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What we're doing after a month in Korea

27/3/2016

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Picture
Last Sunday we visited a local Buddhist temple. Check out the early spring flowers!
Good morning everyone. It's about 8 o'clock Saturday morning. Ursula and the kids are still sleeping. There's a clear blue sky, but it's unseasonably cool - about 10 degrees during the day and near freezing at night. The good news is the buds and flowers have started to come out, and the cherry blossoms should pop in 10-14 days (about when my parents arrive for a month-long visit). This is the dry season here. We've only seen rain/snow 2 or 3 times since we arrived. In the next week it's supposed to warm up to the high teens during the day. That will be nice.

After a month, I've settled in at Sejong University. My office is pretty much set up; it's big but barren. In fact, Ursula and I might paint it to make it feel a little fresher. As it turns out, I'm only teaching 2 classes this semester. One is an Introduction to Political Thought on Monday evenings from 6 to 9. There are 20 international graduate students from the Asian Studies program, coming from South Africa and Camaroon, Afghanistan and Mongolia (both work at their respective embassies here), Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, Iraq, even one guy from Canada, and elsewhere. It's like our own mini UN session.

My second class is part of the General Studies program for all undergraduates. Fifteen of the 24 students are international and the rest are Korean. Once again, they come from all over. This class is a lot of fun. It's a (very) General Introduction to Politics and Government. We meet on Tue and Thu from 1:30 to 3:00. It's interesting to talk about democracy when you have students from Russia and China and Vietnam in the class.

Beyond teaching, I expect to be busy in two other areas in the coming months (now that I've found my feet in the classroom): helping to increase the number of both exchange and tuition-paying foreign students at Sejong; and producing academic research for publication. In terms of foreign students, hopefully I'll be able to make suggestions to improve the appeal of Sejong's programs to foreigners, and find some new partnerships for Sejong with Canadian and American universities. I've already spoken to the Dean of Social Sciences and he is interested in my input.

In terms of research, I think my niche will be in a comparative approach between Canadian and Korean issues. This might sound like a stretch, but I see one area where there is a very logical connection, and it appears no research has been done. Basically, I'd like to investigate the enormous socialization challenges faced by North Korean defectors now living in South Korea, and compare those with the (eerily similar) challenges facing Canadian aboriginal people who try to survive and succeed in mainstream Canadian society. My working title is "Strangers in Their Own Land". Given that this process has been going on longer in Canada than Korea, I'm hoping to be able to identify ideas or programs that have worked (or not worked) in Canada to see whether they might be of value in Korea. Based on what I know now, I see many opportunities for investigation.

To be more specific, it's well known that both the Canadian aboriginal and North Korean defector communities have struggled to develop leadership capacity from within their own ranks. Having said that, after several decades of focussed effort in Canada, there is now a well-educated group of aboriginal leaders capable of  articulating the concerns and needs of their communities. In Korea, this process has just begun in the defector community, so maybe there is something Korea could learn and apply from the Canadian experience. As the former Chair of Canada's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, and co-founder of Toronto-based Han Voice's Pioneer Project (that brings young North Korean defectors to Canada to gain leadership skills), I probably know as much as anybody about where these two challenges intersect.

On the administrative side of life, I'm now registered as a legal "alien" in Korea so I've been able to open a bank account and get a long-term cell phone contract (very important because there is so much smartphone-based commerce here). More importantly, I got paid for the first time this week! While I've expected this whole financial plan of mine to work since I dreamt it up two years ago, it's nice to see some new money in the bank (before we ran out of old money).

Beyond work stuff, progress on building a social network for our family remains slow. We've met some people at church and in our neighbourhood (mostly other foreign professors and graduate students and their families). The kids also began tae-kwon-do lessons this week. Ironically, one of the challenges we face is finding activities for us and the kids close to our home, as this is a very large city. The subway system (second largest in the world after NYC) is great, but it still takes an hour or more to get to many places. As such, we're trying not to get involved with things that will require massive commutes. Ursula and I also realize that success in other areas of our lives won't mean much if we all aren't happy living here for 2 years. As such, this is now our top priority.

