Where Is Your Blue Bird?

No one knows if the stone you pick up and throw could be a toy to kill a frog or a weapon to beat down Goliath. Then, have you ever thought that our campus is full of a multitude of different stones? Most of the students want a space where many harder stones are spread. But, have you ever thought about picking up a stone which is right under your feet.

At this point, it is not important that the stone may bring you job, money and fame. That’s because we are too young to hope for those things and there can be many more valuable things. Now listen to the students who pick up the stone which is near their feet on campus and try to find a stone which is waiting to be picked up by us. –Ed.

Stone #1: Bicycle Diary

A few months ago, a movie, which cinematized the journey of Che Guevara in his youth, caught the eyes of the general public. In the movie, despite his poor health and before he started preparing to become a doctor, he wanted to experience a broad world through by traveling across Latin America.

Likewise, a CNU student is making plans to travel from China to Hong Kong during the summer vacation. He is Moon Jong-Sung, a junior in the Dept. of Korean Language & Literature. He was planning this trip while serving in the military. At that time, he read a book entitled, In Twenty’s Trips Which Change My Life. It urged him to broaden his horizon.

He estimates that the entire journey will run up to 60 days and cost about 4 million won. Initially, he had problems with his finances. However, thanks to the aid of CNU and others, he is gradually getting ready to embark on his journey.    

He thinks that the purpose of this trip are to celebrate the Beijing 2008 International Olympic Games, promote closer relationships between China and Korea, and resolve territorial disputes involving Dokdo Island. He says, “Although some might criticize me for traveling by bicycle, I would like to find passion and vigor from the journey. There has never been a university student to travel across China.”

 He made some meaningful remarks to CNU students. “It is very thrilling to disavow stale ideas and accomplish challenging goals. Travel tends to make us humble because it brings us to realize how small we are in the world. Dream of what you desire. And push yourself towards achieving your dreams.”

Stone #2: Finding Hope in the Poor

 "I’d like gypsophila lot because the flower seems to help other flowers to be outstanding. Emulating its virtues, I would truly love to be a helpful person for other people." Lim Se-young, a sophomore in Business Administration, is laughing and playing out with fairly pure-looking children in Balsan Church in Yang-dong on week days. In particular, he is teaching Korean language to 5th graders of primary school.  He has been a volunteer teacher in Uri-gongbubang without pay since last year. And, the majority of students are from the family whose financial situation is so bad that they could not afford to pay for their children's tutoring.

There are three kinds of classes named after 'trust', 'love', and 'hope' that each student belongs to. The main purpose to teach children is not to improve their studying capability but to help them to know how to get along with others. So, it is hard to find out a gloomy turn of face amongst the kids. Lim remarks that he heartily desires the kids not to change their purity ever.

In fact, he belongs to the club named Cheong-sa which was founded in the 1980s for the purpose of volunteering; particularly, as they are studying about the poor in the urban area, they have devoted all their spare time to find out ways to improve the standard of living for the poor Furthermore, the club has done several social voluntary services including tutoring at the Uri-gongbubang up to now.

Recently, the club has volunteered to help people who were demonstrating against their emergent situation that they had no choice but to leave from their homes; their residential buildings were supposed to be dismantled forcefully. The people, however, came to procure the right to live on through the strength of their blood-and-tears endeavors in the end. Lim Se-young told that was by far the most worthwhile moment.

It seems really beautiful of him to help other people, for all his busy life. And, he might want to look for a hope while he is doing that. We will look forward to his and his club's constant voluntary works for the people out of favor.

   Stone #3: Special Class

There is something special to the Department of Psychology. Community Psychology Class (Prof. Oh Su-seong), which opens every fall semester, is gaining attention from CNU students. This class is aimed at helping students to experience and understand the nature of psychology by joining on-the-job training activities. Through this course students are able to learn how to apply psychological knowledge in the real world and collaborate for community mental health. During the course, all students signing up for the class are required to visit Psychological Rehabilitation Center, Emmaus Welfare Center, or Juvenile Classification Examination Center at least twice a week.

Chonnam Tribune interviewed three students who took the class and joined on-the-job training at Juvenile Classification Examination Center. Juvenile Classification Examination Center is a place for recommending treatment guidelines for the juvenile training school, probation offices and the parents. Three students worked here two days a week as volunteers for juvenile's mental education, and observed counseling for juveniles. Seo Jung-a(junior, Dept. of Psychology) said, "Community Psychology is a class for sophomores. I was told by my seniors that taking this class and joining these activities will help me to find my aptitude in the future. That is why I took the class, and, of course, I am interested in criminal psychology personally as well."

Her friend, Yang Ji-young(junior, Dept. of Psychology) confessed, "I was scared at first, but as time went by I came to realize the juveniles' purity. One day, a juvenile told me the most valuable thing for him is a picture with his beloved people, and then I understood how lonely he was.” “It became my pleasure to meet them. I believe a real psychologist is a person having inward eyes." Yu Jin-ok(junior, Dept. of Psychology) standing beside Ji-young added, "I felt a pity for the teenagers. Their parents didn't care about them much, so they were not able to have any attention or affection from the parents. If the parents took care of them more, they could have been good students."

