Gwangju International Center

  How to Become a Creative and Critical User of English    Speaker: Dr. Park Ju-kyong, a professor in Honam University Date: August, 18th, 2012 Reviewer: Kang, Yeon-ju Edittor: Samuel Winters   Dr. Park introduced some ideas on methods to become a creative user of English. Most Korean people have studied English for several reasons. The speaker first detailed the history of studying English in Korea. The first English school, Dongmunhak, was built in 1883, but at that time just a few students studied English. In the history of studying English in Korea, up through the year 1993 there was no speaking component in testing proficiency. Starting in 1994, English listening tests have been introduced and students learning English have focused on these tests. Dr. Park reviewed a variety of terms and acronyms and detailed there differences as approaches to studying English, such as ESL, ESOL, EFL, TESOL, EAL, EIL, ELF, ESP, EAP, ELL, LEP, CLD, and LOTE. As an example, the speaker discussed the current approach of Sukmeong female university in introducing TESOL programs in addition to the existing English education program. However, the speaker argued that TESOL and English education differ only in that English education is more theoretical-based while TESOL is more practical.   The speaker discussed how currently, in the common approach, Korean people tend to learn English from native speakers. There is a belief that English proficiency should improve simply through this exposure and that the goal for Korean learners of English should be to strive for a native-speaker level of English. This misguided notion is described with the term 'native-speakerism’ On account of such prejudice, many English teachers from Korea have less confidence of their abilities.    Dr. Park introduced that the current trend for many people learning English has been the approach to teaching and learning English as EIL, or English as an International Language. The focus in this approach is that English is an international language, so learners speak English to serve the wider community, not to achieve a native-speaker level. The presentation also included some tips for being a creative user of English. To use English creatively, Dr. Park emphasized above all, ‘Analyze your needs’. You have to know why you are eager to study English, whether your motivation is to marry a nice-looking guy or to get a job abroad. Otherwise, you might be less interested in using English as time goes by. After you find your own purpose to speak English, you have to set your own strategy to study it. Again, the goal shouldn’t  be to sound like a native-speaker, and there is no need for that. However, the learner needs to have confidence and should not get stuck on the individual’s problems in learning English. Also, Dr. Park encouraged listeners to create more opportunities to use English. She listed going to the GIC and listening to GFN as some excellent opportunities for using English in the Gwangju area, as well as many other such activities one can participate in. The speaker emphasized the importance of exposure to English. The top priority for using English is that the learner needs to respond positively to learning situation.    Dr. Park reiterated that Korean learners of English will not be able to use English as well as native speakers for whom English is their first language, but that that should not be discouraging. She encouraged learners to not be shy and to be positive. One’s attitude towards learning English help him or her to make optimal conditions for language learning.       Watch the lecture's video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddkvpQ_REpA&feature=relmfu

    On August 25th the GIC Tour with Warren visited Yeonggwang. Both Koreans and foreigners, from elementary school students to adults, participated on the tour. Rainy weather had preceded this trip to the west coast of Korea and the skies were overcast at times, but the precipitation held off for the trip.     The first stop in Yeonggwang was in Beopseongpo, the port that served as the arrival point for the introduction of Buddhism to the Baekjae Kingdom. In the 4th century a monk named Marananta, originally from what is modern day northern Pakistan, landed here from China bringing a new religion. Here, the participants were able to see a museum and shrine honoring the achievements of this monk in using this place as a starting point to spread Buddhism all over the Bakjae Kingdom and later on to Japan. The museum included a statue of Marananta and many artifacts from the Gandharan region and culture from which he originated, and even offered visitors an opportunity to dress in traditional ceremonial garb and pose for a picture with the monk’s statue.  The shrine is set into a hillside and, although the construction is yet unfinished, it is impressively topped with a four-faced statue of the Buddha. The shrine includes a series of 23 panels depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha.       After having time to explore the museum and shrine on their own freely, the participants gathered for the group photo that is a hallmark of every GIC Tour with Warren before heading off into the town of Beopseong for lunch. The menu was centered around a local specialty, gulbi, a type of dried, fish. The gulbi jeongshik consisted of side dishes served with gulbi that was fresh, partially dried, or fully dried, including a soup and crab. The participants had some time after lunch to wander the town and see the many shops with racks of gulbi in preparation, similar to what they had just eaten.       