Home › Forums › Core Seminars › Rise of East Asia, Fall 2017 › final essays for the rise of east asia seminar
Hi Folks,
Please post your final essays (reflecting on what sticks with you from the seminar, in terms of knowledge, attitude, or approach) in this thread.
Please just hit reply. For your subject line, you could use a title or the equivalent of "Clay Dube's final essay" (substituting your name for mine.
A reminder -- for your website and film reviews, please use the title of the site or the film as your subject line. If someone else has written on the same film, please post your review as a reply to that one. It helps to keep them them all together so that readers can get different impressions of the film or site.
If you misnamed your review or misplaced it (remember, film reviews go in the Film Festival forum and website reviews in the Web Resources forum), please go in an change the subject line and place your review in the proper place. After you've copied and pasted it in the right place, please delete your misplaced review.
Approved lesson plans should be posted to the Lesson Plans forum. Also - send your not yet approved lesson plans as attachments to [email protected].
Thanks!
clay
Seminar Reflection
I have thoroughly enjoyed and gained a greater understanding of East Asia through the content and information from this course. I have always approached learning as something to be done for life. As an educator, I have realized, learning is never done. There are always new things to learn, but there are also new ways of approaching older understandings with new attitudes and new approaches. For me, and for my teaching, this is where much of the application of the information from this course really will be put to use. I have really appreciated the different perspectives, approaches and teaching styles offered by the different professors and speakers during our time together. I have definitely learned a great deal of new details, stories and inside information on Japan, the Koreas and China. Having taught high school World History and U.S. History for almost 20 years, the shell of all this history has been there, but to hear the detailed accounts, different perspectives and new research from professors speaking from their field of expertise has been a phenomenal experience for me.
After teaching a subject over and over for so long, you can lose perspective or think you have it all down, but this course has shown me otherwise, especially in the arena of teaching Asian history. My personal knowledge has increased, as I have not heard lectures on the subjects we covered since my university days, but really, the application for me and for my students will be on a more focused and more refined approach to teaching about East Asia. This will occur in depth of knowledge but also just in the use of the documents we have used, powerpoints and ideas I have picked up. Professor Kurashige’s talks on anti-Asian sentiment and his research and writings on this in regards to California and U.S. history really stands out as material that I have already discussed and used in my classes, terrific materials that really made me think and consider some of my own approach on the same subject.
I have already used some of the strategies and ideas from the speakers we have had, and I will use more. The scholarship and quality of speakers and information has been terrific, so I will be applying much of what I saw and learned for a while. As a side note, one area I have found immediate application, multiple times, is in pronunciation. Hearing proper Korean pronouncements, proper Japanese names and proper Chinese pronunciation while reading the words or names has been terrific for me, especially with my Asian students in my classes.
This leads me to an observation to the before and after for what this course is all about, to help teachers teach about East Asia and what our job is about. I have realized much of the weaknesses in my own teaching depth on East Asia but also the holes lack of depth even in state curriculum on East Asia. We can do better, especially here in California, I know I will and I will be using many of the resources and information I learned in this course immediately.
A thank you to Clay Dube and his organization and presentations as well as for Prof Jung-Kim, Prof Yamashita and Prof Kurashige. Terrific information and presentations that will be used and passed on.
I shall totally thank my colleague who recommended me to attend this program. Our school site locates right in the center of the downtown LA where has Little Tokyo and Chinatown nearby. Even though 100% of our Mandarin students are Hispanic, they, somehow, were exposed to certain aspects of Asian cultures before they took the Mandarin courses. However, I always felt that I could help them to understand and appreciate more about the Asian culture. This program definitely gave me more detailed and organized information about East Asia which I can take back to my classroom.
Finding Connections:
Embracing Differences:
At the beginning I thought this seminar was more suitable for Social Studies teachers. After 2 months of the seminar, I felt there are so much I can take home to my students. I will definitely recommend this seminar to my colleague.
