3.1. Contrasting with Asia

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Image by sasint in Pixabay under public domain

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  • Think of your country, how many communities do you know?
  • Is there diversity at all?
  • What are the relationships established among these different cultural groups?
  • What issues do these different groups have in common?
  • How could the world become completely globalized when there are so many cultural groups?
  • What is censorship? How can it affect the way we see the world?


Video by TED on YouTube

Remember you can click on "Open transcript" to follow the script if needed.


Rellenar huecos

Watch the video from the beginning to minute 5:32 and fill the gaps with the correct word.

When I was little, I thought my country was the best on the planet. And I grew up singing a song called "Nothing To Envy." And I was very proud. In school, we spent a lot of time studying the history of Kim Il-Sung, but we never learned much about the outside world, except that America, South Korea, Japan are the enemies. Although I often wondered about the outside world, I thought I would spend my entire life in North Korea, until everything suddenly changed.


When I was seven years old, I saw my first public   . But I thought my life in North Korea was normal. My family was not poor, and myself, I had never experienced  . But one day, in 1995, my mom brought home a letter from a coworker's sister. It read, "When you read this, our five family members will not exist in this world, because we haven't eaten for the past three weeks. We are lying on the floor together, and our bodies are so weak, we are waiting to die."


I was so shocked. This was the first time I heard that people in my country were suffering. Soon after, when I was walking past a train station, I saw something terrible that to this day I can't  from my memory. A lifeless woman was lying on the ground, while an   child in her arms just stared helplessly at his mother's face. But nobody helped them, because they were so focused on taking care of themselves and their families.


A huge   hit North Korea in the mid-1990s. Ultimately, more than a million North Koreans died during the famine, and many only survived by eating grass, bugs and tree bark. Power   also became more and more frequent, so everything around me was completely dark at night, except for the sea of lights in China, just across the river from my home. I always wondered why they had lights, but we didn't. This is a satellite picture showing North Korea at night, compared to neighbors.


This is the Amnok River, which serves as a part of the border between North Korea and China. As you can see, the river can be very narrow at certain points, allowing North Koreans to secretly cross. But many die. Sometimes, I saw dead bodies   down the river. I can't reveal many details about how I left North Korea, but I only can say that during the ugly years of the famine, I was sent to China to live with distant relatives. But I only thought that I would be separated from my family for a short time. I could have never imagined that it would take 14 years to live together.


In China, it was hard living as a young girl without my family. I had no idea what life was going to be like as a North Korean   . But I soon learned it's not only extremely difficult, it's also very dangerous, since North Korean refugees are considered in China as illegal migrants. So, I was living in constant fear that my identity could be revealed, and I would be  to a horrible fate, back in North Korea.


One day, my worst nightmare came true, when I was caught by the Chinese police, and brought to the police station for interrogation. Someone had accused me of being North Korean, so they tested my Chinese language abilities, and asked me tons of questions. I was so scared. I thought my heart was going to explode. If anything seemed unnatural, I could be  and repatriated. I thought my life was over. But I managed to control all the emotions inside me and answer the questions. After they finished questioning me, one official said to another, "This was a false report. She's not North Korean." And they let me go. It was a miracle.


Some North Koreans in China seek  in foreign embassies. But many can be caught by the Chinese police, and repatriated. These girls were so lucky. Even though they were caught, they were eventually released, after heavy international pressure. These North Koreans were not so lucky. Every year,  North Koreans are caught in China and repatriated to North Korea, where they can be tortured, imprisoned, or publicly executed.

Adapted from:https://www.ted.com/talks/hyeonseo_lee_my_escape_from_north_korea/transcript

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Pregunta Verdadero-Falso

Watch from minute 5:32 to the end of the video and decide if the following statements are True or False.

Pregunta 1

1. When North Koreans seek asylum in China and learn a new language, they can have a quiet and normal life.

Pregunta 2

2. She decided to move to South Korea because she was missing home and both countries are not so different.

Pregunta 3

3. She had to think of ways to rescue her family from North Korea because they were going to be punished by the authorities.

Pregunta 4

4. When the speaker was crossing China with her family, they were about to be seized several times.

Pregunta 5

5. Guards and police officers are really uncorrupted in Laos, that's why her family was imprisoned twice, and nothing could be done.

Pregunta 6

6. After receiving help from a complete stranger, she realized it is the international community that can bring hope to North Koreans.

Pregunta 7

7. North Korean refugees may create a connection with those who still live in North Korea to help them change this country from the inside.