Korean Job Discussion Forums

[suzhou2010]

I will be teaching advanced level university students and am looking for ideas about raising the students awareness of environmental, political, or social/ethical/human rights issues . . .Hopefully we can tie global issues into our own region and develop activities for them to voice themselves in the local community . . . .

Any experiences or ideas would be appreciated!!

[gmat]

Here's a suggestion, keep your political views out of the classroom. It is arrogant to think you need to 'raise' awareness. Not everyone agrees with your views. If a teacher tried to push their politics in a language learning class, I would tell them to *beep* off.

[the_beaver]

[Homer]

I agree with gmat.

You are hired to teach English not to preach about social awareness.

You are not teaching a class on environment or international relations. You are mandated to teach english.

Keep your politics at home.

[julian_w]

Here's another suggestion: Do it!

Raising awareness is quite different from imposing political views, and, raising awareness clearly and severely needs to be done in this country, as within any other.

Heh. Looks like it's gmat's day to overreact a bit, today. I mean, I can't see how simply raising a subject for an open discussion can be construed as pushing politics.

Politics is anywhere there are two people making a decision. In a country that's made the political decision to expose itself to another language - and therefore by default another cultural mindset - it's logical that a wider set of issues will be discussed, and frankly, it's necessary in a country that is newly developed, newly democratic, and newly exporting students and tourists around the world.

Okay, that was my theoretical spiel. I'm also interested in the practical side, like you asked. And yep, I've worked in a university and a hagwon, and dealt with 'issues' in both.

Firstly, generally, and just so gmat and the_beaver don't get too upset ( ... ... ), the easy way to 'deal' with a subject without being seen to be 'pushing' your arrogant western euro-centric imperialist-pig philosophies on anyone in particular ( ...esp. gmat ...) (... ) is to develop a discussion and get the students reflecting on the topic and contributing their views - perhaps by using a newspaper article, or supplying information such as statistics that might not be common knowledge, as a discussion starter ... or a discussion developer - wait until everyone's stated the standard (perhaps good Korean confuciast ideals etc.), and then introduce someone else's observations. (Contact Real Reality if you want any help with info. on local topics with that one!)

To develop the conversation, you could do an impromptu debate. Split up the class. See if there are natural devisions in the group on that topic. If you know who are the top students already, you can put them in the other team, to make it more challenging for them. ... Remember to debrief: finish the debate well before the end of class, especially if it does get obviously heated, and have people reflect on the development of the discussion, including their emotional involvement - ie. recognising their own and their classmates' positions, and the validity of those differences.

Another way is to guide the discussion by having it questions based. You can sit/stand there and ask the questions, or, you can get them to come up with questions on a topic, perhaps for homework. Get them to put their questions on paper before or at the start of class, then get them chatting on a warm-up topic while you scan the papers for the juicy ones and flick the repeats, or however you want to run it.

In terms of practical experience, one of my last ever classes at the hagwon was with a senior level group of early secondary school kids ( - that's junior-high for you Cannucks and those to the south of there, right?... - ) who wanted a free-talking session on sex. The topic was chosen by them. Cool. (...Gulp!) Got to class and they were all busy staring straight ahead and not looking at each other, let alone volunteering to chat casually! So we started with a useful vocab list - started with a survey of what they knew already - which was a little bit more than naughty swear words. Okay kids, what does this word mean: contraception... ? ... Where else can u find out more information about it? Pushing my fascist ideological superiority-complex whitie slant? (ye..) NAHH!

At university the one that sticks out was the class on recycling. Jeeze. Getting through the idea of over packaging was harder than I expected. I think it was a Friday afternoon class or something, cos we used to share packets of snack-food and fruit, so it was easy to ask about why EVERY SINGLE BISCUIT (cookie) has to be individually wrapped, on a tray, put in a box, and then the box wrapped AS WELL ... !?! One student defended it fairly, saying that it was because in the heat of summer, the chocolate will melt the biscuits together and ruin the whole packet, and that's why they have to be individually wrapped. I collected all the wrappers we had - a fair-big pile already by then - and placed them on his desk, and then asked him what he was going to do with all the wrappers from the city of 1.5 million just outside the window, and in the country just over the hills. Then he started thinking.

I guess what I'm thinking is, it's entirely fair to play devil's advocate, and encourage people to think about alternatives, and yes, it's a risk that some will see you as 'pushing' a line. Oh well. That's when you smile and say: just a discussion; just a question. Seriously, it's important that you're not seen to be too emotionally attached to one line of thinking, and you have to value the discussion as a priority. If you have to lose the discussion in class, that's okay: shake your head, shrug, smile, and look forward to the time when you go for sungyup-sal and drinks later, when you perhaps you can really tell them what u think! (Hey gmat, do you reckon it's alright outside of class...? What r your views on that?) Just having brought the topic up and thrown it around may have been enough of a shock for some of the students, so you have to take the value of that with you, and forget that you maybe haven't made converts of them all, just yet ...

I do reckon overtly 'political' topics have awesome potential for getting people talking, especially at higher level classes. And even if they're not contributing actively, you can bet they'll be engaged passively: listening, thinking, processing, soaking up that new vocab. and perhaps considering what to say next time.

