The more times I teach this American Pop Culture course, the more I begin to find other ways it could be taught. One way I’m thinking is that I could simply take seminal films — The Godfather, Annie, Tootsie, Do the Right Thing, King Kong — and then explore all the various cultural dimensions that wouldn’t be apparent to students coming at them from outside Western culture. But I like the way I’m teaching it now, with lots of readings and so on. I have a very interesting observation on one of the books I’m reading for the course, but …
Category: teaching in Korea
Stuff of Interest (From Papers I’m Grading)
While grading essays, I always encounter things that are interesting. I’ve decided to make note of a few of them, for a record if nothing else. In my English & American Popular Culture course, we’ve been focused on early-20th century American pop culture, but the students have written essays about late-20th century pop culture. (This is a way of giving them a chance to attack issues we haven’t discussed, as well as a way of giving them more time to research what they want to discuss in their final papers.) Anyway, some of the interesting moments, ideas, and thoughts that …
Expat Social Fallacies: Conclusions
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Conclusions I’ve already traced how I think these influence interactions among expats, and between expats and Koreans, as well as generally what I think the causes and consequences are. As for what to do about these fallacies — and others, which, if you think of any, I’d appreciate you point out in the comments! — I think that, as with the …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 5
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #5: Separate But Equal This is one of those subtle fallacies that leads to a very off-putting dynamic in many expat gatherings. It is gendered, though maybe it expresses itself in other ways I’ve not seen. I don’t tend to join in on foreigner-gatherings, but when I do, it almost never fails. You see a table surrounded not …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 4
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy#4: It’s My Right (Sung to the tune of Bon Jovi’s “It’s my life.” Heck, I’ll even throw in the video for you to listen to as you read the rest of this.) I once heard a British woman speaking in loud, slow English to a Laotian waitress, with a very thick accent. So thick it was hard for …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 3
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #3: Everyone’s Got Standards Not to be confused with the Korean Social Fallacy of the “Good Expat” versus the “Low Quality Expat” (one that has also started to creep into expat discussions and thinking, mind you), this is the social fallacy wherein certain expatriates see the role of the expatriate in Korea, at least, as sharply delinated in …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 2
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #2: He/She Isn’t the Problem, Korea Is… … and that’s why, for example, he/she bitches all the time. This second Expat Social Fallacy isn’t restricted to bitching and complaining, of course. The “difficulty” of living in Korea becomes an excuse for all kinds of behaviours: illegal, stupid, antisocial, boring, and otherwise. But the case of bitching is a …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 1
For those who don’t know of the thing I’m riffing on, well, you should go and give a gander to The Five Geek Social Fallacies. It’s a list of five fallacious beliefs that many geeks seem to take for granted, and which all too often (and too-annoyingly) govern social interactions among geeks, along with some psychological analysis of why this is the case. It seems to me that there are also some Expat Social Fallacies, some analogous to the Geek Social Fallacies, and probably for comparable reasons. Over the next five days or so, I’ll be trying to identify some …
Well, I Can See My Work Here Is Done…
Well, not quite, but I was feeling rather gratified to know someone out there has been listening to those lectures. After the speech contest orientation (for a contest which is mandatory for our junior-year English Language & Culture majors), one of my students approached me and asked, “Is it possible for me to use things we’ve discussed in our Understanding Popular Cultures class for my speech?” “Well… in what way do you mean?” I ask, wondering whether she means materials, concepts, or actual discussions on texts or films. “I want to talk about sexist and racist discourses in James Bond …
Losing Your English
The specter of “losing your English” is something that haunts TEFL teachers living abroad. I’m not sure if it haunts mommies or kindergarten teachers in the same way, but I’ve heard TEFL teachers tyalk about it since I first arrived in Korea, and I, yes, indeed, have even experienced it a little bit too. The idea is, well, simply put, with language, use it or lose it. We know this is true since we see it in our students. Those who speak English seldom loose it, even when they pratice for an hour a day in a class. When not …