Session #5 - March 16 (morning), Jennifer Jung-Kim

[Jimmy Martinez]

I would love to incorporate more music and poetry into my curriculum and I believe that a Sijo poetry slam would be the perfect activity. This resources does a fantastic job of explainging the basics of a Sijo poem. Not only would help my students be more creative but it would also challenge their writing skills. Once I get my students to focus on their passions then the rest would be to let them work in constructing their own poem, whether it be on Cardi B or ceviche. This exercise fuses passion with expression and really produces a genuine piece of work and I can't wait to apply in the classroom next year.

[Jimmy Martinez]

The phenomenon that is Kpop is very interesting and their fans are DIEHARD. One of my students even went to the BTS concert and she never speaks in class but the day after she came in with all this merchandise and she really came out of her shell. I even heard they broke records set by the Beatles! Now that is impressive and represents the power/influence that music has on our society. I love the Korean culture and I was raised in an area where I was exposed early to it and so I welcome anything Korean with open arms. I would love to learn Korean but I must admit that I am very intimidated by the language.

 

[Heidi Kwalk]

I have not heard of the so-called "low born" or the "commoner" status people of Korea referred to as "slaves" until very recently. It bothered me at first but when I think about it, it is what it is. This class of people did not have any means to move up the social stratus. They are in fact bound by inherited status to work for the lord of the household--the aristocratic status.  When studying slavery in America, this would serve as a good source to compare and constrast the enslaved people and their status in society. 

[Heidi Kwalk]

Hi Brenda-Jean, I totally agree with you in that it sounds so contemporary when you read the English translated version of sijo. However, reading the original Korean version, the words used for say "government official," is the ancient word for the "government service exam" in ancient China we learned about earlier in our seminar. I think translations--especially from one language with the culture so different than the translated culture-- can very well muddy the meaning and setting. 

[Heidi Kwalk]

Hi Kim, 

I had to really think about how to teach this form of poetry to my students, too. I also used past winners sijo as a mentor text for their poems. After reading about ten winning sijos with my students, this is how I had my students approach it. Instruction: 1) first line is introduction to the scene; vivid image of a place/setting of the poem; 2) Zoom in on the scene as if you are using a magnifying glass to focus on one specific thing; or draw your readers attention to something else in the scene; 3) lastly, do something that the readers are not expecting--like a surprise!  And as in all writing, I told them to write about something they know well or something in their heart right now.  A sijo scholar might frown at the way I taught the form but based on what my students produced, I feel like they got it!

[Heidi Kwalk]

Tiffany, I already told you over our lunch on one of our Saturday seminars that I used your sijo to teach what a "twist" is. Thank you for that. It really helped my students understand what a "twist" could look like in a sijo. We also use Time for Kids in our class. What an interesting idea to have students write a sijo summarzing an article. That would be so different than writing a paragraph summary of an article. 

[Heidi Kwalk]

I love your idea for this lesson. Hangul is all phonetics--a set of what we could call consonants and a set of vowels. Put the sounds together, and voila! You are reading Korean.  I tell my friends sometimes that I could teach them how to read Korean in 30 minutes! They won't know what they are reading, but they will be able to pronounce the syllables. The movement that Professor Jung-Kim showed us to go with the "letters" is a great activity for students who need those movements to help them learn. Students will feel accomplished and motivated for knowing how to read a whole different language!

[Heidi Kwalk]

Hey Jimmy, remember Korean written language is all phonetics. If you scroll up a few posts in this thread, you can see Gerlinda's post about her idea to teach her students how to read Korean. She also has a Youtube video link to help you learn letters with movements/dancing. Once you know how to read, it will be much easier to learn the language. And there are those Korean dramas... on Netflix too. I recommend Mr. Sunshine which was a huge hit in 2018. It is supposed to be a historical drama but the plot where the main character--Korean slave boy/or a lowborn-- comes back to Korea as a US officer during the time of late 1800s to early 1900s is so highly unlikely--more like impossible, it bothered me a lot. But it was entertaining nonetheles, I thought. A good way to learn a language--with entertainment. 

As for Korean K-pop culture and their phenomena world wide, I just don't get it. Maybe I am just too old to appreciate it. 🙂  It looked like they're more of a huge teenage girls following.

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