This is a picture of the Municipal Library in Gumi. For more information on the library go to the following website. It's in Korean but it has a great streaming video of the library.
Gumi Municipal Library
Since Gumi is a growing city many places have changed since I first visited them in the Spring of 2003. The same is true for the library which is obvious if you look at the difference between this picture and the streaming video on the link.
I decide it's about time to start learning some Korea so I look at the children's books. Being the only Westerner at the library I attract a lot of attention! Mothers keep pushing their little kids to come over and say "hello" and practice their English on me. This is fine for about 20 minutes and then it I start to feel a little like a trained bear in the circus. So, I decide to turn the tables and I find a picture book in Korea and I make the kids teach me Korea. I will help them with English but only if they tell me the words in Korean. I learned a lot of baby words. It's sort of humiliating to realize that I don't have the vocabulary of the average Korean 2 year old. But I guess I got to start somewhere. In fact, the kids seem to think its more fun to teach me Korean than to learn English. So, I guess I am getting the better part of the deal.
It does make me consider that maybe I should think about coming back and doing a story time with some easy English books. I bet it would be fun and a great way to meet more people and maybe even learn some more Korean.
The librarians are very nice to me and not only help me fill out the paper work [which is in Korean] so I can get a library card but when they discover I don't have my Alien Card with me they agree to put my application aside and just hold it until I come back another day. This saves me having to fill out the papers all over again. It seems like a hassle to me but when I look at the section of English books there are at least half a dozen good novels there that I have never read like "The Poisonwood Bible" so I decide it's worth the effort. There are only about 50 English books in total but the librarian tells me they will get more for me. In turn I tell them I have some books at my apartment I have read that I will bring and donate to them - if they want. They seem very surprised and excited that I would consider adding to their collection of books that way. Maybe it's not such a common thing to do in Korea with all the reading rooms where you pay to read comic books. In Korea I discovered that there are a lot of stores where Koreans rent comics or other books just like we rent videos and DVDs in the West.
I get busy and don't get back to the library for several weeks but when I go back I not only bring my Alien Card but I have at least 20 English novels to donate [when the other English teachers at my school heard about my adventure at the library they all started collecting their English books for me to donate for them, also]. The same librarian I talked to before is working. She takes me over to see that the library moved some books around made room for more English books and that they even bought 2 new English novels. It makes me feel bad that I kept procrastinating and took several weeks to get back. They were obviously waiting for me.
I show them my Alien Card and they record the number for their records and even photocopy it for their files and issue me my own library card. Having accomplished this I really feel like I am starting to settle in and make Korea my home.
Above is my scanned Gumi Municipal Library Card [I photo-shopped out my personal info but other than that it's legit]. I still have it. Some day I plan to go back and visit the new library.
About two weeks later I get a letter in Korean so I take it to my school to get someone to translate it for me. It is a letter of thank you from the library for donating books. Donating books was such a small thing for me to have done but it obviously was appreciated. It leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy. It makes me feel confident and excited about exploring even more places in Korea.
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