[Note: This is a coda to a series of posts titled “On Teaching Writing in a Korean University. You’ll probably get more out of this if you start at part 1.] I had an email exchange the other day with one student, and a phone conversation with another. Both threw some interesting light onto the problems I’ve discussed in this ongoing series and in other posts about teaching in Korea, so I figured I’d share. (And my next post, maybe later this week, will touch on the question of what I have to say about essays and alternative projects after having done …
Tag: SERIES: ON TEACHING WRITING IN A KOREAN UNIVERSITY
On Teaching Writing in a Korean University — Part 4: Finding Your Own Way to Live in Rome
[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 …
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 …