왜 외국에서 읽는 한국발 기사는 옛날이나 지금이나 그리 변한 게 없는 지... 이따금 들어가 보는 가디언에는 이번에도 참사 관련 소식이 제법 크게 실렸다. 그나마 악의적인 왜곡기사가 아닌 것을 다행으로 여겨야 하나? 착잡하다...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/19/south-korea-president-vow-sinking
8-90년대 독일에서는 "Die Welt"나 "FAZ" 등의 신문 기사에 열 받곤 했던 일이 자주 있었다. 특히 후자의 "우베 슈미트"라는 동경 특파원은 어찌나 한국 관련 기사를 비틀어쓰던지... 아직 그 이름까지도 기억한다.
그나마 "Süddeutsche Zeitung"의 Gebhard Hielscher(?) 인가 하던 기자는 제법 따뜻한 시각의 기사를 보내곤 했었다. 한국을 소개 책도 한 권 썼던 걸로 기억한다.
이제는 좀 긍정적인 기사를 많이 볼 수 있으면 좋겠지만... 아직 우리가 가야할 길이 멀다는 느낌이다.
지난 1월 더 타임스가 우리 교육 문제를 다룬 글 역시 우리를 너무 희화하는 것 같아 씁쓸했는데 그나마 댓글 하나가 조금은 위로를 준다.
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W DM wrote:
A colleague at uni once had to give a lecture in India on the theme "western education vs. eastern education". He said that we in the west teach our children, with limited success, how to think; people in the east teach them, with more success, what to think. This is of course crudely put and exaggerated, but there is an element of truth in it. I've taught (a few) students from Japan and Korea; in general they worked harder than their UK and European counterparts, but they preferred to learn by heart. Most of the UK and European students I've had put the emphasis on understanding the underlying principles, even if they sometimes neglected the details.
January 26, 2010 8:10 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk Jongmook Choe wrote:
As one Korean student who has gotten through all these hardships, I would say that you need to look more carefully if you want to know what's really going on there. Why Korean parents are so obsessed with education? Out of patriotic mind to make Korea stronger? No. They want their children to have advantages over other people's children. It's all about competition not to lag behind. So why Korean people still prefer multiple choice exam over essay exam? They KNOW essay exam is much better for creativity. They KNOW they need creativity. However, multiple choice is FAIRER than essay exam. Korean parents think that there is a chance that grader's personal preference could get in the essay exam. This is a risk Korean parents can't take. They don't want to give their children any potential disadvantage. Multiple choice exam is fair. You don't pick the right answer, you get zero point. Simple and fair. Probably this is one of the legacies of economic development era that Korea has to overcome to develop further.
January 27, 2010 3:29 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Becky Shepperson wrote:
As a teacher in a hagwon, I can vouch for the fact that the lives of these children are definitely not enviable. Worse, they have nothing to show for their late nights (high school students, btw, have to stay in public school from 8 in the morning until 7 at night or later in a specific attempt to prevent them from going to hagwons, and how that makes any sense is beyone me, but there you go) as they don't end up that much better educated than in other countries, and in some areas, namely creativity and essay writing they fare far worse than the American students I know. They may be leaps and bounds above our children when it comes to learning foreign languages, mainly because of the shipping in of young foreign teachers like myself, but they are not able to think any better and in my mind memorization without ability is useless. I'm all for the party that suggests more sleep for Korean children, and while they're at it, they might want to go so far as to allow them a childhood.
January 26, 2010 4:37 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk | |
| http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/world_agenda/article7002822.ece |