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Terms such as the ‘MZ generation’ and ‘YiDaenam (Korean twentysomething)’ define the trend of the current youth generation. However, these terms contain the problem that they are not the result of sociological observation of the conditions and the desires of the young generation, but are made as a result of marketing strategies or as a consequential phenomenon. Liberal intellectuals criticize that the sense of ‘fairness’ that the current young generation is aiming for will be transformed into a one-sided preference for ‘meritocracy’, thus functioning as a crisis factor for democracy. In order to examine how the values of ‘fairness’ and ‘meritocracy’ are actually used in the language of the youth movement, this paper has selected some of the youth organizations established after the presidential impeachment in 2016 and examined the direction of each organization. The language problem that appeared in the declarations of foundation and the interviews with activists was analyzed. The languages used by the members of such organizations as youth workers’ groups from technical specialized high schools, Riders Union, and Fashion Assistant Union, manifested their strong desire to be recognized as a ‘citizen’ who receive the legal and institutional protection of the government. However, the process they are pursuing does not lead to meritocracy. Youth Emergency Climate Action and ‘Big Wave’ are the groups of young people aimed at responding to the crisis of climate changes. Although they recognized the climate crisis as a problem for the younger generation to deal with, they showed an attitude of understanding the cause as a complex combination of transnational capital and nationalism. Lastly, in the case of youth action for enacting anti-discrimination laws, they showed a language that implicitly advocates meritocracy while criticizing academic factionalism. This is attributed to the nature of the movement, which excludes partisan elements.

It is still common to look into the ‘field’ and the workers through the turning point of the 1987 Grand Struggle of Workers. Workers who had revolted in 1987 were no longer fighting as ‘Goliath workers’ through the 1990s, as they received various welfare benefits and high wages provided by the companies. Now, the center of the Korean working class is no longer the Goliath worker. An important turning point in this narrative flow is the new business management strategy that began in 1990. In particular, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) had been carrying out the Hope 90’s Movement since 1990, and with a budget of about 2 billion won, various internal and external cultural projects and education of consciousness were implemented to create the idea of a corporate family through consolidating a ‘labor-management harmony’. At the same time, as a result of stronger suppression of the union through disciplinary action, dismissal, and arrest, the union’s dominance in the field was weakened, which became a major factor for evaluating Daewoo Shipbuilding’s Hope 90’s Movement as ‘successful’. In this narrative flow, the workers who were exploited arose in 1987 and gained their identity as workers, but their identity as workers was weakened due to the company’s new management strategy in the 1990s. And through the heyday of the shipbuilding industry in the 2000s, they took on the character of the middle class. It means that it fell behind without being able to follow the trend of the times. After all, do the workers simply enjoy a life that mimics the middle class on an isolated island, being separated from the center, and then simply disappear into the background of the times? Should we say that workers are only falling apart after being seduced by capital to covet and imitate a bourgeois life that is not allowed for them? What do workers say about this? In order to find another answer to that question, it is necessary to look at the records of the workers who fought for finding their share even after the mythical struggle called the ‘87 Grand Struggle’. Therefore, in this paper, based on a close reading of ‘Okpo Nobo (옥포 노보)’, the newsletter of Daewoo Shipbuilding’s labor union (since 1990, ‘Cry of Opening the Dawn’), we learn how workers created their own language apart from the language of the capitalists and fought for themselves in order not to forget their language again. In particular, this article will focus on ‘Okpo-Nobo’ from 1988 to 1989. The union was formed in August 1987 and ‘Okpo Nobo’, published from 1988 to 1989, is an important source of records from the earliest days of union establishment. At first, they did not have their own language, so they borrowed the language of the capitalists. But in the process, they gradually acquired their own language, thus creating a situation in which various voices of workers coexisted.

