter is the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

No matter what it takes

Asians are no strangers to extreme plastic surgery. In this part of the world, a new radical procedure is gaining popularity: the height increase surgery. Because height is also a sign of status and a prerequisite for success, more people are going under the knife just to grow a few inches to a full foot taller. BY CHUNG HYUN CHUNG

Height differences seem to determine status differences as well

A patient going through the heght increase surgery

Painful and long recovery period after surgery

Over-valued appearances
Korean society usually creates the image of an ideal person following three characteristics: a prestigious education, a high-paying job and a specific physical appearance. These three requisites are interdependent. The over-exaggerated fascination with beauty that can be permanently sensed in South Korea is linked with the notion of future success. To fulfill the pursuit of the perfect face in Korean standards, cosmetic procedures tend to westernize appearances through augmenting rhinoplasty, double eyelid surgery and facial slimming surgery. These procedures are supposed to match the

Korean standards of beauty and therefore they represent an important part of this rigid formula for adult success. Unfortunately, when speaking of achieving physical expectations, height cannot be disregarded. Even if one has a good looking face, his or her short height is almost unacceptable in Korean society. It seems as if height is the last, but for sure not the least, key characteristic that completes a Koreans ideal aspect. 1,65cm for women and 1,80cm for men represent the desirable heights. The ugly truth is that most of those who do not suit for these numbers, inevitably feel unable to carry on a life that they can be proud of.

Height-increase surgery
The whole surgery is performed with minimal invasion and trauma. The surgery lasts about two hours, including the pre-operation process and it involves hardly any bleeding. The surgeon sees through both the tibia and the fibula below the knee to make the dream come true of those who say they suffer psychologically from being short. One week later the bones begin to regenerate. Heavy braces made of nickel and titanium, each weighing about half a kilo, are screwed into the inner parts of the patients legs. Every day for the following four months braces are expanded to gradually stretch the leg.

And during those four months the patient grows between six to eight centimeters. After that, for about five more months, the bones get stronger and patients are allowed to begin to walk. Leg lengthening was first performed in the 1950s in the former Soviet Union, and then in China but sometimes with catastrophic results. In the past, the leg was cut in three pieces using pins to steady the bone and usually affecting the delicate bone marrow. However, what is innovative about this new procedure is that it does not touch the bone marrow, a softy substance in the cavities of bones in which blood cells are produced. Therefore, side effects such as length disparity and infections can be avoided. So, who is willing to endure such a procedure which involves months of immobilization and a great amount of discomfort? Those answers were given by the Doctor Park, who accepted to give us an interview but refused to make public the name of his clinic because the leg-lengthening surgery still remains socially unapproved. A small person can encounter all kinds of problems- in his or her marriage, family life and workplace. Doctor Park said that the person feels inferior and faces psychological problems. I

even met people who wanted to commit suicide. Miss Song, a pretty 24 year-old Korean woman, who is still a college student, says she was unhappy when she stood 1.53 meters tall. Four months after surgery at the clinic, she was smiling and six centimeters taller. When asked how she feels now that the surgery is over and results are almost visible Song said I wanted to improve my self-image. And now, I am very happy as she walked very slowly on crutches through the halls of the clinic. I hope that within a year I will be able to walk normally. Running, thats another story. It seems pretty dangerous at the beginning- they cut through your bones, that is not really socially acceptable in Korea yet. It is not like getting a Sang-Kah-Pul (double eyelid) surgery, she explains, referring to the most commonly and frequently done surgery procedure in Korea. Miss Song also commented that only her parents knew about her surgery and her friends had no idea where she was. Miss Baek, a 30 year old lady who had the same surgery as Miss Song, did not tell her friends either and therefore, they do no longer contact her. It was my secret. I told no one. I had lost all of my self-confidence. I

wanted a better life. Said Miss Baek. Beyond the loss of her social circle Baek said there were other sacrifices to make: the months of painful treatment, the dark-looking scars on her legs, among others. And that was the price she was willing to pay during 13 months of treatment, which took her from 1.52 meters to 1.60 meters (a height easily achieved with a pair of kal-chang, similar to stilettos that are put inside shoes) Lastly, Doctor Park commented that the height lengthening surgery is still not socially accepted in Korea. However, given the excessive significance with which our society values physical appearances, more and more people are turning to this surgery to grow taller and hence solve their self-esteem problems. Living in a society where our physical impression seems to determine our love relationships, family life and professional career, it is a matter of time before this surgery turns as popular as the Sang-Kah-Pul surgery.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

An intriguing perspective for listening to music

Lady Gaga - Born this way
An ode to minorities and the neglected loving who you are
BY KWON IN HWA

Theres nothin wrong with

cause He made you perfect, babe.

