For these last two week of SDLAP 112 lecture, I met with my language partner Somyung and Joon over Zoom on Friday. We started off our lessons once again by talking about how our weeks were in Korean. To change things up a little, we continued the trend watching shows during our class to improve our Korean comprehension skills with the continued homework of watching a Korean show. We decided to watch 미운 우리 새끼 or “My Ugly Ducking”. This is a reality show where the celebrity mothers watch their celebrity children’s daily activities and share commentary on them. This was an interesting show for me because instead of the typical shows where you watch celebrities’ lives this time you get their parents watching the celebrities’ lives and commenting which has its funny and entertaining moments as they react to hilarious moments like eating the super spicy ramen in a kind of eating broadcast format for one of the cast members in the episode that we watched and then a blind date . We were tasked with watching this and then also writing a reflection in Korean.
The next thing we learned about was something from Korea’s history around the time of Japan’s invasion of Korea and the war that followed. It was about Korean Admiral Yi Sun-Shin around the 1592 time period. He is particular because although he was of noble birth, he chose a military career which was not thought of highly at the time. This is because it did not help gain power quickly at the time. When he first passed the military exam, he was appointed to a desolate fort at the border which were usually pits of corruption and where those who had fallen out of favor of the court were placed. However, when Yi arrived he refortified his post and made it war ready in case of attack instead of just a “punishment area” where those who had fallen out of favor of the court were placed and not ready to fight. His military career was full of ups and downs as he was constantly promoted and demoted due to jealousy from superiors which led to false lies and accusations against him and the successes he achieved in attacks with the marauders and other battles due to his military intelligence and diligence in training his men to be ready for war. When Korea and Japan were soon to be at war there are two things that must be noted. Japan’s military was more superior as they had been fighting civil wars for a 100 years and had polished their fighting strategy. However, because Korea had around 200 years of peace and no civil wars they only had fights with pirates which led to them having a more advanced navy and cannons.
Yi is most remembered for his numerous victories against Japan during their invasions from 1592-1598. This was a time when Japan was united under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Admiral Yi’s most famous battle was “The Battle of Myeongnyang.” This was a battle in the Myeongnyang Strait near Jindo Island just off the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula. It was very important just because the stakes were extremely high. Korea only had 13 ships compared to Japan’s 200+ ships. This battle took years of planning and military strategy but by managing to create a turtle shaped defense with his 13 ships, Admiral Yi outsmarted the Japanese navy by figuring out water conditions and how the tide would turn to outsmart his opponents. This led to the Korean navy only having two injuries and the Japanese suffering an embarrassing defeat that also led to many deaths and injuries to their whole navy. And to this day, he is hailed as one of Korea’s first heroes who helped make Korea become what it is today.
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