August 4 - Session 2 - Jung-Kim - Korea to 1945

My first thought for this afternoon's session is I liked the way Professor Jung-Kim used the theme of globalization to present the history of Korea. In the past, as I've taught many of the regions of the world, I have had the tendency to teach them more as case studies: a small window focusing just on one nation at a time. Or I introduce the Atlantic World and triangle trade, but then never mention the same type of experience in Asia. This year I want to show the greater relationships between countries and people (not just the conflicts).

I also find it useful that this session on Korea has happened after our discussions of China and Japan. There is so much overlap and opportunities to compare and contrast the three nations. Again, I hope I can use this as a model in my own classroom because I have found it very effective for my own understanding.

One question: What has this global history done to ethnicity in East Asia? Has there been a lot of intermarriage among people of China, Korea, and Japan? I would imagine (I'm thinking about the Comfort Women here) that there would be a good number of children born as a result of interracial "unions." Is there a stigma against this or against these children? Is it getting any better?

The ten points on what makes Korea unique is good food for thought. We do tend to know very little about Korea in the US, except the Korean War and the division. Just looking at the large population of the country, and of Seoul shows their significance. I loved the point about the culture being "global" and "glocal." It is interesting to see how Korean history indeeds intersects with the rest of Asia; it is no different than other parts of the world. The information on the transformation of Buddhism from Indian forms to Chinese to Korean was interesting as well. The theories about how to achieve social harmony with the three bonds and five relationships can give us insight into roots of modern culture. I am going to use the information on the March First Movement when I cover the Versailles Treaty next year. It will show the students how other areas of the world reacted.

Professor Jung-Kim’s lecture on Korea was another great learning session for me. Again, there are overlapping cultural connections and themes. Such as, when Korea was a colony of Japan, many Koreans went abroad and also became educated. Perhaps, the xenophobia that has been a part of our American historical story and our isolationist policies that some American politicians have followed has affected our past and present misunderstanding of Asia and their cultural practices.

Also, our world history classes that we teach currently have an emphasis upon European history due to the California Standards Testing (CST). There seems to be very little depth to our historical information on Asian countries in our text books as well. According to Professor Jung-Kim, many Americans have an incorrect perception of South Korea; she stated that many believe Korea to be a poor country. This is not only backwards thinking, it is an uneducated way of thinking. Especially since South Korea is successful and doing well economically. Just a note though, the US and many countries worldwide are experiencing an economical downturn and I don’t want you to think that I am including immediate or present circumstances.

This afternoon Dr. Kim gave me a different perspective of looking at the history that I have learned throughout my childhood. Perhaps those in power have a lot more to say based on the current circumstances. I always thought that the virtue of "filial piety" originally from China not from Korea, neither from Japan. As to many events mentioned today, they seem to me like a movie that I saw before. It was about three different versions of how the story should be ended and was filmed by a well-known Japanese director. Basically, the movie says that even with a close relationship with one another, each one of us will have different perspectives of looking at the same thing. And that is what I feel.

As to the Buddhism era of globalization, I want to share something I have learned years ago about why Buddhism was transformed into a localization, a method of being adopted by the local people such as those in Korea, Japan and China. If you take a close look at Buddha images at those countries mentioned above, you will find their difference. Because as Dr. Kim said the concept of Buddhism has been shifted from globalization to glocalization. After all, we all share the same planet and through the mass communications tools such as "skype, Internet and teleconferencing, etc." we actually live in a global village without boundaries. Will such an unique historical moment continue its own path? julie

I was aware of a few Korean companies like samsung and Kia, but I never realized just how successful and large the Korean economy is. I am very curious to know how this economy grew under an authoritarian regime? What role the government played? And how Korea transitioned to a democracy?

I guess the legacy of Confucian values of hard work, education and respect fueled the economy and the strategic location of being near to such great powers such as Japan, China and Russia also helped the economy. I think also like Japan, Korea's educational system helped. I would definitely like to know more about education in Korea. Are American schools really lagging? Can we make American students work as hard as Korean students? (i doubt it, but its worth exploring).

I also never knew how much South Korea is vested in world economics. To hear the 10 points of SK was worthwhile in itself, but the second presentation on SK was also worthwhile. I liked the Ancient Korean history presentation, "the good, the bad, the ugly" and the myths behind them. The way China and Japan meddled in Korea for their own gains is something mentioned previously, but to gain further knowledge on what effect it had on Korea.
I also liked listening about how the in-laws used marriages for their own gains.
My only issue, is how this works in a classroom, the reading works well, but in a standards oriented, pace calendared enforced district, how can this be introduced and used? Could I use this better when teaching about Japan or China? Being in middle school, would this work better with 6th or 7th grade standards?

Now I can see how I can teach the ancient region of Japan, China, Korea all together. It's all about globalization of religion & ideas, then arts/early technology. Many of these ideas are still in the bedrock of the countries today. it is interesting that they all had the same response to foreign imperialist too.

giving students a set of the readings about each country to do group scored discussion. Then have them write historical analysis papers for history and English.