The Zoo Story (Korean style)

May 28, 2009

Playwright Edward Albee (best known for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) wrote a one-act tragedy titled The Zoo Story back in the 1950's. We recently took all the students on a field trip to the National Zoo in Seoul where I lived my own serio-comic version of a zoo story. To set the scene properly, you have to realize that my school is in an outlying rural area just outsde an outlying small city (Yangju) which is an hour drive north of Seoul. Some of the students are recent transplants from the absolute boondoocks/jumping-off point in the middle of nowhere Korea whose parents have moved the family in search of better jobs for parents and the hope of a better future for children. It would be generous to describe them as unsophisticated. Some of the kids are behind grade level for their ages, but are catching up. Schooling out in the boonies is less a priority than just trying to survive. Anyway, we had a great day at the zoo, I taught English names for all the animals they didn't know and we had a picnic provided by the school's version of the PTA. One third grade boy I knew to be a relatively recent arrival from the hinterlands was evidently very impressed by the spectacle of elelphants, lions and a hippo or two but was, for the most part, silent. Through my teacher/interpreter friend I asked him how he liked the zoo. He said he really liked it, but asked "Who made all these animals?" It seems that his ten years of very sheltered, unspoiled living in a very closed off reality had led him to the de facto conclusion that the only creatures in the world were the ones he could see and that was limited to dogs, cats, birds, cows, pigs, chickens and a few fish. Thus, the dolphin show at the zoo aquarium was a real eye-opener for him. We tried to explain to him that most of the animals came from far away places such as Africa, but it was all a bit overwhelming for him. He'd seen lions in a picture book, but didn't make the connection to the fact that they were real animals. He thought they were something made up for the purpose of telling a story. So, his question as to who made these things was understandable. His reality now includes lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and he is really appreciative that somebody made these animals just so we could go see them. In college, I was a very astute student of philosophy and the study of the problem of knowledge and reality. However, seeing something basic through the first time eyes of a child is worth at least three semester hours credit. Maybe the experience will make me a better grandfather. I'd better get my grandfather act together because that reality is less than seven months away.

A good day to all. I'm going right now to dig up (no, not literally) some kimchee and a two liter bottle of Pepto to drink with it. Until later...................bd