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Showing posts from February, 2014

Dear readers: I'm on N. Korea's enemies list (Korea Times, 2014/02/25) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Dear readers: I'm on N. Korea's enemies list By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Although I absolutely love my job, I occasionally update my resume to track milestones and achievements. How should I categorize this? I have been included on former North Korean leader " Kim Jong-il's Official Enemies List ." There are 30 of us on the list, including former U.S. President George W. Bush and former Soviet leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Nikita Khrushchev. Just two enemies list names above my own: Former South Korean President Kim Young-sam, on page 417 of the hilarious new book, " Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong-il ." According to the book cover, everything, as dictated to celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice, who never met Kim Jong-il, is 100 percent "TRUE"!

2014-02-22 English Matching: The Yeon Mi Park Show!

  My colleague Lee Eunkoo and I started the English Matching Project in March 2013. Thankfully, it was all volunteer, because if we had been working with a company, we would have gotten fired. Now? The program is running really smoothly. Some of the highlights from yesterday. * The Collector: Yeon Mi Park!!! She has been to a few sessions now. Yesterday, she swooped in and claimed four of the teachers! She is the kind of student that teachers love. She is so motivated to learn. She appreciates when someone teaches her something. She already had four teachers, then at round 2, one of the teachers taught her something, she then reserved him to be her teacher after one of the short-term teachers leaves!!!^^ * Clear goal: There is an old saying: "The threat of execution sharpens the mind." Yeon Mi's speech at the March 15 event has also given her a clear goal. The same with Mi Yeon! She is studying so hard now to get ready for the March 15 event. When I first asked Mi Yeon to

2014-02-20 Geoil Bok book luncheon

  My boss arranged for me to have another great lunch. But forget about him treating me to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Today we had a lunch at a great Chinese restaurant. The occasion was to celebrate the publication of Geoil Bok's new book "Laissez Evoluer" published by our friends at the Korea Economic Research Institute. During lunch, I learned a few things about the value of sitting next to the main speaker or guest at a lunch of dinner meeting.  Everyone was talking to Mr. Bok, so he didn't have much time to eat. On the other hand, for me: Head down, chopsticks up and moving in every direction. It seems that I had a pair of chopsticks in each hand. It didn't just seem that I was eating enough for two people--I actually was! For me and Mr. Bok! I later mentioned Mr. Bok in a Korea Times column.  'Situationist' (koreatimes.co.kr) * * * My colleague Yoojin Lee wrote: 복거일 선생님께서 Laissez Evoluer(진화하게 하라)라는 책을 내셨다. 번역본이 아니라 영어로 직접 쓰셨다. 영어... 하아... 언젠가 넘어야

2014-02-14 Yeon-Mi Park`s debut

Yeonmi Park, February 14, 2014, making her debut! Yesterday I was one of the speakers at a special session on North Korean refugees at the Canadian Maple International School. Wow, it was a wonderful time! * Yeon-Mi Park delivered her first major speech in English. She was wonderful! She told her story (35 minute speech without notes), discussed different aspects of North Korea, and then handled questions from students for more than an hour. She did seem to be nervous at the beginning-she took a deep breath just as she started, looked at me, then told her story from her heart. * Returning from the speech, I told Yeonmi that she had star potential. She told me that she didn't believe it, but I told her that the way she handled Q&A and told her story, I would be lucky to have her still returning my phone calls within a year. * The students had many questions. They have been learning about North Korea. They are now reading "Escape from Camp 14" featuring Shin Dong-h