Lady Gaga at Gay Pride Parade - defending the rights of the sexual minorities

ady Gaga, who was born in 1986, is a very controversial artist. She is beloved worldwide and at the same time always in the limelight for being very unique and seemingly crazy at times (no offense!). Her creative style of wearing clothes and performing always get spotlights and criticism simultaneously. This tremendous pop star is planning to have her second concert in South Korea, on the 27th, and it has already aroused huge attention and criticism at the same time. Since her concert was rated R by Korea Media Rating Board, it became a hot potato causing debate on whether the boards decision violates the freedom of expression that art claims. Also some conservative Protestant or Catholic church groups have been protesting in order to stop her from performing in

Seoul, arguing that she, in her lyrics, has denied god and disgraced him. However, apart from these ongoing controversies, her songs still remain very worth of listening to and that is what this article is about. Especially its about the most beloved song of hers, Born this Way. This song, which was released in February, 2011, is actually an ode that she dedicates to all the minorities who are denounced in the society. Since her eccentric and unique characteristics are more shown by the media, people are not usually aware of her other aspects. She is mostly perceived as a gossip maker, or a unique performer, but she also is very interested in social issues, such as the rights of sexual minorities or kids who are bullied in school. In order to realize her thougths into real actions, she also has participated in many social

movements. For instance, she has founded the Born This Way Foundation in order to help kids who are alienated in schools and have hard time getting along with peers. She also has gave a speech at Gay Pride Parade demanding the society to accept the sexual minorities and protect their rights. Taking a closer look at the lyrics definitely shows that she puts hard efforts in order to show her concerns for the minorities and demand the society to accept others for just the way they are.

the bridge
Youre black, white, beige, chola descent Youre lebanese, youre orient Whether lifes disabilities Left you outcast, bullied, or teased Rejoice and love yourself today Cause baby you were born this way No matter gay, straight, or bi, Lesbian, transgendered life Im on the right track baby I was born to survive No matter black, white or beige Chola or orient made Im on the right track baby I was born to be brave. Her voice cheering those who are in dismay to come out and fight for the right they deserve surely rings something to in our hearts. Her concerns for the minorities and neglected had stemmed from her experience in the youth. She has confessed that she also was bullied in school as a kid, which has made her uneasy in relationship with others. Her appearance, fat body, and her style of talking were teased by other kids and music was her only savior, she said. She also has said that those obnoxious experiences have made her realize her passion for music. She has sublimated

the chorus of the song

Im beautiful in my way Cause god makes no mistakes Im on the right track baby I was born this way Dont hide yourself in regret Just love yourself and youre set Im on the right track baby I was born this way. She repeatedly tries to give comfort to those who are in dismay and torn down cause they are not accepted in the society for who they are.

her painful experience into a song and that is how Born This Way was made. In interviews, she has repeatedly stressed that this song was for those who are let down and denied by the majority of the society and that she wanted to give comfort to those who suffer through her lyrics. This song might seem like just a cheesy pop song, but underneath it lies a voice claiming the society to accept everyone just the way he or she is. Hopefully, this song can be a chance to think about the way society actually treats the minorities. At the same time, how we treat others who are just a bit different from us.

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April 2012. Vol. 37

The Traditional Chinese Delicacy The lamb skewers jiggling on the fire pit. Previously not well known among Koreans, lamb meat is gaining popularity in Seoul.

Been to the lamb skewer place yet?

offbeat dinner option. BY JUNG JI YUN

The famed Chinese style lamb meat restaurant is a fun,

ven though the SNU train station area is not the place where most people would go for a great culinary experience, for those who care to go beyond the likes of Yuganae, Seongmin Yangkochi (lamb skewer) has been the it place to go for a while by now. Located behind the first wave of well-known franchise restaurants and at the beginning of the residential area, Seongmin Yangkochi is not located where you are likely to run into while wandering around for a place to have a dinner with friends, but it still boasts fame that has reached even to people who do not frequent the SNU subway station. Walking in, you might feel a bit awkward due to its ambience, which is quite different from that of many other places around SNU. Instead of part-time servers in their 20s, older ladies who might not quite speak fluent Korean would lead you to the seat and immediately prepare burning charcoal for your table. If you have

