Although I recently watcher (with NCTA) Parasite and Mountains May Depart, I found it difficult to find anything I could directly use in my classroom.

However, in watching Crash Landing on You (I am on episode 4 as I type this) there is definitely a part at the beginning of episode 2 that I hope to use in class (if we are back face to face)!  The scenes I am looking at using could be used in the beginning of the year as one learns to understand a new culture or during the East Asia unit (both of these ideas in my World Regional Geography course for 9th10th graders) to include in the discussion the differences between North and South Korea. 

The scenes are at the beginning of the episode when the four soldier friends find out about Se-ri and when she talks to them. And then the next scene is when they are outside and introducing her to the food process, that kim-chi cellar etc. From both perspectives (there is some humor) but also an understanding that two countries who at one point shared a history are today so different. Se-ri from South Korea knew far less about life in North Korea than the North Koreans knew about South Korea (enter the South Korean K-dramas)! Again, while I found these two scenes quite humourous there are definitely some lessons to be learned here for the students to understand. I will have to reference this scene again a few times from other episodes (the neighborhood ladies invite Se-ri to a Kim-chi competition and she starts she doesn't like Kim-chi, the continued discussions about the K-drama and the reality of it in addition to Se-ri bribing the solder with a dinner with the lead actress). These are all ideas I can share with the students while trying to get the gain perspectives.  We talk regularly about stereotypes and generalizations as we learn about cultures around the world -beginning with the viewing of The Danger of a Single Story (Ted Talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en )

Seeing this for the first time has really opened my eyes to the dichotomy between North and South Koreas. The movie did an excellent job in contrasting the culture and social structure of the two Koreas, which effect the different use of the Korea language.

 I could use this movie to have a discussion about how language evolved under different environments such as when Yoon Seri speaks, people in the village could tell that she is from the South. That is a good example of how after a long period of separation, the same language evolved based on the local social construct and outer influence, which in case the lack thereof.  As a result,  dialects and various accents of the language emerged at various places.  I, as someone who does not speak Korea, could not really tell the difference.  But apparently, the difference was obvious enough to  make Yoon Seri stand out and experience difficulty in trying to fit in socially in the beginning of the movie.  My ENL students could identify with this experience of coming to the U.S. and speaking a  different kind of “English”, whether they are Nigerian or British influenced.   It is equally important for native speakers to seek to understand the kind of environments they came from that shaped them.  

Another aspect in the movie  I could use in my lesson is about word choices. At about the third and fourth episode, Yoon Seri began to learn the ways the ladies in the village communicate with each other, formal and flattery. Their communications reflect the kind of society they are in,  revolving around the community and paying utmost respect to those in higher positions.  At one social gathering, Seri taught the ladies some words that had never been heard, in particular some swear words that would probably have never been taught and allowed openly in the North Korea society, so as other slang that are popular in South Korea due to the influence and exsitence of the Pop Culture there. Comparing that to using "biscuit" in British Engliash as opposed to "cookie" in American English, word choices reveals culture and background expereince. Therefore, we should pay attention whenit comes to choosing the appropriate vocabulary words to use in different settings, including our speaking and writing assignments.

I, too, have been considering some of the language scenes. There are so many different scenes of the language between the north and south. One of the questions I have though....I have heard that the language is much more significantly different than being portrayed here; to the degree where there is some challenges in communicating. Have you heard that?

Any thoughts on the 4-part series on Amazon Prime - Inside North Korea's Dynasty, produced by National Geographic? I have watched the 4th episode with students and like some of the others - PBS and the previous Nat Geo Inside North Korea with Lisa Ling.....there appear to be some really valuable parts, but also few scenes a little sensationalize. What do you think?

Great take on it!  I saw that part of Episode 2 as helpful for APHG too!  I especially appreciated the one who watches the K-dramas 'translating' between them as helpful for how the Language Families branch off into different groups.

I finished Crash Landing last night and will say I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm not sure how I would use it with students. I teach Middle School and it's totally appropriate for the age, but I teach Medieval World and early US History, so it's not appropriate to my curriculum.  I do usually allow 8th graders to come to my room for movie lunches, where we watch "Jamestown," "Turn," and "Mercy Street," but I think this could be more challenging because of the subtitles.  But when I teach about the past, I always connect it to the present, so I think I could show scenes from North and South to show the modern contrasts to give modern context to the past.

What I liked about the show besides the story line was seeing the contrasts between North and South Korea, but even more I appreciated the humanization of North Koreans as regular people, even though the situation they live in is bizarre.  There are definitely some cheesy aspects, especially some of the weird special effects, and some soap-opera-typical impossible aspects that were over the top. There was a fair balance of humor, drama, and suspense, but the episodes are ridiculously long and have strange organization and pacing. My husband found it confusing the way it jumps around in time, but I like how it goes back to show things from a different perspective, or give more background on something that happened previously.  I especially like the different perspectives that come from the additional characters- the guys that work under Ri, and the women of the village.

Crash Landing was fun, but I think I'm going to try some of the other films also.