Based on the concept of ‘cyborg’, this article looked at the awareness of the boundary problem in Yun Yi-hyung’s novels. Thinking about the boundaries that can be categorized as the boundary between humans and machines, reality and virtual reality, and heterosexuality and homosexuality is ultimately an attempt to overcome the narrative of hierarchy and exclusion ‒ created by the system of neoliberalism, economy, and Internet culture ‒ through science and technology. “Danny” and “Sua” deal with the boundaries between humans and machines. “Danny” visualized the economic environment of grandmothers who perform care work through robots, and “Sua” takes issue with the ‘look of hierarchization’ through the question of the boundary between the female robot ‘Sua’ and the female protagonist. “Lunch at Istua Park” and “Big Wolf Parang” deal with the economic background of virtual reality across the real/ virtual boundary. “Lunch at Istua Park” emphasized a robot-human connection by affirming the existence of virtual space controlled by the state, and “Big Wolf Parang” portrays those people who are familiar with the situation of being engaged in endless competition to obtain capital under the neoliberal system. The two works evoke the violence of the virtual world and contemplate a new way of connecting technology and humans. “Luca” and “Seung-hye and Mi-oh” deal with the issue of homosexuality, but do not disclose the violence of churches or heterosexuals. The two works criticize the ontology of the modern people through which they can prove their existence only by rejecting the other world, and seek the possibility of coexistence between the two heterogeneous worlds. In conclusion, it can be said that Yun Yi-hyung reflected on our society where technology becomes part of our daily life through writing and sought a network of coexistence and solidarity, not confrontation.

This thesis is a cultural study examining the characteristics of cryptocurrency investment experience. The cryptocurrency market is similar to a gambling house in appearance due to its rapid volatility and lack of regulations, but investment practice cannot be categorized as a behavior based on irrational impulses. Compared to stock investment, cryptocurrency investment requires a greater amount of learning, and is characterized by information warfare that requires access to information in real time. In addition, as the market is chaotic, mental training, also called ‘mental management’, is emphasized, demonstrating the principle of self-management, which is the general law of investment. This paper reveals that cryptocurrency investors exist as an extension of the neoliberal self-management subject by analyzing the on- and off-line investment experience records. The fact that the various technological possibilities of the blockchain, which forms the basis of cryptocurrency, are compressed and named as ‘coins’ clearly reveals that cryptocurrency has become a speculative asset, unlike the democratic money concept of early Bitcoin. In addition, this study points out the socioeconomic, political, and technological background surrounding the speculative cryptocurrency market, and especially takes precaution against technological fetishism.

Many international students, especially those who are not from the East Asian cultural sphere (漢字文化圈), find it difficult to master Sino-Korean vocabulary (Hanja-eo, 漢字語) when learning Korean. Previous studies showed that 90% of both instructors and students agreed that the knowledge of Chinese characters can help learners to make an improvement in learning their Korean vocabularies. However, these studies have different opinions on how to teach Sino-Korean vocabulary to international students: some suggest that Chinese characters should be taught together with Sino-Korean vocabulary while others argue that it is not necessary to master Chinese characters in order to learn Sino-Korean vocabulary. This paper suggests that Sino-Korean vocabulary should be taught explicitly by using the LBH method in a multinational classroom. LBH is an acronym for “Learning by Hint”, a study strategy of Sino-Korean vocabulary that was introduced by Jeon Gwangjin (2006). It was originally designed for Korean native students (especially elementary school students) to improve their vocabulary. However, it is also an efficient method for international student learners of Sino-Korean vocabulary. When teaching Korean to non-native speakers, many instructors tend to explain Sino-Korean words holistically, which means that they only offer the definition of the word without explaining the morpheme, which is the smallest meaningful lexical item in a language. By using the LBH method, students can acquire a Sino-Korean word step by step. Students will learn the meaning of each morpheme first, and then relate the meaning of each morpheme to the meaning of the whole word. This enables them to understand the Sino-Korean words better and memorize the words in a more efficient way, without learning how to write the Chinese characters. In the last part of this paper, we give an example that shows how the LBH method can be adopted into a Korean academic reading class at the undergraduate level, together with the efficient way of teaching Sino-Korean words by dividing them into different categories according to their word structures.

