Pyung Ryu Do and Cognitive Neuroscience

Janggu: A Traditional Korea drum

Yesterday I started two more classes. One is a practical class called Pyung Ryu Do (we call this Rhythm Yoga at the Dahn Centre). Pyung Ryu Do is one form of Brain Education, where music, rhythm, dancing and drumming are practised. The Pyung Ryu Do instructor played the Jung gu and sang while we did Brain Wave Vibration (moving our bodies freely to the rhythm).

This is a great way of releasing stress, tension in your body, and negative thoughts and emotions and easy to do--just put on some of your favourite rhythmic music, close your eyes, focus inside, let your whole body move freely, and focus on the movement not on your thoughts or emotions. Just let those go. Afterwards, I felt like my brain was refreshed and ready to take on my next class...Cognitive Neuroscience.

Cognitive Neuroscience is taught by Professor Yoon Seon Ah. The lecture was entirely in Korean. I didn't really understand anything other than a few words and the discussion at the beginning about what time we should have class and to have breaks or to end early. Some things are universal :)!

I was thankful to have Kim Boon-Young, a high-school English teacher from Seoul who is also a student, sit beside me and write the key points of the lecture in English in her notebook. I can also order the texts in English here in Korea.

During the lecture, I could feel my heart start to beat fast when the professor said we would have to memorize a lot of terms and definitions. Then, I decided to exhale and just focus on the moment and again, the bigger purpose for taking this class. I want to learn more about the parts and functions of the brain so that I can teach others about their brains and how to use it well.

Mmmmm...Kimchi!

Korean Cabbage Waiting to Become Kimchi!

Cafeteria Staff Preparing Onions and Other Green Vegetables to Add

Kimchi is Korea's best-known food. Along with rice, it is one of the staples of a Korean meal. Kimchi is made with fermented cabbage and other vegetables. I used to find it too spicy, but now I eat it every day. Mmmmm...kimchi!

For more information about kimchi, see: http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Food/food.cfm?Subject=kimchi

Brain Education and Consciousness

A Classroom at UBE

I participated in my first class yesterday. The class is called "Brain Education and Consciousness" and is taught by Dr. Shin Hye Sook. The class was mostly in Korean but Professor Shin summarized what was said in English from time to time.

Consciousness has many different meanings but in this case, it refers to an awareness of one's self in your environment and in the universe as a whole. Brain Education (BE) as an educational program, helps children and adults become more aware of themselves and their influence on those around them and on the earth through experiential exercises and activities.

When we become more aware of the impact our thoughts and emotions have on your own well-being and the well-being of others, than we have a greater ability and are more motivated to change it. When we're disconnected from ourselves and from each other, our natural tendency to live in harmony with our own bodies, with each other, and with the earth is diminished.

I met a young woman on the bus today on the way to Seoul who teaches a class of 30 Sixth Graders at a local elementary school. This is her first year teaching--she is 24 years old. She talked about how she is growing with her students--that as she grows as a teacher, they are growing too.

But, she wants more for them than just learning how to write a test well or how to compete with each other. I told her about how the Busan School District (second largest city in South Korea) has introduced Brain Education programs for their teachers and students with great success. She was excited about how BE could help her students and plans to talk with her principal about the program.

Tomorrow, I'll start the rest of my classes. It is almost 1 a.m. here, which means it is almost 12 p.m. in the Toronto area so while some of you are enjoying your lunch, I will be sleeping. Good night!

I Survived and Thrived? My First Korean Class :)

Before I came to Korea, many of my Korean colleagues especially worried about how I would be able to manage eating Korean food and sleeping on the floor. I would always say, "Don't worry I will survive...and thrive!" I didn't want to just focus on surviving when I got here. I really wanted to use this opportunity to create something and to grow.

So, I survived and thrived? my first Korean class in Seoul. There are four other students--two business men from Japan and two English teachers from the US. Our teacher speaks Korean the whole time but uses actions to help explain what she is saying.

Our first lesson was about the conditional or subjunctive--yikes! I could feel my brain becoming stressed because I didn't know as much as everyone else and couldn't understand what the teacher was asking me. I kept reminding my brain why I was learning Korean, kept trying to relax and smile, and sometimes asked my classmates for help. By the end, I felt like I had accomplished something.

Why is it more difficult to learn a second language later? According to David Sousa who wrote a book called How the Brain Learns (2006), the brain areas involved in learning a language don't respond well to foreign sounds after the preteen years. So, additional areas of the brain have to be programmed to recognize, distinguish, and respond to foreign sounds. Also, the grammar and syntax rules of the native language interfere with learning the second language. Sousa concludes that learning a second language as an adult may require more focus, more effort, and greater motivation. Yes! So, back to studying!

