Current Events > nk isnt this crazy says nk defector

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"Even North Korea is not this nuts," North Korean defector Yeonmi Park said of her experience at Columbia University. "North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy."

The 27-year-old Park said she transferred to Columbia from a South Korean university in 2016, but her experience at the school left her disturbed.

I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think," Park said. "I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying."

One such similarity Park noticed was an anti-Western sentiment, but she also noted that other red flags, such as collective guilt and extreme political correctness, were also pervasive at the school.
In one instance, Park said she was scolded by a staff member for saying she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen.

"I said, I love those books. I thought it was a good thing," Park said. "Then, she was like, 'Did you know that those writers, who had a colonial mindset, were racists and bigots who wrote those books? So they are subconsciously brainwashing you.'"

Park noted that such incidents were not isolated, as every class she took at the school contained the kind of anti-American propaganda she had grown up with as a young student in North Korea.

"American bastard' was one word for North Koreans, Park said she was taught growing up. "The math problems would say, 'There are four American bastards, you kill two of them, how many American bastards are left to kill?'"
The North Korean defector was also confused about issues related to gender and language, recalling how every class would require students to tell the class
their preferred pronouns.

"English is my third language. I learned it as an adult. I sometimes [still] say 'he' or 'she' by mistake, and now they are going to ask me to call them 'they'? How the heck do I incorporate that in my sentences?" Park asked.
"It was chaos," Park continued. "It felt like the regression in civilization."

Park said she used to engage professors and fellow students in debates and arguments but learned quickly how to just shut up" so she could maintain her grades and GPA.

She noted that as she was growing up in North Korea, she had no concept of love and liberty. Park took aim at students who told stories of being oppressed, arguing they did not know what real oppression looks like.
"Because I have seen oppression, I know what it looks like," Park said, noting she had seen 13 people die of starvation.

"These kids keep saying how theyre oppressed, how much injustice they've experienced ... They don't know how hard it is to be free," she continued. "I literally crossed through the middle of the Gobi Desert to be free. But what I did was nothing, so many people fought harder than me and didn't make it."
Park and her mother originally fled North Korea when she was 13 years old, attempting to cross Chinas frozen Yalu River when they were caught by human traffickers who sold them into slavery. Park was sold for less than $300, while her mother was sold for about $100.
Christian missionaries later helped Park and her mother flee Mongolia, after which they made the trek across the Gobi Desert to reach South Korea.
Park published a memoir in 2015, titled InOrder to Live, in which she describes her ordeal fleeing from one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.

"The people here are just dying to give their rights and power to the government. That is what scares me the most," Park said.
She believes Americas educational institutions are now stripping their students of the ability to think critically, something she compared to her educational experiences in North Korea.

"In North Korea, I literally believed that my dear leader [Kim Jong Un] was starving," Park said. "He's the fattest guy how can anyone believe that? And then, somebody showed me a photo and said, 'Look at him, he's the fattest guy. Other people are all thin.' And I was like, 'Oh my God, why did I not notice that he was fat?' Because I never learned how to think critically."

"That is what is happening in America," she continued. "People see things, but still they've just completely lost the ability to think critically."
Park pointed out that she did not grow up with the wealth of information Americans have access to on the internet, yet argued even with such access, Americans now choose to be brainwashed.

"North Koreans, we don't have internet, we don't have access to any of these great thinkers, we don't know anything. But here, while having everything, people choose to be brainwashed. And they deny it, Park said.

While she at one time had high hopes and expectations for life in the U.S., Park now says her experiences have left her worried about the countrys future.
"You guys have lost common sense to [a] degree that I as a North Korean cannot even comprehend," Park said.

sadly she isnt wrong

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Where's the link tho

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is this about critical race theory?

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tl;dr?

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"I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying

And thats the pure truth the rest of the world knows about America

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when they right they right

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Horseshoe theory, etc.

This is a fox news article btw, but that doesn't make it not true.
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spanky1 posted...

This is a fox news article

Oh lol

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billcom6 posted...

is this about critical race theory?

no

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GreatGoomba posted...

Oh lol

The woman still exists and she still said the things she said. None of that changes with knowing this article itself is from fox news.
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skermac posted...

"English is my third language. I learned it as an adult. I sometimes [still] say 'he' or 'she' by mistake, and now they are going to ask me to call them 'they'? How the heck do I incorporate that in my sentences?" Park asked.

She just did?

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she can feel free to go back then

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I find kinda weird how she argues "This is even more oppressive than North Korea!" and "You people have no idea what oppression even IS!" at the same time

Just feels like more "old man yells at cloud" right wing bullshit. Just with a cute North Korean chick.

