Opinion - The Korea Times

The lost opportunity of Korean language teaching

By Mark PetersonOn my recent trip to Korea, I had the privilege of sitting down with an old friend and “hubae,” Ross King, Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard and professor at the University of British Columbia. We talked about the dismal standing of Korean Language Education (KLE) in North America.On the one hand, KLE in universities and high schools across the United States and Canada is booming, but on the other hand, we are light years behind our competitors, Japanese and Chinese language education.So, on the one hand, we've made great progress, but on the other hand, it's like we're proud to be running in the Boston Marathon with the big boys and we think we're doing great on the long stretch into Framingham ― doing great ― but then we find out Japanese and Chinese education are already in downtown Boston. They are at kilometer 38, and we are at kilometer 10. If that!Without more investments now, we ― and especially Korea ― are way behind and missing precious opportunities to create lifelong learners of Korean.Another way to gauge the situation is to look at two statis

May 7, 2023By Mark Peterson

The lost opportunity of Korean language teaching

Mark Peterson

Lessons from Jeong Mong-ju

By Mark PetersonOn my recent trip to Korea, I visited, for the first time, the grave of Jeong Mong-ju, the famous Goryeo official who chose to die rather than support the upstart Joseon Kingdom in 1392. It's always good to visit the site of important events like the homes or graves of important historical figures. I learned a lot from the visit.I learned several things about him from the visit to the gravesite. I even made a video about the visit for my Frog Outside the Well YouTube channel, as well. The first striking thing I found was that the tombstone there was very old-looking, and different from the ones from the Joseon Kingdom. The inscription praised Jeong Mong-ju as the “Defender of Goryeo” and said it was erected by ― to my surprise ― King Taejong, the man who, as Yi Bang-won, the crown prince, killed Jeong. I'm not sure whether he was personally involved in the actual killing, but it was under his direction that the assassination took place.I thought it remarkable that he who ordered the execution was the one who erected the memorial stone praising Jeong. Was t

Apr 3, 2023By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

The Korean family of the future

By Mark PetersonThe Korean family is changing. That might be the understatement of the decade. Given that fact, then what is it going to change into? It's hard to predict things like this, but there are some signs we can use for our divination.The impending formative issue is the low birth rate. Government leaders have proposed cash payments and loans to encourage people to have more children. I wrote last month about my observation that easier home buying might help ― and my article brought me several responses. Some agreed with me that home financing and home buying in Korea are more difficult than they should be. But others argued that deep attitudinal changes are necessary. Therein lies the rub. Deep attitudinal changes are hard to change.Nevertheless, let's look at the changes that have taken place and see if there might be any hope for the future. The most dramatic social or familial change I've seen has been, first, universal birth control and the attitude shift from the desire to have many children to the norm of having only two. Second has been the shift away from the &ldquo

Feb 28, 2023By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Home ownership and solving the marriage problem

By Mark PetersonIn my last article I wrote a semi-optimistic, semi-pessimistic piece about the new year. I was optimistic that it would be a post-pandemic year with opportunities. But I was pessimistic concerning Korea's population decline, specifically the trend of low marriage rates and the low birthrate. Subsequent to writing my article, in the Korea Times where my article was published, there was an article about government policies to increase population growth. The proposal, in effect, was for the government to pay couples to have children.One factor in the declining marriage rate is the difficulty in obtaining affordable housing. This might be an obvious solution and maybe there are financial and economic issues, which I don't pretend to fully understand, but it seems to me that Korea is in an economic situation where they can afford to provide long-term housing loans, like those found in the United States. The Korean banking system has initiated a long-term mortgage program but from people that I've talked to it doesn't seem to have caught on very well. Are the interest rates

Jan 31, 2023By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Upcoming social developments in 2023

By Mark PetersonI'll leave the political forecasts to others, but I want to focus on social issues. Let's look at social trends and predict where things might go in 2023. And good riddance to 2022, a really awful year ― the third year of the COVID pandemic. Maybe I need to admit that this view of 2022 is highly subjective ― the fact that it is perhaps the final year of the pandemic is a positive thing ― if, indeed, it turns out to be the final year of the pandemic. There is hope, at this point, that 2023 will be a better year.So let's look ahead to 2023. This is not going to be hard to do ― the trends in Korea society are very clear. Some of these trends are easily judged as good developments, but others are clearly problematic.On the positive side first, there is obvious progress on the gender front. Some may disagree, but I see the advancement of women continuing apace in the new year. We see families are preferring daughters at the birth of a child now, in contrast to the traditional “son preference.” We see the trend in taking civil service and foreign service exams ―

