Eight Questions and Answers
The interviews were answered either in the written form or filmed in video in 2012.
Special thanks to all the participants for video and text interviews.
The Participants:
Interviewed in Ushtobe, Kazakhstan (The first Korean enclave)
1. Galina Kon (b. 1968), Music teacher.
2. Natalia Kim (b. 1952), Music teacher.
3. Olga Kim (b. 1987), Student
4. Yevgeniya Kim (b. 1973), School teacher.
5. Alexander Park ( b. 1991), Student.
6. Vladimir Lee (b. 1969), Businessman.
7. Stanislav Lee (b. 1959), Poet, Artist.
8. Snezhana Tsai (b. 2000), Student.
9. Yevgeniy Karpov (b. 1991), Student.
10. Svetlana Tie (b. 1989), Student.
11. Nadegda Prihodko (b. 1989), Student.
12. Angelina Khan (b. 1991), Student.
Interviewed in Almaty, Kazakhstan (The former capital of Kazakhstan)
13. Ulian Park (b. 1965), Businessman.
14. Sergey Son (b. 1955), Puppeteer.
15. Da-Young Kim (b. 1995), Student.
16. Byung-hak Kim (b. 1965), Poet, Author.
17. Sangwook Kim (b. 1966), Newspaper publisher.
18. Alexander Tsoy (b. 1969), Musician.
19. Vladimir Khan (b. 1972), Film director.
20. Alexander Kan (b. 1960), Writer.
Interviewed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
21. Victor An (b. 1947), Photographer.
Interviewed in Seoul, Korea
22. Sungmi Park (b. 1988), Student.
23. Hyunwoo Jung (b. 1986), College T.A.
24. Dalrae Jin (b. 1989), Student.
1. What are important historical dates for you?
- My date of birth. (Snezhana Tsai, Sungmi Park)
- We lived in a rural area, I remember the Kudul, the traditional Korean furnace under the floor. We had no beds at the time and our whole life was lived on the Kudul. (Victor An)
- The year of 1945. It’s the date of independence of the Republic of Korea. I read about it, and it’s memorable to me. (Da-Young Kim)
- The birth of the writers who influenced me and became my teachers: Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard. I also cannot forget the date of my birth and the birth of my daughter. (Alexander Kan)
- 1991, the year of the breakdown of the Soviet Union. (Sangwook Kim, Ulian Park)
- 1937, the year of the deportation of Koreans to Kazakhstan. (Byung-hak Kim, Stanislav Lee, Svetlana Tie, Angelina Khan, Yevgeniy Karpov)
- The Korean community of Ushtobe in Bass Tube Mountain, the first settlement of deported Koreans, where the modern history of the ethnic Koreans living in Kazakhstan began. When someone dies we bury him there. For us, it’s a historic and a sacred place. (Vladimir Lee)
- The Second World War (Nadegda Prihodko, Olga Kim, Yevgeniy Karpov)
- Acceptance into the Pioneers of the Komsomol (The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League). It was a very important event for us. I am 65 years old, and we were raised during that time. Those are the historical dates in my memory. (Natalia Kim)
- The monument of Ablai Khan (1711-1781, Kazakh ruler of the Middle Jüz). (Olga Kim)
- Dates of birth and death of relatives. (Sergey Son. Alexander Tsoy, Ulian Park)
- In 2000, I went to Seoul; I had surgery on the heart. The death of my father in 2009. (Alexander Park)
-The migration from Josun (Korean dynasty from 1392-1897). (Stanislav Lee)
- In Korea, the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island although I don’t remember the actual date and time. The 911 terrorist attack on September 11 in 2001 was broadcast while I was watching a night time drama series. Osama bin Laden gave such an unforgettable memory in my lifetime. (Dalrae Jin)
- Most high school students in Korea, including me, live passively. I never chose what I wanted to do, being without any goals. It's not much historically but in February 2005, I searched for and chose my own path when I graduated from high school and failed the college entry exam. I decided to major in Art instead of Liberal Arts. That decision frightened and excited me; it was the day I stepped onto my own path. (Hyunwoo Jung)
2. How do you understand ‘tradition?’ What traditions do you follow? Is it possible that new traditions will appear or will they remain unchanged?
