KOREA 50
History of Korean Civilization
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Knowledge of Korean not required. General survey of development of Korean culture within context of political, social, and economic history. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Awesome and fun GE to take over the summer! Instead of 2 3 hour classes every week he prerecorded about 2 hours of lecture that you could watch at any time and then a once a week discussion for one hour. His research was insanely cool and he actually was really good at facilitating discussions during class which made it quite interesting to talk about. There were weekly reading responses that were around 250 words and 2 essays throughout the entire quarter, so it was all overall quite chill. There were a ton of essay prompts as well so you could always write about what you wanted to write about and he was always incredibly accomodating and really looked out for us during these online times. Would definitely recommend this class!
Summer 2020 - Awesome and fun GE to take over the summer! Instead of 2 3 hour classes every week he prerecorded about 2 hours of lecture that you could watch at any time and then a once a week discussion for one hour. His research was insanely cool and he actually was really good at facilitating discussions during class which made it quite interesting to talk about. There were weekly reading responses that were around 250 words and 2 essays throughout the entire quarter, so it was all overall quite chill. There were a ton of essay prompts as well so you could always write about what you wanted to write about and he was always incredibly accomodating and really looked out for us during these online times. Would definitely recommend this class!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - From our understanding, the school tried to combine this class into a history + literature class but Professor Park placed more emphasis on the literature aspect, as most of the readings were short stories from certain areas of premodern/modern/contemporary Korea. During lecture, her slides did include historical background for the readings she assigned but that's pretty much the only "history" talked about in class. Her class is broken down into: reading reviews, film reviews, participation/attendance, and two essays. Her class does not have midterm or final exams; there is one midterm essay and one final essay, all turned in online. I think she switches up the topic each quarter but they are essentially critical analysis essays where you choose one reading (or film) and write a seven page essay. Almost all of the readings are posted in PDF format on CCLE, I think there's only like one or two readings from books you have to purchase. There is no textbook but towards the end of the course, there are two books you need to purchase (or at least get a hold of) but they're not super expensive (one book has three assigned reading chapters and the other book, you have to read in its entirety but it's not a thick book and the story is very interesting). She tries to assign films that relate to the readings and she uploads those movies onto CCLE as well. Every week, you write a review for the reading and also for the movies; not hard, just a paragraph of what you liked/disliked/any questions you had. All in all, the course isn't that bad. She's not too keen on using laptops/tablets/phones in class so you have to get her permission beforehand to use them. Just take notes of her lectures because she puts questions you can use for your essays on the slides and gives lots of background info regarding the topic of the questions!
Winter 2020 - From our understanding, the school tried to combine this class into a history + literature class but Professor Park placed more emphasis on the literature aspect, as most of the readings were short stories from certain areas of premodern/modern/contemporary Korea. During lecture, her slides did include historical background for the readings she assigned but that's pretty much the only "history" talked about in class. Her class is broken down into: reading reviews, film reviews, participation/attendance, and two essays. Her class does not have midterm or final exams; there is one midterm essay and one final essay, all turned in online. I think she switches up the topic each quarter but they are essentially critical analysis essays where you choose one reading (or film) and write a seven page essay. Almost all of the readings are posted in PDF format on CCLE, I think there's only like one or two readings from books you have to purchase. There is no textbook but towards the end of the course, there are two books you need to purchase (or at least get a hold of) but they're not super expensive (one book has three assigned reading chapters and the other book, you have to read in its entirety but it's not a thick book and the story is very interesting). She tries to assign films that relate to the readings and she uploads those movies onto CCLE as well. Every week, you write a review for the reading and also for the movies; not hard, just a paragraph of what you liked/disliked/any questions you had. All in all, the course isn't that bad. She's not too keen on using laptops/tablets/phones in class so you have to get her permission beforehand to use them. Just take notes of her lectures because she puts questions you can use for your essays on the slides and gives lots of background info regarding the topic of the questions!