This is the page for:

(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.)

Book Club!

I received a message from a student about a new club she wants to start within the Department of English Language & Culture — though I imagine she wouldn’t mind students from other departments joining too! Here’s the information:Hi. This is Seoyeon Kim, a student in the Department of English Language & Culture at CUK.I’m about to start a Book Club.My idea is that if we read and discuss books in English, it will help us  to improve our English — our reading comprehension and writing abilities, of course, but also our conversational and public speaking skills.The idea is this: We will choose English books and then read them at home; then we will meet and discuss each book together, one by one, regularly. It’s a great, fun way to keep challenging ourselves and developing our English!If you have any questions or are interesting in joining us, then please contact me either by email or telephone:email: llaimll@naver.com(You can copy the link and use in your webmail; or if you click the link and open in your email program, this will create an email with a message already written. You can add to it, or delete a part of it if you want.)phone: 010 9514 7409

Feedback Poll for Superheroes Discussion

Here is the Feedback form for the last panel discussion.I’ll be posting a feedback poll for the MP3 lecture later today. Please fill it out honestly — it won’t affect your grade — as it will help me make my classes better in the future.

Feedback Poll for Beats/Hippies Panel Discussion

Here’s the feedback poll for the panel discussion of the Beats and Hippies from today.

Feedback Poll for Panel Discussion #3: SF as a Foreign Language AND Lecture #3 — “The Beats and the Hippies” (plus reading materials)

Here is the poll for the most recent panel discussion. Click on the link to provide feedback. Remember, providing feedback is a form of class participation and will reflect positively on your grade!

Here is the(partial) MP3 lecture #3 — “The Beats and the Hippies.” I could have talked about more, such as the role the Beats and Hippies played in the growth of the environmental movement, the Hippies and the Vietnam War protest movement (and the Woodstock Music Festival), and religious ideas explored by the Beats and their relationship to American religion. However, I wanted to stay focused on the connections between these movements, and their specifically youth-culture elements.

Here’s are some links to videos of Ginsberg reading his poems “America” and “Howl” (part 1 | part 2 | part 3), both of which are included in your readings pack.

In addition, feel free to check out Jack Kerouac reading from his novel On the Road, this conversation between Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, and William S. Burroughs reading from Junkie, his novel about drug addicts in New York City.

I encourage you to read more on your own about the issues I didn’t touch upon. However, I will direct your attention to the following texts specifically, which will be of use for class discussion:

Optional Readings:

Stuck in an Elevator

Here’s the Youtube video I mentioned about the guy stuck in an elevator:

… and here is the great article on elevators. Short, wonderfully written, worth reading!