Author: Gwangju News

Language Teaching

AsiaTEFL: “Unity Within Diversity, Diversity Within Unity” 

Gwangju News

Those familiar with English language teaching (ELT) are most likely familiar with the international ELT associations TESOL Intl. Assn., centered in North America, and IATEFL, centered in Europe. These two associations have been with us for nearly a half century, leaving Asia underrepresented. To fill this gap, AsiaTEFL was relatively recently formed. The following interview is with AsiaTEFL President-Elect Park Joo-Kyung, a resident of Gwangju, and focuses on what AsiaTEFL is and what it has to offer the ELT community.

Around Korea

Yŏch’ŏn 1996: Returning to My Vanishing Korean Hometown

Gwangju News

Korea was a developing country back then – chaotic, construction everywhere, full of bad smells. Korean people were, if anything, kinder and more welcoming to strangers back then. Culturally, it felt geekier than today; I recall a fad at the time being guys wearing their glasses or sunglasses on the back of their heads, for whatever reason. We used to crack up watching “Icing,” a soap opera about a Korean hockey team.

Lost in Gwangju/Honam

Notes from the Punishment Room

Gwangju News

For this issue of Lost in Gwangju, I’ve spent a great deal of my recent free time doing an amateur corpus analysis of messages I found scrawled on the walls of a dozen or so “punishment rooms” (징벌실) within the now-shuttered Gwangju Prison in Munheung-dong. There’s nothing academic about my analysis, and my methodology is spotty, but I think the messages I’ve found nevertheless hold deep value: They lay bare many of the thoughts and emotions that the human spirit conjures up while locked away in a solitary cage.  

May 18

Tim Warnberg’s Legacy Deserves Notice: Part I 

Gwangju News

Tim Warnberg was a 24-year-old American Peace Corps volunteer who lived in Gwangju and worked at Chonnam University Hospital as a Hansen’s Disease case worker. During the Uprising, he remained in the city to help take care of the citizens.1 Tim was selfless during that time, doing all that he could to aid the citizens, and he has long been recognized for his contributions. There is no question that Tim played an important role in Gwangju before, during, and after the Uprising.

Human Rights

May 18 Education Forum 2022: An Interview with the Speakers 

Gwangju News

The month of May in Gwangju is for remembering thousands of Gwangju citizens who rose up against the military junta oppression in May 1980, those who survived, and those who did not, and as such, is marked by various events and vigils. Among the many events keeping the spirit of the Gwangju Democratization Movement alive, the May 18 Education Forum took place last May 27 under the title “May 18 Democratic Uprising Meets Swedish Civic Education.”  The Forum focused on exchange in the area of democratic civic education through a conversation with the invited educators from Sweden, where political participation through civic education has already become commonplace.

GFN Radio

Top of the Drop

Gwangju News

By Daniel J. Springer This is the latest installment of “Top of the Drop,” by Daniel Springer of the Gwangju Foreign Language Network (GFN). Each month, “Danno” picks his favorite … Read More

Profile

A Doctor for the Weak and Displaced: Interview with Dr. Cynthia Maung, Winner of the 2022 May 18 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 

Gwangju News

On May 19, 2022, Doctor Cynthia Maung was interviewed for GFN’s face2face program. Dr. Maung had just been awarded the May 18 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights award by the May 18 Memorial Foundation for her work providing health services to displaced persons and migrant workers at the Mae Tao Clinic, which she founded in 1988. The clinic is located in a refugee camp on the border of Myanmar and Thailand to provide medical assistance to Myanmar refugees who fled to the Thai border due to the oppression of the Myanmar military. Here is our interview with her.

From the Editor

From the Editor: July 2022

Gwangju News

It’s July, it’s already our seventh issue of the Gwangju News for 2022, and it’s hard to believe that the year is already half over. July signals the beginning of warm and sunny summer weather, school vacations, and vacation trips, which are now more easily possible with the abating of Covid. So, whether you are relaxing in a long chair on a sandy beach or in an armchair in the air-conditioned comfort of your home, we provide you with a new issue of the Gwangju News for your July reading.