The tour continued on to the scenic Baeksu coastal road. The bus stopped at an area that provided a scenic overlook of the ocean from the west coast at road level, or participants could go down a flight of steps closer to sea level, or go the opposite direction up a flight of stairs to an observation tower that offered an even more impressive view of the shoreline.     The recent rainfall necessitated a change in the schedule so that the tour next went to visit a local salt farm, where the nearby sea water is dried in fields to produce sea salt. The original plan involved participants having the opportunity to try their hand at moving the sea water in the drying beds themselves, but, as the participants learned, when there is precipitation the sea water is pumped back into cisterns so the rain water does not further dilute the salt content. The participants were still able to walk around in the dry, ceramic tile-covered drying fields, learn about the process, and were even able to gather and take home a bag of sea salt for themselves from the warehouse.       The final stop on the tour was Duu-ri beach on the Yellow Sea. Unfortunately, it was low tide, so the ocean waters were a few kilometers out from the shore. However, despite the somewhat overcast skies and low tide, participants were still able to wade out through the wet sands and shallow remaining pools of water to splash about a bit, collect sea shells, and have a general relaxing end to the trip.       Everyone boarded the bus for the trip back to Gwangju having experienced a little of what this western coastal area of Korea has to offer in terms of culture, cuisine, products, and natural beauty.     Written by_Bradley Weiss   >>Click here to see more tour photos on the facebook!  

    Camp Fulbright and its Expanding Mission for Cross-Cultural Education     Date : 12.08.11 Speaker : Noelle Easterday(USA) Review Writer: Su-jin Yu         Today's speaker came from USA. She is in progress of MA in anthropology - University of New Mexico, and has BA in anthropology - University of Notre Dame(2006). Also, she is an instructor at Camp Fulbright for six years. She has outstanding academic ability.   She introduced Camp Fulbright. It is a two-week long English immersion program for Korean students (grades 5-10). Developed as part of the Fulbright Korea English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) program, Camp Fulbright features a unique opportunity for Korean students to improve their English skills interacting with nearly one hundred American teachers. Even more exciting, American high school students travel from the U.S. to participate in a cultural exchange in which they learn about Korean culture, language, and history while practicing English with the campers. She discussed the unique benefits of this particular program for both Korean and American students and the contributions it is making to cross-cultural education by bridging the gap across the Pacific. All the classes are depending on student's English proficiency. Students have to speak in English for 24 hours, and they enjoy to do club programs, team project, play, role playing and so forth. There are Korean junior helpers to care students so parents won't be worried.   If I can, I want to join as Korean junior helper, because of my age I can't join this program as a participant or in this winter vacation I will recommend this program to my brother. I think that this program is really good program to learn not only English but also culture, sociality    Watch the video, please click:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbWxDr9Sv2Q&list=UUw22s4ed3HHu1d7g-teo_yw&index=2&feature=plcp    Watch the photos, please click:  https://picasaweb.google.com/117593299426331932940/120811_NoelleEasterday        

    The Importance of Mythology     Speaker : David Mark Dannov Review writer: Yeon-ju Kang Proofreader: Bradley Weiss    The speaker for the August 4th GIC Talk, David Mark Dannov, discussed the importance of mythology as related to metaphor. He detailed how many movies such as "Men In Black," "Star Wards," "The Matrix," etc. all incorporate some kind of metaphors. Dannov related early 20th century Swiss psychologist Carl Jung's theory that metaphor on one hand gives power to people, but on the other can cause severe problems. The speaker suggested one example, using the current international politics of the U.S. As people already know, the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world, and the its government is able to justify war by making use of some metaphors. The speaker llustrated another example of the power of metaphor involving the Bible. Before talking specifically about metaphor in the Bible, Dannov discussed the role of mythology and metaphor in the Roman Empire. He theorized that prior to the advent of the Roman Catholic church, the people were kept in check through fear based on beliefs founded in mythology and pre-Christian religion. Similarly, the Roman Catholic church encouraged the people's belief in hell and offered belief in God as the only path to escaped damnation. In this way, the church manipulated the people of the empire into adopting and embracing Christianity. The speaker criticized the Roman catholic church for misrepresenting and misusing what he sees as metaphors and encouraged the audience to see things his way by “opening your third eye”. Dannov insisted his goal was not to get rid of listeners’ own beliefs, but rather through his talk, to let listeners know his own ideas