My uncle and the school life of the 60's
Full of study but also had their life
201002416 Lee Se Jong
When the uncle visited my house, my mom and uncle talk more than two hours and it seemed like they have many things to talk about. My mother said there are not only things about to say in those days, but also they had their past to talk about. He was always with smiling face and it always feel like he is a virtuous person. Having more and more gray hair these days, he looked more like grandfather rather than uncle now but still his eyes were bright like a young man. I was always curious about his life because when my mother talked about her past, uncle usually appeared in the story and it made me really interesting that his life story was much fun than my mother's story. He was like a character of the comic book and that leaded me to learn about his past. I decided to interview him and when my uncle went my home last week, I made a time to have an interview with him while my mother was sitting with us preparing some snacks.
In my first question 'when did you born', he answered that he was born in 1956, when Korea was quite a different at that time. He had to overcome the lot of difficulties different then these days. There were too much to ask like what is different from now but at first I was asking about his school life which was most curious to me.
"Uncle, please talk about your school life."
He was like knowing what my question will be. His answer was fast and clear without any time to think about. From the elementary school, he went to school at 8 and it finished at 10. He did this from elementary school until the high school. The class was finished at mostly 5 o'clock but after that he had to study at school or went to the academy. So his life was fulfilled with studying. When my continuous question about do you satisfied about your school life, different from what I expected, he answered he was understandable that the every student at that time was just doing the same as him.
"At that time, entering the elementary school was also by the test." He still talked about it even though I didn't ask about it.
"So at that time, is it really hard to study every day?" I asked the second question in succession of his saying.
My uncle smiled and said that he's childhood was just full of the test. Every Monday they had test about major subject and every month, they had a test on every subject. Of course there were middle term and final term exam. So he always had to study. Every test was linked to the big test and bad scores would be punished. At that time teacher punishing students was very normal and it was continued until 21c century.
About the question of whether he was good students or not, he replied that he was a good student but the scores were not goo. He was the lowest grade student in the middle school but he became middle score student when he graduated the high school. He said that he thought himself as a steady person so he was studying for 12hours although the total concentrated time were just more than 5 hours. He also said that the school where he went allowed to enter only students with most excellent scores in the southern part of Korea, so his scores were not bad as I thought.
I also asked what was the most difficult subject to do. As he was eating the cookies, his answer was Physical education. At that time, physical education is also count as score which also highly influenced the entering to the middle or high school. Not to lose the score in that subject, he had to exercise 5 at the morning with my grandmother every day. He recalled that was the most difficult challenge for him. Chin-up was the hardest thing that he had to do. But how hard he exercise, he was still behind the score and in order to fulfill that blank, he had to be excellent on other subjects.
"But at last, I failed. My physical education score needs one more point and I couldn't make it. My grandmother really wanted me to go to high school in Seoul, but at last I was going to Busan high school."
About the question about how did he manage to go to school, he answered that he used little bus. It was the bus used in 70's to solve the traffic problem. It's almost capable of 25 people and always a crowded bus. If the driver turned the bus, than the all the people inside there were fell off inside the bus. About the fee, first they used some tokens resembles old Korean brass coin but later it was changed into tickets.
"Is there any circle or club?"
"Oh, only the bullies were in the club. We had no time to do such a thing."
"Then what was your hobby?"
Not uncle, my mother replied while drinking the coffee and said "he loved to collect the record. You stack piles of record in our house." My uncle continued after my mother says. There were no mp3s or cellular phones that day so the only way to hear the music was by radio or record. As he mentioned before, he was not good at any physics so his hobby was related to more static contents. He loved to collect it and listened the music with the record. But after his recalling, he showed bitter facial expression.
"Yes, I really loved to collect it. But your mother also knew what happened to my records."
He stared my mother.
"Yes. Grandmother broke it all because you didn't study enough. It was really incredible that she broke that all. I also tried to break his record but it even didn't bend."
After heard about his hobby, I was curious about that day's play style. His answer was quite interesting that he argued every period had that characteristic time of playing. At nowadays children were mostly playing with computers, but at that time the most fun thing was the comic books. So, burrowing a book from the bookstore was the most fun to the student. At that time, bookstore was different from now. It was place where the people burrowed the comic books and because it was the main reason for the students to absent to academy. Parents usually monitor the place near the bookstore. His family was not the exception. As the oldest son in the house, he should have not bring any bad things that would harm studying moods in the home and therefore comic books were banned in his house. But he loved to read it and grandmother was watching with the baseball bat on her hand.
Next, I asked about his after school life. It was very broad question that anything he wanted to talk about He said that the most memorable thing that he remembered was the school uniform. Current students tend to think that the school uniforms are vestige of the Japanese colonialism, but at that day, the uniforms were the most fashionable clothes that during he came back to home from the school, every girl students were watching him. This gave feeling like he was becoming an elite, and in fact he was at that day. That was why when he went to some meetings, he always tended to wear the uniforms.
"So, you made lots of problems that day. So are there many problems with the grandmothers?"
He laughed at my question. He said as the old Korean usually said, 'you can't imagine that day'
"I could still remember that day when your grandmother chasing me with the knife. She was a passionate woman and because I was lazy to the study, she thought that you would be better killed here. I was Lucky to escape that day. She even chased me to the downtown. Your grandmother is sick now, but when she was young, she was too passionate. She even threw away the books to the fireplace or the pond that I didn't study enough and student who didn't study enough didn't need any of those things. But few hours later we always ended with buying them again. There were always problem with my mother every day. But I understand everything she did because the study was the most important thing in that life and she wanted to have a hardship with me. She didn't just observe me but did the study with me and that was why I really thanked to the grandmother."
There were almost no snacks lefts and also did my question. My final question was about the most important thing that learned in his life. He stared at me, and said his last story.
"You can fail, but you don't have to make a mistake. In my school, they were all the elites in the Korea. Lots of my friends in middle school and high school went to Seoul University, and some were having a good job and earned a lot of money. But not everybody succeed. Many of my colleagues were also now living in single room with no money. Do you think why? They did not waste their money or not working hard. The only wrong thing they did is they made a mastake. You always have to remember cliché that 'There is only one life.' So, there are fails but you shouldn't have mistakes. Whether you are now in good university or good job, once you have a mistake, you lost one pile of your life. And this is hard to recover, almost cannot. You have to remember that the fail and mistake are very different. Whatever hard life you had, one mistake can ruin all."
Although his life was full of failure, he recalled the past that he didn't make big mistakes in important points and that was the key for him to finally entrance the medical university and now sitting here enjoying the time here.
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