Immune System. East and West
In relation to Covid I’ve been hearing a lot about our ’immune system’. Don’t worry about face masks or vaccines. if you want to protect yourself against Covid just boost make sure you your immune system! What might a cross-cultural analysis of this notion have to say about cultural difference?
The Public and Private
In this post, I want to go back to something I promised not to mention again: face masks. I apologize for breaking my promise but hope you will find what I have to say adds something interesting to my on-going exploration of cultural differences between the West and Korea. These reflections come after having spent the past month and a half in Europe.
North Korea’s Victory over Covid-19
So, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea did not collapse due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Why?
Masks….Yet Again.
I spent the summer in France, and it was quite a shock to suddenly be somewhere in which wearing facemasks was no longer mandatory in public places, as it still very much is in Korea. I am also back in the classroom teaching students face-to-face, or mask-to-mask. I am finding it a terribly demoralizing experience. The masks of my student make it difficult to recognize them, but even more awful, completely erases one of the most important markers through which I can receive signals of a student’s active engagement with my teaching – their mouths. This post incloves some more reflections on cultural difference as revealed through the protocols of wearing facemasks.