This saturday I was asked to do a presentation to korean adults on UK society, history, politics, traditions, foods, etc. The presentation was to be at 10,30 am and to last 90 mins. However, the location was the southern tip of the city and I am the northern, so I had to leave home from 8am to get there.

The location was in a high rise condo building. I have never been in one before so it was quite interesting. The room was on the 11th floor and was large with lots of folding chairs setup. I asked if this was a party room like we have back home for special functions. She advised this was a private apartment and their living room, which seemed quite big.

Slowly the attendees arrived. They were mostly older koreans, but a couple of south african friends, a teacher from the US, and a japanese man. There was also a retired lady from England who had been living here for several decades and spoke fluent korean so was curious to see what I would say in my presentation.

The presentation was actually slower than I had planned as the host was interpreting everything for each slide and I hadnt anticipated this extra time. It was interesting however and I was able to cover many topics.

First it was a brief history, the celts, romans, anglo-saxons, vikings, normans. Then Henry VIII, his wives, divorces, children. Elizabeth I, Guy Fawkes, Industrial Revolution, Queen Victoria, two World Wars, abdication of Edward VIII.

Then was fun stuff as we talked about pop culture. For the 1960s I expected them to know the Beatles and maybe Rolling Stones. I was surprised that they all knew Lulu and Cliff Richard. Likewise for the 1970s they all knew David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elton John, even the Sex Pistols. For the 1980s, I was surprised they all knew Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Boy George, Wham.

I guess its different dealing with a much older audience as I know my kids wouldnt know any of this stuff. Later a woman was showing me her Cliff Ric************* her IPod and playing them to me. They said him and Lulu were very big in korea. My presentation was running longer than expected so I didnt get to do the last part on the Royal Family.

Later I managed to take a look at the apartment. Its actually a three bedroom. One bedroom is used as a classroom, the second storage for the folding chairs. The master bedroom was quite large. It had a room leading to a private bathroom. In this room was a dressing counter with mirror and a walk in closet. The master bathroom was massive and had a giant whirlpool.

After that we all went for lunch at a noodle restaurant. We had haemul pajan (seafood pancake) and kalguksu (noodle soup). Overall it was a fun experience, interacting with people of a different age group, and hearing the things they were familiar with, some of which was surprising.