Korean Job Discussion Forums

Zenpickle · Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Location: Anyang -- Bisan

Yeah, I was going to suggest "Grapes of Wrath" and Harry Potter. Good call.

I love "To Kill a Mockingbird," but wouldn't be a challenge since it has different dialects? That would be the same reason I wouldn't suggest "Huckleberry Finn."

For gits and shiggles, hand them a James Clavell or Pearl Buck novel. I'd be curious about the reaction.

Zed · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Shakedown Street

I would think that if you're going to have him read Steinbeck then a shorter book might be more appropriate before having him dive into something as lengthy as The Grapes of Wrath. Perhaps Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, The Moon is Down. If he can handle these without much difficulty then maybe suggest the longer book.

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Is "Grapes of Wrath" a good choice? Man, I had trouble with that one due to all the "folk" talk that barely resembles English. Can't think of a good example right now but a lot of that story is like " Missus an sis an we gotsa gets us bin right good coz we's bin in the necks o' woods such long time-like and we's kinsfolks an' all...." and anyone whose read a bit of it knows it aint exactly right proper readin stuff fer EFLers out here in this here neck o de woods or whatnot!

Otherwise a lot of that novel is brilliant. But man, that "folk" talk is tedious.

Howard Roark · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Location: Canada

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought of many of the same ones. I also thought Lord of the Flies and Charlotte's Web might be good.

Ody · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Location: over here

mithridates · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 5:04 am Post subject:

Another thing you might want to try is picking a book with the students ahead of time and getting them all to read it once in Korean first, or at least do some searching about the book on-line. In that case you'll have to pick one that doesn't have a surprise ending as that would ruin all the fun.
The reason why is because of The Little Prince...it's been translated into so many languages that I use it every time I learn a new one. I'm now reading it in Chinese with Korean on the right and two cassette tapes. It's easy to get lost when you've never heard of or have no background to a story.