about it. Every government in the world is well aware of how to monitor the public. If people are controled by the government, they all have same ideas and become like robots, such as in the movie "I Robot". Returning to the Bible again, the speaker explained how there are a lot of metaphors present in Christian scripture. For example, the story of Noah’s Ark could be understood as a metaphor. The idea of taking one pair of all the animals in the world on an Ark sounds ridiculous when taken literally. Rather, this could be understood as the Ark is just oneself. The lesson from this story when seen as metaphor is to open your mind widely and take in all things. The speaker also referenced the works of another famous scholar, Joseph Campbell, who wrote at length about mythology in the 20th century. After researching many religions and mythologies from around the world, Campbell discovered that many religions make use of similar images. When we see all religion metaphorically, all religion is true, Dannov argued. After becoming familiar with Campbell's work, the speaker started to read the Bible metaphorically. He encouraged everyone in the audience to “find the christ in you". Dannov also illustrated what he feels many people believing in God and the Bible never recognize - that it is also a metaphor that Jesus Christ walks on water At some point, a person may feel depressed and almost dead, but maybe a single word from a book might renew one's spirit - that is Christ for the speaker. The speaker said that metaphor, in short, is a weapon that protects us in our lives, and understanding and analyzing this metaphor gives out light in the darkness.    To watch the video, Please click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD2q-dVWV3g&feature=relmfu To watch the photos, Please click:https://picasaweb.google.com/117593299426331932940/120804_DavidMarkDannov  

    Internationalization of Korean Higher Education: the Need for Quality Consolidation.   Presenter: Eva Marie Wang Review Writer: Song JeongHyor Editor: Samuel Winters   Have you ever thought about the internationalization of Korean higher education? This talk provided a good deal of useful information on that very topic! The presenter, Eva Marie Wang, is a native Filipina currently enrolled in graduate studies in a South Korean university, so she was able to share a lot of helpful knowledge as well as give valuable recommendations from first-hand experience. The topic was about the ‘Internationalization of Korean Higher Education’, which the speaker assured was not as intimidating as it might sound. At the beginning of her presentation, the speaker stated that she wanted to provide the audience with some basic information about the talk’s title and other frequently used words, that way she could unpack some of the weighty terms. The first clarification included the term “higher education”, which we also call “tertiary” or “post-secondary” education. This is the education you get beyond high school, especially at a college or university. “Internationalization”, another term frequently used throughout the talk, is the process by which you integrate international, intercultural or global dimensions to higher education. This includes strategies like student mobility (recruitment of international students), program mobility (dual programs), and institutional mobility (setting up branch campuses of foreign universities in various countries, much like the Songdo Project in Incheon, which includes American satellite campuses in Korea). After clarifying the core terms used in her talk, the speaker moved on to some more detailed information about efforts to increase and improve the internationalization of Korean higher education. The speaker showed a graph of The Korean International Education Quality Proportion, and spoke in detail about government-led efforts to boost the quality of higher education in Korea. These efforts to improve the quality and increase the competitiveness of higher education in Korea have been intensified under the current president, Lee Myungbak, and have required significant reforms that at times conflict with some of the traditions of Korean higher education. For example, in order to increase Korea’s standing among nations in terms of the amount of studies published, there has been a nascent push to get Korean professors and researchers to increase their output. Despite these changes, Dr. Shin assured the audience after the talk that academics in Korea have largely responded to the changes positively. Thanks to her first-hand experience with international graduate studies in Korea, the speaker was able to shed light on some of the growing pains she and those around her have encountered within this process of internationalization. She spoke of the difficulties international students often face upon arrival in Korea, like culture shock, lack of social networks and money issues, but was optimistic that the process of internationalization was proving itself to be increasingly competent and worthwhile. Also increasing in coherence are the international students themselves, many of whom have created support networks to share information and aid each other during their sojourn in Korea. In short, through her talk, the speaker helped to show that the internationalization of Korean higher education is a work in progress. This talk managed to be both very interesting and highly informative. There were many things the audience could take away from the presentation and, just like so many other GIC Talks, it was an enjoyable experience for all.

