2/6/10 -Session 8a - Jung-Kim - Korea to 1945

I really enjoyed how Dr. Jung-Kim presented the "Top Ten Things About Korea". I could easliy use this lesson in my classroom to acquaint students with a country they are unfamilar with - in this case Korea. Being a French speaker, I was struck by the fact that there are more Korean speakers in the world then French speakers. This would amaze my students as they only have the opportunity to learn French or Spanish at my school.

I found it interesting to learn how Confucianism influenced Koreans. The formality and etiquette of greetings, eating & drinking and everything can even be seen today with some of our Korean students and parents. I love learning about different cultural influences.

I'd like to know also. I wonder if its because so many North Koreans escape there too.

I read through about half the book. It is absolutely targeted toward younger readers, but if your students have no familiarity with Korea it might still work out just fine. One advantage is that they explain things carefully and fully in the book.

Yeah, I was impressed by the Media Towers, but was wondering how many people use them in the winter. From what I hear, Seoul can get pretty cold. It does seem that over the years Korea's reputation has improved dramatically, especially as a leader in technology. On the day of the film festival one of the commentators mentioned that such an improvement is nothing short of a miracle, and mostly due to hard work. One of the early articles from the seminar seems to support this. It discussed how with the economic crisis, many Korean men are now forced to take on more menial jobs to support their family. I wonder if this is an example demonstrating that the survival instinct and that tenacity that allowed the Korean people to recover from the invasions of Japan and the Korean war still remains and allows the Korean people to survive through anything, even a global economic crisis.

I find it interesting how countries adopt religions and adapt them to their own needs. It seems to often be driven by those in power who are able to manipulate religious beliefs to have the people act a certain way. Especially with Confusionism, since it is more of an ideology than a religion, the goal seems not to obtain some sort of enlightenment or position in the after world, but to create guidelines for how a society should work, essentially to control rather than discover.

That's a good point! Los Angeles has much better weather. Why don't we have media poles? If Koreans can use them in winter snow and bitter cold, can you imagine how many Californians would use them?

I don't know if it's our geography that makes public transportation systems so difficult or if we just don't have the civic planners that other major cities have. San Franscico has the BART system, so it could be possible. I don't think it'll happen until we back away from the brink of bankruptcy though.

You are right, this would be a great technique to use with any country. I like to use the strategy: What I know, or what I noticed, and then what I want to know or what I wonder. If the kids write down their "wonderings" on post its, we can get back to them later in the unit and slowly answer these. Some of the students may provide the answers to the 'wonderings".