I am completing my Fulbright Grant year as an English Teaching Assistant in South Korea. In this role, I teach conversational English to students and hold teachers’ workshops at Gwangyang High School, an all-boy’s school. Upon my arrival, I was quickly able to adjust to the school environment, feeling integrated with the other teachers and comfortable with the students. I applied specifically to Fulbright Korea because I wanted to gain greater insight into the country’s recent economic success and add diversity to my international experiences by immersing myself in an Asian culture with which I was not yet familiar.
I teach 16 classes a week. Each of these classes contains 32 to 40 students, which allows me to engage with over 500 students per week. Getting to know so many students is challenging, but I make a point of finding the time to interact individually with each of them. During my classes, I cover the listening and speaking sections of the students’ English textbook. I then supplement these sections with my own lessons that complement and expand upon the information conveyed by the book. The students’ English abilities vary widely. With this in mind, I tailor activities to each class environment to engage the weaker students while still challenging the strongest students. I also play a large part in designing the students’ English mid-term and final exams. In this role, I work with the other teachers and carefully write and review questions to accurately represent what the students are learning in class.
In addition to my classes for students, I also run three teachers’ workshops per week, two for teachers in the English Department and one for teachers in other departments. I have been very well accepted by the other...
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...rsuit, I now understand Korean culture on a deeper level. For the culmination of my research I am writing a paper of my findings and observations.
Along with working on my project, I have also been learning Korean. I meet weekly with a Korean language partner for language exchange and attend an open Korean class. Also, as I live with a Korean home stay family, it has been important to me to make a long-lasting relationship with them that will continue to endure beyond my grant year. Through our meaningful daily interactions, using both Korean and English to communicate, my host family and I have developed a deep personal connection and have gained invaluable insights into each other’s cultures and lives. For the duration of my grant year, I will continue learning about Korea through my project, language study, and daily interactions with my home stay and school.
She clearly and logically illustrates her point of view. She writes, “cultural differences are assumed and expected. But when the cultures of individuals are under scrutiny, it becomes clear that cultural borders do not hold their dividing power.” (98) Combined with her ability to logically expound on her view of cultural borders, she uses several anecdotes to further her point. She identifies four individuals who exemplify multiculturalism. Each of these examples share a Korean heritage but have adopted many other cultural markers from additional sources including non-Korean parents, U.S. society, immigration, and through adoption. Chang poses the question, “Would it be possible for one to become culturally more Korean in the morning, German for lunch, ‘American’ in the afternoon, and back to Korean in the evening? In her conclusion and in answer to that question she states, “Once different standards are embraced by individuals, the differences are incorporated into their individual cultures…the cultural differences are reframed into multiculturalism.”
Students will get into groups and will take turns reading paragraphs of the text. This will enable them to adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (Language standards 1,3 for 9-10th grade ELA)
Koreans are the third largest and fastest growing minority populations in the United States. They are mainly middle to upper middle class, well-educated individuals who are strongly defined by their native culture. This population is defined by three groups: first generation- which are people born in Korea to Korean parents, who have immigrated and reside in the United States, and are either American citizens or have obtained permanent status. A very small part of this population is made up of college-age young adults who have student visas who may or may not have established family or social support. The second generation is comprised of individuals born in the United States to first generation Korean parents. There is a third group, who are individuals who have been in the United ...
We need to adapt vocabulary and consider how we interact positively with pupils as we listen and respond them.
As a multi-cultural Japanese and Chinese individual and an international student at MSU, I have had many experiences that enhanced my personal cultural awareness. Michigan State University embraces students with different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities. Here I am able to participate various events with people carrying different life stories. For example, I have worked as an intern with refugees in the Emergency Management Office of East Lansing via the MSU Global Internship Program. I volunteered in the Red Cedar International Elementary School for their “One world, many stories” program with families and children from more than 16 countries. I also conducted a survey titled “Family Resources for MSU international parents” supported by the MSU Family Resource Center. In addition, I advocated for international children living in Spartan Village so they could get a playroom. These experiences with a variety of cultures have made me a more caring and open person.
In the fall of 2010, part of my teaching assignment was to teach a grade 12 English course to a group of twenty-five adults, between the ages of ...
Tchudi, Susan J, and Stephen Tchudi. The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999. Print.
Secondly, Korean has a directivity of harmony. In Korea, family is top priority, so loving family is considered very important. For instance, my father was a soldier, and we moved the house continuously because of his job’s characteristic. So, he retired from his job because he thought that moving the house continuously was not good for family and our education. My father always treats family as a top priority. Koreans also try to join other groups well and have excellent spirit of community. There are some examples. People who are involved in any club feel they belonged, and it makes people have more confidence. So they try to join groups. Another example is that Koreans who move into new house give rice-cake to the neighborhood because they have spirit of community. Due to these reasons, Koreans rely on each other sincerely.
My primary culture is Korean. Korean perspective is similar as those countries in East Asia, centered in Chinese Confucian tradition and family centered culture. Koreans value high context communication, indirectness, low profile, relationship first, and interdependence.
As a teacher it is important to make sure that every student has an equal opportunity to learn and succeed. No student should be left behind and failing the class, especially when it is because of the teacher’s lack of effort not the student’s. The teacher should get to know each of their students on a personal and academic level, because this will help them to better understand the students’ backgrounds and knowledge of subject material. It is very important that ELL students feel comfortable and safe in their class and around their teacher. When working with ELL students, it should be a mandatory task for the teacher to learn all that they can about the students in greater detail. This relationship is an important step in helping ELL students succeed in a classroom with a majority of general education students who already speak English fluently, because the teacher is able to teach the student and class more effectively.
I built upon my cross-cultural experiences as I befriended exchange students from Belgium, Japan, and Korea. Each time, the friendships enriched my appreciation and understanding of not only my own culture, but the very concept of culture. What falls under the cultural blanket can vary from person to person, and I found it to be very interesting that while one person could claim lan...
Huer, Jon. Korea at Margin of World Culture? 26 July 2009. 19 Febuary 2010 .
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.
Another concern that some students might have is communication. Some students might not need to have a teacher in front of them and teach the course material to them, to whereas some students might need the te...
Overcoming cultural borders put pressure on me when I first came to America as a ninth grader. Because cultural diversity is an essential part of the society, I want to embrace the difference by keeping the balance between Chinese and American culture. It requires active learning and long-time practice for me to cope with cultural shock and to adapt myself into a new environment. Although the transition can be both exciting and overwhelming, it helps me to have more effective communications because of my exposure to both high context and low context culture.