Yup, knowing something and teaching it are quite different things. And your observation about making more money that way reminds me of a professor of mine from undergrad — the guy who probably impressed me the most from the English Lit Department, so that I eventually expanded my field of studies to include literature — ended up quitting teaching to run a cinema in a small town, and do magic shows on the side.

I like that idea: I don’t know about doing a whole book for foreign businessmen on Korean business culture, but a few class discussions worth of that might be a great exercise. (And since I work with a wider definition of literature than the old guard — literary texts are the only sort of thing we can look at under that rubric — it’s definitely something we could fit into a bigger discussion of business culture, etc.)

(Though, I should add, I don’t really intend on keeping the focus as narrow as the course title suggests; with other courses that are silly-focused, I make them academic or otherwise a creative stretch for the students when I’m teaching them. Which doesn’t suit everyone, but then, neither does the traditional sitting-through-lectures model of learning.)

(And as for these ‘useful’ courses, and why they teach them in universities … well, I could go on for pages bitching about them, but it won’t do any good, and I don’t want to leave a written record that they could use to incriminate me later… :) )

Anyhow, a neat way to approach this subject may be to take a book on “Korean business culture” written for foreign businessmen in Korea, examine the advice they give, and then talk about why foreign businessmen need to take that advice.

Well, yeah, but that’s the thing: they’re probably English Lit majors and majors in my own department, not business majors. The course isn’t for business majors: the assumption is that English majors are going to go out and get salaryman/salarywoman jobs, near as I can reckon.

Anyway, I am thinking along the lines you’re thinking, and which a friend suggested on the Livejournal mirror of this post. She also recommended Glengarry Glen Ross (which I’ve not seen, though I understand Boiler Room refers to it several times.) The Office: good call. Also, The Corporation, maybe something on Union Carbide? Maybe the documentary I saw on the couple who took on McDonald’s in Britain? (They were sued for criticizing in print the misleading info in McDonald’s info sheets/ads/etc.)

So, yeah, there is some idea taking form for me, in what I can do with this class in a constructive sense. And it’s even credible: we could compare the response to scandals between cultures, like the fallout of the garbage mandu scandal and some comparable scandal in the West.

I’d bring in former students who have joined the business world (especially women), and have them share their horror stories. I’d discuss the ‘MT’ experience for new employees in major corporations and compare it to the brainwashing techniques of cults. I’d show select episodes of ‘The Office’, some scenes from Glengarry Glen Ross’ and so on.

I would then judge my success by the number of students who drop their business majors.