I loved learning more about Japan, Korea, and China. Before this class, most of my knowledge of these nations and their history was strictly confined to their involvement with the United States. I have always had a cultural interest in feudal Japanese culture and because of my exposure to anime I had a little bit more knowledge about their culture than the other East Asian nations that were covered.
One of the things that I really appreciated was the diversity of all the professors and presenters who shared their various fields of expertise. After all this time, I can still recollect little moments from each presenter’s lecture that stood out. Off-hand, I still remember how shocked I was at Japan’s size when it was put in context in session one. I remember that the Tokugawa Order made people register their vendettas. After learning that people in Korea enjoy eating salads for breakfast, I seriously began eating more salads in the late morning.
Overall, I loved at how many things in East Asian history and contemporary society are paralleled by the historically events that I was already familiar with from U.S. history. During many points in the lectures I was able to connect things that I was previously unfamiliar with. Despite the differences in the cultures among East Asia and the differences between those nations and the U.S. there is so much universality that can be found. It really helped put current events in perspective. From South Korea’s emergence as cultural and economic force, China’s commitment to becoming an international superpower, and Japan’s response to defeat after the World War II, all these nations and their history have brought me a better understanding of their culture and ambition.
Thanks to all lecturers and professor for the interesting seminars on Rise of East Asia since 1800. I’ve gained some knowledge of Japan and Korea and have deeper understanding of China. I’d like to teach Chinese language to high school or community college students and would certainly incorporate the seminar topics and content in my future teaching.
Teaching language through films is an effective method to engage students because they find films interesting. The lecturers have played films throughout the semester, of which I may show some to my students, particularly the documentaries reflecting certain historical events. I would use the documentaries to show historical events and teach Chinese history. Students will have debates on their views on issues presented in the films. Students would understand more of Chinese literature with background knowledge of Chinese history and historical events. The lecturers also introduced Chinese writers and literary works through movies. I’d love to use movies to teach Chinese literature and cultures. I would ask students to compare movies with novels and articulate the similarities and differences between the two. Students will be encouraged to give presentations by role playing the characters in a movie or telling a story with their comments.
For example, I would teach Lu Xun’s short story, THE NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE, through the movie. I would first introduce the author and historical background of the story, and then ask students to read the story, and show them the movie highlighting some clips. Students would learn Chinese languages and new words from the texts. They’ll also understand more of the characters, settings, plot through the movie. Students will be divided into groups to discuss questions and issues relevant to the story and movie. They will choose to play a drama based on the story or give a presentation on the discussion questions. The content of the story is rich and dense. It would be much easier for students to grasp concepts and ideas from movies with vivid images.
I enjoyed taking this class and have learned a lot about the history of Asia. I am grateful for this experience and have told other colleagues about this wonderful opportunity. This class really opened up my mind in terms of culture, traditions, and history in Asia. I have traveled to Europe and many parts of the United Kingdom and cannot wait to travel to Asia.
Some of the concepts that were taught are just way above where my students are cognitively. A lot what I learned will need to modify and differentiated in order to teach my students. We just came back from Thanksgiving vacation and will be busy the next 3 weeks with Christmas shows and testing. When we return in January 2018 I plan on doing a lot of work around Asia with my kindergarten and 1st graders. We will learn about Confucianism. This concept might be difficult for 5 and 6 year olds so I would need to create a craft as well to go with this potential lesson such as a drawing a picture of Confucius. I can just lightly address the topic by saying the Confucius was a teacher and had very strict ideas of how people should act and behave. Chinese New Year is also coming up and I can teach my students about the 12 animals and their characteristics. I can also explain how 1/6 of the world celebrate Chinese New Year and is the longest public holiday. Most workers get 7-12 days off and celebrate with family. My students will enjoy this because and we can make crafts such as dragons, lanterns, and animals.