I mean she tells stories about someone trashing Austen but then didn't give examples of things she wanted to say that would hurt her GPA... Which would be the most critical thing to detail in the entire complaint.

"It could be worse so how dare you complain!" is not thinking critically, it;s the opposite.

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lol

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ImAMarvel posted...

I feel like she's likely just hugely exaggerating. Like with the pronouns thing, like it's not that hard to understand. My near 60 year old mom understands that pretty well. >_>

Is English your mother's 3rd language as well? I'm enrolled in a Korean course and basically all the teachers at my school are 1st generation immigrants coming directly from South Korea. Few are also defectors from the North as well actually. None of them are native English speakers, so they often still make mistakes and have difficulty utilizing pronouns in the way native speakers do. English is a stupid language that doesn't make very much sense. I wouldn't be so quick to criticize her. Especially if she's fluent in another language besides her native tongue

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yea, not every language has the same gender pronoun stuff we have so it can confuse people. my adopted chinese sister (she got adopted when she was 8 so she had to learn english) used to often use "she" even when talking about males

Guide posted...

Where's the link tho

https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-korean-defector-ivy-league-nuts

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Zikten posted...

yea, not every language has the same gender pronoun stuff we have so it can confuse people. my adopted chinese sister (she got adopted when she was 8 so she had to learn english) used to often use "she" even when talking about males

Yeah, I'm still only 4 to 5 months into the course, but as far as I know, there's no Korean equivalent to he/she him/her etc. The closest thing I've seen used is "that man, that woman". In general, they don't really refer to anyone using pronouns. It's almost always proper nouns.

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spanky1 posted...

This is a fox news article btw, but that doesn't make it not true.

Fox definitely has an agenda with posting this but yes, that doesnt mean its not true. Its largely gonna fall on deaf ears here though. Weve already got a guy suggesting she was paid to say it lol


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Gurifisu posted...

Is English your mother's 3rd language as well? I'm enrolled in a Korean course and basically all the teachers at my school are 1st generation immigrants coming directly from South Korea. Few are also defectors from the North as well actually. None of them are native English speakers, so they often still make mistakes and have difficulty utilizing pronouns in the way native speakers do. English is a stupid language that doesn't make very much sense. I wouldn't be so quick to criticize her. Especially if she's fluent in another language besides her native tongue

Zikten posted...

yea, not every language has the same gender pronoun stuff we have so it can confuse people. my adopted chinese sister (she got adopted when she was 8 so she had to learn english) used to often use "she" even when talking about males

Okay but, like, there's a world of difference between "this language is hard, I don't get it" and "It was chaos" or "It felt like the regression in civilization."

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There have been doubts about the truthfulness of this defector for a rather long time. This lengthy article from 2014 goes into some of the inconsistentcies in her stories.

https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-park/

Some highlights from the article.

On her being a reality tv star in South Korea.

Buried in the shows archives are some snapshots of Parks childhood in North Korea that explain why shes known on the show as the Paris Hilton of North Korea. Theyre in sharp contrast to the story shes now telling her international audience.In one episode in early 2013 she appears with her mother. Family photographs are flashed on the screen and Park jokes, Thats my Mum there. Shes beautiful right? To be honest, Im not the Paris Hilton. My mum is the real Paris Hilton. Park then goes on to point out the top and chequered pants her mother is wearing were all imported from Japan and adds, My mum even carried around a Chanel bag in North Korea, to which the host responds incredulously, There are Chanel bags in North Korea? Park tells him there are and he then asks another woman if shed classify Parks family as rich. The woman answers, Yes, thats right.

On how she intends to tell her story

Yeonmi Park is backed by the American Libertarian non-profit organization, Atlas Foundation. Shes one of its Young Voices and has recently started her own foundation based in New York you can donate online through PayPal, but what exactly your money will be used for is not clear. What is clear though, is that Yeonmi is travelling and speaking in 2014 and is available for international speeches.

Now when it is revealed that she has set up her own foundation in New York to receive donations she offers an immediate and dubious explanation

But one very important thing to correct: I do not have a foundation. The website was a dummy site built by a friend, and it was not supposed to be live. There was no way it could accept money, and I havent taken any. I am so sorry for the confusion. The site has been taken down.

That tells me she's full of shit and a grifter the same flavor as a Jimmy Dore or Candice Owens.
Her friend built a dummy site that takes donations but it was never supposed to work.
Please.
You don't have to be Wumao to see this women is a liar and a grifter.

ImAMarvel posted...

That said, it's entirely possible she's being paid to say this drivel.

she's obviously being paid to do this. basically every defector from NK is being paid to say shit

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