been to some Korean restaurants, you would be familiar with the fire pits in the middle of all the tables, but not the little steel structure above the pit, made for skewers to be laid on. The interior looks a lot like ordinary mom and pop Chinese food restaurants in Korea where people with budget would go to have simple dishes such as Jajangmeon or Jampong. The table with red and black colors and a motley collection of trinkets, curtains, and wall decorations with Chinese or Japanese touch shows that whoever in charge of the decoration gave a cute try to make the room look as Asian as possible. There are no menu booklets, and guests study the huge banner on the wall. Simply printed on the banner is the entire list of served plates, which can be roughly categorized into lamb meat specialties, Chinese side dishes, and Korean style meal options. Order Yangkochi (lamb skewer), the most popular dish, and a server would deliver a tin container with about a dozen of half cooked, spiced lamb skewers in it. The skewers are thin and long, and the guests are supposed to place them on the pit, flip or move them when necessary, and eat them when done. The fun of toying with the skewers is a big part of this lamb skewer restaurant experience. Cooking the meat is very different from the sometimes challenging task of cooking raw meets at the regular Korean meet restaurant; the skewers are already almost cooked, and everyone watches out for them together. When done, the skewers are juicy, a bit greasy, but tasty with none of the characteristic lamb smell that many people find difficult to stand. There are two sauces on the table to go with the meat: red powder and tiny seeds. A close observation revealed that the red powder is a combination of salt, pepper, unidentified blue

Fried Pork Try less Koreanized version of the popular Chinese dish at Seongmin Yankochi.

The Sign The name Seongmin is written in Chinese character

powder, sesame, and, surprisingly, ramen sauce powder. The owner would not disclose the composition of the sauce. Anyways, too much of the sauce will make you thirsty. Since one serving is probably not enough make you feel too full, trying another dish is a good idea to complete a dinner. The tangsuyuk, fried pork, is a bit different from the regular yellowish ones from other Chinese restaurants in Seoul. The sauce and batter is lighter in color, and the taste is sweeter. Kanpunggi, fried chicken, is also a good choice. The ratio of meet and batter is more balanced. Especially, people who prefer stronger savor would like the sauce with generous amount of dried red pepper. You could order other lamb meat options, but the lamb skewer is superior than all of the others in both taste and quantity, so unless you want to venture into other varieties of lamb meat, you can move on The side dishes also abide by the Chinese restaurant format. The typical Chinese threesome, yellow picked radish, soybean paste, and sliced onions, come in a tiny dish with compartments. There are two types of pickled onions on the table as well. You may choose to fulfill your daily vegetable requirements from those side dishes, but the chefs intention of serving them was probably more about avoiding the table looking so empty than creating a better dinner experience for the guests; the onions

on my table clearly looked like they have been sitting in those little dishes for a while, and they stayed there untouched until the server retrieved them one by one into her tray at the end of the meal. The clientele includes various types of people. Some SNU underclassmen donned in the SNU baseball jackets chitchatted in small groups, and older undergrads had their dinner with Chinese beers like Tsingtao and Harbin. A lot of people in suits took seats along the corner, and even some couples came in, too. In a landscape of the inevitable chain restaurants, Seongmin Yangkochi stands out. After so many pork belly and chicken, it is a good place for anyone to try a special dinner out in a laid back setting.

Direction
Take exit 2 of SNU train station, turn left at KFC, to straight for three blocks; 02888-8665.

Price:
Lamb meat, 9,000 to 12,000 Chinese dishes, 8,000 to 20,000 meals 4,000 to 5,000

Details:
2p.m. to 2a.m. Monday to Sunday. Reservation necessary for groups.

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SCHEDULER

May Culture Calendar

BY JUNG JI YUN
Sun Mon Tue 1
Maxim Bengerov Recital at Seoul Art Center Concert Hall Tuesday Concert by College of Music at Building 73

Wed 2
Mini Diving Gulbee by SNU Festival Organizers at the Lounge (~3)

Thu 3

Fri 4
Blonde Redhead concert at AX-Hall

Sat 5
Busker Busker concert at Yonsei Univ.(~6)

6
Morrissey concert at AX-Hall

8
Sergio Mendes Concert at Olympic Park Tuesday Concert by College of Music at Building 73

10
FY (College of Social Sciences Band) concert at the Lounge

11
Musiq Soulchild concert at Ax-Hall, Naturally 7 at Seongnam Art Center(~12)

12

13

14
Maegim Sori (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences song group) at the Lounge

15
Cellist Pieter Wispeley at Seoul Art Center

16

17

18
Royal Hunt at KT&G Sangsangmadang Zebra (College of Veterinary Medicine Band) at the Lounge

19
Weightlifting club Mr. SNU Pageant at the Lounge

20

21

22
Move It (College of Social Sciences Dance group) at the Lounge Tuesday Concert by College of Music at Building 73

23
Kenny G concert at Seoul Art Center Russian Monologue by PT:CYC at the Lounge (~25)

24

25
Acoustic Band Club concert at Building 73

26
Greenplugged Music Festival at Nanji Hangang Park (~27)

27

28
Noel Gallagher at AXHall (~29)

29
Tuesday Concert by College of Music at Building 73

30

31
B.A. ROCK (College of Business Administration rock band) at the Lounge Vendetta (College of Liberal Studies band) at Durae Hall

*The Lounge refers to the lounge at the second floor of the Student Center of SNU. *The orange are in-campus events.