Through this seminar, I have definitely walked away with a much deeper understanding of East Asia. I was originally interested in this course because of my personal love for Japan. It is one of my favorite places I have traveled to and I have had many conversations with students who are deeply interested in Japanese and Korean culture. While many of my students are obsessed with anime and K-pop, they have expressed that they don’t think they will ever have the chance to go to these countries. They were always excited to see pictures and hear stories about my travels. My desire to leverage these interests in my classroom was one of the driving forces behind why I was interested in this course. However, my initial attitude was that incorporating these cultures would have to be its own separate unit. My perspective has shifted because I see now how much overlap there is in the literature I already teach with the Asian literature I have been exploring. Now that I have more knowledge on each of the countries we learned about, I feel more apt to include texts from them.
One of the ways I will incorporate my learnings from this course into my classroom is through literature and film. Prior to the course, I was not familiar with many of the Asian directors or writers that I am now aware of, nor had I explored the web for resources. Through the film and website review, I gained an interest in watching and reading more works from Asia. I ended up finding lots of extremely useful websites for Asian literature, and I hadn’t realized that many of the American and British literary movements line up with Chinese and Japanese movements. The course inspired me to read Haruki Murakami and Xiao Hong for the first time and I was thrilled to find that many of the concepts of specific literary periods that I teach are demonstrated perfectly in their works. Now, I can incorporate more cultures into my curriculum.
The Rise of East Asia in My Classroom
Fortunately, for me, I have had exposure to some East Asian cultures in my work life. Early in my life, I worked for a textiles company that was owned by a man who immigrated from South Korea, and about 80% of the office employees were South Korean. Later, when I was going to college, I worked at Daiso, a type of Japanese 99 cent store, where about 70% of the employees were of either Japanese or South Korean descent. This is an experience that not many people from my neck of the woods, North Long Beach, get. This is also not an experience many of my students, from South Gate, get. From participating in this seminar I’ve come gain a better understanding of just how valuable these experiences were and are.
We are living in a global society, where borders are only a thing for government officials. The people want to, and are now more able to, move freely about the world. This is especially true of East Asian peoples. The United States and California, specifically, is witnessing an influx of immigration from these countries, and whether my students recognize it or not, this will impact their future.
Through this seminar I learned many important aspects of East Asian history and how it’s history has shaped its current rising position, China, in particular. One of the aspects of East Asian history I will definitely be touching on is that of China’s changing ruling entities. China has not always been ruled by the Communist party, but its previous regimes helped bring it to this current system. One way I would like to help students understand China’s varied past is by using the Encounters activity. I would assign groups of students’ different periods of China’s long history and different ranks within that society, I would have them explain what their life was like under that particular period and regime. With this, students could begin to see the conditions that help create the China of today. This is definitely just a rough idea, but the seminar has definitely provided me with resources to create a lesson like this.
In closing, it is very important that my students begin to understand how connected the entire world is, the world doesn’t stop at the South Gate city limits, and through this seminar, I learned that happenings in East Asia should be of particular interest to them. I also learned how to make East Asian happenings interesting to them.
When I sign-up for the this seminar I was looking for a class that would help me learn more about the history that I need to teach every year. In teaching seventh grade history, the standards require that I teach about China and Japan. I have struggled with all of the subjects to bring each unit to life and help my students connect to different countries and their history. I always want to go further than the book. I am very glad I sign-up for this class.
This class gave me so much information. Each session was so rich in history, historical figures, maps, political cartoons, pictures, and even playing cards. There were so many strategies and ideas each day I felt a little overwhelmed. I especially enjoyed having different teachers who were experts in their fields. I wish that I could have some experts in my class to allow my students to hear a different voice and gain from their experiences with those experts.
There are a few things that I learned about that I would like to incorporate into my lessons. I need to use more maps and I especially like the overlay of China’s map over the US so students get an idea of the size of China. I also liked how it showed where most people lived. I would like to use that to discuss why people lived where they do.
Also, I would like to do more research on the Tokugawa Order 1600-1700. This sessions was the closes to the era that I teach and it was very interesting to me. I want to incorporate some of the readings and have my students do some research on the order.
I especially like the propaganda cards and getting the students to do their own research on that card. I haven’t figured out what I can do that can be similar for my time period in history but I am now looking for cards, websites, anything that I can give these individual assignments.
