Occupation Therapy in Assitive Technology

Occupational therapy (OT) and assistive technology (AT) are closely related and are considered symbiotic in nature when overcoming a client's medical and occupational barriers. OT is a profession designed to establish, maintain, and/or restore functional independence. The OT specialist must evaluate context, the person/individual (past experiences,values, beliefs, etc) to design tasks to target the functional performance goal. Assistive technology is to employ any product, equipment or software to establish, maintain, and/or improve functional independence.

Hanna Hyon, Fulbright Junior Researcher, presented on case studies in which occupational therapists play a role for providing assistive technology in South Korea. Occupational therapy is a profession that helps individuals with disabilities to establish, restore and/or maintain independence in meaningful day-to-day activities and occupations. OT began as a profession in Korea in 1953 and continues to develop rapidly, although Hanna is only the second Fulbright researcher to work and report in this field. (The other researcher did her studies about 50 years previous). Hanna compared the current US and Korean service delivery models and described their concerted efforts in the development of OT service provision models in Korea. She also discussed the benefits of assistive technology services that are becoming a necessity for all clients to achieve full independence in every day living and for increasing their quality of life, and yet because of financial constraints, are unaffordable. However, in many cases people just don't know they are or can be made available. Hanna's main focuses are on the political, social, personal and pragmatic considerations in creating client-centered services that are currently available and new service provision models that are emerging and much of her research was done at Angel's Haven Assistive Technology Center, located at the Seoul Rehabilitation Hospital.

 

Driving related assistive technology is not yet available in Seoul; however, this particular model is
 being reviewed and is under discussion right now

Eating Dog in Korea: A Historical Perspective

Koreans have been known ... and culturally condemned ... by the west for eating dogs. For the western point-of-view, dog is not a menu item but is an animal culturally known as "man's best friend", an animal to share a house with, to walk with and even emote with. Such an animal viewed as a friend is not to tweek the appetite but rather inspires an upheaval of bile if such a notion is mentioned. And so, ethnocentrism rules western thoughts on the eastern practice of eating dog.

However, ethnocentrism results in cultural blinders to a history not shared between the west and the east. While the west has had access to a wider range of foods, particularly meats, westerners can afford to choose animals on a more heirarchical caste and label them as closer to humans and so to be regarded more affectionately by them. Koreans, on the other hand, had limited meat resources and all those resources could be beneficial for human survival if eaten. Dogs did have a function closer to humans than many other animals, but no matter its relative closeness to humans compared with other animals, in times of want the dog was a nutritional item, much like the cow is to westerners. Long ago the cow, by the way, was probably closest to humans due to it being essential for fieldwork and so of utmost practical use, unlike the dog which had little practical use in traditional Korean life. However, one practical use was for the mutt dog called the "동걔" or "shit dog", which was called to clean up the urination or poop of the baby for keeping the household compound clean.


From a farmer's perspective too, the dog was a necessary protein item [although I rather doubt that long ago Koreans thought of "protein" but rather referred to the "energy" that the dog meat provided]. The farmers worked long and hard in their fields from early spring preparing the crops to the late fall when they harvested them. Rice accompanied by some grains was the staple of the Korean diet and vegetables accented the meals. In the summer when the summer blazed the hottest, the lunar calendar allotted 3 days spaced by 10-14 days as the hottest days of summer - 초복, 증복 and 말복, basically first dog day, middle dog day and last dog day. Those were the days when the men, failing from their hard fieldwork, needed to boost their stamina [nearly synonymous with virility] and eating dog was a cultural way of doing so.

When the fall came with the harvest, Korean farmers were tired and in need of strength and "energy" for the winter. Without money and the inability to hunt wild game, dog was an available food item. The dog was also viewed as a very favorable food item for humans as dog meat was seen to be more similar with man's body than cow or pig meat. Even in the present day, eating dog is viewed as an energy-booster, particularly for men. People in the west with their culturally-acquired views on what is proper to eat need to be aware of a history that encourages alternative dietary habits based on people having an alternative history.

