Thursday, January 18, 2007

Reflecting, Connecting..


  • What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

Cultural change is truly a difficult obstacle to pass through. Changing the rudimentary beliefs of your own life is not as easy as said to be. This interferes with the philosophy that you have believed and also your own faith. And to extend this extreme difficulty, change beliefs in religion may fairly well be considered as impossible considering the fact that the Sawi had been familiarized to different gods for centuries long. Don Richardson, however, had performed a great deal in appealing God’s words to the Sawi and introducing Christianity. It is with a greater praise to the Sawi to have the courage to embrace God and his words.To me, a similar change had happened in my life. Before I lived the first year of my life, my family had moved to the US. From there on, I lived in the states for about ten years. During of which was probably the easiest of my life. Before I had the chance to enter junior high, my family suddenly moved back to Korea. I had been sent then to a Korean school. At that current moment, I did not have the ability to read or write Korean and therefore I experienced culture shock. To me, the system of school was different from what I had been accustomed to. Students were sometimes spanked for wrong doings and memorization in studying was emphasized rather than understanding the content. Because of the huge difference between what I lived by and what I had to live by, I had the tendency to reject my environment and not follow the rules. Unlike the Sawi and Don Richardson, I never had the chance to conquer the changes of my environment

1 comment:

African Globe Trotters. said...

Kung Min you have an excellent connection with the material and it shows deep understanding of the data. Mrs.Mc.