Grounds for Coffee | February 19, 2020
The next few Coffee Stained Stories will feature a number of incredible women I’ve been lucky to have met as a writer. First in the series is Dawna Shim here, who hails from South Korea.
JeongA
“My name is Dawna Shim. Dawna is my English name that I made up when I came to Vancouver about nine months ago. My Korean name is JeongA.” Dawna wanted a name that would be easier for people to pronounce.
Dawna is certainly a pretty name, but so is JeongA! So I ask her to tell me more.
“My Korean name, JeongA, is from a dream my father had when my parents had me. It’s called a tae-mong in Korean, where one of the parents has a dream when the mother is pregnant. The dream was about my father picking up a cross necklace in this transparent water. So Jeong means shallow water, and A means pretty.”
In search of calm and quiet
An English Literature student, Dawna is here in Vancouver for one year on an exchange program. I ask why she chose to come to Vancouver, of all the places she could have gone to.
“I wanted to take a break from the very busy city environment, packed with cars, packed with people. My home university is in Seoul. I chose Vancouver because I had this image that Vancouver would be surrounded with beautiful nature and that there wouldn’t be so many people around here. And I was right. I’m really enjoying it.
It’s beautiful here, and it’s so close to nature. I was impressed by how people think about the environment here. People in Vancouver are very thoughtful when it comes to caring for the environment. And I think it’s because they see this beautiful nature everyday. I think it’s really cool.”
The slow pace of life
“One thing though, to be honest, is that the speed of everything is a little bit slow. It’s really because I’m Korean,” she laughs. And I laugh, too. There’s a culture of “hurry, hurry” in South Korea, which may as well be the unofficial motto of the country. People like things done in a speedy manner.
“Something that would only take a day takes four months here! There was this big construction in front of the bus stop. The construction was finally over and I went to look at what they’d done… and they had repainted the road! I thought they were at least making a parking lot or something.”
Another time, Dawna tried getting groceries delivered. It was supposed to arrive at noon, and it didn’t get delivered until 9pm!
“The waiting is really difficult for me, but once I get used to it, I think it’s good. The working environment is much better [without such a rush], and the result is good, too. I find people to be much friendlier and generally happier here. I see that when I look at people’s facial expressions. And how they spend their days.
In Korea, when you walk you can barely see peoples’ faces, cause everyone has their heads down, rushing to places. When I first went to the train station [in Seoul], I thought I was watching a zombie movie. It was packed. And everyone was going home at the same time.”
Too modest?
The pace of life isn’t the only thing that Dawna noticed as different here in Vancouver. Dawna says the university experience, from the learning environment to how the professors interact with students, has been quite different from what she’s used to back in her home university in Seoul.
“How the professors interact with students is really different. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but in Korea, we have this Confucius idea that we have to respect the professors a lot more than it is the case here. Here, I find that talking to professors is more like talking to your friends. Professors share their ideas, and you share yours. And some professors are like, you can call me by my first name. That was unbelievable.”
Another observation of Dawna’s comes from the way students raise their hands and share their ideas in the classroom. “In Korea, your friends might think you’re trying too hard, and things like that.” Dawna feels that because modesty is so highly valued in Korean culture, Korean people tend to shy away from expressing their thoughts or raising their hands in class.
“For example, I see [other international students] here being loud, open-minded, and confident. Korean people tend to be shy. Not personality-wise, but they are made to act in that way, trying to be too modest. I think it’s directly related to the education system.
There was this very famous incident a few years ago, where President Obama [at a press conference in Korea] asked Korean journalists if they had any questions, and no one was able to raise their hands. There was a Chinese journalist, and he took the chance and raised his hand. Everyone else didn’t want to speak up.
We’re beginning to notice this in Korea, and we’re trying to change it.”
Dawna writes
Dawna and I first met in a creative writing class last September, where we ended up in the same workshop group. So I happen to know that Dawna is a terrific writer with incredibly original story ideas.
“I wrote my first story in high school. It was a fan fiction for a book called Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. It’s about a family that drinks this water in the forest and turns immortal. I really liked the book. But I wanted to change the ending, so I rewrote it. There was a contest, and I won the prize. I think that helped me a lot in making me want to take creative writing courses.”
Fun fact: Dawna always writes her stories in English. She says she can’t imagine herself writing in Korean!
The Rat Snake of Baekjae
Dawna often incorporates magical elements and inspiration from Korean history and folklore in her stories. The Rat Snake of Baekjae, a fiction she’s currently working on for her Writing for Children and Young Adults class, is one that I’m excited to read.
“The Rat Snake of Baekjae is related to the story of a shaman. Shamans are an interesting type of people, even in Korea. They are considered ominous by most people. And I’ve had sort of a personal connection with a shaman when I was young. My mom was friends with a shaman’s daughter, and I saw her stealing uncooked rice from a restaurant. Later, my mom learned that there’s this belief that if you eat someone’s rice, you get all the fortunes of that house! Which is creepy, you know? So once my mom learned of this, she never invited her in again. She used to come to our house and eat our rice as well!
My main character in this book is a shaman’s daughter. I wanted to know what it would be like to be a daughter of a shaman.”
Intrigued by the story idea, I ask if she can tell me what happens to this girl. “For now, I think she is going on a journey to find her own identity as the daughter of a shaman. I’ve put some magical and fantasy elements inside. But in the end, I’m just hoping that the character can find a firm ground on which she finds who she is.”
Oh Dawna, I so hope to one day see The Rat Snake of Baekjae at a local bookstore near me!
Science fiction… next project idea?
“I think it would be interesting if I could write science fiction. I enjoyed reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. It’s a dystopian novel. I found it interesting because I find myself struggling with the life span of humans. For example, how humans have to stay young for so little. In science fiction, it gets different in those kinds of ways, but it’s got its own problems there. I think it’s really interesting.”
Look forward when you walk
Asked about her plans for the next few months in Vancouver, Dawna says she doesn’t have anything specific in mind. “What I planned to do here in Vancouver was enjoying nature, the leisureliness, and I’m already doing that. This is an experience that will never come back to me again, as you only get to [be on exchange] once as a university student.”
Something that’s been on Dawna’s mind lately is how she engages with the world around her. “I regret not actively engaging with other people, while I’ve been here on exchange and anytime in my life. I was really talkative and loud when I [was younger], and I changed at one point. Now, I’m shy most of the time and I try to hide my feelings. And I think it would be good if I could go back to before.”
Dawna had hoped that Vancouver might help bring out that side of herself again, but that hasn’t exactly been the case. “Umm, maybe next time,” says Dawna.
When I ask what she thinks might be a step towards achieving that goal in a small way, Dawna’s answer takes me by surprise: “I think the first step that I should take is to look forward when I walk, because I’m always looking down. I’m really afraid I might look into someone’s eyes when I walk. I don’t know why!”
We wrap up the conversation with Dawna saying that she will look up for three whole minutes when she’s out and about one of the days this week. “Okay, I’ll try. When no one’s around.”
Dawna, you know I’m going to check back with you!
“One of my favourite books is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. It’s about a toy rabbit going on a journey. It warms your heart, it’s almost therapeutic!”
Follow Dawna on Instagram @dawvana
Dawna Shim | jeongashim@ewhain.net