Thank you for this class and I look forward to signing up in the spring for the first part because that is the part of history that I teach.
The Rise of East Asia seminar has been a very educational and eye opening experience for me. I thought I knew things about Asia, well I was wrong. As I attended the sessions, I soon realized that I really did not know as much as I think I did. Each session that I attended, was another opportunity more for me to deepen my knowledge for our areas of study. I looked forward to attending the sessions. The presenters that gave the lectures were outstanding. I found them to be oustanding. They were very engaging, informative, and they were very knowledgeable. I really appreciated them presenting to us, it made me want to hear more and learn more. I have shared some of the information with my students, my husband and son. From all the sessions that I attended, the one thing that really stuck with me was the Korean comfort women. I did not know that this horrible act ever took place, and I was taken aback by this. Another thing that I enjoyed was studying the Chinese propaganda cards and posters. This was something that I found fun to do. All in all, I found this seminar to be a great experience. In having the presenters, the information, learning materials, and the organizers, I believe that all of these things deepened my knowlegde of East Asia.
First, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dube, Catherine, Venus, and the professors, authors, and professionals I had the pleasure to learn from during these weeks. I extend my sincerest thanks.
I was very excited to attend the first class with Prof. Dube. I was not sure what to expect? Some of my thoughts were: How will I able to keep pace? I know very little about East Asian history. I don’t speak Chinese. I have only visited one East Asian country. As it turns out, my hesitations were not necessary. I was in this class to learn about East Asian history, not only facts but, as it turned out, history as told by many perspectives, perspectives that changed depending on the players telling the story. I leave this class with the realization how little I knew on September 9th, how much I learned by October 30th, and how many more questions I have right now. One of my professors once told me that the more we know, the more we realize how little we know, and how much more there is to find out. This rings true to me as I reflect on this wonderful opportunity I had the privilege to take advantage of. I learned many, many valuable lessons.
One of the most important lessons I learned is that “History changes, the past does not change.” as Prof. Dube so powerfully explained. This is a testimonial I will take back into my classroom as it relates to all my lessons in IB. We always ask “Why? How do I know?” and I feel these questions relate to the statement. I feel strongly about teaching my students to ask questions, lots of questions, and not to be afraid to do so. As Prof. Dube asked: “What changes our perception of the past?” What changes from the past? It is the perception of it. The factors changing our perception are new data, new people asking about it, and new questions. This is one of the most important lessons I will bring into my classroom. I will encourage my first-graders today to become the ones asking these questions about history tomorrow.
Another great lesson I learned was the importance of bringing East Asian history into my classroom and my IB units. I will incorporate a fact or a mini-lesson about this culture-rich corner of the world into my teaching daily.
This class has been extremely valuable to me. I will recommend it to my peers, and I will expose my students to the lessons I learned and I will implement many of the teaching strategies presented throughout the seminar.
Over this past two month (12 secessions) seminar learning about the Rise of Asia, I have been able to learn a lot about the Asian history and cultures, and got many ideas for my own teaching. Also, The readings from the seminar are very-thought provoking, and the writings of reflection on what we read and talked make me think deeply about how I can use them into my class.
I am a Mandarin teacher, and I plan to use the knowledge I learned into my classes to make my lessons be more interesting. I believe teaching Asian culture and history can help my students understand Asian and Chinese culture better in order to learn the language better. For example, I will talk about Chinese tea, Beijing Opera, Chinese characters, and Chinese Hukou System in my class. We will watch videos, and students will do research about the topics as well. They will talk and share ideas in small groups to reflect their understanding. Doing this could help my students view Asia and China from different point of view.
Also, I learned that watching a film is a good idea to teach the language and the culture. Students will be able to hear the authentic language from the film. By listening to the music and seeing the visuals students can learn different Chinese lives at the time. From viewing the scenes, they will be able to see the Chinese architectures, communities, Chinese dresses. Then they can use scenes analysis framework to explore why the director chose the setting, camera angles, lighting, and music and what choices do they create the scene’s tone. Additional, students will reflect on the scene individually and in groups, and they will create their own scene and present it to the rest of the class.
