Colonial Korea (10/29)

[Anonymous]

Teaching about Korea, adaptable lesson plans for your classroom use.

[Anonymous]

War. What is it good for? When we strive to achieve greatness for the common good, we sometimes step over the smaller man to our desired goals. We forego our teachers from father, uncles, neighbors and mothers. We forget our lessons from mothers and teachers and do despicable things. We create comfort women, rape, ravage and destroy our brothers and sisters. To what end to we try to achieve greatness for the common good?

[Anonymous]

Early in my work at the high school, I began to notice when working with immigrant parents and students that there was a cultural bias and prejudice between some of the Asian cultures. When I began asking questions, I was often told that there were hard feelings because of past wars, particularly between the Korean people and the Japanese people. I did not understand the depth of this conflict until tonight. It was very eye-opening to learn the history and understand where some of these differences have originated. In the end, we are all individual people, responsible for our own choices and decisions, yet I cannot help but sympathize with a people who after being dominated by another culture, finally found freedom, only to be divided once again from within. I feel like I have more understanding and compassion for the frustrations of those who come here looking for something different....I wonder if they find it?

[Anonymous]

I read , with interest, about Korea's (is South Korea ALWAYS "Korea", while North Korea needs a "qualifier"? I guess I know the answer to that...) new FEMALE president, Park Guen-hye. I heard an interesting article on NPR (my favorite news source) about her advocacy for unwed mothers. Aside from that social interest, she is purportedly quite conservative. It will be interesting to see what develops in their economy, that hope, it is said, she won.

[Anonymous]

I really knew very little about Asian history before this class. I was aware that there were tensions between different ethnic groups, but I did not understand why. Hearing about how Korean women in particular were treated under Japanese hands was very disturbing. I know that the behavior depicted during that time by some people is not by any means representative of the larger population. I do understand how hard feelings could develop under the circumstances. Soon after the Korean people became independent of Japan, Syngman Rhee was elected and further division between North and South Korea occurred. Korea has a very sad, challenging history.

[Anonymous]

I am in agreement with slieu. What good does war create? Again, I am horrified by what happens to people during times of war. In other news, the FEMALE president is of interest to me. I feel as if there is so much repression of women, that a female leader is always a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for providing lesson plans about Korea. Although I teach 4th grade, I feel that with the right modifications and adaptations, I could incorporate some of the lessons into my class to provide teachings on Korea. Again, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Its amazing how trying to prove a point through showmanship can become costly.Case in point as noted in our readings was when the Soviet delegate departed the UN security vote in protest of the American petition to have the UN get involved with the Korean conflict. If the delegate were not so nearsighted, he could have prevented the UN from entering the conflict.

With regards to the 19th century readings, I did not know that Korea and China had very little communication despite the fact that the two countries shared a boarder. Another amusing tidbit i learned was the term "In-law government". They used this term for monarchs who were weak and dominated by powerful clans. I was delighted to learn more about the history of Korea because I had so little background knowledge.

[Anonymous]

I really wish I taught older students so that I could discuss the issues in such books as Lost Names. The issues of struggling with identify is however something that we recently discussed in my classroom. I have a student who's mother is Korean. Recently the mother has been telling her daughter that she is nothing if she does not identify with her father's Caucasian identify. She used words like worthless and unsuccessful for being Korean, and then told her daughter the only good thing about identifying with her Korean side is because people would think she is smart.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed the readings about how the identity of many Koreans were stripped because of their mandate to denounce their family name and adopt a Japanese one when the Japanese took over. This concept can be linked to class lessons when teaching about slavery or the Holocaust. Many of Africans who came to the states as slaves adopted the names of their masters. This just demonstrates power and sends the message that "I own you, therefore, you must abide by my rule." It's almost like I am now your parent and you must do as I say. The last names of many Jewish people have been modified to become more "westernized." Our last names reveal a lot about ourselves and what we want to receive out of life. Because I immigrated to the states from China, my family had to romanize our Chinese last name. It was originally Zhang, but was later changed to Chang because my dad didn't want me to be last in line when placed in alphabetical order. It's crazy how we consider the little things when choosing a name. It affects so many aspects of our lives. Plus, Zhang indicates that you are from mainland China, while Chang could be from Taiwan or Korea. It was more ambiguous and prevented others from making quick judgements about our background.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Dear Colleagues,

We will be shifting our focus to the Korean peninsula next Monday with Professor Jennifer Jung-Kim from UCLA. Please see attached for the first segment of her two part lecture. For 10/29, we will be examining Korea's history from 1800-1953. Professor Jung-Kim has kindly used found adaptable lessons plans for your classroom use (please see attached for Teaching about Korea).

Have a wonderful week,
Yingjia
edited by yhuang on 10/23/2012
edited by yhuang on 10/23/2012

[Anonymous]

I found it interesting that Christianity was not spread in Korea by missionaries, but rather by intellectuals who learned about the religion through translated Christian texts, and sporadic contact with Christians in China.

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