[Note: You’ll probably get more out of this if you start at part 1.] So: how to make Rome livable, without doing as the Romans do? Redefine Realistic First off, I’m no longer going to take it upon myself to try and teach my students how to write in contexts where it’s not part of the course. After all, I have a heavier classload than lots of profs who give no writing work to begin with — and the writing courses usually end up in the foreign profs’ courses , though I think it’s debatable who’s better equipped to teach Korean …
Tag: Korean education
On Teaching Writing in a Korean University — Part 3: When in Rome… Stop and Ask Yourself: Why Do Romans Do What They Do?
[Note: You’ll probably get more out of this if you start at part 1.] So, we’ve established that Korean humanities programs — or at least a number of them — seem not to prioritize writing. We’ve established that this conflicts with the normal Anglophone idea (or at least, a common idea from the Anglophone world) of how a humanities education works. I want to emphasize, though that this is not just a philosophical difference. The philosophical difference has profound effects, down to the level of budget, the level of resource allocation, and more — and that this is a self-reinforcing …
On Teaching Writing in a Korean University — Part 2: A Little Context For You
[Note: You’ll probably get more out of this if you start at part 1.] Last time, I noted that the normal approach to undergraduate university humanities education in Korea seems to involve far less writing than in universities I’ve attended in Canada, and what I’ve heard from friends who studied in England, Scotland, America, Australia, and other places. Allow me to elaborate: as a music student, I did almost no writing except in my elective courses. This is problematic, but I will defend it slightly by saying we did a lot of submitting of work — but they were music …
On Teaching Writing in a Korean University — Part 1: Sarcasm, and a Recognition
I just been working through the final articles submitted to me by my Journalistic Writing class, and I have to admit, I’m mostly pleased and impressed. Even though there are a few pieces that have me baffled — how could someone hand in something that was obviously not proofread, was written at the absolute last minute, and so on — I am overall quite surprised by the quality of the work I’ve been reading. One thing that’s especially interesting is how a number of students have taken it upon themselves — yes, after urging from me — to find some …
English Made Difficult…
Last week, I happened to stop by the little used book shop area at my local train station and picked up some funny little books because, when I opened one, it was so mindblowingly awful and hilarious and sad all at the same time. The books are all by one author: a guy named Robert Bahk (1923-1991), about whom I’ve found very little online—though, you know, I haven’t searched too hard. His bio says that he did some school in the USA, and attended some Ivy League school—attended, yes, but no mention of graduation was made in the bio I …
I’m Teaching What?
Update (a few months later): Well, surprisingly this turned out to be one of the better classes of the semester, and in fact I rather enjoyed it. We read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” excerpts from Ha-Joon Chang’s Bad Samaritans, organized crime, and the massive documentary film The Corporation; not that it was a massive propaganda session, of course: I just played devil’s advocate, presenting materials that challenged a lot of the more common beliefs and attitudes among students. We had plenty of thoughtful discussions about cultural and economic imperialism, the relationships between government, the press, businesses, …
Woah!
Left Flank linked to the excellent opinion piece on the state of Korean society by a Korean correspondent who spent almost five years abroad, titled “Koreans Need to Learn Life Skills.” She spells it out, asking essentially what kind of adults do you get in a society where children are shuffled between cram schools and have no childhood? A society with poor time-management skills, poor creativity, inflexibility when it comes to adapting to the massive changes that are doubtless ahead of us in this already future-shocked century, and… well, go read it. As I’ve said before, Lime is a fan …
Forget Rain, Forget Hakwons. Parents: Think Kim Sun Wook.
Like any other Westerner in Korea, I’m completely amused, and unsurprised, by the way 비/Rain’s so-called “World Tour” is turning out to be a collossal failure. (Inadequate stage setup? I have trouble buying that, as do many others.) World popularity isn’t a nationalist-netizen-driven thing, as Rain and his promoters — and hopefully the Korean pop music industry, is painfully realizing. But there are Korean musicians who are world-class, and one of them is Kim Sun Wook, whom Lime just mentioned to me. Here’s an article on him from 2006, at KBS GLOBAL: Eighteen-year-old pianist Kim Sun-wook has won the 15th …
The Speech Contest, Semester 2
I helped adjudicate a speech contest today. It hurt. Okay, I was paid for the time, but the rate was negligible considering that what I was paid for was precious time from my life, which I cannot and will not ever ever get back. Plagiarism is very much alive and well, even in the relatively good school where I work. The other foreign prof I work with and I had been talking last semester about a crackdown on it, and some of our Korean co-workers agreed, while others didn’t think it was fair on students who, ostensibly, “don’t know better.” …