- Our generation seems to have forgotten basic traditions. Society does not follow traditions now. The parents do not care about how their children marry, so there are many interracial marriages. Our generation cannot even read Korean. For me, Korean is an incomprehensible hieroglyph. All I know about traditions from my people is the national cuisine. I eat Korean food. (Alexander Park)
- Tradition is the certain set of rules to be followed. I am of the Korean traditions. Tradition is important so everyone will realize that they is a part of a nation, that a person is not alone. New traditions emerge, especially in Kazakhstan which is home to people of different nationalities. (Angelina Khan)
- In our time, all traditions merge. For example, I stick to Russian traditions. The Soviet time is gone but the Russian traditions remain. (Nadegda Prihodko)
- I see myself more as a citizen of Kazakhstan than of Korea. Since I was born in this country, I’m steeped in this culture, and I know more Kazakh traditions than Korean ones. (Olga Kim)
- The traditions came from ancient times and were passed down by generations, but I'm sure that they are subject to change. For instance, the language develops and changes; it is a very flexible thing. As I’ve heard, Koreans in Kazakhstan are using an essentially dead language, Koryo-mar, frozen in the form of former time. However, if we don’t stick to the tradition, it will be bad for us. (Alexander Tsoy)
- I think traditions change. Nothing remains unchanged in the world, including traditions. But there are things that wouldn't change in a few thousand years. For instance, our Koryo compatriots here write Myungjung (an old tradition of writing inscription of the dead on a banner or a flag) when their parents die. They have forgotten traditional ways of thinking, the language, and much of our culture, but they put together coffins in the same way as their ancestors. The consciousness of Koryo people is similar to that of Russians, but they still put together coffins and cover them with Myungjung. I think these traditions will remain unchanged in a hundred years. They write Myungjung in Chinese characters, not because they feel the need to use Chinese characters, but because they have seen it done that way without understanding it and continue to do it faithfully. These traditions will continue in the future. (Sangwook Kim)
- I think if one doesn't know the native language, then he doesn't have any languages or traditions. The native language is the language you hear from your mother and your grandmother after you're born. But here, our Koryo people use a dialect. It is a dialect of Korean language which we think is our native language. It is not Korean; it is a dialect. (Stanislav Lee)
- Everything should be tied to the fact that our thinking is based on our life in this territory of the former Russian Empire. We don’t know the history of our ancestors. We did not inherit the traditions and are guided only by the circumstances and our intuition. It is our destiny and in general, it is the history throughout this vast empire. In Korea, they had the first rule when escaping from a fire, you leave everything but Jokbo (the genealogical record of Korean family). It was the first commandment to take Jokbo. They absorbed this tradition through the land. We were born in another land. We have new artificial traditions; these are different traditions and time will show how much they will take root. Any newly formed tradition takes more than a few decades; it needs thousands of years to be solid. (Victor An)
- I think tradition is the promise made by large numbers of people in the past, and this makes it hard to break. I think tradition exists everywhere, so you don't really notice it. Traditions are not limited to culture or cultural treasures, they are melded into all your actions and you just follow them naturally. After time passes, the members of a society change and what the time asks also changes. Thus, I think new traditions will occur in order to meet the needs of the people in society. (Hyunwoo Jung)
- I think tradition is what we have as manners in our country. For instance, when I eat with my dad, I hungrily watch him eating, swallowing my saliva, before I can start eating.* From with the influence of the media, I think the new traditions will appear. (Dalrae Jin)
- I believe that the tradition is the face of the people. I believe that it is necessary to leave traditions that are no longer compatible with this life. I strictly practice the Korean traditions as I was taught. (Galina Kon)
- The tradition goes from one generation to the next. It can be a family or a state. It’s something that you have to do. (Snezhana Tsai)
- Tradition is the way to understand the place you live. There are as many countries as traditions. As a Korean, I think I follow the tradition of “We” in the culture of community. While there are some countries that follow the tradition where “I” is the subject, Korea seems to follow the tradition of “We.” But “we” are changing in the contemporary society. “We” in the community seems to be gradually changing to “I.” I don’t think of it as a problem, but I think traditions change due to the changes in a society that develops quickly. The meanings change but some people stubbornly insist on traditions and torment others. The changes in traditions are important, but how we alter them wisely in life is more important. (Sungmi Park)
* It’s a Korean traditional manner to wait for elders to lift the spoon and have the first bite at a meal.
