Week 4.3 - ICC - Dead Poet's Collectivist Society

This week's ICC homework once more gave me pause for thought.

Having taught at a university here in Korea, I thought I was doing my best Dead Poet's Society by explaining two things repeatedly throughout the semesters.

1. Learning something like English is a practical skill. In fact, everything you learn is meant to give you the skills to apply that knowledge in the real world, not just for a test. The certificate wasn't as important as the knowledge that backed it up.

"Ok, kids, before you start ripping out the introduction from your books, there's one more thing..."

2. The essays were a chance to find their own truth - maybe even with a capital T. I couldn't tell them what to write because that would be my essay, not their essay. Their essay could be a thing of beauty that really explored the issue and their own thoughts and doubts. They may even discover something about themselves in the process.

Silence.

"Why aren't you standing on the desks yet?"

The difference between Individualism and Collectivism was so vast, that it couldn't be bridged by a pep talk in a second language. The point is, I was teaching in a society that did value the certificate far more than the skills behind it. Nor is the content of the essay important to practically anyone in the system other than the foreign teachers. The students just wanted to know the 'right' answer (or even better, be given an 'example essay' of the right answer, you know, to help them write their own right answer). That was it. No journey of self-discovery, just knock it out and hand it in.

Without changing a massive chunk of Korean history, I was giving worthless advice. It was partly due to working at a not-even-close-to-top-5 university and wanting them to still see the value in their education. Partly cos I wanted to be the encouraging teacher. Partly cos I didn't want to read a paraphrased version of the same essay 30 times per class.

While branding it 'culturally insensitive' may be too harsh, it was certainly 'culturally naive', as I was banging my own culture's square education principles into the Korean education culture's round hole. Given the same scenario again, I'd certainly be less vocal about it, or at least have realistic expectations of the reaction to that advice. Looks like I'll have to get used to reading 100+ versions of "Korean Pop is hugely popular in every country in the world".