Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chicoloco]

Just had a talk with my coteacher.
Autumn is the season for reading in Korea, apparently.
Who would have thought, a whole season for reading?!

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

I'm not sure if it's true, but there are tales in Native American mythology (i.e. that of the Trickster) that are only supposed to be shared in Autumn.

[VanIslander]

bah, Koreans don't read much as far as I can tell... but I don't live in one of the big cities, maybe it's an urban thing... or saying 'fall is reading time in Korea' might be a face-saving measure to explain the lack of reading these days (because not the right season)

the fall season run-up to Christmas is the season for book buying back home

summer is the season for reading

I have four books on the go now but I've a shelf of novels specially anticipated to be consumed beachside

VanIslander's Summer Reading List:

Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The New Life by Orhan Pamuk
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
Heart of the Beast by Joyce Weatherford
East of the Mountains by David Guterson
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price
Siam by Lily Tuck
Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Saman by Ayu Utami
A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I read a lot of nonfiction but when it comes to a day at the beach, I always bring a good story, a world in itself, like a beautiful day, disconnected from the grind, with a beginning, middle and end, complete, perfect, a work of art, something to be appreciated, and when finished reflected upon, not critically, instead meditatively, descriptively, in search of connections and observations and insight into anything and everything

[reactionary]

that's cool. looks like a ethnic/diverse reading list.

i think the only time i've seen a korean reading something that wasn't a textbook, it was a guy at the airport reading the novel of "i am legend."

[Dome Vans]

My co-teacher likes to be all philosophical and read books that have proverbs and meanings in.

*At the moment he's reading 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage soul'

*He read 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' last year so I bought him 'Charlie and the Glass Elevator' so he could read the sequel.

*After christmas I bought him 'Life of Pi', but I think he read the first page and gave up.

Was hoping to increase his reading skills, but I think 'A Clockwork Orange' (one of my all time favourites) might be a bridge toooooo far.

[Bingo]

Koreans would much rather fiddle with their cellphones than read. Just look around the cabin of the subway next time you're on it. One guy reading a school text. Fifteen others fiddling with their handphones. Reading is a solitary activity. Koreans do things in groups.

Interestingly, even in PC bangs you NEVER see Koreans reading newspapers, journals etc. Every last one of them is playing a game.

[EFLTeacher]

We can always encourage people to put entire books on their cell phones and read them from there. ....or not.