There were so many answers provided to the reasons why we should study East Asia in our beginning session that the question should be "Why aren't we teaching more about East Asia?" I believe the answer lies within the framework of high stakes testing. I also think that our curriculum is culturally biased towards Europe and all things European. Though there is mention of East Asia sprinkled throughout the Content Standards.

The history and the present of East Asia is a fascinating one. The first reading, "Don't bring me your huddled masses" obviously brought to mind the new immigration period of the late 19th, early 20th century in America. The play on Emma Lazarus' words actually drew me to read the article.

I had read that Japan was experiencing a shortage of ethnic Japanese births and was going to have an older population to take care of with fewer workers to take their places in the economy. This was a cause for dismay for Japanese leaders because of the burdens on the economy and of the declining population. It was interesting to read that the solutions that the Japanese government came up with was immigration but of those who were of Japanese ancestry in Latin America. The hope was to have these immigrants fit in better with the native population.

Japan experienced similar problems with the guests workers as the United States has experienced with the documented guest workers and undocumented workers; abuses by employers, and the inability to keep track of illegal returns.

The article ended with the unhappy fate that as Japan undergoes difficult economic times, the safety net afforded to Japanese workers did not apply to the foreign workers and left many literally out in the street. I wonder how things are faring with the domestic and immigrant labor force with the troubles that Toyota is undergoing currently.

"Why bother studying East Asia?" After all, don't you already have too much to do in your classes as it is. Why add East Asia? What difference does it make?

You may also want to discuss any of the ideas included in the first set of readings about East Asian population trends and resource pressures.

I LOL'ed....YES I have too much to do in my classroom, in my life! And yet, I thought it was funny that the night before our first session I could not turn away from a PBS presentation about one of the very areas of study I was considering as my unit plan- which highlighted research being conducted at Xinghua Univ, mentioned again at last night's seminar.
Between that time and now I have eaten at two Asian eateries, taught at a high school in a largely Asian part of LA, and was again forced (via some strange magnetic field transmitted by the towers of KCET) to watch yet another mesmerizing program about Asia and the fascinating life of Buddha with commentary by the Dali Lama, someone just discussed with a friend last weekend...
As Buddha taught, the inescapable fact is that we are woven together- like it or not. So within that tapestry I watch, and I read, and I think that as goes Asia, so go we...from the emergent industrial rise of China to the current trajectory (down slope?) of Japan...we see ourselves as a nation, the somewhat parallel paths we have taken, the paths not taken, the paths which awaits us as well.
As a young nation with a relatively short history, we often have the attitude and hubris of an adolescent, rarely considering our inevitable demise. Japan may provide a humbling example of our immortality or old age while nations like Korea remind us to try and plan and save for it anyway. Ultimately, each of us is an individual (person and nation) and fate cannot be predicted no matter how many charts, graphs and actuaries are employed. The are always surprises and the unexpected, "miracles." Because of this, it probably is best to just live in the moment, but I still can't contain my craving and desire for class next week.

Why bother studying East Asia?? One word: globalization. This is essentially the word that drove me to sign up for this class. There is so much I don't understand even though I was born in Asia. There is a new super power emerging: China and the runner up: India; yet I know so little about them. To be able to help my students become global minded people, I need to prepare myself as well. Here is a video everyone should check out on youtube: Did You Know? I showed it to my students and they were all shocked to find out the vast of information that is out there they have not yet studied.

-- I totally agree with the idea about how other people/countries struggle with some of the same issues. The article "With Wounded Pride, Unemployed Koreans Quietly Turn to Manual Labor" gives amazing insight to the people/culture. I often talk to my students about goal setting after their high school diploma. I think this article would be a great way to have students reflect on their own ideas about their future. --

. . . and how do I get to spell check from here?

I also thought the article "With wounded pride..." was very interesting. Not only did I get a feel for the people of South Korea but it would be a perfect article for me to use in class. I am forever trying to show my students that people are basically the same everywhere. The idea of being "overqualified" for the job you have to do right now to survive is something that millions of people around the world are dealing with.

It also made me think of a book I read recently about teaching boys and how even though manual labor jobs pay well, many males here in America (and people in general, but the book was about boys) would rather go to college in hopes of getting a "good" job instead of becoming a plumber (a job considered beneath them) which provides a steady income.

I was interested to learn that earth quakes in Japan are caused by a sleeping cat fish. Who'da thunk. I did like the idea that "With tsunamis and typhoons too, an acceptance of natural disasters is said to be hard wired into the Japanese psyche." When dealing with the 5 themes of social science with my students, I like to discuss how one theme effects the other. For example, the geography of Japan greatly effects the religion or the sociology. I don't know if I agree people are becoming complacent though, because can anyone ever really be prepared for a catastophic event of biblical proportions? I think not. That's why such things were given such a dramatic name, because no matter how human beings prepare for these natural disasters, we are 100% at their mercy.

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There are a lot of good reasons to study East Asia in schools.
I think that for myself, I didn't really think about Asia until last year when I got the opportunity to spend a week in a small prefecture in Japan, named Kaizuka. While traveling around, I noticed how much my group stood out ( consisting of myself and 4 caucasian). Everyone seemed to be Japanese. And when I asked our tour guide about other ethnicities that lived there, she told me that maybe a few Chinese and Korean. And that totally made sense to me once I looked at the population charts in the reader that stated that only 1.5% of the population are minorities.
My sister is currently residing in South Korea right now and she is sharing with me all the new and interesting thing she is learning and I realized that I don't remember learning anything about Asia when I was in school.
Now, that I am aware of Asia emerging as domination power in the world, I think American students should be more aware of Asia and all the things that are happening there.
And since the internet is bring the nations closer together, we should be aware of what going on in other nation, especially Asia since they are such a dominatin force.
I have always heard that Japanese, Chinese and Korean students exceed in math so I would like to maybe learn a little bit how they achieve so much and motivate their students so that I can do the same with my students.