3. How do you define or feel about the present time or modern society?
- To be cultural. Culture is the most real now. (Natalia Kim)
- It is necessary to be trendy now, a concept that did not exist 15 or 20 years ago. (Yevgeniya Kim)
- The present for me is only associated with my existence as a writer. (Alexander Kan)
- If you see it by an era, the modern era began between the 1990s and the 2000s. My parents are from a different era. They have their own ideas about life which are very different from ours. For me, the present is the world where I live now, and probably our time will not be contemporary for my children. (Angelina Khan)
- Modernity is something that changes every day; you're in this thread and remember the past more and more. (Vladimir Khan)
- Modernity is a new culture, new monuments, and new art. For instance, Bayterek, which is a building in Astana, is a modern architectural object. (Yevgeniy Karpov)
- The present society seems to be frantic about communication. Communication is made through media, and it regulates people by allowing them to share consolations, happiness, sadness, and fears as if everyone knows everyone else. (Dalrae Jin)
- To be modern means to be educated, tolerant, and humane. (Galina Kon)
- For me, it is reality; it is all that I see every day in my life, in particular, my family. (Ulian Park)
- I would like to define the present with the word, choice. I think the present is a process of getting ready to go on the right direction towards the future by understanding and reflecting the past and letting it teach you. In the present, you face endless problems and need to make choices to solve them. The future, decided by a choice, becomes the present, and the present becomes the past; through this repeating process, the present acquires its meaning. (Hyunwoo Jung)
- It is a piece from the past and a hope for a bright future. (Da-Young Kim)
- Modernity is life, the desire to progress. (Alexander Tsoy)
4. Are there any other identities besides national identity and what are their significances?
- During the Soviet period, it was a different situation; we felt ourselves to be a particular minority group. I grew up in Kuylyuk (a district in Tashkent), and we were living more with the concept of crime than of law. There were mostly Koreans living in this area, and they were much more daring than in rural areas. What's interesting is that Kuylyuk then influenced the Koreans in all of the former Soviet Union from Leningrad to Almaty. It was a well known place. I lived in Korea for six months, surrounded by the Korean language, and I missed my life here. I was still thinking in Russian although I was speaking Korean, you know?
I was always little here, the smallest one in class and in the Army too, but in Korea, I saw Koreans who were smaller than me. With regard to self-sufficiency, a Korean man, who was smaller than me, didn’t feel slighted at all. This is the concept of self-sufficiency; it is much stronger there. In Korea, there is no infringement of this complex because they are living in their own territory. During the Soviet time, we had no feeling of our own territory or our house, or anything like that. The reason I said that Kuylyuk played a very positive role is because of our fists. (Victor An)
- At one time, we studied Marxism and Leninism. I remember Lenin's work, "The Right of Nations to Self-Determination.” The Koryo Saram (a term naming Korean Diaspora) is the lost nation, I think, because we have lost touch with our historical homeland, and Koreans here have assimilated into the multitude. We became one of the post-Soviet nationalities. The national identity was replaced by family and professional identities. (Ulian Park)
- I think national identity can’t be compared with professional or spiritual identities. National identity is given to us once and forever. (Yevgeniya Kim, Sungmi Park)
- As one good man said, "In fact there are no bad people; there are just people whom we do not know." I think the national identity is very important for a person to feel his roots, to know where he comes from. There are “people of the world” who go here and there, and they are open to everything. Unfortunately I am not that kind of person. (Vladimir Khan)
- The issue of national identity has ceased to be relevant now. Nowadays with globalization, other identities hold equal importance. Now identities are based on hobbies, religions, professions, personalities, and spiritualities. (Olga Kim, Angelina Khan, Sergey Son, Vladimir Lee, Alexander Tsoy, Nadegda Prihodko, Alexander Park, Alexander Kan, Galina Kon)
- The most important is the national identity, and there is an ethnic identity among many others. Although we are now turning into a multi-cultural and multi-racial society, most Koreans had the same national and racial identity. So we didn't have a reason to agonize over it. But when you look at Central Asia, for example the Koryo People here, their national identity is citizens of Kazakhstan. You know the famous traditional Russian wooden dolls (Matreshka), right? When you open it, you get a smaller doll. That's how I see the identities of Koryo People. The outer layer is the citizen of Kazakhstan. This layer represents the face of one's identity. It represents the person but it easily changes. It's easier to change than the inner layer. It faces wind and rain over time and gets worn out. The identity as the citizen of Kazakhstan is the first is because the national identity regulates lawful rights and allows one to speak. Although we are the same ethnic group, Koreans and Koryo People in Kazakhstan think differently. For Koryo people, their identity as citizens weighs more. They can exercise and are protected under law here but in Korea, although of the same ethnic group, they don't have any rights, so the national identity is more important.
