Interview with a Vegetarian
I play bass in College of English rock band, Crimson Red. I have done quite a lot performance in past 2 years with a number of vocals, guitarists, drummers and keyboard players. But the person who I played the most with is So-yeon Shin, a female drummer. Usually, a drummer is considered as a part which a powerful and muscular man has to play. But So-yeon has done various performances very well and she's even a vegetarian! Because we have done so many performances and practices together, we became very close. And I was always curious about how a meat-rejecting girl could do such an energetic play.
I asked her when she decided to be a vegetarian and why. "I decided to be a vegetarian 3 years ago," she replied. "There is a singer named Jonsi in Iceland. Many vegetarians start their vegetarian diet because of their health or concerns for the environment problems. But I just followed Jonsi's vegetarianism because I was a very fan of him."
"Stop eating meat just because of your idol seems quite interesting," I said. "But is there any more reasons? I think stopping something you have done for almost past 20 years could be quite hard and there might be more causes to your firm decision."
To my question, she grinned at me. "Actually, it was not a FIRM decision," she said. "I started vegetarian diet in thought that I could quit whenever I want to. But anyway, that decision continued till now." Then, she seemed to think carefully as she was putting her hand to her chin. "You know, I like music very much," after a while she started to speak. "And I searched a lot about Jonsi and his music, and I found out that he was a vegetarian. There were even recipes and cooking videos that he uploaded on the Youtube. So, I realized that the vegetarianism is one of the important parts of his life and music. I wanted to understand his music through following his vegetarianism."
I grinned at her, too. It was quite interesting that a famous musician could change someone's lifestyle to this level. I also like music, but for me, I was just listening to someone's songs. I wasn't interested to the people themselves who played even my favorite songs. So I asked her if her vegetarianism actually helped her to understand his music more.
"Yes," She replied with a clear voice. "I felt that Jonsi and his band, Sigur Ros, played songs which are nature-friendly. Hm.. It may sound weird." She laughed out loud. But then, she started her talk in a calm voice. "Whenever I listened to their music, I felt like I was walking in the green forest peacefully. That's why I expressed their music as 'nature-friendly'. And after practicing similar life with him, I think I can now see and feel some things that I couldn't before."
These days, there are some entertainers who say they are vegetarians in South Korea. And there is news that is saying the populations of vegetarians are growing. But still, there are many bias and difficulties to them because there proportion is not very big yet. I asked So-yeon if there were some difficulties and problems to maintain her vegetarianism.
"The most difficult thing is having meals," She replied after a big sigh. "There are plenty of restaurants of which their meal includes meats. But it is so hard for me to find a place where the meals don't include meat source. The cafeteria in HUFS campus doesn't offer meals that vegetarians can eat. Even the Gimbap has ham in it." But her face became bright in an instant. "But I'm quite lucky. There are lots of people who are considerate. My younger brother especially show concerns about my meals when my mother is cooking. Many of my none-vegetarian friends gladly go with me to restaurant that serves meals that don't include meat. And you know what? Do you remember when you suggested our band members to visit vegetarian buffet together? It was my first visit with none-vegetarian friends to the restaurant for only vegetarians. I was very excited and thanked you guys for your concerns."
Actually, I was very surprised to hear how the visit to the buffet meant to her, because I just offered the visit to experience new things that I have never done. I was quite happy to hear that she really liked it. And I thought that moment was the right time to ask about some sensitive topics.
"Many Koreans think that the meat provides us to sustain a healthy life," I asked in a careful voice. "Didn't vegetarian diet make you weaker or cause nutritional unbalance?"
But she seemed to have questioned like that many times before. Without a bit of unpleasant look, she asked calmly how I thought about her. "Do you think I suffer malnutrition? You know, playing drums requires a lot of stamina. And I have never passed out!" She again laughed out loud. "Being a vegetarian is not just stop eating meat without any other alternatives. I don't eat meat, but I eat beans or nuts instead. And other nutrients can also be provided through other none-meat foods."
As a last question, I asked her: "Is there anything you want to say to the people who are considering being a vegetarian?"
