While I was still in the "education department" meaning the camp portion of English Village rather than the preschool where I am currently teaching, I was commissioned to make a culture class. I love culture, as you might have noticed by the amount of culture posts I have written regarding Korea. And, Koreans, like in every country I have ever visited, love their own culture. Honestly, I think this is important aspect of being a citizen of a nation, to be proud of your roots, to be proud of where you come from. I don't believe in ignoring faults, or smearing history in order for your citizens to have false pride as often happens in schools around the world. In Israel, as in Germany, directly after WWII, the autrocities which had occured weren't spoken of, or even acknowledged. In America, many of our history books are written with such slant that its obvious to any student that America is the only worthy and good country out there, and that America's moral conduct in the world has always been strictly ethical and even motherly. If you'd like examples of what I'm talking about, I'd suggest a book called, "Lies my history teacher told me." An utterly depressing book, but I'm sure the concept of slanting truths for your particular country is not unique to American history books. However, the purpose of this offshoot was to comment on Korean children's lack of desire to leave their country. I see this in my own country all the time, but the excuse I give Americans, valid or not, is that America is a freaking huge country, and there is much diversity within our own borders. Korea is the size of Indiana. Imagine, never leaving Indiana. Never tasting cuisine authentically from a different country or region (such as our states), since Korean cuisine is just about the same all over the country. I had a hard time pinpointing one aspect of culture to teach the children, but in the end, I settled on the importance of intriguing them to one day explore outside the confines of their country. I created two power points, one which is geography based, but in the form of a quiz so hopefully more exciting, and the other a travel jeopardy with subjects such as music, food, gestures and habits. I scoured the internet looking for a well made youtube video about gestures in different countries, and I found some, but nothing perfect and nothing slow and clear enough for an ESL learner, so instead, I decided to make my own because I am insane. (I didn't actually calculate the amount of time it took, but I estimate somewhere close to 20 hours of filming and editing) Click here to view said video.
These are the two ppts I made. Anyone, especially teachers, are more than welcome to use them, download them, and use them in your classroom. The sound files didn't transfer to Slideshare, so you'd have to import your own music, but that should be simple enough.
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