Understanding Contemporary Korean Society through Media

This content-based language course designed to meet the needs of high-advanced level students of Korean, including international/heritage language students who have studied in Korea up to the primary school levels. There are two main goals for the course. The first objective of the course is to foster speed, accuracy, and comprehension in advanced listening and reading of authentic contemporary texts as well as the refinement of writing skills in various styles. The second objective is for the students to acquire a deeper analytic knowledge of cultural and social issues in contemporary Korea. By examining various articles, TV shows, and films, we are going to discuss contemporary Korean culture, politics and society. The themes that will be dealt with in the class are “The Hell Chosŏn discourse and Korean youth culture” “Pain and Sympathy: South Korean Society after the Sewol Ferry Disaster” and “Korea as Multi-Ethnic Society.”