Valuable lesson on Korean racism I used to teach a course on nationalism in literature at Korea University, which arguably has some of the best and brightest students in South Korea, if not Asia. I designed this course to get students to think critically about the nation-building ..
Can there be more suicides in KAIST? KAIST students have experienced few of the events which are key issues in the actual ongoing debates at KAIST. Students come and graduate but usually the same professors stay for long time. Hence, the actual students at KAIST are less informed than..
Lady Gaga's cancellation of concert I commend Muslim protesters for causing Lady Gaga to cancel her "Born This Way Ball" in Indonesia. Gagas music is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as the cult of the banal.
Why KAIST students choose suicide Very early in the morning on April 17, a senior KAIST student committed suicide. Off campus, it perhaps registered in the minds of the general public as just another statistic because last year, four students and a professor committed suicide here...
Rebuttal on 'Palestinian prisoners' I take great issue with the article entitled ``Palestinian Prisoners`` reprinted from the Jerusalem Post, that appeared in the weekend edition (May 19-20) of The Korea Times. The article in question attempts to disregard the numerous legitimate com..
Falsification in film Having just seen this film set against the 1991 Table Tennis World Championships in Chiba, I looked up the Times preview (by your excellent critic Kwaak Je-yup) from a few weeks ago. The article mentions "the sweat- and tear-soaked trail to victory..
Eurozone crisis Things are going from bad to worse in Europe after recent elections in France and Greece. In Greece no party is able to form a government and the battle of words is still going on between different parties. All three party leaders in Greece have op..
Are Korean Army nurses disciplined? Teaching English at the Korean Armed Forces Nursing Academy in Daejeon seemed to be an interesting teaching opportunity. I've worked for several universities, and I was certainly curious to see how well the Korean Army nurses performed as students.
Obama's support for same-sex marriage I am disappointed that President Obama has become the first U.S. president to "come out" in support of same-sex marriage. Even more disturbing is his pointing to his Christian faith as a motivation for his position. This is to mock Christianity for..
Suicides in KAIST KAIST, which became the focus of much attention last year due to five suicides, has again suffered the loss of another student who took their own life. The press attributes the cause of these deaths to extreme competition within the institute. Peo..
Death of Terry Spinks Last week saw the death of Britains youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist. Terry Spinks took time off from his job as a dustman in the East End of London to win the flyweight boxing title at the 1956 games in Melbourne at the age of 18.
In memory of late Prof. Chang Professor Chang, how is your life in the heaven? Do you know May 9 is the 3rd anniversary of the day that you left us?
On redundancies To be less concise but more precise, perhaps I should write ``Mr. Executive Managing Director. I do understand and appreciate your complaint about lack of concise expressions. Redundancies can grate on the nerves. But I wonder where English lit..
People are all equal I lived in Michigan, U.S., when I was 6-7 years old.
Open primary a disaster for Koreans This is in response to the article, Governor declares presidential bid, appearing on April 22, 2012.
Japans inappropriate claim The issue on marking the name of the sea between Korea and Japan is highly controversial. Japan argues that the sea should be named as ``Sea of Japan. Setting aside the historical distortion in Japan's arguments, such a claim seems inappropriat..
We want long-lasting family When the state gets involved in family matters, some feel a certain embarrassment and suspicion since home is considered to be a great sanctuary of ones personal privacy. However, there are countries which traditionally provide support and inc..