"Don't be too serious," she said, "to be a vegetarian. If they think that being vegetarian is too strict, it becomes more stressful. As I said, I started to be a vegetarian in thought that I could quit whenever I want. If I thought, 'I will never eat meat until death,' I couldn't maintain my diet. Just think like, 'Let's expand my days of eating healthy.' With this thinking, I could get rid of my desire to have meat till now."
At the end of the interview, she said that the vegetarians shouldn't blame and criticize meat eaters. She explained that those comment only makes hostility of none-vegetarians. She was right. I remembered when a vegetarian tried to preach how the meat-eating habit was cruel. I was just very angry and it just ended as my bias toward vegetarians. She said just showing that the vegetarian could also, or more, live healthy could make influence to other people. And she was the person who was practicing as she said.
What I like most about your draft is that you interviewed someone who live the way, which is different with mine. I have never met a vegetarian, and besides, your interviewee's reason to be a vegetarian is also impressive.
ReplyDeleteThere is one sentence that I can't fully understand. You wrote, "I was just very angry and it just ended as my bias toward vegetarians", and I don't know what 'it' refers to in the sentence. I guess it may refer to your anger and think if you state clearly about it, your draft would be better.
I think that you used to have some stereotypes against vegetarians or might be just indifferent for them, but you came to overcame those prejudices and better understand them after your interview with your vegetarian friend. I think this is the most important part of your draft.
"Whenever I listened to their music, I felt like I was walking in the green forest peacefully. That's why I expressed their music as 'nature-friendly'. And after practicing similar life with him, I think I can now see and feel some things that I couldn't before."
I think this quotation is very effectvie in that it provides a better idea of why she decided to be a vegetarian and how she feels about it.
I'm very glad that I could learn more about a vegetarian's attitude. But, I think that it would be better if you include what kinds of bias did you have before the interview. I think you mentioned your bias toward vegetarians ended after the interview, but not about your own bias.
a story of a vegetarian, I like it because I have tried to be a vegetarian when I was 19. This story brings me the old memories and I totally understand what she says. Being a vegetarian is not easy at all in Korea.
ReplyDelete'Vegetarian but energetic' this can be the overall description of your interviewee. What I want to suggest is, since this writing seems not to be going in one way, you can focus on fewer things instead of just talking about general stuff. Well, I would do that if I were you, for example, vegetarian and musician spirit or something like that.
"I wanted to understand his music through following his vegetarianism."
I like this quote. It clearly reveals the reason why she became a vegetarian and her passion toward the musician.
Seongyool Myung
Vegetarians Can Also Live Healthily
ReplyDeleteFinal draft
201102327
Kwang-Jin Lee
I play bass in College of English rock band, Crimson Red. I have done quite a lot of performance with a number of vocalists, guitarists, drummers and keyboard players in the band. But the person who I played the most with is So-yeon Shin, a female drummer. In the past, I considered drummer as a part which powerful and muscular men have to play. But So-yeon has done various performances so well that I had to admit I was wrong. And I was shocked when I knew that she was even a vegetarian because I had expected that vegetarians would be weak and pale. Because we have done so many performances and practices together, we became very close. And I have been always curious about how a meat-rejecting girl could live a healthy life and do such an energetic play.
I asked her when she decided to be a vegetarian and why. “I decided to be a vegetarian three years ago,” she replied. “There is a singer named Jonsi in Iceland. Many vegetarians start their vegetarian diet because of their health or concerns about the environmental problems. But I just followed Jonsi’s vegetarianism because I was a very fan of him.”
“Stop eating meat just because of your idol seems quite interesting,” I said. “But is there any more reasons? I think stopping something you had done for almost 20 years would be very hard and there might be more reasons to your firm decision.”
