Reflecting on the two-way educational exchange between Korea and the United States

Abstract

Korea’s visibility in the United States seems noticeably increasing these years. All around, we see Hyundai Sonatas more often than in previous years. An increasing number of people seem to be carrying cell phones and other gadgets from Samsung and LG. However, some people seem to fail to connect such items to Korea, much as we don’t necessarily think of “British” when we fill up our gas tanks at the BP stations. A while back, I was sending a small parcel item to my parents in Korea at a post office branch. I said “South Korea,” but apparently the U.S. Postal Service chart listed two Koreas under their cumbersome official names: Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The staff person said South Korea must be the DPRK because it has the word Democratic! Well, this puzzling experience happened in the City of Cleveland proper, where more than half the public high-school students fail to graduate. If so, then it’s not that puzzling, I thought. Further, the memories of the Korean War appear to be indelible in the minds of the U.S. public. But the reality is: Korea is now one of the world’s rapidly advancing countries. Korea’s new President Lee Myung-bak, in his Feb. 25 (2008) inaugural address, declared South Korea is “among the 10 largest economies in the world.”