Personal Journal Entry 2

'One can be courageous if one is ignorant'
I laughed a lot even stuck at the desk doing several assignments postponed.
Thank you! How wonderful it would be you had a beautiful memory in Russia. The time no body willingly studied there, you readily made up your mind to jump up. I am so jealous of your desicive personality because I'm a little indesicive and tend to defer what I should do. Of course, you are dreaming of studying in Russia. Good for you.
I think you are so talented and skillful at doing anything since your valuable experiences abroad will help you drive your ways.

Stay in shape!

Namsook

You have a great experience. I'm always interested in Russia. Russia is still mysterious and dramatic for me too. I want to visit there someday.
I have a question. I heard that Russian food is awful because every food is too oily. As I know Russia is too cold that people must eat greasy food. How was it? The food is really terrible?

Your story abour the life in Russia was very interesting.
Although you didn't realize your dream as a diplomat, your challenging spirit should be appreciated.
As I presented the skills for improving speaking proficiency of English, it seems that mastering a language cannot be rounded out without constant practice.

even if Russia was dangerous contry, you decided to go there. I evvy you because of your braveness. Actually, when I was 20 years old, I wanted to go abroad. However, I was fear, so I gave up. I am very regretfull.
Also, 2 years ago, my room mate was Russian girl. This chance made Russia curious to me. Someday, I wanna go Russia!

To be honest with you, at first time we met, I felt you were kind of reluctant to talk about yourself. But now, thanks to this forum, I feel I am getting familiar with you since your essays reveal how fabulous person you are. I was so impressed by the part you had an absolute purpose of choosing the major in the University, but at the same time sorry to hear that unexpected problems hindered you achieving your goal.

Umn..I am a bit concerned about your health, for you are expecting a baby. I really want to say take good care of your self Minjung.

Bye~

Ji Hye, some foods are not to Korean's tastes, such as smoked pig fats and saulted fish, but russian soup and pirogy are pretty famous worldwide. I enjoyed Russian food very much. Their black bread is very sour and not soft at first, but when you get used to it, you'll have to chew it everyday. Well, I miss it so much even after 10 years!

Ji hye Lim wrote:You have a great experience. I'm always interested in Russia. Russia is still mysterious and dramatic for me too. I want to visit there someday.
I have a question. I heard that Russian food is awful because every food is too oily. As I know Russia is too cold that people must eat greasy food. How was it? The food is really terrible?

Ko, Min-Jung wrote:Personal Journal Entry 2


One of the saddest things with growing older is that I more often think of good old days. There are many precious memories in my mind, but here I want to write about Russia that has dominated my 20s.

My major in college was Russian literature and linguistics- I used to be angry with people who asked me if I studied Russian language, and I would answer, emphasizing the last 2 words; No, I studied Russian “literature and linguistics”. In fact, however, I chose my major because I wanted to be a diplomat. In the early 1990s, Korea started diplomatic and economic relationships with Russia, but there were few specialists not only in language but also in economy and politics, and, if any, they studied in such countries as Germany and the US. As it is well known to all of us, Russia has abundant natural resources and high technology related to military and cosmos. Therefore, I wanted to be one of the first Korean specialists in Russia.

I entered the college with flags flying, but I didn’t study hard because of personal problems. After wasting meaningless two years in college, I decided to fly to Russia and enrolled in a language institute in St. Petersburg. My family and friends were very worried, saying that it would be really dangerous to live in Russia. In fact, there were a lot of gypsies asking for money, thieves with guns and people who stare at an Asian girl with a curious look on the street. Nevertheless, I was young, and eager to experience all the adventurous things. We say that you can be courageous if you are ignorant. I was like a Don Quixote. I was afraid of nothing and wandered everywhere to absorb everything I meet with. Russia was like a village in a fairy tale with lots of adventures: the Orthodox churches, museums, operas, ballets and plays. Each of them has its own stories hidden in the history.

There are also people I’ll never forget. Back then, Russian people were suffering from the economic crisis and frustrated with the fall of communism. My teachers from the language institute were worried about the future of their country but were very proud of their people and culture and helped me more deeply understand Russia. I also cannot forget the home staying family; Elena and her son Dmitry. Elena was a cheerful landlady who always cared about me like a mom. Dmitry was interested in Korea and wanted to visit Seoul some time. I even taught him Korean and listened to a Voice of Korea radio program transmitted from Korea. He promised to visit Korea someday, but after my moving to the US, we lost the contact with each other.

Now I’m forgetting Russian day by day, and it’s been quite a long time since I spoke Russian. In addition, I am too busy with studying English to care about Russian. However, the truth is Russia is always my second home in my mind and will live my life, missing the country and its people all the time. Lastly, I just wish I could spare the time and money to go back to the graduate school and finish the MA degree before being too late…

What a fascinating journal entry and account of your earlier life!

I actually think that is one of the unique powers of personal composition... It allows us to go back in time and see our memories played out again. It can be an uplifting and yet sad experience at the same time.

Your account of life in Russia was amazing. You were clearly very different from most Koreans of your generation, being willing to go on an adventure like this. I also liked the idea that global developments can have such a huge impact on things like study and career paths. If things had turned out a little differently with the Soviet Union, I have no doubt you would have found yourself doing something very different to what you are doing now... Fate is an interesting tree, isn't it?

Thanks for the journal entry. I really enjoyed reading it, and going by the feedback from your classmates, they really enjoyed it, too!

Best regards,

~ Jason


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