Soju and the Provinces

The Korean peninsula is a land of many features - from the many mountains which are the highest along the eastern side of the long peninsula to the relatively warm and temperate climate in the middle latitude. The radically changing topography vary quite extensively between the northernmost and southernmost regions. (South Koreans enjoy a much warmer latitude and therefore a longer growing season while North Korea borders the cold steppes and is hit harder by the Mongolian winds of winter). Throughout the Koreas, and even so in the more temperate South Korea, there is a wide and varying difference in agricultural products being produced, farming techniques employed in production and traditional home construction to complement the variation between colder and warmer climates on the peninsula. And so, as can be expected, though the drinking of soju is widespread through South Korea, the ingredients and brewing vary quite a bit.

This is an introduction to soju as compiled by two of my students - Kim Jin Kyu and Kang Hong Soon. They looked at 6 different kinds of soju (in fact, there are many more!) and talked about the topography involved in the creation and resulting regional variation of each.

Chamiseul - Capital area

♦ most famous soju in South Korea

♦ has a cheaper price than most other soju - so that it could have very high sales, in fact, in 2010 1,600,000 were sold

 

♦ uses bamboo charcoal to filter the impurities and make the soju "softer"

 




Autumn Chrysanthemum - Kangwon

♦ unique chrysanthemum flavor made by using whole blooms

♦ made also of sweet rice, which gives it a soft, sweet, smooth effect when drinking

Pyongyang Soju - Pyongyang

♦ most famous soju in North Korea

♦ a distilled soju, making it very unusual and considered "good for health"

♦ has a very high degree of alcohol, reflecting the cold environment in which it is made (for keeping the people "warm")

♦ nice attractive chrysanthemum scent - sweetish and aromatic

Big Soju - Cheongju

♦ made from the famous local Cheongju apples, and therefore considered nutritious

♦ contains natural oligodang and honey for heightened sweetness to the soju

♦ contains 13% alcohol

♦ made with Pyongyang honey for added sweetness

Hanla Soju - Jeju

♦ made by using basalt in the purification process - basalt is the core ingredient and as it is porous, it is used to filter the water and simultaneously infuse the water with minerals, which in turn make the person wake early after drinking

♦ popular among young people

♦ contains a relatively low degree of alcohol - 11%

♦ said to contain vitamin A & C, respectively beneficial for the eyes and for smooth skin

Maesil mael - Hadong

♦ made from the Japanese apricot

♦ produced in a high altitude area - Hadong is located at 400meters above sea level

♦ grown in a lower temperature zone, which is higher alkalinity from the apricots (most sojus are very acidic) and so is appropriate for cultivating apricots

♦ 13% alcohol content

♦ contains minerals (as already said)

My further comments:

 

The soju-drinking culture is strong here, and while formerly in the early 1990s women were looked down on for drinking soju, especially publicly, women are sure enjoying it now. And, women are being used as sex symbols to market the soju - they hold the soju, shake the soju, smile with beautiful teeth and wearing skimpy clothes in the TV ads, wall posters, even in subway ads ... The drinking culture here is a marked difference between the US and Korea. In the US we just don't plop soju or hard alcohol on tables for evening meals. And advertising hard alcohol is controlled by laws - IF we advertise alcohol on TV, and I think advertising is limited to beer as I have never see hard liquor being advertised on public television, the people in the advertisements can hold the beer, heft it, salute with it, but absolutely canNOT drink it or pretend to drink it on national TV. But here in Korea, the women intermixed with the men, are toasting and one-shotting the hard alcohol down.   Since Koreans often talk about the location of the soju in reference to regionalism, costs and taste are descriptors suggesting age,  regionalism, sometimes economic concerns (the price of the better quality sojus are a lot more expensive than the Seoul brand for example), and of course cultivated taste. Since seeing this presentation by my students, I've started noticing that outside some drinking halls the location or type of soju is advertised to the passing public. Just a few days ago, I even saw the above picture outside a neighborhood hof clearly labeling some kinds of sojus and indicating where they originated from.

 

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My apologies ... I think the descriptions of the various sojus MIGHT be out-of-order. I had them nicely saved and when I reopened the file, the descriptions were located beneath the regional picture and the names and pictured sojus were above. If the desciptions are out-of-order, I take full responsibility. My students gave a well-organized presentation.