    Taking an extra mile...because we care!   Speaker : Prof. Rohizani Yaakub (Malaysian) Review writter: Su-jin Yu Editor: Nguyen Thi Le Hoa   Today's speaker came from Malaysia for Chonnam National University's summer session. I was also taking class in summer session, so I was really glad to hear and see her speech.   She introduced her University Sains Malaysia. This school has many outstanding aspects. It was selected as one of the Research intensified university, and awarded an "APEX University" which means Accelerated Program of Excellent. Anyway, before talking about her topic, she showed us one video clip that made for sightseeing. Through this video clip, we thought that Malaysia is a very fun place, and people there always seem to be happy.   However, it was not true. She talked about rural area especially about education system. Sabah is second biggest city in Malaysia, but the city's education system is poor. Speaker was in InSPIRE program which is abbreviation of Integrated Program Instruction for Rural Environment. Therefore, she went to Sabah through this program and saw many sad scenes. Students were studying in poor surroundings, and infrastructure, but they had passion for learning and always had bright faces. Her team found challenges of internal factors which administration, existing resources, problems and shortcomings in existing curriculum. Also the team found challenges of external factors which are community expectations, assumptions, and values nature of subject and support systems. Her team think that we should also give opportunity to study for rural area students, because they are in the bottom of pyramid.   Speaker seems like really like her job and has passion. When she talked, I can see her smile and enjoying it through talk. I think that she also grew up in rural area, so she want to help students more.       Western cultures            

      Flourishing in Good and Bad Times: What Mental Health Science Tells Us   Speaker: Daniel Olympia (PhD, University of Utah) Date: July 21, 2012 Review writer: Hyun-kyu Chae Proof-reader: Samuel Winters     The speaker initially focused on the United States and South Korea, comparing them in terms of education, technology, economics, leadership, etc.  With this comparative analytic framework in mind, the speaker transitioned to the question, “What makes people happy?” To answer this, the speaker introduced the concept of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), which is people’s evaluation of their own life satisfaction.  According to the speaker, some of the things influencing SWB are personality, temperament, income, social comparison, universal needs, adaptation to circumstances and person-environment fit.    Interestingly, we learn that a significant amount of our SWB, half in fact, is influenced by the genes we inherit from our parents, while approximately 40% or our SWB is under our own control.  For the most part, changing personality and temperament would be like trying to change your height.  But external influences are important as well.  In addition to personality and temperament, there is also the issue of income and SWB.  While income does correlate positively with SWB, there eventually comes a point where we experience diminishing returns on SWB for more income earned, which suggests that money, while being important for SWB, becomes less important the more one has.  Another significant influence on SWB comes from social comparison, for example, evaluating one’s status relative to neighbors, family and friends.  Television and the internet have also changed how we evaluate ourselves relative to others by eliminating distance.  The speaker also included Maslow’s concept of universal needs, which are food and shelter, having others to count on, learning new things, using one’s abilities and feeling respected.  Adaptability in one’s environment also has a significant influence on SWB, as did the person-environment fit, which brings people more happiness the more their values and personalities fit those of the people around them.   Rather than argue that there was any particular route to happiness, the idea behind the talk was that the way to better social relationships, better health and longevity, higher incomes, greater job satisfaction and better quality of life was through happiness itself.        