When you open the next layer, there is an identity as people of the Soviet Union. In the beginning of the Soviet time, the Koryo people fought and bled and built the country together at the Maritime Province of Siberia. The most important fact is that Russian, the common language in the Soviet time, became their native language. Language defines the thought process of people. That's why as long as Koryo people use Russian as the mother language, the identity as Soviet people will remain for a long time. However, in the innermost layer, they are the Koryo People, identified by other ethnic groups; they have certain physical or ethnic appearances. This is why all Koryo people here have three identities.
I would like to stress one thing here. Koreans live in a country with no racial issues, and the country is our motherland. Motherland is like mother. And what is mother? She is sacred and grand, and we can never change her. Here, the Koryo people have three identities. As soon as they crossed the border of their motherland, the absoluteness of mother is changed into a relative term. Two or more identities are formed instantly. What happens then? She's not your mother anymore; she becomes a wife. A wife. In front of mother, you can whine and be lazy but in front of a wife, you can't. You and your wife both need to try to fit in and to sacrifice. Also, what is a wife? I shouldn't say it and you should live happily ever after, but if it really doesn’t work out, you can replace her. That's the way I see the identity of Koryo people: a wife and an identity you can change. That's the difference between Koryo people and Koreans who live in Korea. (Byung-hak Kim)
- I was born in Kazakhstan, so I'm a citizen here, but my blood is the Koryo blood. We passed down the heritages of the family name of Bon (Bon-kwan; it is the origin of a family name which is used to distinguish the different lineages that share the same family name), to our children. This is very important. The Koryo people here always teach Bon-kwan of their family names to their children. There is rarely anyone who doesn't know it. Almost everyone knows because we feel that it's very important. It's because we write Myungjung when we die. When writing Myungjung, you must have Bon-kwan written on it, and that's why you must not forget. You must pass it down to the next generation even when you're far away from Korea. (Stanislav Lee)
- Gender. I’m still mad because, as a child, I received less gift money* than my older brother on New Year’s Day just because I was a girl. (Dalrae Jin)
* A Korean tradition is for children to bow to their elders and receive gift money on New Year’s Day.
5. If you were given a choice to live anywhere in the world, where would it be? And, why?
- I would like to live in France because I'm a musician, and my dream is to go to France for a competition. (Snezhana Tsai)
- In Korea. It is my home country, but since I know so little about the history and traditions, I would like to live in Korea. (Da-Young Kim)
- I like Miami for the beach, and it’s always sunny. (Nadegda Prihodko)
- For today, I choose China because I’ve lived there for four years. I am happy with everything there, and the economy keeps growing. I plan to live in China. (Svetlana Tie)
- I would like to live in Vienna because I heard a lot about this city. (Yevgeniy Karpov)
- To be honest, I would like to live in Kazakhstan. I like Almaty. I do not like certain things such as the politics, the power structure, and the corruption of the government. If all these can change, then I would like Kazakhstan. I also like Canada, a country with freedom. (Angelina Khan)
- I really like Kazakhstan. I'm well and comfortable here, and I feel at ease. (Olga Kim)
- It’s a complex question. I was born and lived here all my life, and I think differently from Koreans. Earlier, I wanted to live in Korea, the historic homeland. Now, after several visits to Korea, I can say that I don’t have to live there. Even though we were brought up by our grandparents with the same culture and traditions, our lives are different. (Yevgeniya Kim)
- I would like to live in the West, in such countries as South Korea or the US, for the better distribution of my work since people engaged in creative work are valued more in those countries. (Alexander Tsoy)
- Let it not sound trite: Homeland is what a man has at the birth like mother’s milk unless some unusual circumstances force people to relocate. Where he is born and grows up is important to a man, and this is the place he wants to stay. (Vladimir Lee)
- Anywhere will be comfortable if I have a lot of money. (Dalrae Jin)
- Earlier in my life, I would have been able to name a place, but now at this age, when I’m so used to living here, I don’t desire to go anywhere. By profession, I was a geologist and always wanted to travel. I could not stay in one place for a long time; I preferred a nomadic way of living. (Sergey Son)
- In the U.S. because there are many people who have similar experiences with me. (Alexander Kan)
- Any country in Northern Europe is fine. If I Must choose, I’d say Finland or Denmark. I envy the people's consciousness of society in general as well as their system of social security. Their unbiased ideas of professions and the attitude toward education left quite an impression on me when I watched a documentary. (Hyunwoo Jung)
- I'd like to live in the south. I've been to Korea three or four times, and I'd like to be a monk or a farmer in the countryside. I envy that life. Or, I'd like to live near the ocean in Korea. I feel like my country is calling me saying, "Why don't you live here?" Anywhere else is foreign. I lived in Korea for a month, and at the time, I was reminded of the town from my childhood, the village of the Koryo people. Grandmothers looked the same. For the first time I saw grandmothers with bent backs in Korea. I saw them here when I was young, and I saw them again in the marketplace of Gwangju in Korea, after 30 years at the age of fifty. I was instantly reminded of grandmothers I'd seen when I was young. When I talked to them, I felt they were the same as the grandmothers I knew as a child. If I live in the countryside of Korea, I think it will be like going back to my childhood for sight-seeing. (Stanislav Lee)
- I’m proud to live in Korea where it’s very noisy. I think it’s a good place to be an artist in such an unstable society. Of course, there are many countries that are role models that are recognized for this kind of instability. If I were to choose, I want to live in New York, the most developed city in the most advanced country. (Sungmi Park)
- I love Los Angeles. I don’t know, maybe we have seen too much TV, and we are drawn there. If it is possible to establish my life here, there’s no need to go to London or to the US. (Alexander Park)
6. How do you understand, feel about, or see the future? Is there anything definite in your future or the future in general?
