Abstract
This workshop will explore the concept ‘teenager’ from its historical roots to it present-day implications, specifically with reference to teenagers in Korea. Workshop participants will be asked to review their own experiences as a teenager, and encouraged to reflect how they would have coped with the typical day of a Korean teenager – long hours of study, inadequate sleep, increasing workload and pressure from parents and society to conform to a certain ideal, all of this against a background of ‘seksi’ music videos, American teenage aspirations as portrayed in the media and the Confucian ideals of their culture.Implications of these issues for the classroom will also be explored and participants will be encouraged to incorporate some of the ideas that will be shared in their own classrooms.Specifically, how does this enable us, their teachers, to guide them to find a voice in English that they may not have in Korean? We will explore the fact that English is an informal language compared to Korean, that the medium of rap music may well be more open to them speaking the language than some formal dialogues, and how the energy they have can be harnessed to exploring new ideas in various types of media.
Bio
Leonie Overbeek currently teaches at two middle schools where she works with teenagers from 13 to 16 years old. She has qualifications in analytical chemistry, chemical engineering and Value & Policy Studies, holding an M.Phil from Stellenbosch Unversity. After more than 20 years in the science field, she switched to her other great love, language. She taught both TEFL and TEYL teachers for two years in South Africa before coming to South Korea.. Leonie feels that no stone should be left unturned on life’s path. She has obtained formal qualifications in analytical chemistry, chemical engineering, policy studies and languages. She has studied singing, loves acting, and is passionate about keeping her knowledge of the world and all it has to offer as up to date as she can by reading as widely as she can.
She has been teaching in South Korea since 2007, after training TEFL teachers in Cape Town for two years. Her interest lies in how to best motivate and assist learners to achieve the best they can.
Her teaching philosophy is: Give people the opportunity to learn – what they do with it is up to them – but give them the opportunity! She can be reached at lionafrica@gmail.com or at 031-366-8410 after hours.