Which reminds me, it can be good to start each session with a brief review of the previous session, to see if anyone has heard of or thought anything new on the previous topic. And if you have permission to stick stuff on walls in that room, have a space for that topic where you can put useful vocab for that topic, and then nearby any articles/ paper clippings or other info. related, which you can add to as you or the students find it, and keep reviewing the topic occassionally.

Speaking of topics, it'd be cool to see what people reckon would be good topics for such conversations, given the contexts offered through the current time and place.
eg. suicide esp. for aged,
open discussion and promotion of contraception vs the occurance of widespread and secretive multiple abortions,
gender equality vs confucian ideals,
whale watching vs whale killing...

Any others? Any other experiences people have had already?

[Ya-ta Boy]

[margaret]

I think you could introduce issues from the internet and print material out for them to discuss and then see what issues they seem interested in. You can encourage them to take action on those issues and devote some class time to discussing their plans. This way you're a facilitator but not imposing any particular point of view.
Margaret

[julian_w]

* * * * *

"As I lay awake that morning my thoughts drifted to what we had discussed at the institute the day before. A primary focus of the institute was to lead anti-racism workshops throughout the country. The director expalined that the North American school systems had historically programmed people not to think, not to question authority, not to challenge the status quo - simply to memorise. Such systems obviously reinforce the world view of the dominant European culture and as a result students learn how to maintain rascism, not how to undo it." (pp.121)

[Notes: (pp.258)
"One internationally recognised definition of racism is the assumption that one culture has the right, power and authority to define 'normality'."]

from Healing our History: The Challenge of the Treaty of Waitangi
By Robert and Joanna Consedine; Penguin, Auckland, 2001

* * * * *

Was just doing a spot of light bed-time reading. Second page gives up this. Thort it was pertinent. Cheerio!

[gypsyfish]

What's the class?

Unless it's controversial topics, I'd stay away from them for the reasons mentioned above.

julian's rant reminded me of a teaching demonstration I saw once where the teacher was trying to get the students to answer one way, but they kept answering the opposite. Had the teacher not been trying to get a job, it might have been funny, but when s/he got the 'wrong' answer, it ruined his/her rhytm and s/he never recovered. I suspect most teachers would try to 'teach' their students what the 'right' answer is and that just ain't our jobs.

And I've always hated when teachers talk sex with their students in class. I suspect many (teachers) are mentally beating off while the students talk. (I didn't want to use beating off, but when I tried the polite term masturbating ... well, you see what happened.)

[denverdeath]

Ferryc2,

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with your idea. When I teach adults, I always try to give them a good variety of topics to learn about. If nothing else, you can improve their vocabulary and speaking abilities in the areas you mentioned. I believe our aim in teaching adults is to try and get them to be proficient in speaking about many topics, including environmental ones. You can talk about the "Green Belt" areas in Korea and maybe compare their recycling tecniques to your own country's without having to rant and rave. Maybe you can organize an MT(Mountain/Mihn-bahk/Membership Training) thingy to a nearby mountain and have them pick up the garbage on the way and them get them nice and drunk...most of 'em love that stuff. I also like Julian's idea of a debate. It wouldn't hurt for the students to learn how a Western debate is done. It could be something for them to use if they're ever overseas doing graduate or post-graduate work. PLEASE, PLEASE. PLEASE tell them to put their garbage somewhere other than in front of the foreigner's door.

[the_beaver]

I'll try again: "Integrating social activism into the classroom" (the title of this thread) is fucked up.

Introducing social issues is fine.

[Hollywoodaction]

[julian_w]

the_beaver said:

[john]

Language is politics. Language is culture. You can address the political and cultural aspects overtly as Julian suggests or ignorantly as gmat, beaver, yata boy and Hommer argue.

For example how a person speaks to their best friend or a police officer is different. Why? Power, culture, and politics. Should you teach that? It is up to you; just teach ��How are you? I am fine, thank you�� or teach your students to ��think�� and be aware of the social issues of language.


With introductions:

A: How are you?
B: I am fine, thank you.

The initiator, A, has the power, the authority or license to continue. B can grasp the power and continue the conversation and risk being seen as rude or aggressive. These are choices we make every conversation depending on social aspects of power and culture.

A: How are you?
B: I am fine, thank you. How are you?

When we repeat back the same sentence ��How are you?�� we change the tone or inflection. Why? Because if a person mimics back ��How are you?�� it can be taking as an insult because you as making fun of the way the person is speaking. Also changing tone/inflection signifies that you are independent and have a brain. Try it in class. Have a student say ��How are you?�� and mimic the student��s tone/inflection back.

A: How are you?
B: I am fine, thank you.

With people I know in New York, if we said ��How are you. I am fine thank you.�� There would be a dozen calls to the Patriot Act or Terrorism Hotlines because obviously we were not real New Yorkers.

Gmat, beaver, yata boy and Hommer , if you don��t teach social aspects of power and culture in language . . . to bad. . . You already did . . . you just don��t understand language, culture and power.

[the_beaver]