Ah, cheaters… they shall ever be with us. True story, this, and recent, too—from the course I taught in winter semester, which finished in late January. Names have been omitted for obvious reasons, and there’s a little follow-up on my philosophy regarding cheaters and how to deal with attempted cheating in a class. Enjoy:
Given how rampant plagiarism is in many fields in South Korea—and it really, really is, despite some limited attempts to address it—I figured it was only a matter of time until some famous contemporary author here got accused of it… at least, on a stage public and prominent enough for it to make it into the English language news. Well, that finally happened earlier this year, in September… accusation, scandal, flubbed dismissals, and finally an apology… well, sort of. (Kind of a non-apology apology, of the sort that’s very fashionable these days everywhere.) It happened back in September, but I’ve been busy so I’m only posting …
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.” …