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The Resource Without you, there is no us : my time with the sons of North Korea's elite, Suki Kim, (electronic resource)

Without you, there is no us : my time with the sons of North Korea's elite, Suki Kim, (electronic resource)

Creator
Summary
A haunting memoir of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields'except for the 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues'evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. She is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. To them, everything in North Korea is the best, the tallest, the most delicious, the envy of all nations. Still, she cannot help but love them'their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. As the weeks pass, she begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own'at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. The students in turn offer Suki tantalizing glimpses into their lives, from their thoughts on how to impress girls to their disappointment that soccer games are only televised when the North Korean team wins. Then Kim Jong-il dies, leaving the students devastated, and leading Suki to question whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged. Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource.
Note
  • Available to Vancouver Residents only
  • Residents of other municipalities should check their local library
  • Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed June 19, 2014)
Isbn
9780307720672
Link
http://vpl.lib.overdrive.com/936DA9CB-2E28-4BFA-B357-47F9868C64B1/10/50/en/ContentDetails.htm?id=5DAAA8AB-7A29-4849-B3A7-D706909DE52E
Instance
Label
Without you, there is no us : my time with the sons of North Korea's elite
Title
Without you, there is no us
Title remainder
my time with the sons of North Korea's elite
Statement of responsibility
Suki Kim
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
A haunting memoir of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields'except for the 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues'evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. She is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. To them, everything in North Korea is the best, the tallest, the most delicious, the envy of all nations. Still, she cannot help but love them'their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. As the weeks pass, she begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own'at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. The students in turn offer Suki tantalizing glimpses into their lives, from their thoughts on how to impress girls to their disappointment that soccer games are only televised when the North Korean team wins. Then Kim Jong-il dies, leaving the students devastated, and leading Suki to question whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged. Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves
Cataloging source
RECBK
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1970-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Kim, Suki
Dewey number
  • 951.93051
  • B
Index
no index present
LC call number
PE64.K45
Literary form
unknown
Nature of contents
dictionaries
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Kim, Suki
  • English teachers
  • Elite (Social sciences)
  • Education and state
  • Korea (North)
  • Korea (North)
Label
Without you, there is no us : my time with the sons of North Korea's elite, Suki Kim, (electronic resource)
Link
http://vpl.lib.overdrive.com/936DA9CB-2E28-4BFA-B357-47F9868C64B1/10/50/en/ContentDetails.htm?id=5DAAA8AB-7A29-4849-B3A7-D706909DE52E
Instantiates
Publication
Note
  • Available to Vancouver Residents only
  • Residents of other municipalities should check their local library
  • Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed June 19, 2014)
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource.
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780307720672
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Publisher number
EB00319975
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
  • 4851442
  • ocn883337633
  • (OCoLC)883337633
Label
Without you, there is no us : my time with the sons of North Korea's elite, Suki Kim, (electronic resource)
Link
http://vpl.lib.overdrive.com/936DA9CB-2E28-4BFA-B357-47F9868C64B1/10/50/en/ContentDetails.htm?id=5DAAA8AB-7A29-4849-B3A7-D706909DE52E
Publication
Note
  • Available to Vancouver Residents only
  • Residents of other municipalities should check their local library
  • Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed June 19, 2014)
Antecedent source
unknown
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource.
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780307720672
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Publisher number
EB00319975
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
  • 4851442
  • ocn883337633
  • (OCoLC)883337633

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