I have valued the personable exchanges of thoughts from the online forum posting during the seminar. I appreciate and want to say thank you to the people who are involved. Thank you to our professors and USC friends, without your hard work, we wont have this opportunity to learn the East Asian culture and history which it is beneficial to our students.
Some of the most important countries developing technology today include the three East Asian countries Japan, China, and South Korea. A great number of inventions and technological discoveries has their origins from these legendary and amazing cultures.
As we all know, in the last decades China has been developing technology in a great variety of fields, such as worldwide communications systems. Japan has been developing the efficiency, durability, and speed to create the state of the art solid circuit devices, just few years after the end of the WWII. South Korea has been competing with a diverse development on technology since the last 50 years.
The reason of the actual development of these three countries is not a coincidence. Reviewing their story and political and social events that happened in the past are directly connected with the development of these area of the world.
I noticed that my students are easily engaged with the topic of technology, if they can see effects and results in their daily life. A simple example is the millenary invention from China, the compass, contribute to my class as a nice introduction of the existence and use of the magnetic fields.
The knowledge acquired in this seminar will provide me with tools to explain and connect in a better way the development of technology along the history and how they are related with social and political events such as the development of weapons after China invented the gunpowder, the contributions to the world welfare from Japan and their development in robotics and cybernetics that consist in several areas of the Physics applied to the needs of the society, the actual contribution of Korea to the automobile industry around the world.
Technology development will give me the opportunity to expose to new generations the importance of the East Asia countries applying basic Physics concepts to discover, create and improve science at service of the humanity.
The seminar has given me a wealth of resources and knowledge that I would hope to use in my class. But to be honest, it is going to be really hard for me to incorporate all the things I have learned. Countries in East Asia are not mentioned in 10th grade World History as often as European nations, so I feel that I would be limited on time. I would like to incorporate the influences of imperialism on East Asian countries, Japan's colonization of Korea and invasion of China, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. These events will be easy for me to supplement my lessons with the readings from the seminar. I want to try and use the reading, "Manchu Rule and Hair" as a hook to get the students interested. I will try and relate that story to their own experiences of being controlled by others and/or institutions. I want students to understand how tumultuous the history of China was and the effects it had on the on its own people. Millions of Chinese citizens died needlessly due to constant wars with foreign countries and by senseless reforms. By scaffolding these lessons, I can provide students with a different perspective of East Asian countries. In many textbooks, Asians are either portrayed as weak and meek or as savages or violent. By utilizing certain readings, my students would be able to see history in the eyes of the ignored. I want them to form their own opinions about events in history from different sources and not mindlessly believe in just their history book.
The Rise of East Asia: East Asia Since 1800 has been very informative and education for my perspective as an educator that wants to create global learners. I plan to incorporate my learning, resources, and findings into my teaching frequently. Many of the topics addressed will be beneficial to students in assisting in the development their growth and worldviews mindset. As I reflect I continue to come up with more ideas in terms of incorporating what I have experienced.
I plan to incorporate East Asia into my teaching in multiple ways. There were so many concepts that I learned and working with students who are reading at a low level I can take larger concepts and apply them to their regular curriculum. For example, for the culminating task and project I have used “Lost Names” by Richard E. Kim to teach story elements. This exposes the students to the East Asian experience, values, and content. There are various other resources that I plan to incorporate to teach the simple strategies that my intervention students are lacking.
Possible topics that I will address include the attitudes and approaches that work to align with topics I need to cover within the curriculum. For example, I can cover information about geographical placement when we come across reading in the program that shares commonalities. I plan to use many of the oral stories, literature pieces along with, slides that show art and photos to support important concepts.
The ideas and content that is of most relevance to my course would be the portions that tied into actual readings and recorded literature. The historical information would be great to provide background knowledge. In fact, by reading what my fellow classmates have posted in the forum as well as the many other post I am sure that I will have an endless supply and content to continue to inform my students of East Asia and look forward to future institutes where I can expand my knowledge and bring the information back to my students and colleagues.