I humiliated a little kid recently, mistook his innocent curiosity for veiled racism and threw it back at him in spades. It was a warm fall afternoon, the mountainside resplendent in autumn reds and yellows. My family and I had just come down from the peak when the boy pointed in my direction and said [...]
Filed under: hiking, language | Tagged: English, family, hiking, Seoul | Leave a Comment »
The JoongAng headline says it all. Still, not a bad idea considering how much time students sacrifice to learn English grammar in Korean, which doesn’t do much in the way of helping them actually use the language.
Filed under: Asia, Headlines, Korean Society, Seoul, education | Tagged: education, English, Korea, Seoul | Leave a Comment »
As Seoul’s first snow this winter is already turning black, I find myself pondering the quirks of a language I have resolved — again — to learn. I’m essentially at a very rudimentary level of Korean, which allows for basic communication with a lot of umms and ahhs and jerky hand gestures thrown in for [...]
Filed under: Asia, Daily life, Headlines, Korean Society, North Korea, Opinion, Politics, Seoul, media | Tagged: blogs, candle light protests, confucianism, English, internet, Korea, language, media, North Korea, Politics, protests, pyongyang, Seoul, travel | Leave a Comment »
This came out a few days ago in the International Herald Tribune about the growing resentment in India towards the fact that English is more and more becoming a prerequisite for success. As I read it I couldn’t help thinking how much it helped explain Korea’s own ambigious attitude towards English education.
Filed under: Asia, Identity, Korean Society, education | Tagged: education, English, India, Korea | Leave a Comment »
Spending on overseas study dips lowest in 10 years Yonhap Data showing the amount Koreans spend on overseas education has dropped in the last few months has led some to speculate that perhaps the wild enthusiasm to learn English abroad is declining. What’s most intersting is that one of the reasons given for the shift [...]
Filed under: Daily life, Environment, Headlines, Korean Society, Politics, media, sports | Tagged: education, English, Environment, media, olympics | Leave a Comment »
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