- We have a special polity, in which people cannot see the future because power gives no prospect. Our government doesn't care about youth. This is a global issue for which there is no answer. How can I see the future if I do not know where I will go after graduation? My future is the question – “Where?” (Alexander Park)
- For the future of our country, it will be good if we change certain things. There are two options: One, the titular nation will remain. Two, Kazakhstan will be a prosperous country if changes are made. I connect my future with Kazakhstan. I want to contribute and do something meaningful here. (Angelina Khan)
- In the future, people will become immortal. Technology will be highly developed, and what dominates people's lives will be like in a recent film, "Time." People will be very developed. (Olga Kim)
- The future is old age, and when I think of my old age, I think of a house on a mountain. It should definitely be a Hanok (traditional Korean house). Where it will be, I honestly don’t know. (Vladimir Khan)
- We all go along the same path on earth; only the time changes, and together, we embroider the fabric of history. I understand that the future will be technologically advanced and the involvement of the Internet and social networks in a person's life will be even deeper to the level that we can’t imagine yet. In fact, people do not change, we live by the same passions as people did in the fifth century and in the time when Jesus was crucified; all was the same - life, love, vanity, and family. Therefore I don’t think humanity has come up with anything new. (Alexander Tsoy)
- In the future, all distinctions between the countries will disappear. Over time, the planet will be different. I can’t say that there wouldn’t be any segmentation of states and ethnic groups, but at least it will not make much difference. Migration will have no barriers. Economically combined multi-nationals would continue to grow. I think it’s a positive thing because it will become a highly competitive situation, hence improving all social and economic paradigms by learning from the experiences of neighboring countries that already succeeded. Accordingly, these predictions of developments will be taken into account and will improve life. (Vladimir Lee)
- In connection with our situation, I do not believe in the future. Everything goes into the abyss somewhere. Now money is in the foreground, and morality disappears; it's horrible that it would lead the world into something. (Sergey Son)
- Long ago, Confucius said, “Study the past if you would define the future.” That saying is completely right. There is no future without the past. As we think of time in the concept of philosophy, does time even exist? Time is not a thing that flows although we compare it to an arrow or flowing river or a vector that goes in one direction, but Time is as hard to define as Space. There is no concept in time except when we see actual changes such as the seasonal changes and how we are getting older and so understand time through the reverse theory. Of course, it's philosophical and controversial. The future as a typical concept of our time, especially for young people, is this: By how much we have worked in the past, we can see the future. How is our future decided? It certainly depends on how hard we contemplate ourselves, the country, society, ethnicity, and all things that exist in life. If we expand our thoughts and consciousness, the future will be more beautiful.
