Welcome to Team World

 

 

Hi I'm Tim Birdsong, a Professor of English Language Studies in Hanyan University, Seoul, Korea.

Many of my students may be confused as to why their Professor  cleans up the garbage around the university and in the streets of Seoul. Cleaning up garbage is just one of the public services that everyone can participate in to demonstrate pride and respect not only for the university, but also for the city as a whole. I was once a student, I went to University and I qualified to be what I am today but I chose to study without pressure from my parents, family or peers. In much the same way, I choose to help clean up my environment for a number of reasons. One is related to pride which will not allow me to have tourists and foreigners believe that my adopted city of Seoul is a dirty or ugly place. A quick search on the internet reveals that Seoul is not one of the cleanest places in the world so if we want to create the image of a “Sparkling Korea” we need to get out there on the streets and clean up.

However, there is a much more important purpose to what I do. Korea has become a nation devoid of culture with a sense of “han” – the feeling of frustration, pain and thwarted hope. To understand this, it is necessary to study and learn about the history of Korea starting at the beginning with Dangun, the founding father. I know that many of my students perceive Dangun as a legendary, mythical figure but the history of the world has shown many times that legendary characters have usually been based on real people. What is needed in modern day Korea is for all the people to practice the philosophy of Dangun - Hongik-Ingan. If they don’t then they will make a mockery of their Korean ancestors who throughout history have fought and died, to liberate the Korean people from oppression. They did not fight so that Koreans could passively ignore oppression, wallow in self-absorbed unawareness and follow the crowd in the pursuit of personal ambition and success, completely oblivious to the injustice surrounding them and with insensitivity to the welfare of not only their fellow compatriots but also that of humans worldwide.

Korea has spent centuries defending its shores from every conceivable type of invasion and despite the Japanese colonization in the early 20^th century, when a cruel campaign was launched to erase the Korean language, culture and heritage, Korea still exists as an independent nation which is testament to the courage, strength and resilience of its people.

Korea has forgotten the gift of Dangun, its national treasure, pot of gold and winning lottery ticket. If the Korean people believed in and practiced the principle of Hongik-Ingan they would be united and stronger than America or Japan, eventually encompassing the world.