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Faculty Excellence at UMUC



Woo-Ill Shim

Faculty Interview
Woo-Ill Shim
Foreign Language

 

Hear the audio clip on practicing language skills in a Korean market. (2:04)

Interviewer: Please tell us about yourself--what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.
Woo-Ill Shim:

I first became interested in teaching the Korean language to foreigners when I traveled to Canada to take an English language course in 1995. While there, I volunteered as a Korean language teacher for second-generation Koreans who had immigrated to Canada. This was such a fun and rewarding experience that when I came back to Korea, I volunteered at UNESCO, teaching Korean to foreigners. While teaching there, I found out that UMUC had a Korean Language Program on U.S. military bases, so in 2000, I applied and was hired, and I've been teaching here since.

When not teaching Korean for UMUC, I typically am teaching Korean at another institution. For example, I taught Korean as a second language at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul for 3 years and am currently working at Pyeongtaek University where my students are teachers who want to be Korean language instructors for foreigners. I have also taught Korean for foreigners at Samsung corporation.

One of the secondary goals I have when teaching classes for UMUC is to dispel misperceptions that Americans have about Korea. I have noticed from watching American TV programs and movies that South Korea is often portrayed as a dangerous country due to its proximity to North Korea, rather than the safe and beautiful country that it actually is. I recently watched the movie “Transformers” in which Korea is portrayed as a potential source of weapons. Through stereotypes like this, Americans are being taught to fear Korea. In my classes, we have chances to replace these misperceptions with the reality of life in Korea. I think students appreciate including these topics in class, as it keeps the class interesting, and also allows them to better evaluate images of Korea they see in various media.

Interviewer: How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?
Woo-Ill Shim: My philosophy for teaching is pretty simple. I try to provide students with the best learning environment that I know how and give them lots of encouragement. For teaching a new language, I have learned that it is best to provide a mixture of activities and use a variety of media so that students get practice with reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In addition, I have learned from experience that students are more motivated and participate more if I include activities that are relevant to their lives or expose them to the local culture.

The encouragement parts of my teaching strategy I got mostly from my mother. She encouraged me to learn my whole life, even through some challenging times which required her to sacrifice a lot. Other parts I picked up from my professors, and I continue to learn new methods from my colleagues.
Interviewer: Please explain if you do something special or unique in your teaching and what made you develop this.
Woo-Ill Shim: I have come up with a variety of activities to encourage students to deal with real life situations. These include passing out fake Korean money and turning the class into a market to help the students become familiar with the money and shopping customs. Also I do a “scavenger hunt” activity where the students go downtown to find Korean words for specific items and words borrowed from English but spelled in Hangul. This gives them good reading practice and practice interacting with the local people. Another effective activity I do is having the students talk to a native Korean speaker over the phone. I also composed a song for the Korean alphabet using the classic “ABC…” song melody.
Interviewer: What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?
Woo-Ill Shim: I think students like that I make the class very real and applicable from the first day. They come into class and within 20 minutes they are speaking Korean (introducing themselves to each other). By the end of week 2 they are out in the community reading signs and asking questions. I also think the students like that they can approach me with comfort. I make an effort to learn all their names on day 1, and call them by name in the class. These things keep the class active, personal, and relevant. Lastly, I think students like that I can make them laugh a lot (they think I'm funny, but mostly I'm just being real to them).
Interviewer: Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.
Woo-Ill Shim: I have only taught face-to-face so far, but recently completed WebTycho training so may be teaching online soon. Therefore, it is too soon to tell if I will have a preference.
Interviewer: Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?
Woo-Ill Shim: This is rather interesting, as I didn't actually choose my discipline. My parents wanted me to go to law school, but I didn't pass the qualifying exams. This process left me without a college to attend. Learning this, a good friend of mine took charge and submitted an application for me at the same university that she was attending and selected the Korean language as my major. Well, I got accepted into that program, and it turned out to be the perfect career path for me. Now I am glad I didn't get into law school!

I actually have to stay current in my discipline as I am doing research for a doctoral dissertation. My dissertation topic is comparative grammar between Korean and English. I hope to complete it in about a year.

Teaching Korean is very rewarding as you get to watch students go from nothing to conversing. This is often received by students with gratitude, which they express with smiles, and sometimes with words in Korean (gamsahamnida!)
Interviewer: What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge?
Woo-Ill Shim: Many grammatical structures of Korean language are different from English, and it can be difficult to get the students to understand them. To work them through this, I try to find out a good example in English to explain the concept which we are covering. If it is understandable in English then students have better understanding in Korean.
Interviewer: What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?
Woo-Ill Shim: I would say that the best advice for being a Korean language major is true for any major; it is best if you enjoy that subject, then immerse yourself in it and become part of that community.
Interviewer: In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?
Woo-Ill Shim: Well, here in Korea, I think UMUC is the obvious choice as we has more classes than any other university offering face-to-face classes to undergraduates.
Interviewer: In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?
Woo-Ill Shim: UMUC is a very interesting place to work and allows faculty to experience new cultures and work with students who really appreciate that they are there.
Interviewer: What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?
Woo-Ill Shim: I would tell them that if they do teach for UMUC, they will learn a lot. They will learn American culture and modern slang, they will learn what Korean words to be careful using as they sound like bad words in English, and mostly they will learn that these students have great abilities; we just have to help them find them.

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