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Lot's of upper classmen have told me that this class sucks and i agree to an extent that this class is a lot. It's a reading heavy class and the expectation for the midterm and final are that you really critically think about Korean history at large. plus theres a lot of information jammed pack into each lecture and weekly schedule. But I want to give the professor and their TAs (or at least my TA heejin lee <3) some credit. They genuinely want to help the students no matter what. If you go in to say that your struggling understanding a lecture or have questions on the final or midterm, the professors and TAs will help you. Also, the expectations for any assignment or test is really straight forward, for the final and midterm essay the rubric lays out exactly what they want/expect and as long as you hit those points you can pull out an A/A-. Other things like weekly tests or quizzes were based on completion so you don't have to worry too much about them (and the bonus is that the professor is lenient on due dates, as long as you get them done before week 10 your fine; but don't rely on that too much since the class was online this quarter). Also, regarding the heavy readings, tbh you don't really need to read the textbook; as long as you read through the primary and secondary sources and take notes on the lectures you get the same information (max i spent about 2-3 hours a week on the class readings). Keep in mind too that the readings and lectures are really the only 'assignments' you have to do in class. Tips: - show up to office hours, that's honestly how you get to know the professor and your TA which helps in the long run with this class. talking with the professor about the lecture and some personal inquires gave me a better idea of what the professor and TA's were expecting when it came to grading. plus they will give you a lot of tips and help for the final and midterm essay. also the professor has a really interesting perspective on the topic so if you get the chance, i recommend just going in to talk to him about the subject. - prioritize primary and secondary source readings over the textbook... out of respect to the teacher, i recommend just trying to do all the readings. but in all honesty, you get the same information in a more condensed and better package from the class lectures than from the textbook; plus he highlights which parts are most relevant to the class. - the syllabus is your best friend.... it lays out which specific pages on the readings to do which seems kinda obvious but i cannot tell you how many times i read the entire pdf document of 15-20 pages only to find out that the requirement was to read a 1/3 of the pages uploaded. - stay on top of your online lectures and readings... this is the part that i feel like makes the class difficult... if you fall behind and skip even one day of lectures, it's going to hurt really hard trying to catch up on everything. so make sure you use those time management skills.
Fall 2021 - Lot's of upper classmen have told me that this class sucks and i agree to an extent that this class is a lot. It's a reading heavy class and the expectation for the midterm and final are that you really critically think about Korean history at large. plus theres a lot of information jammed pack into each lecture and weekly schedule. But I want to give the professor and their TAs (or at least my TA heejin lee <3) some credit. They genuinely want to help the students no matter what. If you go in to say that your struggling understanding a lecture or have questions on the final or midterm, the professors and TAs will help you. Also, the expectations for any assignment or test is really straight forward, for the final and midterm essay the rubric lays out exactly what they want/expect and as long as you hit those points you can pull out an A/A-. Other things like weekly tests or quizzes were based on completion so you don't have to worry too much about them (and the bonus is that the professor is lenient on due dates, as long as you get them done before week 10 your fine; but don't rely on that too much since the class was online this quarter). Also, regarding the heavy readings, tbh you don't really need to read the textbook; as long as you read through the primary and secondary sources and take notes on the lectures you get the same information (max i spent about 2-3 hours a week on the class readings). Keep in mind too that the readings and lectures are really the only 'assignments' you have to do in class. Tips: - show up to office hours, that's honestly how you get to know the professor and your TA which helps in the long run with this class. talking with the professor about the lecture and some personal inquires gave me a better idea of what the professor and TA's were expecting when it came to grading. plus they will give you a lot of tips and help for the final and midterm essay. also the professor has a really interesting perspective on the topic so if you get the chance, i recommend just going in to talk to him about the subject. - prioritize primary and secondary source readings over the textbook... out of respect to the teacher, i recommend just trying to do all the readings. but in all honesty, you get the same information in a more condensed and better package from the class lectures than from the textbook; plus he highlights which parts are most relevant to the class. - the syllabus is your best friend.... it lays out which specific pages on the readings to do which seems kinda obvious but i cannot tell you how many times i read the entire pdf document of 15-20 pages only to find out that the requirement was to read a 1/3 of the pages uploaded. - stay on top of your online lectures and readings... this is the part that i feel like makes the class difficult... if you fall behind and skip even one day of lectures, it's going to hurt really hard trying to catch up on everything. so make sure you use those time management skills.
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