Last week, we heard from Sung about her interesting culture. Just in case you missed that interview, here’s the link: http://ceiltulloch.com/south-korea-on-my-mind-part-1/
Today, my talented colleague Professor Jocelyn, is going to share with us her experiences of living and working in South Korea.
CT: Welcome, Jocelyn! Please, tell us about yourself.
My name is Jocelyn Clark and I’m from Juneau, Alaska.
CT: Why did you choose to teach in South Korea?
I came here on a scholarship from what was then called the “National Classical Music Centre” (now the National Gukak Center) to study the gayageum after having studied similar instruments in Japan and China. I didn’t plan to stay so long, I just wanted to get better at the gayageum. Nothing’s changed.
CT: How many years have you been living and working there?
I arrived first in 1992 and stayed two years on my National Classical Music Centre scholarship. I came again during the summer of 1995 on a Harvard Korea Center scholarship. I was here from 1999-2000 on a Fulbright Fellowship, and from 2000-2001 on a Seonam Foundation Fellowship. I arrived again after a long absence in 2008 as a professor at Pai Chai University where I was hired to teach East Asian Studies in the International Studies Department, which is where I met you. That department has since been cut, as was my new one, Cultural Contents. Now I’m in Digital Media Contents. This semester I am also teaching World Music at Seoul National University.
CT: What do you find most inspiring about the Korean culture?
Everything that has deep roots. Those are the things that have been, to borrow a cooking metaphor, boiled and boiled down to their essence and well-seasoned. It is really the same in any culture—that the classical things are the most beautiful even when we include “folk” traditions in that category.
The modern things have energy and can be interesting for a short time. Some of the new things join the realm of the classical eventually, especially those new things that are not severed from their roots. I tend to enjoy the very new and the old.
CT: As a female expat, what challenges have you faced?
Aside from the general blatant pervasive sexism here, and the associations of gisaeng with my instrument, as a white professor I really have very little to complain about. Harvard helps with that too. In Korea, everyone is so concerned with class, and I have been privileged in this regard. I recognize it as that for sure, though I have also worked hard.
My challenges are not from being a female expat. They come from the search for sound and my late start in the Korean context. I don’t just want to know Korean aesthetics. I want to be able to perform them. That takes a whole lotta time and I’m not getting younger or smarter.
CT: What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you first started teaching abroad? I can’t think of anything specifically. I am late to teaching and I’ve been abroad since I was 16 off and on. It is more that one wishes one would mature and become an adult earlier rather than later in life. Growing up is painful—full of mistakes. I hate making mistakes, especially ones that hurt others. I wish I could have always avoided that.
CT: What advice do you have for females who would like to teach in South Korea?
I think the advice is the same as for being a female. Sexism is everywhere. Rape culture is everywhere. One gets along better here performing the feminine. But isn’t that true everywhere?
CT: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I seriously have no free time. But I love what I do. I want to be better at that—doing what I do, so all free time goes into it.
CT: Where is your favorite place in S. Korea to unwind and why?
I would love to get back to climbing the mountain behind Pai Chai University in the mornings. That way, I can watch the seasons change day by day. It gives a better sense of time passing and clears the mind. A morning on the mountain always leads to a good day.
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