East and West: Social, psychological and simply habitual differences     Speaker : Anne Colangelo Review Writer: Yu Su-Jin Proof-reader: Nguyen Thi Le Hoa   Today's talk was very interesting and funny. The speaker was Anne Colangelo. She is a GFN radio host of "Hello, Korea" program which assists you with getting to know all about Korea, people, history, culture and movies, etc.   Before starting main business she gave us 3 quizzes, so we could understand about topic East and West - exposing disparities well. First quiz was about a conversation. People who agree with the opinions of conversation partners tend to have eastern thinking. On the other hand, those who like to add an opposite point of view in a conversation to stimulate debate is likely to have western thinking. Second quiz was about fashion. Persons who like to wear clothes that express their personal style has western thinking, but persons who like to keep up with the latest trends and dress with style is likely to have eastern thinking.   The speaker also introduced "Icons for understanding Eastern and Western cultures". These icons were exhibited by Yang Liu. We can see that blue part symbolizes German which is one of western culture, and red part symbolizes China which is one of eastern culture. There are 23 icons such as opinion, way of life, punctuality, contacts, anger, queue when waiting, me, sundays on the road, party, in the restaurant, stomach ache, travelling, definition of beauty, handling of problems, three meals a day, transportation, elderly in day to day life, shower timing, moods and weather, the boss, what's trendy, the child, things that are new, and perception of each other. Among these, definition of beauty icon was impressive to me. Especially in Korea, women want to have white face, but in U.S or Europe, they sunder.   Moreover, the speaker showed two video clips which are related to East and West exposing disparities. Through video clips we can know that Western consider same shape and object importantly, but Eastern consider material, color, texture more important than any other aspects.   East and West have totally different kind of thinking, and I think it affects our relationship. However totally different thinking doesn't mean that we cannot understand each other. Although we have opposite mind, we should try to understand other culture and Western cultures        

        Last June 30, we visited Wando with GIC Tour. The participants consist of 40 diverse personalities from different nationalities. Wando County (Wando-gun) is a county in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. It takes its name from the island of Wando, which is the largest island within the county and serves as the county seat. Wando is perhaps most famous for Cheonghaejin, the  former headquarter of ChangPoGo, a 9th century Korean historical figure whose private fleet and army dominated the sea routes in the Yellow Sea. Wando's most famous native in modern times is the champion golfer K.J. Choi.        We all gathered in front of Jeonil Building, Geumnam-ro at 08:15 am with small doubt whether the tour would be cancelled or not, because the night before the tour day it was raining heavily and we already been informed from the GIC it might be cancelled if it would continue to rain that way. But the auspicious rain stopped and tour started on time as scheduled.  We all were excited to visit the place especially the beach in the summer and the food (Raw fish with spicy soup), it’s a new delicacy for almost all the participants so everyone was curious for that. And the most important thing, the weather was super cool, not so hot and not raining heavily either; so it was a perfect weather for travelling mainly in the summer. The journey was about two hours from Gwangju to Wando by bus.        When the journey was started then the tour guide Warren and all the volunteers from the GIC briefed the schedule in details for the whole day which was already distributed by e-mail to all the participants. The main schedule for the day was visit to four specific places: Cheonghaejin, ChangPoGo Memorial Hall, Raw Fish and Seafood Soup for lunch, and Myungsasimni Beach. And Warren also described about some new places, with some historical background and the importance of those places on the way to Wando, especially the dragon range stone mountain, Buddhist temples, forest, natural/ wild tea farm and some agricultural farms.        First we visited the Cheonghaejin, this is the place known as the naval and maritime trade and it played the role for interconnecting Korea, Japan and China. It was nominated for historical site and had been excavated since 1991 and restored as it currently looks. Also we got the opportunity to see the beautiful and clear natural scenery from the top of the place.         