She went on by saying, "Community Psychology is very helpful for me. I met many people and approached real psychological aspects. People are likely to misunderstand that Psychology has something to do with Humanities Studies but it is quite close to Natural Science because it affects people directly. I am very glad I learned values from the class. I hope more students can have the chances to experience the activities by attending the class later on.” 

Stone #4: Through Serving the Community

On a rainy Sunday, Chonnam Tribune walked out of the campus office to meet a student making use of his precious time, not by relaxing at home, but by helping others.

The student named Jang Min-joong (freshman, Medical School) works as a volunteer every Sunday at Gwangju Migrant Workers Center. Four other volunteer students majoring in Pharmacy and Medicine and a doctor are joining him. It is said that about 10 migrant workers stay in this center, and most of them were Sri Lankan. It is the only shelter where the workers can feel free from all the surveillance and relax until they settle down in Gwangju.

"What kind of work do you do?" Tribune asked. Min-joong said, "When the doctor gives a prescription, I compound a medicine with other students. Since I’m a freshman, I only do simple things such as blood pressure check-up or sugar diabetes test." Tribune’s curiosity continues, "How did you become a volunteer?" "The doctor belongs to the same church as my father. One day my father recommended that I join the volunteer program and I thought ‘why not?’ as it is related to my career and could be helpful in the future," he answered.

Tribune asked, "Is there anything difficult as a volunteer?" "It is difficult to spend time consistently if I am busy; however, I want to continue to do my job here. I can learn a lot about being a good doctor," he added. Many migrant workers came to Korea alone, felt homesick, and got stressed out with culture shock and hard work. In spite of their hard work, most of them receive inappropriate treatment. The medical voluntary service gives them aid when they are sick. Min-joong said, "But, I try not to think that I am giving them charity; I’d rather feel I am learning through the service by helping those people. I just want my relationship with them to continually blossom.”

He said to Yonbongians, "Volunteering is not an act from a sense of duty. Many people think that being a volunteer is difficult, but it isn't. Helping others willingly without any burden is most important. Any Yongbongians can be a volunteer."

   Stone #5: Beautifully Resistant Bird

A man is making the event entitled "International Antiwar Movement” taking place in front of Gwangju post office in Chungjangro on a sunny Sunday afternoon. He is making a speech at the top of his voice that he truly wants Iraqi civilians to be happy in the battlefield. Then, passers-by started to pay attention and listen to his passionate speech.

It is Cho Young-tae, a sophomore in Environmental Engineering, who is looking forward to a peaceful world through his own way: he is in charge of a leader of both the environmental and antiwar team in the "Beautiful Resistance,” for the present.

He made his mind up to devote himself to an antiwar movement war when he was a high school student, after he watched the televised news about the Iraqi. He has still been concerned about the unarmed civilian population who might be struggling from place to place through an aggressive war.

He says that he feels frustrated when the populace's fever about the antiwar seems to have left blatantly and the public have no interest in the antiwar. Nevertheless, he thinks that it is worthwhile to cry against war in that he has popular support. He longs for more people to have an interest in the antiwar movement.

He is drawing a fine picture of a brighter future for the whole world without ‘war-phobia’, day in and day out. Even if his little behaviors do not make a significant difference in the antiwar movement, every time he spreads his wings he advances a step closer to his eventual cause. Many people view him as a blue bird for the people who are battling with war-phobia, hunger and coldness.

Stone #6: The Wings of Soul, Pungmul

When I met Kim Hyun-woong, his voice sounded husky because he had shouted himself hoarse while performing. He is a senior majoring in Business Administration and a leader of the united club of farmers' musical at CNU called Pungmulpae-yeonhap. Kim has a determined philosophy about the farmers' musical instrument, commonly called Pungmul. Hence, we will hear his thought about the traditional Korean musical instrument, Pungmul.

"Pung-mul is an effort to live with neighboring people peacefully and happily. As all participants are plunged into the exciting atmosphere, they come to forget about their anxiety, fear, and so on,” he said. What he tried to say here is that Pungmul could play a role as therapy to console and cure people's mind with worries even if that lasts just for a short time.

"In addition to that, it is out of question that Pungmul plays a leading part in many cases because it is a signal of the opening and closing in every event. Furthermore, it is no exaggeration to say that the overall atmosphere from the beginning to end relies on the performance of Pungmul," he added. Ultimately, he seems to think that Pungmul means a proper amount of alcohol to create an atmosphere.

I was told that it makes his heart hurt to feel traditional Korean culture vanishing. In particular, he feels frustrated in the middle of performing when passers-by close their ears with their hands. He shouted, "I suppose that such behavior might be caused by lack of knowledge about the authentic meaning of Pungmul. I firmly believe they will like listening to Pungmul once they know what Pungmul means."

His long-cherished desire is that he listens to Pungmul from Mt. Hallasan to Mt. Baekdusan after unification of North and South Korea some day; it reflects his great yearning for unification, I hope his sound spirit toward preservation of our own culture will not change. I also hope we can listen to the sound of Pungmul from all around the country.