After the Gapsin Coup (1884), the memorial service held at Taebodan (大 報壇, Altar of Great Gratitude), a symbol of ‘Sinocentrism’ in the Joseon dynasty, was abolished. and in 1910, the Korean Empire was colonized by Japan. Since then, an increasing number of Confucian intellectuals migrated to China, which was an utopia and the center of civilization for them. Seocheon Jo Jeonggyu (西川 趙貞奎), a Neo-Confucian scholar in the Yeongnam region, considered moving to the West-Gando area of China to avoid unprecedented turbulence and inherit his beliefs. Having arrived at Beijing via West-Gando, he met Yi Jongye (李鍾豫), a Han Chinese (漢族) literary figure, and exchanged ‘conversation in writing’ on the topic of the future of Confucianism and the Republic of China, but differed in their perspectives. Jo Junggyu was in a position that these should be inherited until the end, and Yi Jongye argued that they were already the relics of the past. Yi Jongye opposed Jo Junggyu’s claim for the return of the Ming Dynasty, the ‘Han Chinese, Confucianism, and the old system. Jo Junggyu was a little disappointed, but he did not give up his argument. This paper will examine the differences in opinions along with the exchanges between modern Korean and Chinese intellectuals. In particular, the complex emotions and perceptions of reality of Korean Confucian intellectuals who traveled to modern China will be discussed.

Interculturalism is an increasingly urgent topic in the 21st century. As Rustom Bharucha indicates, Interculturalism is “in the theatre is to be more than a vision, there has to be a fairer exchange between theatrical traditions in the East and the West.” Based on this theory, Intercultural theatre has started with the appearance of theatre directors such as Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine, and Richard Schechner since the late 1960s. Director, Yang Jung-ung, who pursues intercultural theatre has attempted to create new performances where he added unique Korean traditional elements and characteristics to the conventional performances of Shakespearean plays that have been regarded as the model of the Western classical dramas. In this process, Yang has turned Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a performance of a Koreanized fairy-tale. Accordingly, he succeeded in featuring a unique Korean version of Shakespearean plays to the Western audience. Even though Yang’s performances have been sometimes criticized for ruining Shakespeare’s original texts and intentions, he deserves credit for contributing to the creation of a new culture by expanding the realms of Shakespearean authenticity from a new perspective. This paper will examine the main features of Yang Jung-ung’s direction of his new adaptation of A Midsummer night’s dream and analyze the performance in terms of Interculturalism. More specifically, the characteristics and possibilities of Yang’s Shakespearean performance are explored.

This study has explored the effectiveness of the speech analysis program in learning the English pronunciation and intonation associated with yes/no and wh-questions. Eighteen Korean elementary school students participated in the program partaking in twelve sessions over 4 weeks. Participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The control group practiced English intonation using video produced by a native speaker and the experimental group practiced using the same video and performed additional actions using a visualized speech analysis program (Praat). Meaningful results were obtained for the experimental group practicing with the video and the speech analysis program. In addition, upon analysis of the data of students who participated in the experimental group it was found that the visualized software, Praat was effective in assisting the achievement of native speaker level of pronunciation and intonation through self-monitoring and self-correcting. The results observed in the control group did not find any significance in the learning of intonation; however, it was found that some p articipants in t he c ontrol g roup i mprov ed i n intonation l earning through repeated exposure to the video produced by the native speaker.

This article focuses on Prokino archiving in the 1980s, including the collection and screening of Prokino films, the collection and restoration of Prokino journals, and the publication of The History of Prokino. This article regards Prokino archiving work as a practice of producing knowledge in a power relationship. The Prokino activities have an important value and meaning in the history of Japanese films in that they produced films for workers and held screening tours nationwide without relying on capital under the surveillance and oppression of the imperial Japanese authorities from 1929 to 1934. However, since the archive is a place infested with “archive fever,” only the traces of Prokino members were noted through the added subtitles, commentaries, and the publication of The History of Prokino in Prokino archiving. In Prokino archiving, the existence of the women and the Koreans (Zainichi) is hidden although they, in solidarity among audiences, actively interpreted Prokino films ‒ whose intentions had not been properly realized due to various unfavorable conditions ‒ as the films of resistance.