Anyway, that's it for now. I think George and I are going to buy a couple of used bikes for the family today. There are great trails to explore along the rivers here, but when I'm running my range is only about 10-13 km, and the rest of the family can't come with me. We've looked at some really nice new road bikes, but I'm not sure we should invest that much money until we're sure we will make good use of them. If we buy used, and we discover we love cycling, we can sell the used ones for what we paid for them and get some new bikes in a few months. The adventures continue...
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Update from the professor (hey, that's fun to write!)

10/3/2016

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If you've read Ursula's post today, you'll know I've been living in the sick ward this week. So far I've managed to avoid this nasty cold bug, but I find it hard to believe my luck won't run out eventually.

My classes have begun, and I'm starting to settle into a groove. As I think I mentioned previously, I am required to teach 5 classes over two semesters each year. At first, I thought I would have 3 this semester and 2 in the fall. However, there weren't enough students in one class, so it's been cancelled. This is a mixed blessing for me: less work now, but more in the fall. Oh well, I'm satisfied how it's worked out.

On Monday evening, I teach an Introduction to Political Thought class to 20 international graduate students in Sejong's Asian Studies program. The students come from all over, including two guys from South Africa and one Canadian. After the first class, they took me out for a beer, and I look forward to seeng them again in a few days. I'm not an expert in this subject area, so I'll be doing lots of reading over the next 4 months to stay ahead of the students. As it turns out, I'm really looking forward to reviewing material I haven't read since I was at Stony Brook 30 years ago. Next week it's Socrates, Plato and Aristotle...

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I also teach a general course called Introduction to Politics and Government. This class is open to all majors, from freshmen to seniors. It's pretty low level, but fun. My goal is to help these young people better understand how politics and government work, so they can more fully participate as citizens in the process. About half the 25 students are Korean, the others are from Vietnam, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Nepal, China and Hong Kong. This should make our discussion fun, with so many different points of view in the group.

Now that I know what my teaching will be, I have also begun to think about other activities I will be doing related to work. The university expects me to produce research, so I need to zero in on a topic where I feel I have something to offer. I'm also expected to help raise the profile of the university in the broader Seoul business and government community, so I will join a couple of organizations like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, attend conferences, attend political events with members of the Korean National Assembly, and (hopefully) deliver guest lectures at other universities in Seoul with Canadian Studies courses.

Ursula and I also want to work with North Korean defectors and become involved in a committee the Canadian Ambassador is forming to welcome athletes and dignitaries for the 2018 Winter Olympics. In short,  I don't think there will be any problem staying active here.

Having said all that, the biggest priority for Ursula and me remains finding a social network for George and Molly. So far, we haven't had much luck plugging them in anywhere. Now that the basics of our day-to-day life are in place, we hope to spend more time finding new friends for them (and us). I'll keep you posted on progress.

​I must also admit I have a lingering melancholy about our big trip being over. I've reread our blog several times, and find it hard to accept that we won't be back to many of those places anytime soon. In particular, I regret that we can't go back to see friends and family in Europe. At this point, the next possible visit Europe isn't until 2017, and even that would mean giving up part of our summer in Canada. I'm not sure how this will play out. Hopefully I'll come up with a plan...

In closing, I guess the best news is that my parents arrive four weeks from today. We all look forward to our time together. I found a great apartment for them very close to us, so we'll have lots of time together during their 4 week visit. The kids are especially looking forward to showing them around. Hopefully we'll have some friends to introduce them to when they're here!
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    Author

    Ever since my first trip to Greece in 1978, travel has been my passion and extravagance. My year in the Netherlands as a Rotary Exchange Student in 1979/80 only fueled this obsession. As I've gotten older, I've become less concerned with "seeing the sights" and more interested in observing, experiencing and absorbing the way people live today.

    From my perspective, the primary objective of these Devolin Adventures is to introduce the world to our children, George and Molly.

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