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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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 Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject: Are your students becoming more eco-conscious? |
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| Has all the government talk about "green growth", along with growing concerns about both global warming and Korea's high level of dependency on foreign energy and food imports, had an impact on your students? For those of you who have been here a few years, are your students perhaps showing a greater level of interest in, and understanding of, environmental issues? Do you have any Korean friends, relatives or colleagues who are really into sustainability and reducing their eco-footprint etc? What are your students' views about 2MB's "green growth" policies? How about younger students? Are elementary school kids also becoming more eco-conscious? |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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No but it might explain why my students are acting a bit fruity. As of lately.
I asked my students (after watching an American culture video) what were some American values.
The kids kept answering "the enviroment" every class...
American values are like "Freedom, liberty, privacy (possibly, greed and exhuberance if you want to be negative)"
Enviroment struck me as VERY odd... I thought maybe they had just finished watching some kind of National Geographic special in some other class. |
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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| Goku wrote: |
No but it might explain why my students are acting a bit fruity. As of lately.
I asked my students (after watching an American culture video) what were some American values.
The kids kept answering "the enviroment" every class...
American values are like "Freedom, liberty, privacy (possibly, greed and exhuberance if you want to be negative)"
Enviroment struck me as VERY odd... I thought maybe they had just finished watching some kind of National Geographic special in some other class. |
It's probably because - from my experience at least - there are a lot of fairly open-minded, tree-hugging Americans amongst the English teachers in Korea. We've all got to have a Bachelor's degree at least in order to get our visas and - again from my own personal observations - generally the higher one's level of education is the more eco-conscious one tends to be. |
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ChinaBoy
Joined: 17 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:39 am Post subject: |
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| My students throw trash everywhere just like they always have. |
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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:01 am Post subject: |
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| ChinaBoy wrote: |
| My students throw trash everywhere just like they always have. |
It's a shame to hear that. Still, I've had the opposite experience of encouraging some kids to pick up some rubbish then not being able to make them stop  , so there's always hope that their attitudes might change. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:01 am Post subject: |
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| I think I've made a tiny bit of headway in teaching them that turning on full the air-con or heater, depending on season, then opening all the windows may not be very ecological. |
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guerillera
Joined: 02 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:42 am Post subject: |
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I noticed a lot of energy around health food last time I was in Seoul but didn't see folks connecting that with concern for a healthy planet.
Any other experiences? |
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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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I remember seeing adverts promoting "weekend farms" (allotment gardening) last time I was on the subway too, and very occasionally I've seen some pretty impressive rooftop gardens from the above-ground sections of subway line number two.
I'm quite sceptical about 2MB's many of 2MB's "green growth" proposals however. I'm all for making Korean businesses and industry more efficient with their resource and energy use and less polluting, but if someone working in a "green" industry still spends loads of their earnings on poor quality and unnecassary Chinese-made products they are effectively just transferring the pollution from one country to another. |
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halfmanhalfbiscuit
Joined: 13 Oct 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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| kiwiduncan wrote: |
I remember seeing adverts promoting "weekend farms" (allotment gardening) last time I was on the subway too, and very occasionally I've seen some pretty impressive rooftop gardens from the above-ground sections of subway line number two.
I'm quite sceptical about 2MB's many of 2MB's "green growth" proposals however. I'm all for making Korean businesses and industry more efficient with their resource and energy use and less polluting, but if someone working in a "green" industry still spends loads of their earnings on poor quality and unnecassary Chinese-made products they are effectively just transferring the pollution from one country to another. |
Speaking of which-Korea (Seoul at least) has widespread recycling. What happens to it though. Is it just shipped to China?
Incidentally NZ recycling is well received there as we wash everything out! |
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alphakennyone
Joined: 01 Aug 2005
Location: city heights
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| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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| halfmanhalfbiscuit wrote: |
| kiwiduncan wrote: |
I remember seeing adverts promoting "weekend farms" (allotment gardening) last time I was on the subway too, and very occasionally I've seen some pretty impressive rooftop gardens from the above-ground sections of subway line number two.
I'm quite sceptical about 2MB's many of 2MB's "green growth" proposals however. I'm all for making Korean businesses and industry more efficient with their resource and energy use and less polluting, but if someone working in a "green" industry still spends loads of their earnings on poor quality and unnecassary Chinese-made products they are effectively just transferring the pollution from one country to another. |
Speaking of which-Korea (Seoul at least) has widespread recycling. What happens to it though. Is it just shipped to China?
Incidentally NZ recycling is well received there as we wash everything out! |
Man..washing out the 10+ beer bottles in the morning with a raging hangover would suck. I prefer the California system, throw it all in a plastic bag and leave it out for the homeless to get their 5 cents a pop. "Hey man, sorry about the vomit in the bag of cans" |
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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:25 am Post subject: |
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| halfmanhalfbiscuit wrote: |
| kiwiduncan wrote: |
I remember seeing adverts promoting "weekend farms" (allotment gardening) last time I was on the subway too, and very occasionally I've seen some pretty impressive rooftop gardens from the above-ground sections of subway line number two.
I'm quite sceptical about 2MB's many of 2MB's "green growth" proposals however. I'm all for making Korean businesses and industry more efficient with their resource and energy use and less polluting, but if someone working in a "green" industry still spends loads of their earnings on poor quality and unnecassary Chinese-made products they are effectively just transferring the pollution from one country to another. |
Speaking of which-Korea (Seoul at least) has widespread recycling. What happens to it though. Is it just shipped to China?
Incidentally NZ recycling is well received there as we wash everything out! |
I'd hazard a guess that due to the higher population density and the large number of factories here Korea's internal demand for recycled raw materials means they might not need to ship a lot off to China.
In New Zealand on the other hand, I understand that - outside of Auckland - there's not a single company that melts down recycled bottles. In Marlborough they get crushed and used as a roading base or for special "mulch" in the vineyards. |
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Frankly Mr Shankly
Joined: 13 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:43 am Post subject: |
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You should rename this thread, "have you succeeded in pushing your own personal political agenda onto the kids you teach?"
In which case the answer is no, none of them are libertarians, classical liberals or satanists. |
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dragon777
Joined: 06 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| Yes, my kids like spitting, throwing rubbish and chucking paper in clasrooms like never before. |
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kiwiduncan
Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Frankly Mr Shankly wrote: |
You should rename this thread, "have you succeeded in pushing your own personal political agenda onto the kids you teach?"
In which case the answer is no, none of them are libertarians, classical liberals or satanists. |
Yep, nothing wrong with encouraging your students to think more deeply about their society and environment, question the status quo and consider alternative approaches to life  .
Considering the never ending barrage of TV and internet advertising telling people to go shopping and consume, along with the images in Korean music videos, movies and TV programmes implying that one's self worth is measured by how much designer crap you've got, I feel no shame or embarrassment in making my students aware of alternatives. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| kiwiduncan wrote: |
Considering the never ending barrage of TV and internet advertising telling people to go shopping and consume, along with the images in Korean music videos, movies and TV programmes implying that one's self worth is measured by how much designer crap you've got, I feel no shame or embarrassment in making my students aware of alternatives. |
Good point. But some of the teachers and parents might not appreciate it when they realize their kids can actually think. |
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