Volunteering at Hawaii Plantation Village
The Hawaii Plantation Village in Waipahu held a genealogy day this past Saturday to help people find their roots and ancestors from the homelands. KAC-Hawaii was asked to participate and help in the event so I went to help in whatever way I could. Since it was a geneology informational session, I assumed there'd be some experts to hand out information, etc. but when I got there, I realized that it would just be me and the KAC-H President. Okay...like I know anything about genealogy.
So the two of us sat there at the Korean table, dreading (well I was, anyway) anyone coming by and asking for help. All of the other tables, Japan, Phillipines, Okinawa, Hawaiian, etc. all hand handouts, books, posters, and even laptops filled with background information. Our table? Nothing. I know...pathetic.
But the 4 hours between 10am - 2pm were pretty entertaining. People came by of course, and I gave them what little information I knew about the history of Korean names and where the families come from and also the traditions of naming children for each generation. I was actually surprised at what I was spewing out of my uneducated mouth.
Actually though, a lot of people came by asking questions about Korean culture and history based on what they've seen in Korean dramas. It never ceases to amaze me how much of an influence these dramas have. I don't watch too many of them myself anymore but I do keep tabs on what's popular. Right now, everyone's into Jumong, the historical drama. So we were talking story about that and I was giving some background info on the real story behind the drama.
The Okinawan table was right next to us so we made friends with them and talked story with them on and off almost the entire time. Very friendly and interesting people. We were talking about Japan and how they alter history books and one of the Okinawan men mentioned that in one history book he saw in Japan, the entire World War II was limited to one measly page. Can you imagine that? Then another man told this story where he met this Japanese girl who had just graduated from college. He was talking story with her and the subject of Pearl Harbor came up, of course being in Hawaii and all. The man said that she knew nothing about Pearl Harbor. And this was a college educated woman! Amazing. I'm not saying that the entire country is blind to history or anything but these two personal anecdotes really make you think.
I was also able to give some Korean language lessons to some people who wanted to incorporate what they heard and learned from watching K-dramas into real life Korean conversations at their favorite Korean restaurants. Suffice it to say, I saved some of these people from coming off as rude to the restaurant staff by correcting their vocabulary and grammar. LOL!
All in all, it was unfortunate that we were not as prepared as we should've been, but I think we helped some people and they were genuinely grateful for what little information we could give them.
So the two of us sat there at the Korean table, dreading (well I was, anyway) anyone coming by and asking for help. All of the other tables, Japan, Phillipines, Okinawa, Hawaiian, etc. all hand handouts, books, posters, and even laptops filled with background information. Our table? Nothing. I know...pathetic.
But the 4 hours between 10am - 2pm were pretty entertaining. People came by of course, and I gave them what little information I knew about the history of Korean names and where the families come from and also the traditions of naming children for each generation. I was actually surprised at what I was spewing out of my uneducated mouth.
Actually though, a lot of people came by asking questions about Korean culture and history based on what they've seen in Korean dramas. It never ceases to amaze me how much of an influence these dramas have. I don't watch too many of them myself anymore but I do keep tabs on what's popular. Right now, everyone's into Jumong, the historical drama. So we were talking story about that and I was giving some background info on the real story behind the drama.
The Okinawan table was right next to us so we made friends with them and talked story with them on and off almost the entire time. Very friendly and interesting people. We were talking about Japan and how they alter history books and one of the Okinawan men mentioned that in one history book he saw in Japan, the entire World War II was limited to one measly page. Can you imagine that? Then another man told this story where he met this Japanese girl who had just graduated from college. He was talking story with her and the subject of Pearl Harbor came up, of course being in Hawaii and all. The man said that she knew nothing about Pearl Harbor. And this was a college educated woman! Amazing. I'm not saying that the entire country is blind to history or anything but these two personal anecdotes really make you think.
I was also able to give some Korean language lessons to some people who wanted to incorporate what they heard and learned from watching K-dramas into real life Korean conversations at their favorite Korean restaurants. Suffice it to say, I saved some of these people from coming off as rude to the restaurant staff by correcting their vocabulary and grammar. LOL!
All in all, it was unfortunate that we were not as prepared as we should've been, but I think we helped some people and they were genuinely grateful for what little information we could give them.
posted by Myong Choi at 10:48 AM
1 Comments:
Good job on the Korean tutoring. I think most Koreans are used to ban mal coming from locals who watch K-dramas and take it as a compliment that they're trying to speak the language. Not the older ones though, one restaurant owner in Pearl City told this customer off 'don't speak if you don't know!' customer said 'moh yah?' when she couldn't understand what the owner was saying in English. oops I felt so bad for the customer she didn't know what was wrong.
Post a Comment
<< Home