Meet Dr. Chung

Relaxing by the oceon in Kenai, and by total coincedence I got to know Dr. Chung. He was spending a day by the ocean hoping to catch some red salmons. He had his tent next to mine and like a good neighbor I said hi, then we started chating. This man turned out to be one of the first surgeons providing health care to alaskans. He is a colorectal surgeon who came to the US 46 yrs ago. He is 72 yrs old, but he is still young "if your heart races when you see a beautiful women then you are still young" said Dr.Chung.

He can speak 8 languages; his native Korean, learned russuan while in north Korea. At age 11 became a refugee in south Korea and learned Japanese. Also he had to learn chinese but he knows only 2000 chinese characters!. He learned English when he studied medicine, then some one told him that you can't be a good doctor without learning Latin so he did. Moved to the US, initially to New York, where he was faced with patients who spoke no English and found himself learning spanish to communicate with them. I don't remember how and why he learned German. When he was serving in Nome, Alaska someone suggested to him to give it a shot at Eupik (native alaskan language) he decided to pass and explained "I had no more brain cells left for another language".