Free Talking Wonkwang University Language Centre

Gord Sellar, teacher, May-June 2003

Free Talking Syllabus

Topic #1: Identity Who are you? No, really!

Tuesday: Introductions

Wednesday: Social Stereotypes

  • Any Westerner can tell you for hours about the social stereotypes of English: the nerd, the geek, the sleazeball, the bimbo, the stuffed shirt, the wanker, the slacker, and so on. We’ll look at some of these terms and idioms related to them. What are the Korean equivalents, and do English terms really correspond to them?

Thursday: Roles and Masks

  • In our work lives, hobby groups, relationships inside and outside family, we all play many roles. What are some of the roles you play and how do you feel about them? Are you really the nice young lady, the generous young fellow, the studious bookworm, or the hip ajeoshi you act like on a day-to-day basis?

Friday: My Baby’s Got a Secret

  • Madonna’s baby isn’t the only one who’s got a secret. Some people say secrets are the most important things about us; the center of our identities. Do you agree with this? What is one secret you think is important about you but which you are willing to share?

Topic #2: Money BusinessWork, Business, and Money

Monday: To Get a Job

Most students say they are studying English in order to get a better job in the future. Do you think the focus on English in the job market is a good one?

Tuesday: What Would You Do For A Million Dollars?

  • Actually, we’ll probably talk about what you wouldn’t do for a million dollars. Think about Robert Redford.

Wednesday: Dreams and Nightmares

  • Everybody has a dream job, and a nightmare job. What’s yours? We will also talk about why those nightmare jobs exist and whether they need to be. For example: is it fair that someone should have to work as a dabang girl or a room salon hostess? Why do jobs like these exist? We’ll also look at some idioms regarding work and the workplace.

Thursday: Job Talk

  • What kinds of jobs have your had in your life? I have plenty of funny stories, and a few horror stories, and I’m sure you do too. We’ll share them.

Friday: Job Interviews

  • This should be fun and weird. Unless you want it to be serious. We could do that too. We’ll see… talk to me. For this class, you will need your resumes (in English), so get them up to date NOW! I’ll let you know what kind of jobs you will be interviewed for (and interview for) and we’ll talk about putting a spin on your words.

Topic #3: Yang Thang Korea and the rest of the world

Monday: Athletes and feats.

  • Why does the way Korea fares in competitive sports actually matter? Does it matter whether the rest of the world agrees? We’ll compare Korean and Western perspectives on this topic, and talk about the infamous Ono and World Cup topics.

Tuesday: Who cares what the French say?

  • Bo Shin Tang is this day’s springboard to looking at how cultures look at one another, and especially looking at Korea’s relationship with the rest of the world.

Wednesday: Korean? What’s that, anyway?

  • The world is globalizing at a breakneck pace. Koreans in business suits who drive luxury cars argue with their friends on cell phones about how much Korea has changed. What must be preserved to keep Korea truly Korean? Or does it matter?

Thursday: America and the Culture Virus

  • A favorite topic for things good and bad. We’ll talk about both, but we’ll especially try to talk about real reasons to love or hate America, and whether America has infected Korea with a kind of foreign-fixation.

Friday: The Underground

  • What is the Underground? What is Korea’s Underground? Is it an important part of the Korea? Why or why not? I hope for us to make one field trip to Bootleg for a live music show before this class, but it might not happen.

Topic #4: Loveand StuffLove, Marriage, Divorce, Romance, Sexuality, etc.

Monday: Divorce – A Debate

  • Is divorce acceptable, and why? You will choose a side – or if necessary, be assigned one – and will argue about divorce in contemporary Korea

Tuesday: Love Story

  • We’re going to watch a bit of a film or two and then talk about the myths of romance as they are illustrated in the scene(s) we watch. Then we can talk about whether real life ever matches the stories we tell one another.

Wednesday: Romance

  • Okay, so what is romance? What’s romantic? Why? What’s the weirdest romantic thing that’s ever happened to you? We’ll also go through a short fun quiz on romantic/relationship idioms and see how well you score.

Thursday: Killing Me Softly With His Song

  • We’ll look at a love song or two, and talk about the lyrics. We’ll also discuss some of your favorites and your most hated love songs, and why songs are always about love...

Friday: Dates and Dating

  • One of the best sources of stories is talking about dates we’ve been on. Usually dates are not too deeply involved, and they’re often disasters. We’ll tell a few stories about dates and maybe talk about dating and “blind dates” in general.

Topic #5: CommunitiesHow people go about living together

Monday: The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Some of us are from big cities, some of us from the country. We’ll compare notes and talk about the differences, advantages and disadvantages of each.

Tuesday: Birds and the Nest

  • We’ll range from the topics of moving away from home, living with your parents, living with your parents after moving away from home, and moving experiences. What’s good about living with your family? What’s unbearable?

Wednesday: Life in Iksan

  • My experience of Iksan (let alone Korea) is probably quite different from yours. Those of you who have lived elsewhere (whether another town, city, or country) can compare notes with those who have always lived in Iksan. Where are the nooks and crannies that make Iksan unique, interesting, or livable?

Thursday: Geeks, Freaks, Jerks, Sleazebuckets, and Losers

  • People we don’t like: the world is full of them. We’ll look at some idioms about dislike and disagreements, and then talk about how we deal with these people. We’ll explore this in a few (hopefully) interesting ways.

Friday: More Geeks, Freaks, Jerks… etc.

  • This is such a big topic I think we’ll explore it in some depth. Therefore I’ve devoted two sessions to it. We might also look at a song or poem about people like this...

