[Contribution] Professor Park Myeong-seop, International Newspaper_My hometown is Busan!
- bizskk
- Hit394
- 2023-01-25
Watch Na Hoon-ah's "My Hometown is Busan" and Choi Baek-ho's "If I go to Busan" on YouTube, thinking of Gwangalli and Haeundae with my eyes closed. Looking at the water of Nakdong River from the window on the left side of the train departing for Seoul leaving Busan Station behind in February 2002, I promised to return in August 2022 when I retired but I still live in Seoul. Thanks to the two singers from Busan, I sometimes soothe my hometown's longing with music.
Recently, I read an article about Narim Lee Byung-joo's 30th anniversary of death in an international newspaper. It was good news. How many times have I read Narim's novels? The last novel I read was 'Don't Look Back', which I read with a sigh after giggling in my mind more that a decade ago.
My thoughts bite my tail. One day in 1982, my graduate school advisor showed me a column of the late Lee Byung-joo's "Unforgettable Person" and said, "Mr. Park! Mail this magazine to your father." He was a graduate of the Tokyo Foreign Language College, where about 10 or so brilliant Koreans entered before liberation, and was fluent in English as well as native Chinese and Japanese. He used to let my father and he drinks by the bowl in Seomyeon, Busan. I thought maybe he also talked about the person who appeared in the column "Unforgettable Person". Both of them had already interacted with the late Park Hee-yeon.
The column by Mr. Narim who dropped out of Waseda University's Department of University of Literature, was about my advisor and Park Hee-yeon, a fellow student of Tokyo Foreign Studies in the 1930s. I still remember that my father talked a lot about this high school senior and his family. The column was roughly like this. The writer(Lee Byung-joo), who was a French literature student but dropped out of the class, recalled Park Hee-yeon's excellence(English, French is really outstanding) at Japan's top foreign language education institution and introduced Park Hee-yeon's episode as a student at Busan 2nd Commercial School(later Busan Commercial High School, now Kaesong High School)
At that time, the principal's office of Busan 2nd Commercial School was cleaned on student duty, and one day when a Japanese principal came to work, a parrot in the principal's cage muttered, "Bakayaro, Bakayaro!" According to an investigation conducted by the angry principal, it was also said that Park Hee-yeon educated parrots like that. My father is from Busan Commercial High School, and I am from Seomyeon, Busan, where the school was. While reading the column, I was relieved while holding my stomach and laughing.
Oh! There was someone like this. Park Hee-yeon was born in Miryang and spent her middle and high school days in Busan, frequently contributed columns such as 'My struggle against cancer' to newspaper in Busan, and served as a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and Inha University. As I majored in international trade at the time, I thought like this. How did he get to Tokyo from Busan? How did my advisor from Wonsan get to Tokyo? By train from Wonsan to Gyeongseong, 1 night in Gyeongseong, by train from Gyeongseong to Busan, 1 night in Busan, by government ferry for 2 days and 1 night, disembarking at Shimonoseki and overnight, train bound for Tokyo from there. I think it will take 4 nights and 5 days door to door. What a combination of sea and land transport!
Thoughts bite tail. Another person my father often told me was Park Ok-jul, a former professor of French literature and Seoul National University, from Seomyeon, Busan. I think the person who studied abroad from Dongnae High School at the invitation of the French government in the 1950s was my father's mentor. Years ago, my father came to Seoul to meet him for the last time in his life. That image of my father remain in my mind. There was no French speaker in Busan, so he sometimes told me that the priest of Daegu Cathedral was from France, so he went to Daegu for one night and two days to talk in French.
.My father was born in Busan and lived only Busan except for the Korean War and studying in the United States. My father, who was over 90 years old, went to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholarship in the 1960s and taught English at Kyungnam High School, Busan High School, and Busan National University.
Writing about three outstanding foreign language literature majors in Busan based on article by Narim Lee Byung-joo, it led to the idea that Busan was also a city that produced people overflowing with global DNA. On October 15, a BTS concert was held in Busan to pray for the hosting of the world fair. That was amazing. I sincerely pray that the 2030 World Expo will be held in Busan thanks to the support and passion of BTS and the wishes of Busan citizens and the people.
Source : http://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=1700&key=20221101.22022006651