Westerners know relatively little about Korea. Through film, food, music and fashion, Chinese and Japanese culture are more familiar, but, other than taekwondo, kimchi and recently Gangnam Style, Westerners have been exposed to very little of Korean culture. This is particularly surprising in the United States, a country that fought a war in Korea within living memory of many people. Tonight I joined a group of people celebrating the achievements of my friend and colleague Mary, a retired high school teacher who has devoted her retirement to not only learning about Korean culture and teaching it to others, but teaching others how to teach about it. This evening’s event marked the publication of her book on teaching Korean culture in schools as part of the U.S.’s Common Core school curriculum. The book is groundbreaking; so far, no such book has been created to teach about China or Japan.

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