YouSaid · the spoken record

Yeonmi Park

lines on the record
117
first
2021-07-01
most recent
2021-07-01
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “The tragic thing about North Korea is not only just banning Shakespeare. Like, we don't even know what Roman Juliet is, right? Our movies is never about lover stories. But then also they banned the love between mother and daughter, wife and husband. And, you know, and between your friends, they deny you being a human. So only love that I knew was when I described my feelings towards the leader and in a written form. That was the only love that people know in North Korea. And now I'm like, there are many loves you can experience. I mean, I think you definitely love science, right? But imagine that if you're being denied that.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, that's like, of course, in my journey, I learned how to survive, right? When to not trust and when to run. But I think most of I was keep learning what it means to be a human being. I think that was the ultimate thing I was keep learning. And I still don't know fully what it means. But I do think it seems like suffering is necessary to stay for people to be grateful and even be joyful to sometimes. Yeah.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Some days I would do it for sure, and my mom would do it 100%. My sister would do it. All other defectors know they do 100%. For me, I hesitated because I'm a witness. So if I delete that part, I don't know how real that can be. It is painful. After I give a speech, right? I mean, I'm fine, but somehow I'm depressed. Sometimes if the talk was very intense, I'm like depressed for three weeks. It takes a while for me to be recharged. But I don't know why it is, you know I just don't know.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “If maybe technology develops, I can download some part of my memory and then I can erase your delete it. And that would be so much better.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Sometimes it's a blessing to keep reminded of how, because they say happiness is a relative thing. It is sometimes. I mean, the thing is also people say because nobody was full when you're growing up, everybody was suffering. You should have been okay, right? But no, like if you are suffering in that degree, no matter even if there's no comparison, like if you're in Nazi German in the Holocaust, right? In the concentration camp. I'm sure nobody was better than them. I'm sure they were suffering. It's the same thing. I suffered. But now, because I'm in this place, I can compare easily, right? Getting that perspective. It is true like I still have days that I cannot get out of bed. And I'm really hoping that when I was Elam Mos talking about downloading your brain, blah, blah.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “A joke because I talk about North Korea every single day and I still rescue people like from China and Russia and other countries, right? And sometimes our rescue mission fairs and they get captured and sent back. I still have people in North Korea report to me. So like when I talk to my sister who chose to not be in this life activist life, she forgot most of things. And like for the other hand, I like remember everything.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Because of that, like that's when I was like my grandma knew life could be different. I think the one thing about North Koreans are unique is that they don't know they are oppressed. They don't know that they are slaves to the dictator. And the fact that other people know they're oppressed, like in America a lot of people think they are oppressed, like you are not oppressed. You don't even know the definition of oppression. And that's when the new animals came the new animals didn't even know what the life could be like there's no alternative for them to compare even. And I was like, my grandmother knew, why didn't they not do anything about it? And they were just scared. They kept it silent. And everybody was responsible.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “It can be, but think for me was when I was ending the last page of the book. Until that point, I was angry towards a dictator. Why do you do this as a human being? I was so angry dreaming of killing him, right, revenging my father, the people that he cared. But when I was ending the last chapter, actually everybody was responsible to create this dystopia in my country. That animals, initial animals, when they're scared, when they see the first execution, and then they were not doing their jobs, picking out and keep questioning. They have the question and then as soon as they see a fear, they silence.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Ending that like last chapter, right? They could not see between the pigs and humans anymore, right? That sentence. Just understood everything what happened. I just made every sense to me what happened to me, my people, and to my country.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So, after going through what I went through, right, and I arrived in South Korea after many years of journey, they were saying, so Kimsor dictators, as South Korea is not colonized by American besters, and Americans first of all not bastards, they're good people. And then they say everything that you believe in North Korea was a lie. It was a propaganda. Then at 15, I was thinking. So if everything that I believe was a lie, how do I know what you are telling me is not a lie? I was so hard how do I trust ever again? And I just, it was chaos and belief, right? I did not know what was true anymore. And that's the moment few years later I read this book, like Animal Farm. Just by mistake, it was a very short book in the library. I was like, okay, I can finish that quickly.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “As you cannot imagine your life on Mars right now, it's like that kind of difference. I grew up never seen the map of the world. I never knew that I was Asian. Like the regime told me that I was Kimir Song, the first Kim race. And then our calendar doesn't begin when Jesus Christ was born. Our candor begins where Him was born. So history was forgotten to us. They didn't teach us about of course Christianity or like the Big Bang. Like our history began when Kim was born. So everything was forgotten to us. And it was like different meaning, I mean, feeling of existence. You know, it's not even like the same life. I literally think that was almost like my past life. And this is like a new life that I began.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “That's the thing, like when people were asking me, can you tell me about life in North Korea? And in the past, I was like, I cannot describe it to you. And initially I thought, oh, because of my English, that I cannot find the words. It's not that it's a different planet. The common sense that we have doesn't exist there. Like people literally do not know the concept of romantic love or human rights or liberty. So when I'm thinking back to my country,”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “There was no water for fashion in North Korea. We didn't even know, it was not even our dictionary. So of course I did not know what victory is, secret mothers. I didn't even know what mothers were. So when I came out, I learned the motor was a job. And like, what is that? And I'm still confused. So there's so many jobs that we have here doesn't exist in North Korea.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I mean like you know whenever I think about my North Korea the interesting is there's no color I mean one is because North Korean country has no color right most of things are unpaved and trees all cut down we have no fear so people cut down trees to make food so but only that like even what we are wearing was like no color So it's interesting memory to look back.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I think my happiness was from family, nothing else. Even though those days keep telling me that they were our source of meaning and happiness, I don't think I ever gotten happy by that. Maybe they are here and there in scores and like when I was learning propaganda, like, you know, the proud feeling, right? I'm in the greatest nation. And there, but actually true happiness came from laughing with my family, my friends”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “The fact that I did not know, like in North Korea, this is the only country in this 21st century has no internet. And they don't even know the existence of internet. Not only that, we don't even have this 20-four electricity. So not knowing definitely helped, I think, to be sane.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “That's a long story. So I was born in the northern part of North Korea initially. And my father was a party member. And my mom was housewife. I had one older sister. And I remember born in that country, I never thought I was in an unusual country. Now I'm thinking about it is like literally called the Hermit Kingdom. But I thought I believed that I was living in the best country on earth. It was a socialist paradise and everybody in the rest of the world worshipped my ideal leader. And there was nothing to envy for me. So I had this enormous pride in my heart and grateful to be in that country.”

    2021-07-01 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source