[Interview Part 3] HIM Military Culture Magazine, Oct. 2017 – Adieu, Special Forces Sergeant Lee Seunggi

(Image: As labeled.  Hope HIM Magazine also posts HQ of this photo on their blog!)

[Interview Part 3]

HIM (힘) Military Culture Magazine
October 2017 | Vol. 78
Adieu, Sergeant Lee Seung Gi
Special Forces Lee Seung Gi’s Last Present

English translation: LSGfan
Original Content: HIM Magazine

# Army that Brought About a Joy of Reading

*Note: There are 7 question-responses under this topic section in the magazine print version. The internet blog version does not list all the items. I wasn’t able to translate all of them since I don’t have clear readable images of the entire magazine interview version yet.

You filmed the public service poster for the Barracks/Camp Reading Revitalization and Support Project.  Do you typically like to read?

LSG: I encountered and read a lot of books upon coming to the army.  Once you’ve completed your daily tasks, you’re allowed free time until the end of the day so I ended up working out and naturally also reading a lot.  And currently, there’s a sponsored reading campaign across the military with an established system that rewards soldiers who read a lot of books.  Society may say, ‘why do soldiers need books, all they need is training’ but no way.  Today’s army is different from the past.  The goal is to make a class or sufficiently thinking soldier.  Therefore, I firmly believe that reading is necessary.  Reading is enjoyable and you broaden your mind when you read on your own and converse together.  As such, I try to create an atmosphere where the opinions of my successors can converge through me and ongoing communication.

Do you think the significance of reading is important in army life?

LSG: The brigade commander once said this.  That the army is the final remaining on-the-grounds education.  The army is a space where 20-something men, after becoming adults, come together and eat, sleep, discipline the mind body and soul, and develop into real adults while learning a lot of things.  Consequently, I believe reading books in the army is not simply reading, but rather a readiness process to go out into society.  So maybe because of that many of these friends worry about how can I change and how can I live my life, and read self-improvement books.

What do books mean to Lee Seunggi?

LSG: [Books] are a guide that get us to better thinking/ideas.  There is something to experiencing things directly on your own, but through books, you experience things vicariously and you come to view what you know and on top of that, new things from diverse perspectives. They also break through any insular or narrow-minded thinking I may have.

[to be continued…]