E305/505 Korean Language and Culture


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Assignment on Korean Values (by Kalton 1979):

Name: ______________________

  1. What are the three things Kalton find in a sharp contrast between American and Korean culture?



  2. What is the ideology that predominates in the intellectual and spiritual life of Korea?



  3. In what historical context was confucionism introduced to Korea?



  4. What is the foundation of Western individualism?



  5. In the Confucian view, humans alone are noble because humans possesse the Five Relations. What are they and what are the key human quality that defines each relation?



  6. How do the Western view and the Confucion approach differ with regard to human dignity?



  7. The Confucian approach emphasizes human interrelatedness in contrast with the Western individualism. What are the values that are required to relate properly to others in the Confucian view?



    What are the qualities of individualistic values that hinder a proper implementation of interrelatedness?



  8. What are the concepts that carry interrelatedness of the Confucian approach and in what sense do they do so?



  9. Who is an individual that deeply influenced teh content and tone of education in the Neo-Confucian world of Yi dynasty and what was the key assumption of his view on education?



  10. What are the consequences for contemporary Korean politics that the high aspiration for education has brought?




  11. How is the ancient cosmology based on um (yin) and yang, the complimentary opposing principles from which all things are generated, related to the highly developed sex roles (and separation of the sexes) in Korean society? Specify the roles of each gender that the Yin-Yang theory dictates.