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A review by leggup
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim
5.0
Really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see her approach to teaching the impossible- how to teach a language of a culture of openness to a culture of closeness. How to teach critical thinking where it is forbidden.
I have often heard about the comparisons between evangelical Christianity and totalitarian dictatorships like North Korea. I would have liked if there had been more of that in the book. I especially would have liked if the censorship of Christianity had been discussed more. I understand that the point was North Korea and that she wasn't trying to slight the missionaries as much as possible. It would have been especially appropriate to discuss at the end of the year in the section about movies.
I really enjoyed the topic of lies. Lying as taught. Why the students lied was fascinating to me. The groupthink is so strong. The idea that the regime has an answer for everything, therefore there aren't really questions.
This book makes me even more curious about the higher levels of the regime. To maintain control, informaiton is controlled. Education and resources are controlled (and scarce). When your technology students don't know what the Internet is and can't fathom ideas critical to understanding technology, how can the regime have enough information to operate. Surely there are people in the government who use the Internet. How do the people in power know enough to restrict the 'correct' information?
I have often heard about the comparisons between evangelical Christianity and totalitarian dictatorships like North Korea. I would have liked if there had been more of that in the book. I especially would have liked if the censorship of Christianity had been discussed more. I understand that the point was North Korea and that she wasn't trying to slight the missionaries as much as possible. It would have been especially appropriate to discuss at the end of the year in the section about movies.
I really enjoyed the topic of lies. Lying as taught. Why the students lied was fascinating to me. The groupthink is so strong. The idea that the regime has an answer for everything, therefore there aren't really questions.
This book makes me even more curious about the higher levels of the regime. To maintain control, informaiton is controlled. Education and resources are controlled (and scarce). When your technology students don't know what the Internet is and can't fathom ideas critical to understanding technology, how can the regime have enough information to operate. Surely there are people in the government who use the Internet. How do the people in power know enough to restrict the 'correct' information?