Wednesday August 2nd 2023 Mr. Cheon came to Smipa and shared his experience when he joined the South Korea army. In South Korea men are required to join the army, because the war between south and north Korea is not yet over. Mr. Cheon tells us this story about his experience 30 years ago when he was still in the military. Back then he was only 18-20 years old when he joined the army (conscription in Korea). When he was in the conscription, he was trained very hard and his commander pushed him to the limit. Before he was trained physically, he was also trained mentally. His division was carrying and firing a canon. I didn’t know the exact name, but it was sort of a big gun that is just like a cannon, it fires a missile and not a big metal ball. This weapon weighs 400-600 kg.

  In South Korea, the conscription is required to train in 4 different seasons, which are summer, spring, fall, and winter. Mr.Cheon told us when he was trained in the winter, that he was pushed past his limit. He had to do lots of things. He had to dig through the snow,just to find someplace warm to sleep in. Back then, he was given only little portions of food, and he was given very little pocket money. Not only did they have to train for using the guns, but they also needed to train for using excavators and more heavy duty vehicles. Korean conscription now is much better than back then. Now, the people who joined the conscription were given a lot of pocket money and food that’s enough to fill their energy and worth eating. 

After he graduated and finished his college, he started to find his passion and it was playing the saxophone. Mr.Cheon started his saxophone journey with a fake used saxophone that he bought online. Back then, he couldn’t afford to buy a real new saxophone, especially since the saxophone is one of the most expensive instruments.  He teaches himself to play the saxophone, no one taught him how to play. He has gone through a long and rough journey to get to this point of playing the saxophone. After a while of playing this instrument , he was given a brand new saxophone by his mentor. When he came to Smipa, he played the saxophone for us and it was very touching.