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September 05, 2006
Found in the Crowd
Hannah Kuether/Oracle: Hey Jin!
Jin: Hi!
O: Where are you from?
J: Seoul, South Korea.
O: How old are you?
J: 21? 22? In Korea and America it is different counting.
O: How so?
J: In Korea, we count one year when they are born. I was born in ’85.
O: So you’re 22 in Korea and 21 here? Cool. So, when did you get here?
J: Five days ago. I visited the state fair yesterday, and four times? Five times? I went to Target
O: How did you end up at Hamline?
J: Mr. Ahn, he graduated from Hamline, introduced Hamline as a nice school. He recommended it to me.
O: So your school didn’t have a tie to Hamline or anything?
J: No. I graduated from school in Korea and didn’t really like the Korean school system. I started to try English and at that time he recommended this school and I decided. His son is here.
O: What’s different about U.S. schools that you liked so much?
J: The Korean school system emphasizes memorization. You know, in science class, I think the experiment is the most important thing. In Korea, they do that just once a year. It’s strange, right? Even the home economics is based on memorization. Making food and clothes. You memorize the process and what kind of ingredient you need to make it. We just once made a pizza, and we didn’t make any clothes. I hate it. It’s wasting time, memorizing what ingredients make a pizza.
O: Are you going to get involved in any activities or sports or anything here?
J: I want to. I want to join a club. But, actually, I don’t like exercise. I really want to lose weight, but I hate exercising.
O: We have a lot of clubs here, baseball, soccer, lacrosse
J: What’s lacrosse?
O: You have a stick with a net on the end, you throw and catch a ball with a team.
J: Is it like hockey?
O: Yes! It’s fun. We also have intramurals, volleyball and stuff, chess, working with elementary kids, religious orgs, yoga.
J: Yoga? [he laughs]
O: Yes. And knitting.
J: Oh, I know that. That’s for girls though.
O: Not only girls, boys can do it too!
J: There are many girls though, right?
O: Yes.
J: Okay, I’ll join.
O: Do you think you’ll like living in the dorms?
J: Yeah. In Korea, very few schools have dorms. I lived very near my school, so I just stayed at my house.
O: I think you’ll like it too. Are you excited for the school year?
J: Yeah.
Posted by dwright at September 5, 2006 08:40 PM
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