A Korean saying goes that fish in the water are not conscious that they are living in water.
This is true of the families of Ri Ki Il and his seven siblings.
Ri Ki Il who works at the Intellectual Property Rights Administration says that up until a few years ago he had no idea of how many in their families graduated from university or college.
Ri and his seven siblings, as well as their spouses all attended universities or colleges. And the number of graduates is increasing among their children. Once his youngest daughter Ri Son Hyang, a student at Kim Chaek University of Technology, told him that she guessed university or college graduates might exceed 40 among her relatives.
“40? Really?” he shook his head.
He took out a large sheet of paper and began to jot down the names of his brothers and sisters and calculate the number of graduates in each family. His eldest brother’s family has eight graduates, his second brother’s six, his second sister’s 4, and so on. Putting the numbers together, he was wide-eyed at the total number of 48.
Given that his eldest daughter and others attended two universities, the number would increase to 51. Among them are scientists, teachers, army and public security officers, journalists, financial workers, sportspersons, inventors and academic degree holders.
Ri’s parents worked as day labourers before the country’s liberation (August 15, 1945).
After the liberation, they could study at adults’ schools and their four children enrolled at school all at once.
His father often said to his children that they were fortunate enough to learn how to read and write the Korean language and history at their heart’s content.
Once his second elder brother visited a foreign country.
While in interview, he said to foreign scholars that dozens of his family members were university or college graduates. His foreign partners told him it seemed that his family was so rich. But when they were told that all of his brothers and sisters and their children had studied free of charge and rather received scholarships from the state, they found it hard to believe it.
His parents could not afford to go to school before the country’s liberation, but members of his and his siblings’ families have graduated from universities or colleges. This is an example of the Korean people who are learning to their heart’s content under the socialist system, training themselves to be intelligent workers in the new era.
Ko Chol Hwa
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