[Jimmy Martinez]

Brenda-Jean Shepard I used to intern at the museum of tolerance and I remember seeing a video about a man who had escaped North Korea twice. This story stuck in my mind and probably will for the rest of my life. His story was unbvelievably heart-breaking and brought me close to tears. During his plight he describes his family dying of starvation and having to look for rats to eat just to stay alive. The first time they caught him he was tortured in a variety of ways. He begins to cry while telling his story and it was just such a powerful moment.

[Jimmy Martinez]

The Bride School article was particularly interesting regarding the social aspects and norms of South Korea. I knew of the pressures that some Asian nations face but this really opened up my eyes to those specific social pressures and even greater pressure from within the families to marry and carry on the lineage. Not only do they have to face these challenges but they also have the language barrier that they must overcome. Relationships are already so difficult to maintain and I could not even imagine adding the difficulty of communicating with your significant other. The new mandate that South Korean officials instilled in their country to "share a language" with their husbands was really interesting and it really makes you wonder if this will change the divorce rate there. Learning a new language and being fully immersed in that new country must be a dauting task and it reminds me of the difficulties that my new students from Latin America face everyday.

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