What's Your Dream?

Today I went to the Immigration Office in Cheonan to get my alien registration card. The office runs on Wednesdays out of the Ministry of Labour office. I was thankful to have Kim Young Rim (one of the employees here at UBE) go with me to speak Korean with the clerk. The office was packed--Kim Young Rim told me that many new immigrants from Vietnam, the Phillipines, Singapore, and Malaysia come to Cheonan to find work. Most of the work is physical labour.

On the way back, waiting for the bus, we saw this statue. I think it's part of an outdoor art exhibit.

What's your dream? One of my dreams is for people with brain damage and neurological challenges around the world to be able to live to their full potential. Having some kind of vision, goal, or dream in my life is important to me. It has to be something that is big enough that I will have to overcome obstacles to achieve it and so that it touches and impacts many people.

Whatever your dream is, make a plan to achieve it and keep making changes to your plan as needed. Make your dream and plan known and the universe will help make it happen. Not sure what your dream is?...Ask your brain! The answer is already inside of you!

Why I Became Interested in the Brain

From Teacher to Social Worker to Yoga and Brain Education Instructor...How does someone who dropped out of Grade 12 Physics and avoided Science classes from that point on, become interested in the brain?

As a teacher, I was most interested in teaching children the tools that would help them get along well with themselves and with each other and have confidence in their ability to contribute to the world. This interest in helping children and their families led me to Social Work.

As a social work intern, I did internships at a hospital inpatient psychiatry unit and at a community counselling centre. In both cases, I began to appreciate the importance of the body and the brain in people's well-being and relationships.

As a social worker, my job was to support families of children with complex needs (developmental disabilities and mental health issues). These families felt like they nobody "got" their child and that the recommended treatment of choice, medication, was only allowing them to survive from one day to the next and not making things better.

I remember one day thinking to myself, this is all about the brain. If we can only understand what's going on in these children's brains, we can develop programs for them that help us to understand them better and help them improve and develop confidence in themselves.

I also learned about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and was struck by the impact that brain damage has on our society and the lack of awareness and misinformation about this issue--particularly about the possible effects of drinking while pregnant and about those individuals who may not look like they have a problem because they don't have the typical facial features, but whose actions show they do.

I began to see the effects of brain damage everywhere--in schools, on the street, in psychiatric units, in our justice system, in the news. Again, here was a group of people who were not living to their full potential because of a lack of understanding of what was going on in their brains.

For more information about FASD from Public Health Canada, please see: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fasd-etcaf/faq-eng.php.

In the meantime, after the first year of my Master of Social Work program, I decided it was time for me to do something for my body and brain. I was stressed and had low energy. I was using my thinking brain a lot and my body was paying for it.

When I joined Dahn Yoga, I began to be more aware of my body and how my thoughts and emotions, my habits, were affecting my body. I learned exercises, breathing, meditation, and principles that helped me to heal and strengthen my body and mind. This is Step One of Brain Education: awakening the senses and learning to manage the body's natural stress response.

To be continued...

Annyong haseyo

Annyong haseyo! (How are you?)

Yesterday I signed up for night classes three times a week at the Seoul Korean Language Academy. It's been a challenge to find a Korean Language Institute. There is only one in Cheonan and it is affiliated with a university. The focus is on training high-school graduates so they can apply to the university. There are several institutes in Seoul but some are university courses, others are quite expensive and in a part of Seoul that is far away.


As it is, I will take a bus from UBE to Cheonan (about 35 minutes), another bus that takes just over an hour depending on traffic to Seoul, and two subways to the institute. Because I studied some Korean before, I have some knowledge of the language. The institute doesn't have a night class at my level, so I have to start at the next level and do lots of "self study". So, it seems that climbing the mountain (learning Korean) will not be easy. There are many obstacles to learning Korean!

Rather than focus on the obstacles, including my poor grasp of the language at this point, I'm going to create a goal for myself--in three years I will be able to speak in Korean and make a presentation to a group of people about Brain Education. Without some kind of goal or challenge, my brain would have no reason to awaken.

Then, I'm going to tell my brain why I want to learn Korean. All of my courses at UBE will be in Korean so I want to be able to learn more and to communicate better with my fellow students and professors. I also want to be able to communicate better with my colleagues in Brain Education to help in the work of disseminating it around the world. And finally, I'm going to keep sending positive messages and encouragement to my brain.

So, I better get busy...I can't expect to achieve my goal by thinking about it! I'm going to do some "self-study" now :).

Annyonghi keyshipseyo! (Good-bye, which literally means 'Stay in peace').