Korean Job Discussion Forums

[santafly]

This is intense, horrible, and fascinating - you should watch it:

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms4NIB6xroc

interview starts at 20 minutes

[santafly]

bump

[michaelambling]

Wow.

[Cheonmunka]

I like that guy, Adrian Hong. He has his head screwed on very well.

[sojourner1]

OMG, the 3 generation policy where the entire family of a relative accused of being disloyal to the government are imprisoned for 3 generations is atrocious.

"But when I was able to communicate with South Koreans, I did feel we are one people."


He decided he can never be happy due to the thoughts about horrible it was. Why not gain happiness through moving on with this new start on life?

[santafly]

bump again

[michaelambling]

[santafly]

bump again

[Cheonmunka]

Have translated Chapter one part three:

Not sure about copyrights here (isn't it ten percent of a work?) ... what the heck.

Shin Dong Gyu
'Escape to the Outside' as it's known.
As I transliterate it, 'Coming into the World.'

어머니에 대한 두 가지 기억Two things I remember about Mother

One time when I was around ten years old I went to the workroom where Mother was.
However, Mother wasn�t there. I looked around the room for her. I asked a woman who worked in the same room as Mother,
�Where is my mother?�
�She�s cleaning the charge guard�s room right now.�
I went to the guards� office to find Mother. But, the door was locked from the inside. I didn�t know what was going on so I went around to the window which was at the back of the room. My eyes opened wide onto something unfolding that I should never have seen.

What was it I saw?

My mother was on her hands and knees mopping the floor. The charge guard went to her and began touching her buttocks. She cringed and seemed upset but soon nodded, giving in, starting to give her body up to the guard. When I think of it now, it�s as if Mother had become used to that kind of behavior from the guard.
If not, why would she submit to his sexual gratification rather than resist him?
The guard then delved into Mother. He started taking off his clothes and Mother took off hers. I could never say anything after that about what I saw.
It wasn�t just my mother, either. All the thousands of women in Maximum Secured Zone Gaecheon Camp Number 14 faced the same difficulties. They were prisoners, sexual toys. That was their shared existence.

When I was a boy, I remember going out to where Mother was engaged in farm work. Luckily, all of our class volunteered to go out to the work rooms of our parents. Our work was to be rice planting.
We started work at nine am. We would plant rice on each of our parents� plots. We had to finish all the planting that very day.
However, that morning Mother did not look very well. She had said that her bones were giving her pain. For us though, no matter how much pain your bones are in you must come out and work. This was a direct order from No. 14 control office.
That day mother thought we had to work three rice plots. I gave Mother a hand. But, by the middle of the day, after working all morning, we couldn�t finish even one rice plot.

The charge guard let race with a whole lot of abusive language.
�Hey, Jang Hyae Gyoung, you bitch! Your work is tiny. Smaller than the size of your hand!
�I�m very sorry,� pleaded Mother. �We�ll fill up the afternoon and do better.�
�You bitch. Hey, get up there on the levee on your knees and your hands up. When I get back from lunch you had better be just like that. If you move even a little I won�t tolerate it!�
Mother didn�t say another word but did what the charge guard ordered � kneeling on the levee, her hands high in the air.

Under high noon�s beating sun, Mother getting punished, me looking after her.

Can an ill woman stay on her knees with her arms up under a beating sun for an hour and a half?
Everyone went away to eat lunch. Mother was the only one to be punished. All I could do was stay and look after her. After exactly one hour and a half the squad leader came back and ordered Mother back to work.
How much work, can an ill woman who could not eat lunch, and who was punished, do?
I could only stay with her yet could not say a word.
But, Mother started working. At about three-thirty Mother fainted. I was next to her, upset.
I cried while I shouted for help.
�Hello, Section Leader. Mother fell over. Please come and see.�
People ran over and dragged Mother from the mud up onto the levee. Luckily someone gave her a piggy back and took her to the worker restroom. After a while she came conscious.
We couldn�t finish our assigned work for that day. That evening at the Ideological Meeting Mother kneeled on the Criticism Stage for two hours and from no less than 40 people one by one received their criticism.
But, for a short time she believed she had escaped the violence of charge guard Jong.


Pretty much word for word. When I translate I don't add any extrananeous stuff. For example the title, there's no word 'escape' in the title. This is an adventure? No, it's not. For some reason other translators have made it that way.
Also, unfortunately, the work doesn't have a lot of feel. You know why? Let's think about it ...

If you think of better ways to phrase something write it here. Maybe, just maybe one day I can meet this man and offer him a better way as it seems he may be having trouble getting his work done & printed into English.

[cdninkorea]

Did you really translate all that, Cheonmunka? Impressive!

Also it looks like a good, albeit horrifying, read.

[crocadoodledoo]

Great link !
I'm super interested in North Korea related stuff -
Here is a great online book written by a British guy living in North Korea in the 1960 or 70s (?)
http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang_5.html

[Cheonmunka]

[djsmnc]

[NoExplode]

I wonder how many South Koreans are members of LINK?

[S C]