Session 4 - Pre-1800 Korea, 3/11

[Anonymous]

*Session 4: Pre 1800 Korea
Information from this session is helpful in planning a lesson to see the similarities and differences of historical artifacts from Korea and other places and cultures around the world. Students can compare and contrast Neolithic Life (the archaeology, and anthropology) from various regions in the world. I found it especially interesting to learn about Korean dwellings, pottery, and social customs (e.g.: importance of Shamans in history) as they are similar to other cultures found around the world. Students would especially benefit from lessons using the pictures used in this lecture.

[Anonymous]

The Sijo poems are a very fun and creative way to integrate language arts and history/Social Studies. Other units I would consider for elementary school students would be creating or comparing mythical stories, and also doing a “Cinderella Around the World"unit- comparing different versions of Cinderella from different cultures, with an opinion on which is their favorite.

[Anonymous]

In Creative Women of Korea, author Young-Key Kim-Renaud outlines the problem for Korean women (indeed, all women) who aspire to the public sphere of arts and letters, a place dominated by men throughout most of history. The barriers are formidable as most societies, east and west, have codified male superiority through religion and law. The Confucian principle of namjon yobi ("the elevation of men and subjection of women") has the same societal force as the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve in perpetuating second-class status of women. That is why it is all the more remarkable when a women beats the odds and achieves the status held by a select pantheon of artists whose work is immortalized and revered years after their own lifetime. Hŏ Nansŏrhŏn is such a person. Her poems ranged from topics dealing with spirits and dreams to realism and pathos, and are regarded as some of the finest from the Choson Dynasty.

[Anonymous]

Korea Dynasty
The founding of Korea is complicated due to their adoption of the Chinese language. It is of note that that they are a peninsula and over time continued to follow the Chinese system of recognizing scholars until other influences came into the country. I liked the article about the paintings and how their were notable women painters.

[Anonymous]

Sijo
Professor Kim's lecture about the Sijo poems and the yearly competition is a great way to get students interested in poetry. I might have the students create their own Sijo poem and compare that to a Haiku. I would mention the competition in case there are students who might be interested in entering the competition.
edited by ahuynh on 6/18/2017

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with you. Even as a Korean myself, I never realized that Korea had it's own culture and was pretty separate from Japan and China prior to invasion.

[Anonymous]

Min-Yo is the name of the Korean folk song genre. One of the most popular Korean folk songs is a min-yo called "Arirang". It'd be really neat to do a compare contrast between corridos and minyos!

[Anonymous]

Its neat to read through everyone's comments on the lecture finding out what I missed. It sounds like the Sijo poems were pretty neat and I think I'll have to look up more about those. To make up for the lost class I went to the Korean Cultural Museum in LA. It was very small, tho a much larger one is being built right now. It is interesting, as someone else pointed out up here, that LA has a large Korean population, and a Koreatown, but very little Korean cultural attention. Anyway, the museum, small as it was, was still pretty neat. One of the coolest things about it was this interactive screen where you could discover the writing and words and sounds of the Korean language. It was neat how structured it was to create every sound and meaning.

Also, it seems that for such a small peninsula, there is a lot of history there. I'd love to know more about it.

[Anonymous]

I live around and teach many Koreans. It is important to understand the history of a group of people in order to understand where they came from and why they are here. I learned many interesting facts about the Korean culture in this session. The most important is how interconnected the Koreans are with many other groups in East Asia. I also think it is interesting that so many of the countries in the area, especially the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese are so interconnected in their history and it is unrealistic to be "pure" of one of the cultures.

[Anonymous]

I had to miss this session, but in simply reading the introduction to the reading, I was intrigued by the paradox presented: Confucian ideology meant that you couldn't usurp the sovereign, but the loophole made doing it successfully was a great virtue. This would be an interesting conversation/debate in class with my students. I would like them to also discuss why there would be no Korean primary sources for the history presented. The lack of primary sources is not unique, and could be used at the beginning or end of our year essay question considering what they know or have learned about how history is "written"

[Anonymous]

I have always been interested in learning about the origins of Korea because it seems so mysterious. Meaning that the only history I have ever been exposed to has been through friends of Korean dissent and learning about the food because it is delicious. What I found most interesting is that so many east asian countries were heavily influenced by China. Although, it makes sense because thought history trade and exposure to foreign customs influenced multiple civilizations.

[Anonymous]

The Shijo Poetry would be a great way for students to learn a new poetic form from Korea. But also an opportunity to express themselves in class and build rapport with classmates and the instructor. It could also be introduction to social heirarchy in East Asian culture. An excellent chance to incorporate the arts in the history curriculum!

[Anonymous]

This lesson fascinated me to know there was another type of poetry besides Haikus. Though not a lover of poetry, I enjoyed this as it was of longer length, and had more structure. The best is that it gives another angle for using east asia literature traditions in my classroom. it also is a great point to demonstrate how highly developed Korea was, and how there was high culture.

[Anonymous]

I found the writing poetry to be very powerful. I can use this exercise to have my students write about a topic being learned in class. It would be a great writing activity where students would not have to write a whole essay. I think my students would enjoy it and we would get very powerful pieces.

[Anonymous]

I checked and read "Samsara Dog" by Manos and I really like it. I could use this book in my interactive read aloud as a way to expose students to Buddhism by talking about it through the numerous deaths that the dog experienced.
edited by ahuynh on 6/23/2017

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