From the Editor

February is here, the shortest month of the year. But even though it contains fewer days, it is still filled with four full weeks, two of the 24 seasonal terms (Ipchun, “The Coming of Spring,” and Usu, “Spring Rain”), and the sweetest of sweet observances (Valentine’s Day).

As somewhat of an analogy to February having fewer days but still retaining fullness, the Gwangju News is reducing its pages by four as a result of City Hall tweaking its distribution of modes of communication with the residents of this fine City of Light. But do not fret, stress, or grieve; the Gwangju News is still committed to providing our readership with the high quality of journalism that we all have been used to.

To confirm this hype, the first of our four feature articles is an interview with a Yugoslavian-born filmmaker who made his way to Hollywood and is now aiming his lens on Korea: Attila Korosi. This month, People in the Arts features an artist widely known for his wide array of materials and mixing of media: Yoon Nam-woong. In addition to the seasonal terms mentioned above, Prof. Park presents a couple of lesser-known pre-spring festive days of yesteryear – Have you heard of Hadeulet Day? And then there’s Valentine’s Day. Read how one Gwangju resident thinks we should best express love on this day in “All We Need Is Love.”

Our Travel section takes you to Pyeongchang for a report on one expat participant’s views on the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates [Around Korea]. An expat resident of Songjeong apprises us of what that area of Gwangsan-gu has to offer besides a KTX train station [Around Gwangju]. And Lost in Honam this month discusses the disappearance of a sledding slope near Gwangju in an atypical format than may make you think the author has lost his… (Oh, never mind).

In our Teaching and Learning section, we discuss board games for English teaching, the Montessori method for young learner teaching, and grammar and vocabulary for Korean learning.

I would be remis to close without mention of our new bimonthly column attempting to save our planet, Edge of Time. Read this month’s introduction to the breadth of sub-topics this column is expected to tackle. And our radical recipe of the month, aiming to contribute a morsel to this earth-saving task, is for protein-rich red lentil patties. Enjoy – the patties and the Gwangju News!

David E. Shaffer  

Editor-in-Chief

Gwangju News