Secondly, we visited ChangPoGo Memorial Hall; this hall was built in 2008 in the memory of the great maritime trade emperor, ChangPoGo from the 9th century. The hall is very fascinating and well designed as we found many historical things with lots of information; especially the audio visual section is great in detail with clear information.     Then we went for our most awaited section of the tour; Raw Fish and Seafood Soup for lunch, after visiting those two most important places, all the participants were hungry so we can say that was one of the most highlighted section of the Wando Tour because it’s the first experience to almost all the participants.        After lunch finally we reached the Myungsasimni Beach, and some of the participants tried to enjoy with swimming, some enjoyed walking in light raining and windy weather (kind of romantic weather), some enjoyed photography and some were drinking in the beach. In general this section was most enjoyable and relaxing for all the participants.          As per schedule we started the journey back to Gwangju around 5pm and we reached in time (7pm). Overall the trip was well managed/researched, well disciplined, followed to the schedule, enjoyable and the most important thing is, it’s quite informative who is interested in Korean history. So we can say it was a successful trip. Hope everyone enjoyed and got relaxed from their hectic weekdays routine.   Written by_Deepak Prasad Bashyal   >>Click here to see more tour photos on the facebook! >>Click here to sign up Damyang Tour!!  

  Topic: Life of Koreans abroad   Speaker: Ju-yeon Cho Review writer: Hyun-kyu Chae Proof-reader: Bradley Weiss   Have you ever heard of gyopo? Do you know the meaning of the word? The terms gyopo or“dongpo abroad” refer to persons of Korean ethnic descent who have lived the majority of their lives outside Korea. It They can also mean simply any Korean who lives outside Korea. The presenter, Joo Yeon Cho, talked about living in Korea as a gyopo. She was born in Korea, and is originally From Gyeonggi province. She immigrated to the United States on October 30th, 1990. It wasn't always easy to adapt but the relocation provided her with the chance to experience things she couldn't have in Korea and likewise have relationships that would have been otherwise unavailable, as well. When she reached adulthood questions about identity began to come to her mind, such as, "Who am I?” and “Why am I here?". The reason she came back to Korea was to find the roots she belongs to. Once here, she was faced with the question of, "Am I a foreigner or not?". She looks Korean, speaks fluent Korean, loves Korean food, and even is of Korean descent. However, she discovered she can still be foreign from a cultural basis. She had always thought of herself as Korean, but she discovered so many things in which she was different. Particularly, the way of people who have spent their entire lives in Korea think was totally different. She also found out that the Korean perspective on Korean immigrants wasn't especially positive. The presenter found herself feeling as though she was bounced between two cultures. The things that Koreans typically think about goypo include the following: gyopo are egotistical and too self-involved; they don’t think about what’s good for everyone… only what is good for themselves; they do not know the culture of respecting their elders; they’re too free; they’re foreigners, but there’s also an unspoken expectancy that they know Korean culture and language, resulting in a double standard. There is also the conception that gyopo are only who they are today because they were blessed with parents that had the money to give them a life abroad. Many of these conceptions are not true at all, but result from a general misunderstanding of gyopo but Koreans. Conversely, Korean immigrants have their own perspectives concenring native Koreans, which include the following: native Koreans are too conservative and judgmental; they don’t understand foreigners and understand gyopos even less; they don’t really care to know or want to change their way of thinking about them. There is also the conception among gyopo that they are living in “their country” so there is no compunction for native Koreans to have to get to know gyopo or to try to understand them. Many gyopo have expressed the feeling of "feeling more foreign in Korea than they do back home". This is currently happening in our country. Korean says "We have a lot of affection(情) and We are so proud of that." Then why can't Koreans be generous to gyopo. They are, after all, part of our Korean national family. It's time to open our mind to gyopo and accept them.