The Tan'gun Myth

*text below is 100% copied from the book I'm reading*

The Wei shu tells us that two thousand years ago, at the time of Emperor Yao, Tan'gun Wanggom chose Asadal as his capital and founded the state of Choson. The Old Record notes that in olden times Hwanin's son, Hwanung, wished to descend from Heaven and live in the world of human beings. Knowing his son's desire, Hwanin surveyed the three highest mountains and found Mount T'aebaek the most suitable place for his to settle and help human beings. Therefore he gave Hwanung three heavenly seals and dispatched him to rule over the people. Hwanung descended with three thousand followers to a spot under a tree by the Holy Altar atop Mount T'aebaek, and he called this place the City of God. He was the Heavenly King Hwanung. Leading the Earl or Wind, the Master of Rain, and the Master of Clouds, he took charge of some three hundred and sixty areas of responsibility, including agriculture, allotted life spans, illness, punishment, and good and evil, and brought culture to his people.

At that time a bear and a tiger living in the same cave prayed to Holy Hwanung to transform them into human beings. He gave them a bundle of sacred mugworts and twenty cloves of garlic and said, "If you eat these and shun the sunlight for one hundred days, you will assume human form." Both animals ate the species and avoided the sun. After twenty-one days the bear became a woman but the tiger, unable to observe the taboo, remained a tiger. Unable to find a husband, the bear-woman prayed under the altar tree for a child. Hwanung metamorphosed himself, lay with her, and begot a son called Tan'gun Wanggom.

Tan'gun later was often considered the first Korean and/or founder of the first Korean state. This account goes on to say that in the "fiftieth year of the reign of Emperor Yao," on a date calculated as October 3rd, 2333 B.C.E., Tan'gun was said to have established the stated of Choson. This date has become a national holiday in South Korea. Koreans today often refer to the "five thousand years of Korean history," a phrase based on this legendary date.

Reading is like decoding a secret!

I guess this is where I find my rare pleasures in reading.

Who or What is Your Sunshine?

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

You make me happy when skies are gray.

You'll never know, dear, how much I love you.

Please, don't take my sunshine away.

We all know or at least we've heard this little song

by Johnny Cash, right!

This past week, the spelling/vocabulary words

my students had to study were

clouds, sky, raindrops, rainbow, sunshine, Earth... etc.

We were also studying the simple future tense ... using will.

Anyways, I thought this song could come in handy

and we sang it together in class. ^^ It was so fun!!

After the inumerous attempts of singing harmoniously,

I told them to draw what came to their minds

as they sang or read these lyrics.

This is what they've come up with.

... so cute ...

[friends and family ... and Miss Kang!!]

[the Sun and nature]

[video-game and the pet]

*

A Concise History of Korea

*

I had ALWAYS wanted to know about the origin of my ancestors,

as in ... the Korean people.

Honestly, I have no clue about my background!

How embarrassing is that!!!

Where did the Koreans

really come from?

My parents always told me that

it's a nation of over

5000 years of history

... unlike the baby Brazil!

Hey, I wonder if

the Garden of Eden

wasn't actually on the faaaar

East of 'Asia' ... ^^

Don't tell anyone,

but another embarrassing fact is that

I've had this book for a year and never touched it.

Thank God, my thirst for my background is finally starting to kill me.

So, this is what I'm reading these days.

It gives you a pretty good idea to how Korea came about.

It's the book I recommend ALL Koreans to read

~ especially 1.5 or 2nd generation ... or even 3rd or 4th...

or anyone interested in truly knowing about Korea!

A Concise History of Korea:

From the Neolithis Period through the Nineteenth Century

by Michael J. Seth

Follow up on READ FOR THE RECORD

So this is what my boss email said today!! ^^

It's the result of one of my previous postings.

Read for the Record

TOGETHER, WE BROKE THE RECORD!
Last Thursday, over 425,000 (last year it was 285,000) people joined Jumpstart's Read for the Record, shattering a world record and bringing early education to a national stage.

Best regards,
Lyle

Mr. Lyle G. French
Pedagogical Director
Escola Cidade Jardim / PlayPen
http://www.playpen.com.br
(55) 11-3812-9122

She's in town...

... only for a few days ...

Why do all the people that I love live so far from me?

Oh well... I guess it's my destiny to live this way.

So this time... Lise and I went to a Thai restaurant

called Nam Thai. It's soooo nice...

a very pleasant little place.

... the flash was a little too strong on this one ...

... the food ...

These vermicelli noodles on the red spoons were so good!!

I think I'll have pasta next time I go. ^^ hehe...

Read for the Record

Today at school, we did something so interesting.

It's called "Read for the Record",

where children from all over the world

read the same book and

get as many students to do it on the same day.

Last year, there were 258 thousand readers worldwide.

The objective of this project is

to emphasise the importance of reading... I think! ^^

... and it's organized by Jumpstart.

This year, the book was Corduroy by Don Freeman.

It's a very cute book about a teddy bear named Corduroy

who is sitting on one of the many shelves of a huge department store.

One day a little girl, Lisa, sees Corduroy and wants to buy it,

but her mom says no because they've spent too much already and

Corduroy is missing a button on his overalls.

Aware of his missing button,

Corduroy wanders around the store in search of his button.

And, Lisa, wanting him so much,

uses her money from her piggy bank,

buys Corduroy, takes him home

and sews the missing button on him.

Apart from just reading the book,

we had to work on a theme,

either friendship or respecting differences.

I personally chose respecting differences and had a wonderful time

with my students discussing the different ways we see others,

the different opinions people may hold, etc.

After reading and a little moment of sharing,

the students wrote a sentence reflecting what they'd understood

about respecting differences.

Here are just a few of their sentences.

... so we went down the hallways and stuck'em on the wall ...

It was so much fun for all my students,

and I really enjoyed doing this with them. ^^

If you want to read Corduroy online... click here! Enjoy...

*Until last year, only Playpen

was part of Read for the Record here in Brazil,

but starting 2008, seven more private schools

- including a Brazilian school - have joined in.*