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IlIlNine
Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Location: Gunpo, Gyonggi, SoKo
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 Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:30 am Post subject: Korean Media, how I love thee |
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http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200508/200508280001.html
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The Dumbing-Down of Drama in Korea
��Professor, what��s a watchtower?�� asks a drama freshman in the Script Analysis class at Seoul Institute of the Arts. The query came up the moment the class opened their copy of ��Hamlet�� and had the professor dumbfounded. ��Maybe it��s because students don��t read enough, or maybe students are lacking in critical thinking ability, but since the late 90s, I find myself having to explain things to students that I never had to explain in the 80s,�� says Prof. Song Hae-sook. ��When the students don��t even know the word ��watchtower,�� at the point where the ghost makes its entrance in ��Hamlet,�� how can they possibly have the ability to reflect on tragedy or humanity?�� (��Hamlet,�� for our younger readers, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare.)
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Funny. In an article about dumbing down dramas, they feel the need to explain what Hamlet is to the younger readers who, as the article explains, have no idea. Very thoughtful, I thought! |
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buddy bradley
Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Location: The Beyond
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| Well, at least you're thinking. That's an end. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:54 am Post subject: |
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I have to say, apart from the Dylan song and the Jehovah's Witness magazine, I think I could count on one hand the number of times I've heard someone use the word "watchtower" in everyday conversation.
Or maybe it's just that I associate the word so closely with Dylan and the JWs that all the other times have just slipped from my mind. But if that's the case, there still couldn't have been that many times. |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| ��We have to rebuild our foundation in the classics but at the same time we have to take the trivial taste of the young into consideration.�� |
Adults are really afraid of the youth in this country. It is all about being popular. Showmanship, boys..... It's showmanship when teaching in Korea! |
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buddy bradley
Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Location: The Beyond
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:18 am Post subject: |
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| weatherman wrote: |
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| ��We have to rebuild our foundation in the classics but at the same time we have to take the trivial taste of the young into consideration.�� |
Adults are really afraid of the youth in this country. It is all about being popular. Showmanship, boys..... It's showmanship when teaching in Korea! |
So that explains it - it's my youth and sexiness that makes Korean men act like cunts towards me - thanks, got it. |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare?... I thought it was a small ham... and who's Shakespeare? |
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diver
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| I always thought hamlet wa a baby pig. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:25 am Post subject: |
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| It sounds like an omelet with ham, doesn't it? |
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The Man known as The Man
Joined: 29 Mar 2003
Location: 3 cheers for Ted Haggard oh yeah!
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:42 am Post subject: |
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| buddy bradley wrote: |
| weatherman wrote: |
| Quote: |
| ��We have to rebuild our foundation in the classics but at the same time we have to take the trivial taste of the young into consideration.�� |
Adults are really afraid of the youth in this country. It is all about being popular. Showmanship, boys..... It's showmanship when teaching in Korea! |
So that explains it - it's my youth and sexiness that makes Korean men act like *beep* towards me - thanks, got it. |
no it's because you are canadaian and therefore incredibly gay |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: Korean Media, how I love thee |
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| ��Maybe it��s because students don��t read enough, or maybe students are lacking in critical thinking ability, but since the late 90s, I find myself having to explain things to students that I never had to explain in the 80s,�� says Prof. Song Hae-sook. |
I'm not surprised that in Korea there might be a few in any given classroom who don't know the word "watchtower". It's not like a commonly used word.
I bet the Professor is P.O.'d because in the 1980s, students were appalled by the prospect of questioning a teacher, and merely suffered in silence, but since the late 90s, the little brats have had the audacity to dare ask questions of the great Professor when they don't understand something. From the Professor's point of view, I'm sure Korea is going to heck in a handbasket. |
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teachmeenglish
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 1:45 am Post subject: |
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Now it seems to me that watchtower should be fairly easy to figure out. after all, watch = to look, tower=tall building thingy thus  If a number of NS posters can figure out what hamlet means, then why can not a Korean Uni student think on his or her own like that too. Perhaps this is the point, and also one of my pet peeves, that Korean students have a very hard time using thier own skills, or are too bl**dy lazy, to solve problems. |
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numazawa
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: The Concrete Barnyard
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:07 am Post subject: |
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| The Man known as The Man wrote: |
no it's because you are canadaian and therefore incredibly gay |
Contrary to this popular belief, not all Canadians are named Ian. Nor are most of them gay. However, for those of us who have elected to expatriate, it is well to remember that a goodly portion of that country does aspire to the cultural state of being effectively gay and Ian, or simply Gaian. Strange but true. |
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