Jan 5, 2023By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

New book on Korean history

By Mark PetersonI just returned to the States from a trip to Korea ― my first trip in exactly three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an eventful and busy trip. I worked on a documentary film about the “miracle battalion” from Utah during the Korean War. I had meet-ups with my YouTube followers and made more videos with them. I attended two conferences on “Sijo” (a Korean traditional poetic form) and the spread of Sijo in America. But the events that kept me busiest were about the publication of my new book on Korean history ― “Views of Korean History by a Frog Outside the Well.”The book is in Korean, so writing about it in an English paper may not be of interest to many of our readers here, but if the Korean edition sells well, the publisher is talking about an English version down the road. The Korean edition is selling well ― in two weeks' time, it's gone into a third printing! That's good news.One of the enjoyable aspects of publishing a book in the popular market is that of having book signings ― I've published five academic books

Dec 4, 2022By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Sadness upon returning to Korea

By Mark PetersonAfter three years of carefully observing COVID-19 restrictions at home in America, I decided that, with five vaccination shots and a decline in the number of illnesses in both America and Korea, it was time for me to return to Korea. I have been struck with so many things about Korea after this long absence, but the most unfortunate, of course, is the tragedy in Itaewon.I've been positively impressed with the seriousness with which Korea has taken to wearing masks all the time. Currently, guidelines indicate that one can take off one's mask outdoors, but most people here, probably 90 percent, still wear their masks outdoors. On the plane coming to Korea, my estimate is that 80 percent of Koreans were wearing their masks, whereas only about 10 percent of Americans were. I've been impressed with Korea's diligence and unimpressed with the American distorted view of “freedom.”I've had a rented car this trip ― to keep more isolated from subway crowds and add to my COVID-19 protections ― and I've discovered a part of Korea I have never known before: the number o

Nov 6, 2022By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

A solution to a Confucianism problem

By Mark PetersonIn recent months I have seen numerous “complaints” or “criticisms” of Confucianism on my YouTube channel. I've seen criticisms of genealogy, of ancestor ceremonies and of the seonbi (the well-educated man who takes and passes exams in traditional times). People are calling for an end to Confucianism as they know it.All of these are complaints about Confucianism ― keeping track of genealogical records, carrying out ancestor ceremonies and indeed, the idea of the seonbi. All of these are connected to Confucianism and are seen as manifestations of various aspects of Confucianism.I've studied Korean history and lived in Korea learning to respect Confucianism as one of the world's great “religions” ― or maybe the term “belief system” is better in light of the fact that many say Confucianism is not a “religion.” There is no god figure in Confucianism and we are even told that we do not know about the next life, in spite of the fact that the primary ritual is making offerings to departed spirits. We are told that we

Oct 18, 2022By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Death of monarchy

By Mark PetersonI am not a fan of the monarchy ― British, Korean, Japanese ―anywhere.With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the rise to the monarchy of King Charles III, I thought I would reflect on the Korean monarchy and the institution of monarchy in general ― including not only the Korean monarchy, but also the Japanese monarchy that has had such an impact on Korea.As a “true” American, a descendant of men who fought for American Independence in 1776 and thereafter, I have never been one who admires the British monarchy. It's a great credit to Queen Elizabeth who with great personal dignity as a young queen, and an aged queen ― she really was a wonderful person ― that the British monarchy still exists. That cannot be said about her family. They have behaved with anything but dignity. The clownish figure of the former Prince Charles, the abusive treatment of Diana, the licentious lifestyles of many ― particularly Andrew, who stands accused of pedophilia and other deviant behavior ― and others. Charles would be a great hero in the history of the world if he announced

Sep 19, 2022By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Women's rights in Korea

By Mark PetersonThis article, like most of mine, is quite optimistic. I've been in and around Korea for 57 years and I've seen the tremendous, even miraculous things that Korea has done. Korea has overcome huge obstacles in its way in the past, and I am optimistic it will do so in the future as well.The success stories include economic development, maybe, first of all. But I like to quote Horace G. Underwood of Yonsei University, who enjoyed saying, “The education miracle preceded the economic miracle.” And indeed, Korea leads the way, internationally, in all kinds of measurements of educational success: the highest literacy rate, the highest high school graduation rate and the highest college graduation rate. I must quickly add that I know there are all kinds of criticisms of the educational system, but still, Korea's basic accomplishments are at the top of any standard of performance.Women's rights is one area that is still behind in many ways, but I see optimism on this front as well. Let me list what I see.In the late 1990s, Korea had a birthrate problem: the desire f

Aug 23, 2022By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Read more

The lost opportunity of Korean language teaching

Lessons from Jeong Mong-ju

The Korean family of the future

Home ownership and solving the marriage problem

Upcoming social developments in 2023

New book on Korean history

Sadness upon returning to Korea

A solution to a Confucianism problem

Death of monarchy

Women's rights in Korea

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