Topic #6: TimeTiming is everything.

Monday: Serendipity

We’ll watch some of the movie Serendipity and then talk about chance, luck, and timing. We’ll also look at some idioms regarding fate, destiny, chance, and coincidence.

Tuesday: Fast-Forward

  • When people talk about the future, they often talk about very good and very bad possibilities. What do you think life will be life in 20 years? In 50 years? In 100 years?

Wednesday: Rewind

  • One way of thinking about the past is imagining yourself in it. What would you have been doing in Korea if you’d been here 50 years ago? 100 years? 200? 300? Have you ever felt that you were alive in another time? When did you imagine yourself living? We might also look at one of the Korean historical TV dramas and discuss the way modern Koreans imagine the past.

Thursday: Little Honda

  • Honda starts manufacturing a time machine at an affordable price. You should plan a romantic weekend getaway to any time and place on earth, and we can talk about it. We’ll pool a little cash and the person voted as having with the most romantic plan get the cash prize, provided they go on a date with it (with a class member or someone else) and report back to us about it.

Friday: What’s Your Schedule Like?

  • How much of your time is taken up by social obligations? How do you feel about it? How much time do you spend on the phone? On the Internet? Putting on your makeup? Are these a waste of time, or not? What’s the biggest waste of time you’ve ever experienced?

Topic #7: Grab BagA mixed bag of topics that didn’t fit elsewhere

Monday: When Idioms Attack

A crash course in about a trillion idioms, and what to do when you encounter idioms you can’t decipher. This will be a full bombardment. But it should be fun, and you’ll have a sheet to take home and refer to later.

Tuesday: Screen Stuff

  • There are a few movies – especially Korean movies – that I want to watch a bit of and talk about with you, but I don’t know which are available. I’ll check and see what I can find that’s interesting.

Wednesday: At the Polls

  • We’ll talk about the election in Korea and the significance of it for the country. This class might be moved to an earlier date, depending on the scheduling of the election and how the press covers it.

Thursday: My Mother’s Kimchi

  • Have you ever noticed yourself turning into your mother or father? What do you get from your folks that you like? What do you not like about family resemblance? In what ways do you want to be like your parents, or different from them?

Friday: Party

  • Party, baby, party.

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Week 1

Social Stereotypes

Any Westerner can tell you for hours about the social stereotypes of English: the nerd, the geek, the sleazeball, the bimbo, the stuffed shirt, the wanker, the slacker, and so on. We’ll look at some of these terms and idioms related to them.

Working in groups, please create definitions of these terms. If one of these terms applies to you, please note that and tell us why you think so.

  • Bimbo
  • Blonde
  • Cool Person
  • Geek
  • Jock
  • Nerd
  • Overachiever
  • Pretty Boy
  • Princess
  • Slacker
  • Sleaze Bucket / Sleaze Ball
  • Stoner
  • Stuffed Shirt
  • Wannabe

What are the Korean equivalents, and do English terms really correspond to them? This is not something I mean simply: I have seen “nerd” translated into Korean as “모범생” but that term isn’t anywhere near as negative; and “왕타”, while it is closer, is not the same either!

The questions I am asking here are not as simple as they seem. I am asking you about translation and culture, and about how you relate to English.

Possible Definitions of Stereotypes

A bad guy, especially a guy who preys on women

A dumb girl, usually with blond hair

A person who doesn’t like to work hard; a lazy-ass

A very studious and intelligent person who has few or no friends and social skills

A very uptight person who cannot relax or enjoy life... someone who is too serious

A woman (stereotypically Jewish in North America) from a well-to-do family who is very demanding and prissy and makes a terrible girlfriend

An athlete; or, a person who is only good at sports and not very intelligent

An attractive but usually shallow and immature man

An otherwise average person who has very odd or specialized interests, and some limited social skills , but who is considered odd by most people

Someone who has a dream, but usually a stupid dream, or a dream that they don’t work very hard or intelligently to achieve; also, someone who obviously will not achieve their dreams

Someone who is attractive and confident, relaxed and personable

Someone who is never quite in touch with reality; they seem slightly drugged all the time

Someone who works very seriously and very hard to succeed, but who is perhaps lacking in other parts of his or her life

Very sexy but stupid woman who dates men mainly because they are rich or powerful

Roles and Masks

In our work lives, hobby groups, relationships inside and outside family, we all play many roles.

What are some of the roles you play?

How do you feel about those roles?

Why do we play roles?

CS Lewis wrote:

...there are are two kinds of pretending. There is the bad kind, where the pretence is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you. But there is also a good kind, where the pretence leads up to the real thing. When you are not feeling particularly friendly but you know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are. And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were.

When is it okay, or necessary, to break away from your roles? Are those times the most important, or the least important, times in your life?

Confucius said: "When you serve your mother and father it is okay to try to correct them once in a while. But if you see that they are not going to listen to you, keep your respect for them and don't distance yourself from them. Work without complaining."

My Baby’s Got a Secret

Secrets. Everyone has them. Some of them are good, and many of them are bad, or painful, or sad.

Everyone tries to hide them. But most people have a hard time keeping other peoples’ secrets.

We’re supposed to pretend they are not there. They never get printed on resumes, we usually don’t bring them up in polite conversation. And yet they are always there, always part of us. Some people say secrets are the most important things about us; the center of our identities. Do you agree with this?

Do you think that not keeping a secret is always a bad thing? When is telling other people’s secrets okay? When is it important to tell your own secrets?

What is one secret you think is important about you but which you are willing to share?

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