Day 7 - b) The Grand People's Study House

Friday September 10, 2010

The centrepiece of Kim Il Sung Square is a magnificent building which is the The Grand People's Study House. This institution is simlar to what Australians would call a State Library - a place of study where lectures and tutorials are held as well as offering the more conventional library services like self-serve fiction, non-fiction, and reference material.

It felt a little bit strange barging in on quiet (but full) reading rooms to take flash photography and gawk at local students. Of course all the rooms had portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il*, and the former was even credited with inventing the adjustable height study desks used in the reading rooms.

The computer rooms were seen briefly. North Koreans do not  have access to the Internet and the government only runs its own Intranet for the viewing of its citizens. Some of the tour members hopped onto the computers and tried to navigate to sites like Google to test it out. And the situation was thus verified, the browser was only there for the Intranet.

Computer room, and the North Korean Intranet.

The highlight of the visit was the English tutorial. When group A visited it was empty but my group B was fortunate enough to see the multimedia classroom packed with students upon our arrival. There was tutorial audio (British accent, of course) playing on the speakers which the students were mimicking.

As the lesson neared the end our guides encouraged us to have a chat with the locals so they could try out their English. As this was happening I couldn't help but think "Who would possibly be learning English in North Korea? Surely we're speaking to spies in training!".

The guides also asked if anyone wanted to go up to the front and speak to the entire class. I wanted to take up this offer but was reluctant because I didn't know whether I would be faced with awkward and potentially dangerous questions/situations... but our group extrovert Peter confidently took the chance. He represented us very well, introducing himself and endearing himself to the students by talking about his place of origin (Ottawa), wher he lives now (Beijing), how much he enjoyed visiting North Korea and how he'd like to return one day after learning how to speak some Korean.

Peter also opened the floor to questions, and one very confident student asked two questions in relatively articulate English. The first question was harmless enough:

However his second question took Peter (and the other foreigners) aback:

The question was obviously loaded and begged the answer "The best way is to go overseas and live amongst the people who speak that language". But of course North Koreans do not have such opportunities... and speaking to Peter afterwards he was acutely aware of this at the time and had to think of a diplomatic response instantly. I reckon he did well.

After seeing Peter handle the situation so ably I desperately wanted to have a go myself but unfortunately our time was up and we were pulled out of there. Just imagine all the questions had I revealed my background to the class! It is a regret that I didn't speak alongside Peter.

The music room was the next stop and the guide showed off how hip and happening North Korea is by playing The Beatles and telling us about the extensive range of western music they have on offer there.

Being such a grand building in a prime location the top floor balcony offered great vistas of Kim Il Sung Square and central Pyongyang. In the shop on the same floor we also spotted the souvenir "See you in Pyongyang" t-shirts that were in hot demand among the tour group - I'm pretty sure we bought out the entire stock. If you know me in real life ask me to wear it for you, ha ha ha ha! 

* - At the border a few days later one of the tour members was forced to delete a photo of the reading room by a camera inspector because Kim Jong Il's picture was not entirely within shot.