Well, after a tumultuous drop-add of class shopping and fighting for what I want, I finally consigned myself to (what I hope will be) a more balanced set of classes for the new semester.
Mon/Wed morning: Korean Politics in Transition
This one is turning out to be more and more like the rest of the classes I took last semester, although initially it promised to focus more intently on economic policy and development. I find that the teacher knows a great deal of information but (
surprise surprise) can't take a stance and moreover can't seem to get the information out of herself in a concise or focused manner. It's very difficult to follow her rants and get anything meaningful out that I don't already know, but it will be the easy class.
Mon/Wed afternoon: North Korean Politics and Foreign Policy
The class is really interesting. There is no final, midterm, or paper due the entire semester. The professor is knowledgeable, speaks good English, and provides a great deal of primary document evidence to back up his rather unconventional approach to North Korea. Unfortunately the weekly quizzes are focused on entirely the wrong subject matter: minute definitions from every obscure corner of the reading. I did the reading, went to the extra guest lecture that was recommended, was the most participatory in class discussion, but if I don't remember the passing mention of "epistemic imperialism" in the text then there goes a quarter of my quiz grade. That's not an accurate assessment of knowledge at all. I can't take a semester of that crap.
Tues/Thurs morning: The United Nations and other International Organizations
Top notch class. The professor is knowledgeable, succinct, free thinking, and often leads class in a discussion oriented way. There is an interesting mix of people for a discussion class, including an ex-soldier of 5 years who was part of the initial force into Iraq and a Korean who spent 19 years of her life growing up in Saudi Arabia. Really cool. In the beginning, though I really liked the class, I felt that the atmosphere of the students was kind of apathetic (who can blame them with this education system) but now the class is fired up and the whole thing is great. The best part of my schedule.
Mon-Fri evening: Korean Language Lvl III
It's finally happened: the common language of the classroom is no longer English but Korean. There are 2 japanese girls and one Chinese guy who don't speak any English, and the Tues/Thurs reading teacher only speaks Korean and German (???). Therefore, if I'm struggling I don't have the luxury to speak English anymore. Sort of a good thing, or more like a blessing in disguise I suppose. On top of that, this is my second semester in the Yonsei Korean language program, so I have knowledge up to the very bottom of lvl III. In a sense, this is exactly where I need to be but unfortunately it's not that simple. Any incoming students (i.e. first semester in the Yonsei Korean language program) are more than likely somewhere in between the levels of the program, so the majority of the class is far better at Korean than I am. Another blessing in disguise? Perhaps. Maybe it just means that I have a lot of people to learn from, but between plenty of people who know more vocab, listen better, and speak faster plus the added stress of no English safety net, I feel pretty overwhlemed in Korean right now.
So that's the schedule so far. There's always the myriad of private students as well, moving in and out, and then plenty of interesting reading to keep me going in my spare time. Also discovering the more-humdrum-than-Seinfeld humor of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and between all that I keep pretty busy. Midterms not coming up until late April, so it's coasting time!
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