Insadong, Seoul, 9 May 2023. This year’s Korea trip has no specific theme. Its timing has been determined by events in London. While I normally like to be in Korea for Buddha’s Birthday, that day falls rather late in the international solar calendar this year: 26 May. I need to be in London that week … [Read More]
Category: Education and teaching
Book review: Seo Su-jin – Korean Teachers
After what was a fairly downbeat reading experience for us last year, quite by chance we came across the first publication of translated Korean literature from Singapore’s Harriet Press, released without our noticing it in March 2022. Seo Sujin’s debut novel Korean Teachers won the Hankyoreh Literature Award in 2020, and it is encouraging that … [Read More]
Sky Castle: would you believe, the first K-drama I’ve ever watched. And what fun it is!
People might find it strange that, despite the fact that I’ve been following Korean culture for 20 years now, I’ve never watched a complete TV Drama series. There have been several reasons for this, but basically it boils down to lack of time, and the prohibitive cost of the DVD boxed sets. I made the … [Read More]
Nine Confucian academies listed at UNESCO
For visitors to Korea (such as myself) who like to try to get round all the UNESCO-listed world heritage sites, the list just got longer. On Saturday 6 July, the World Heritage Committee included nine Seowon, or Neo-Confucian Academies, in the list. The nine seowon are dotted around the central and southern parts of the … [Read More]
Online seminar: Lessons from Arts and Cultural Education in UK and South Korea
An online seminar which is a product of the UK/Korea Creative Futures festival of culture sponsored by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce): Lessons From Arts and Cultural Education in the UK and South Korea: Online Workshop Thursday 20th September 2018 at 11:30 – 12:30 Zoom / Online (full … [Read More]
Jeju teachers in Kingston exchange
I do like receiving these occasional press releases from Kingston Council as I wouldn’t normally get to hear about things like this: Kingston schools welcome teachers from Korea in cultural exchange programme Seven teachers from Jeju in South Korea, Kingston’s partner town, are working in local schools and staying with local families as part of … [Read More]
Book review: Without You, There Is No Us
Suki Kim: Without You, There Is No Us. Rider / Penguin Random House, 2015, 291pp I always come to books about the DPRK with a certain amount of reluctance, because there are far too many of them and I wonder what each successive book will have to say that is new. I approached this one … [Read More]
Looking back at 2015: Domestic news
Our final look back at 2015: mainly domestic news stories from South Korea. In the news After 62 years of adultery being a criminal offence in the ROK, the constitutional court decided to decriminalise it by a vote of 7 to 2. Four out of ten married Korean males heaved a sigh of relief and shares … [Read More]
2015 Travel Diary day 8: Back to school, back to Seoul
Sancheong-gun, Friday 5 June Today I am due to say farewell to Sancheong again, but before I leave there is a treat in store: a school visit. Mr Yoon’s wife happens to teach in a primary school in Dangye Village, and she thought it might be nice for her pupils to meet a foreigner. And … [Read More]
UK Foreign Office trains DPRK journalists
According to today’s Sunday Express, A group of 46 North Korean “journalists” are on a UK study course in media skills funded by the Foreign Office… Lord Alton of Liverpool, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea, accused the Foreign Office of “investing in people who are official mouthpieces of the regime”…The Foreign … [Read More]
British Council signs teacher training deal in DPRK
Yesterday the British Council were in Pyongyang signing a letter of understanding on English teaching and teacher training, according to KCNA. The DPRK’s press operation is clearly quick off the mark, as there’s nothing on the British Council website about this yet. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s new here, as the British Council … [Read More]
A visit to the British Museum’s Samsung Digital Discovery Centre
“There are few museums in the world who are doing work with young people on the scale we are doing:” Shouvik Datta discovers how Samsung is helping the British Museum to engage with a younger audience. I was recently checking the website of the British Museum, when I came across with interest and surprise the … [Read More]
BBC Panorama on Pyongyang University of Science & Technology
Tonight’s BBC documentary on PUST is already generating column inches. The Independent calls the university, which is backed by South Korean and US charities, a “Trojan Horse”, though some regard such language as unhelpful. A long trailer article for the programme is now up on the BBC website. After its 8:30pm screening tonight it will … [Read More]
Pluto (명왕성, 2012) review: fear, power and violence in Korea’s elite classrooms
While several of Pluto’s storyline elements will likely combine to bring Yoon Sung-hyun’s Bleak Night (2010) to viewers’ minds, Shin Su-won’s low budget thriller nonetheless manages to stand on its own as a dissection of fear within a dark and twisted tale laced with social commentary; ultimately feeling far more a companion piece than a derivation. [Read More]
NLCS Jeju featured in the Telegraph
This week the Daily Telegraph featured the Jeju campus of North London Collegiate School: a piece of Stanmore in Seogwipo. The boarding school has now been running for two years. You can’t help but be inspired by the enjoyment, enthusiasm and confidence of the students, even though they are being taught in what, to them, … [Read More]
An Introduction to North Korean Children’s Literature
There’s fascinating insight into North Korean children’s literature by Christopher Richardson over on SinoNK. Do give the article a read. And then try Sonia Ryang’s excellent Reading North Korea which looks at adult literature and film in North Korea. That’s a book I’ve now read three times in the hope that I’ll get around to … [Read More]