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Israeli Ambassador Yigal Caspi |
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
What Israeli Ambassador Yigal Caspi has been asked most as over his last four years in Korea can't better demonstrate what Koreans are obsessed with.
``Most of them asked about education,'' he replied on a busy weekday in his office on the top floor of Cheonggye 11 Building in central Seoul.
There is little doubt that this is a subject of interest for many Koreans, and they became curious about how a small country got a reputation for good education, and how the Israeli ambassador taught his two sons.
He said up front that his answer could be quite disappointing, if one might have expected to hear a secret.
``There is no a clear-cut explanation. It comes from the Jewish tradition,'' he said.
``Children are taught to challenge everything, not to take things for granted,'' he said when it comes to education.
That is also demonstrated in classrooms. Students are always encouraged to ask questions ― sometimes tough ones ― without any sign of shyness, which he sees quite often among Korean and Japanese students. He also spent five years in Japan.
``People in Korea seem shy when asking questions,'' he said.
How the public education system is set up in an individual country doesn't matter so much. Whether a student really learns and succeeds relies heavily on their attitude, he said, and to this regard, shyness is to be avoided.
He had another convincing reason.
``I always quote from a Jewish sage when it comes to education,'' he continued, paraphrasing the quote. ``A strict teacher is a bad teacher and a shy student is a bad student,'' which means teachers should not dictate to students, and students should not be shy about making mistakes and asking questions.
During the last four years, Caspi has witnessed turmoil in his country ― two wars and two elections ― and that to some extent had an impact on his work abroad.
``I wish more Israeli people would have visited Korea, especially high-ranking Israeli officials.''
Only two officials have stepped foot on Korean soil. Taking a grip of the country and stabilizing it were priorities for the leadership, he explained, as to why the number of high-ranking officials was so small.
As the situation has been easing and direct flights between the two countries have resumed, he hopes bigger exposure will be made through exchanges of high-ranking officials in the years to come.
So far, the ambassador is one of the very few beneficiaries of the direct flight.
In fact, the direct flights have significantly helped save time, Caspi said.
``For example, now, if you leave Israel on Saturday, you can arrive here on Sunday. You can have one or two meetings. You can leave Korea on Tuesday, arriving in Israel still on the same day.'' Flights leave three times a week.
This will be the legacy left by him, and what he will be remembered for. Staying humble, he said the decision to open direct flights was solely a business decision, and he had nothing to do with it.
The ambassador witnessed an increase in visitors from Korea to Israel. The number surpassed 270,000 people last year, he said.
He also gives credit to the Korea-Israel free trade agreement (FTA), which was his priority assignment. Feasibility studies will be kicked off sometime soon, he added.
Israel and Korea are quite similar in several aspects. As small countries surrounded by relatively bigger powers, the two have always had to struggle. They had zero natural resources to rely on, and because of that, had to invest in human resources, which turned out to be precious investment as the backbone of their economies.
The two have the same birth year in 1948.
The ambassador's family, he said, are deciding what to pack as souvenirs from Korea. From a bunch of pictures to Korean DVDs, his family is busy packing his returning suitcases.
Undeletable episodes, such as the family's trips to a local mountain where they found themselves the only people in simple jeans and bottles of water, will be carried back specially wrapped and placed in their minds.
A gifted language learner, Michal, his wife, is trying to figure out ways to maintain her knowledge of Korean back in Israel. She is known to have learned Korean through the years at different institutes, becoming quite fluent.
The ambassador kept his fingers crossed for the new ambassador who will arrive shortly after his departure.
skim@koreatimes.co.kr
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