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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Homework for March 26th

Well, March 24th is Easter Monday, so we won’t have classes. But you do have some homework!

On March 17th/19th, we discussed this handout:

The Christmas Declaration (complete PDF)

In your groups, you chose another social group (of which nobody in the group is currently a member) and discussed their problems and issues. Your homework, for March 26th, is to produce a written “Declaration” similar to the above for the social group you chose. You will also present your issues and your solutions to the class on March 26th. Your group will have five minutes of classtime to share your complaints and demands.

We will vote on the best presentation and bonus grade points will be awarded to the most outstanding group or speaker. Also, since you will be working in a group, you will be grading your groupmates in terms of their contribution to the project.

Read this paper (for March 25th)

Hi everyone. I said I would post something here for you to prepare for next week. Your homework is to read this paper and think about it for our next class:

The Christmas Declaration (PDF)

Make sure you look up any vocabulary that you don’t understand before class, and that you generally understand the paper. And yes, it is strange, I know!

Stranger in the Village

I mentioned that I would update by adding some reading that I’ll be expecting you to do for the first Discussion Panel. I’m going to announce the date of the panel on March 20th, but anyway, it’s a good idea to start reading the essay now. It’s called Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin. The essay is available online, here.

The first discussion panel will be on the Archetype of “The Other,” and will range from Baldwin’s essay to the movie we’ll soon be watching (Spike Lee’s Bamboozled) as well as my own upcoming lecture on the tradition of Blackface Minstrelsy in the 19th and 20th century. (Though other tangents — such as the depiction of “The Other” in Korean movies, for example, are also possible.)

Anyway, make sure you read Baldwin’s essay a few times so that you have enough of a handle on it to discuss, ask questions, and compare Baldwin’s experience of being “the Other” to the depiction of “the Other” in media.

UPDATED: Essay(s) to Read for Critique, Week 3

Hi there. I’ve only received one of the two essays for our Wednesday evening critique session, but that’s okay: we’ll probably only have time for one essay anyway, after I explain how we will conduct workshop critiques. But next time, Ji Hyun, you must submit your essay for discussion.

It turns out I received both essays, and misplaced one email. Apologies to Ji Hyun, who indeed did submit her essay in time. I must be losing my memory or something!

Anyway, here’s this week’s essays:

Essay #1 for Workshop Critique, Week 3 (PDF format)

Essay #2 for Workshop Critique, Week 3 (PDF format)

Make sure that you have printed and read both essays a few times, and marked things you would like to comment about. Look out for both positive and negative things, and feel free to write down questions or areas where you think the writers could improve. We’ll be discussing this essay this coming Wednesday, March 19th.

Also, here’s an old handout I used to give students regarding the Mind Map/Idea Bubbles exercise we discussed on Wednesday. If you’re interested, feel free to download it. I expect you will include one completed mind map with your other homework on Monday!

Homework for March 12th

This update is a little late, but for anyone checking, your homework for March 12th is to think of some questions you’d like to ask me. Since you’ve gotten to know one another a little better, it’s time you know more about me… and that I learn more about you!

Genre & Archetypes Lecture, Lost Handout (For Season 1, Episode 8)

Here are two things from today’s class:

Make sure you’ve read and figured out who is who, as well as what you think the different archetype names mean, by Thursday, March 13th. We’ll be watching Lost (Season 1, Episode 8: “The Confidence Man”) in class with English subtitles, and your (and your partner’s) written analysis of the episode will be due at our following class, March 18th, which we’ll discuss in class prior to my making a presentation of a Genre & Archetype analysis for the film 괴물.

Homework for March 17th

Here’s the homework I assigned for March 17th:

  1. Complete another Free Writing exercise using free word-association, like we did with “bikini-beach-sun-energy-diet-vacation”, cross out the boring parts of your free writing, and fill out the back of the Free writing exercise sheet. If you need to download a new sheet, you can find it here.
  2. If you now have a topic you like, then you can work on a topic sentence. (Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about how to write a good one soon, but go ahead and try one out for now.)
  3. If you have a topic and a topic sentence, write a word list of ideas or words you think you’ll need to use in English to discuss this topic. If you don’t know the English word for a concept or thing, then write the word in your first language, and you can pay attention in your research to see which word is used by the experts. (ie. a dictionary won’t tell you which translation is the right one, so pay attention in your English-language research.)
  4. If you have all of these, make a trip to the library and pick up some sources related to your topic. I recommend at least 60% journal articles, and the rest should be good sources. (ie. Newer books by experts, as opposed to old books or books by non-experts.) You don’t need to bring those books to class, just make sure you have them and start reading them for your essay research!

I’ll be assigning some new homework tomorrow (on March 12th) so make sure you’re getting this stuff done! The worst thing to do is to fall behind!

Handouts from March 10th

Here are the handouts I will be distributing in class today, in PDF format:

On Plagiarism (English version)

On Plagiarism (Korean translation)

This is a very important and serious subject, so if you have any related questions or uncertainties, either now or at any point later on, make sure to ask and we can talk about it.

And finally, here is a PDF of the Free Writing Worksheet. Feel free to copy it and use it whenever you are starting a new writing project:

Freewriting worksheet handout

Questions?

Well, today we had a cocktail-free cocktail party, and you met a lot of your classmates. I’ll be going through the information sheets and homework you gave me during the week.

Your homework for Wednesday morning is to think of a few questions that you would like to ask me. I won’t necessarily answer all of your questions — I do believe in privacy, after all — but I will be paying attention to who speaks up in class. Anyway, Wednesday morning is a chance for you to get to know a little more about me. We’ll start in on the harder stuff next week!

Homework for Next Week

Hi all,

Next week (week 2, the 11th and 13th of March), we’ll be discussing and defining the notion of “Popular Culture” and I’m going to give you a lecture and presentation on two examples of the role of genre and character-archetypes in popular culture using two examples — one Korean and the other American. The media I’ll be discussing are the following:

  1. The Korean monster movie 괴물
  2. The American TV-drama Lost

If you are familiar with this movie and this TV show, then maybe spend some time thinking about the different characters and their relationships, as well as about which genre (or genres) each of these programs fits into. If you haven’t seen these programs, it would be worth your time to rent and watch 괴물 and to try get a chance to watch at least the first episode of Season 1 of Lost. (We will probably watch a totally different episode, but knowing the characters and the scenario is helpful for understanding my lecture on the topic!)

See you next week!

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