2006年VOA标准英语-North, South Korea Bring Cooperation Into Class

By Kurt Achin
Gwangju, South Korea
19 June 2006
 
North and South Koreans recently marked the anniversary of the start of efforts to bring decades of animosity to an end. Six years ago, leaders of both countries met for the first and only time. The summit ushered¹ in a new period of inter-Korean contacts. Many Korean schools observed the anniversary by teaching children the importance of that watershed² meeting. A spirit of friendship in the classroom is partly overshadowed by concerns about North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs.

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It is a special day at this elementary school in the city of Ansan, near the South Korean capital of Seoul. Ask the children what the day's lesson plan is, and they have a ready answer.

The children shout "t'ong il", the Korean word for unification. Teachers in this school - and many others in both South and North Korea - are celebrating a date that gives many Koreans a sense that unification may not be so far away.

On June 15, 2000, then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il held a historic summit in Pyongyang. The meeting produced a dramatic thaw³ in relations between the communist North and the capitalist South, which remain technically⁴ at war after a 1953 armistice⁵ halted three years of intense fighting.

To impart a sense of the historic meeting, teacher Kan Woo-yeon begins by showing a cartoon.

In the cartoon, two very different types of creatures meet each other and learn to cooperate despite their differences. The parallel to North-South relations is made obvious when teacher Kan changes the display to a photo of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong Il holding hands triumphantly⁶ six years ago.

About 300 kilometers further south, in the city of Gwangju, an even more ambitious reunification class takes place.

Teachers at this middle school welcome colleagues from North Korea, arriving to watch slightly older children learn about the June 15 summit.

Teacher Kwon Soo-hee uses pictures to show how inter-Korean relations have warmed since 2000. There are photos of North and South Korea's joint⁷ industrial venture in the North's city of Kaesong; emotional images of reunions between family members separated for decades; and snapshots from South Korean movies and advertisements that portray⁸ the Northerners as long-lost family members.

Kwon says the June 15 summit has made an enormous difference in teaching children about the divided peninsula. She says when she was studying to become a teacher there were no serious teaching materials available about North Korea. It has only been possible to deal seriously with the topic, she says, since the summit.

To be certain, the carefully scripted classes are more a tool of diplomacy⁹ than an examination of issues.

There is no discussion of the Korean War, which began when North Korea invaded the South in 1950. Pyongyang's refusal to return to nuclear disarmament talks is not covered, nor are concerns that Pyongyang may be preparing a long-range missile test.

North Korea's famine and brutal¹⁰ human-rights record also are not on the script. Absent, too, is South Korea's own past of harshly repressing those who advocated unification.

But South Korean educators say the classes are an initial step in thawing¹¹ the inter-Korean rivalry¹² of the Cold War. Following the class in Gwangju, the North Korean visitors gave speeches to South Korean parents and teachers - a scenario¹³ that would have been unthinkable before 2000.

Kim Sung Chul, a North Korean education official, says teachers in both Koreas should support the June 15th goals of reunification, avoiding war, and cooperation.

Kim Jung-ae, member of a North Korean education committee, says education in the two Koreas has been an ideological¹⁴ battleground for half a century. She says thanks to June 15, there is now one point in which North and South teachers can begin sharing common ground.

Flags with a blue representation of the entire Korean peninsula were visible everywhere during the June 15 anniversary celebrations. The emblem¹⁵ is displayed at most inter-Korean events, because it is more politically neutral than the flag of either country. Like the unification classes, it is a symbol short on detail, but emotionally resonant¹⁶ among Koreans who long for the day the divided country is nothing more than the topic of a history lesson.

1 ushered   

v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The secretary ushered me into his office. 秘书把我领进他的办公室。
• A round of parties ushered in the New Year. 一系列的晚会迎来了新年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 watershed   

n.转折点，分水岭，分界线

参考例句：

• Our marriage was at a watershed.我们的婚姻到了一个转折关头。
• It forms the watershed between the two rivers.它成了两条河流的分水岭。

3 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

4 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

5 armistice   

n.休战，停战协定

参考例句：

• The two nations signed an armistice.两国签署了停火协议。
• The Italian armistice is nothing but a clumsy trap.意大利的停战不过是一个笨拙的陷阱。

6 triumphantly   

ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地

参考例句：

• The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
• Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。

7 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

8 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

9 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

10 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

11 thawing   

n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The ice is thawing. 冰在融化。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were sloppy. 天一直在下雪，雪又一直在融化，街上泥泞不堪。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

12 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

13 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

14 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

15 emblem   

n.象征，标志；徽章

参考例句：

• Her shirt has the company emblem on it.她的衬衫印有公司的标记。
• The eagle was an emblem of strength and courage.鹰是力量和勇气的象征。

16 resonant   

adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的

参考例句：

• She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
• He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。