I also think of this concept of the existential philosopher, Heidegger: For us to live a beautiful life in the future, we need to improve our present life. How do we do that? We should take the perspective of our consciousness to the moment of death. If we take it to the moment of death, we can see our present life in the perspective of our final future, of death. Then we can decide how we should live our present life, realize how silly we are now, and decide the direction of our life. In that sense, if we can think of the past and the future by living the past as the future and vise versa, we can decide how to live our present life. I think we can make our lives more inclined to future by looking at the past and the future simultaneously. (Byung-hak Kim)
- My future is the book I will write. When my ideas run out, my life will change dramatically. (Alexander Kan)
- I have seen the grave on a hill in the future- in my future. If I were a younger man, at least in my forties, I'd still have a dream, but at the age of fifty, I already think of going back. I'd never thought about it before, but nowadays, I think about it a lot. I have neither fear nor pain when I think of death. You know, as yin and yang, when there's white then there's black. When there's life, there is also death, right? I'm not scared, and as I'm getting older, the thought of it often crosses my mind. Have I lived this short life in a righteous way? Will I have an answer when I face God for the final judgment? I have sinned many times.
This is the 21st century and the time of information. The Internet and TV programs have been saying that it is the end of the world. As I listen to that information, I feel it might be true. The world seems to face an ending. For example, the people are too evil these days. In my perspective they have gotten very low. I mean, in areas like literature. They know only money when I see them on TV. If people behave like that, they don't need the future. Maybe the future isn't important to them. It doesn't matter whether the world exists or not. They don't see the future. They are fine without it. (Stanislav Lee)
- I plan to finish university and graduate, find a job, get married, and have children. In the future, everything should be fine. (Svetlana Tie)
- The future is probably something beautiful, bright, and sunny. It should be something bright, with a lot of bright colors. I have a feeling that there will be no industrial buildings in urban areas. Many birds and flowers and all the people will be happy. (Yevgeniya Kim)
- The Future is an uncertain conclusion from looking at the present and making presumptions on expected possibilities. Futurists and a variety of other scholars predict the future with different theories, but they are only hypotheses nothing definite. Making predictions about the future seems to be a way to escape from the insecurity of the present. (Hyunwoo Jung)
- In the future, maybe all borders will disappear and our descendants will be able to move freely all over the world. (Natalia Kim)
- In the future I will go abroad, take my parents with me and start my career. (Snezhana Tsai)
7. Is there anything that you call the future today?
- New technologies; it is the future already. (Yevgeniy Karpov, Alexander Tsoy, Victor An, Da-Young Kim, Olga Kim, Galina Kon)
- Enlightenment, because enlightened people comprehend themselves. You look on the future within, from the heart. If you comprehend yourself, then you will understand the substance of all things, and that’s the future now. (Vladimir Khan)
- Well, for a simple example, the Olympic Games now can be a hint of our future. When the players win the gold medals, I see our future from a different perspective. In other words, we can overcome conditions as objective or physical difficulties. We can surely overcome difficulties if we break through from our consciousness within us. While watching the Olympic Games, and seeing people winning medals, I saw that any subjective or, objective matter and issues concerning individuals, society, and the Korean peninsula can be overcome. That's what I think of as the future. (Sangwook Kim)
- My next idea. (Alexander Kan)
- I write poems, so what remains in the future is the poetry, I think. In that sense, if one line of my poem remains, that is my future. I will live in the future. (Stanislav Lee)
- Our youth is our future. They are smarter, unlike us, they know foreign languages, and many of them can choose their school. They can build their lives from early childhood, and often, parents can’t participate since many of them don’t understand a lot. I see a big gap between us and the next generation. (Galiana Kon)
- The “Separation (of North and South Korea)” is the present and the future. The problems in society, the conflicts of the right and the left wings, and the concern of foreign countries about profit are caused by this separation. This problem is the definite future of Korea. (Sungmi Park)
8. What do you think would never happen?
- The end of the world; apocalypse; we will never die. (Nadegda Prihodko, Alexander Tsoy, Yevgeniya Kim, Sergey Son, Vladimir Khan, Da-Young Kim, Svetlana Tie)
- All things are possible. (Olga Kim, Vladimir Lee, Angelina Khan, Byung-hak Kim, Sangwook Kim, Alexander Park)
- Being able to expect what will never happen. (Hyunwoo Jung)
- My spiritual death; "I" am already living in my books. (Alexander Kan)
- Wars will never end, I just know it. (Galina Kon)
- The political issues will never disappear. People will always be concerned about their own profits, so political problems will always exist. Society without political conflicts will not exist. (Sungmi Park)
- God will never show himself to us. It is the most important thing. We, the men, will never see God. No matter how much the time passes. I think God is too big and infinite, like the universe. People are like insects in comparison. People, as bugs, may feel God but will never see or hear God. Just like when we talk to a bug, it cannot hear us. (Stanislav Lee)
- There will never be equality among people. (Natalia Kim)