Soft Power For the (Still) Fairer Sex

"I felt more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state."

- Hilary Clinton, quoted from the NY Times.

It looks as though only the most beautiful Korean students were chosen to stand behind America's Secretary of State.  Note the double eyelids everywhere - 'eyelid surgery' is often a high school graduation gift from parents.

She reenergized many of The School's female student body with her visit to EWHA Woman's University during its orientation for new students (OT, as the students all it).

But what she said, or advised, exactly is not entirely clear.  Sure, her goal was to create future leaders in a social climate that still doesn't fully accept powerful women.  Yes, our school's CEO is a woman, but many female students openly dream of marriage or plastic surgery, not power.  As cute as it might seem at first, I suspect this is why a young Korean woman asked Mrs. Secretary of State how she met her husband.  Ambitious young thing, trying to peg a future president early on. (Here's a hint: go to a co-ed university.  As far as I know, that's where Bill and Hilary met).

My question is, however: in what language did Hilary give her speech?  Was it given only in English, to be understood only by the linguistically gifted or daughters of families rich enough to pay for years of extra English lessons?  Or did the organizers choose that cumbersome translation format, where everything is heard twice: once in English, then again in Korean, just like our staff parties? (Lucky for EWHA's students, the content would have been undoubtedly more stimulating than a staff meeting).

I tried to ask a few students what Mrs. Clinton had actually talked about.  You know, the question all students dread being asked by their teacher: "So, what was the main argument?" 

One lower-level student gave me a short answer with lots of enthusiasm, something predictable like, 'She talk about empower women and make me feel excited for university'.  An intermediate-level student gave me some vocabulary words in no particular order but using the stress and intonation that could have helped it pass for a full sentence: 'She said women empowerment important for ... uh, oppression ... uh, future empowerment women.'

The title of the speech was 'Women's Empowerment'.

But maybe I'm coming across a bit too harsh on these students.  I don't mind that they can't communicate the details of the speech to me or that their sentences sometimes just aren't.  I just hope the message wasn't totally lost on these women.  Some of them need all the non-surgeried, non-male-and-family-dependent inspiration they can get.