To my question, she grinned at me. “Actually, it was not a FIRM decision,” she said. “I started vegetarian diet in thought that I could quit whenever I want to. But anyway, that decision continued till now.” Then, she seemed to think carefully as she put her right hand to her chin. “You know, I like music very much.” After a while, she started to speak. “I searched a lot about Jonsi and his music, and I found out that he was an enthusiastic vegetarian. There were even vegetable recipes and cooking videos that he uploaded on the Youtube. I realized that the vegetarianism is one of the important parts of his life and music. So, I wanted to understand his music through following his vegetarianism.”
I grinned at her, too. It was quite interesting that a famous musician could change someone’s lifestyle this much. I also like music, too, but I have been paying attention to only the music itself. I wasn’t interested in the musicians even though they have played my favorite music. So, I asked her if her diet actually helped her to understand his music more.
“Yes,” She replied with a clear voice. “I felt that Jonsi and his band, Sigur Ros, played songs which are nature-friendly. Hm.. It may sound weird.” She laughed out loud. But then, she started her talk in a calm voice. “Whenever I listened to their music, I felt like I was walking in the green forest peacefully. That’s why I expressed their music as ‘nature-friendly’. And after doing something similar to his life, I think I can now see and feel more things in their music that I couldn’t before.” And she added that though she started vegetarian diet because of Jonsi, later, she became interested in vegetarianism itself. So, she had joined some internet communities for vegetarians and had gotten useful information about, for example, why the vegetarian diet was good for people and what people should do to maintain it healthily.
ReplyDeleteShe said that she became to continue vegetarian diet for her healthy life and due to animal abuse problems these days than because of Jonsi.
These days, there are some reports that the population of vegetarians is growing. But still, there are many bias and difficulties to them because their proportion is not very big yet. I asked So-yeon if there were some difficulties and problems to maintain vegetarian diet.
“The most difficult thing is having meals.” She replied after a big sigh. “There are plenty of restaurants of which their meal includes meat. But it is so hard for me to find a place where their meals don’t include meat. The cafeteria in HUFS campus doesn’t offer meals that vegetarians can eat. Even the Gimbap has ham in it.” But her face became bright then. “But I’m quite lucky. There are lots of people who are considerate. My younger brother especially show concerns about my meals when my mother is cooking. Many of my non-vegetarian friends gladly accompany me to restaurants that serve meals that don’t include meat. And you know what? Do you remember when you suggested our band members to visit vegetarian buffet together? It was my first visit with non-vegetarian friends to the vegetarian restaurant. I was very excited and thanked you guys for your careful concerns.”
Actually, I was surprised to hear how much the visit to the buffet meant to her, because I just offered the visit to experience new things that I have never done before. I was happy to hear that she liked it. And then, I thought that moment was the right time to ask about some sensitive topics.
“Many Koreans think that the meat provides us to sustain a healthy life,” I asked in a careful voice. “Didn’t vegetarian diet make you weaker or cause nutritional unbalance?”
But she seemed to have been questioned like that many times before. Without a bit of unpleasant look, she asked calmly how I thought about her. “Do you think I suffer malnutrition? You know, playing drums requires a lot of stamina. And I have never passed out!” She again laughed out loud. “Being a vegetarian is not just stop eating meat without any other alternatives. I don’t eat meat, but I eat beans or nuts instead. And other vital nutrients can also be provided through other none-meat foods.”
As a last question, I asked her: “Is there anything you want to say to the people who are considering being a vegetarian?”
ReplyDelete“Don’t be too serious to be a vegetarian,” she said. “If they think that being vegetarian is too strict, it becomes more stressful. As I said, I started to be a vegetarian in thought that I could quit whenever I want. If I had thought, ‘I will never eat meat for life,’ I couldn’t maintain my diet. Just think like ‘Let’s continue my healthily eating days, day by day.’ With this thinking, I could get rid of my desire to eat meat till now.”
At the end of the interview, she said that the vegetarians shouldn’t blame and criticize non-vegetarians. She explained that those comments only make hostility of non-vegetarians. She was right. I remembered when a vegetarian tried to preach how the meat-eating habit was cruel. I only got angry and it ended as my unpleasant memory toward vegetarians. She said just showing that vegetarians also live healthily influence other people. And she was the person who was practicing as she said.