When Jamie and I traveled to Jeju island last year, we were lucky enough to have the time to visit Manjanggul, the world's longest system of lava tube caves, even after traveling to three of the island's big sights. I asked my students in my morning university conversation class if they knew about them, but no one seemed to know but one student. He said he hadn't been there, but wanted to go. Considering that they are perhaps the best site in South Korea, I was flabbergasted that so many of my students didn't know about Manjanggul. It is like an American being asked if he knows about the Grand Canyon and says "No.". Totally impossible. The problem and the reason why know one knows about it is the governmental and industry-wide emphasis on Korea's cultural heritage as its number one tourist attraction. Its many natural wonders therefore sometimes take a back seat to the nationalist urge, and it is sad, because the Manjang lava tube cave system is one of the most fantastic sights I have witnessed as a tourist.
Go.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Manjanggul, Jeju Island
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2 comments:
Hey,Manganggul,mmm, there must have been some miscommunication around your class, all koreans know about the cave because it is one of the major questions of middle school students at Geology class, so you have never been there, you know it. very often your Korean pronounciation can't be understood by me.
It was weird, then, because I made them look up Lava in their dictionaries. *Shrug*
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