EOP and Hanbok

6.  Reflective Essay about an experience you’ve had at KMLA recently (not last semester. I know you wrote this in Mrs. Choi’s class to).  You should weave in the theme of a “learning experience” and come to a resolution by the end.  Club activities, homate experiences, how to deal with rules that are made to be broken etc. are all themes you might consider.

Required Writer’s Choice: Option 1.

Mornings of KMLA are tough. When large amounts of homework, quizzes, and club activities are combined with morning exercise with a dash of cleaning inspection, morning becomes hell in KMLA. It was one of those morning hells when I heard a shocking yet true word from my friend.

           My friend, also roommate, was in a very cranky mood that day. It was as if he had bee hives planted under the silly pajamas that he was wearing. He was whining and swearing as he got through the morning but exploded when he got to his school uniform.

“S***! Why is this HanBok so F****** hard to wear! I don’t get this crap about maintaining tradition and wearing this ridiculous HanBok as school uniform! If we really care about Korean tradition, than why do we have EOP(English only Policy) to make us use English in our daily lives? Arg! I got the wrong leg in my pants!”

It was rather hilarious to see my friend swearing while struggling with his HanBok pants (I think he was losing the battle). However, as I thought about what he said, I had to agree with him. If we’re trying this hard to maintain our own tradition by living in Hanok and wearing HanBok why are we keeping EOP? This had me going on thinking for the whole day. And this is what it lead to.

You see, the world is always in constant battle between keeping one’s own identity or rather assimilating with other parts of world. Korea is not an exception. To be honest a large part of Korea has already been assimilated with the world. Through the process of modernization, Korea has abandoned the traditional clothing, houses, and culture of Korea while bringing in new culture such as T-shirts, jeans, apartments, and hamburgers, which most came from the west. Now scholars are fighting whether to get hold of our own traditions to keep us from losing our identity or to fully assimilate with the western culture to increase competition for Korea in the global ubiquitous world. Which should we choose? Our own history and tradition while losing all the benefits of sharing the same culture with the rest of the world, or the conventional and efficient assimilation while abandoning our true selves during the process?

This is a similar question as universalism and multiculturalism,  one awesome all combining culture to rule them all, or many respectable cultures all equal in value ruling the world. I think that KMLA has done a wonderful job of solving this universal question that is tormenting many great minds of the world, going right between them.

If KMLA is to go with the multiculturalism side sticking to Hanbok, and Korean traditions, we would be able to maintain our identities but lose contact with the larger world and fail to be the leaders that the school is trying to educate. If KMLA is to go with the universalism side sticking to usual school uniform with white shirts and using English, we would do well as we graduate and jump into the foreign world and become powerful people. But would it be worth anything if by then one’s lost all esteem of where he came from or what he isㅡnot a good leader either. But what KMLA has done is, to wear the traditional clothing Hanbok while using English in our daily lives, just the balance between them.

In a way KMLA has reached the true hybrid between multiculturalism and Universalism. Keeping the precious identities of Korea and also becoming assimilated to adapt to the larger world. Absolutely remarkable it seems to me. And to all this, I have to ask my cranky roommate for helping me realize this.