[DeCal] The Spring 2010 Semester DeCal Team

Spring 2010 Semester, Breaking Down Borders: DeCal Team

We will have two new facilitators this semester, Leah and Tori.

 

Lead Facilitator:  Leah Yi

 

I am a second year, intended Chemical Biology major. I grew up in Seoul, Korea (Republic of Korea) and attended most of my school years at the public school in a very large US military base- a base that represents a “mini-America,” if you will, and hence a misfit in a quickly growing and developing Korean city. As you will learn in this class, the origins of this military base go back to the days of Japanese colonialization (1910-45) then was taken over my by US as a result of the subsequent US military occupation of South Korea. Although I lived in Korea for about 8 years, I was never very aware of the history of North and South Korea and the fact that they were once, in fact for a great majority of the time, a unified country. This was the incentive for me to take this class last semester, taught by Joe Chang, who in this spring semester will be assisting me and Tori (the other facilitator) in teaching this class. I hope this class will be as valuable of a learning experience for you as it was for me and look forward to a great semester (Leah Yi).

Facilitator: Tori Bazz


You will have to come to class to find out what she studies and why she is doing this decal. :)

Facilitator: Joseph Chang

I am graduating this coming May with a double major in economics and applied mathematics. I grew up in Southern California, at the boundary line between La Crescenta and La Canada-Flintridge. I attended both La Canada and Crescenta Valley High School, which by the way have very different cultures. Though I grew up or lived in areas with sizeable Korean minorities or absolute majorities (if South Korea is given consideration), I myself was not aware of how there are direct historical explanations as to why I would address my parents a certain way or even as to the way banks are named. For example, I think in South Korea I remember seeing a Shinhan Bank, which was a merger of two defunct banks during the IMF period -- though I wonder if Shinhan Bank is still around. The name of this bank is in English New Korea Bank, but in Los Angeles, I see quite a few Saehan Banks (versus Shinhan), which also means New Korea Bank; of course, the difference between the latter and the former is that Shin is a Sino-Korean word -- 新(신), whereas Sae (새) is a native Korean word. By the way, this is something I just thought of when I was driving when I was in Los Angeles this past winter and I'm not actually sure if transcribed in Sino-Chinese characters Shinhan is really this 新(Shin) character, but this would be an example of why I'm a student instructor for this course. I thought this was interesting. As this is my last semester at UC Berkeley, I'm also going to try and ensure that there is a smooth transition between the semesters I have been facilitating this course and the semesters I will not (Joseph Chang).