When looking at the beginning of the semester, I used to have trouble with the readings. This could be the case because we used to meet in discord and when we would discuss the readings I wasn’t as attentive or couldn’t interpret everything fully. On the other hand, I could be better at reading these historic first hand accounts, textbooks, and articles. At first I used to always be confused reading them. I feel that I can understand them a lot better after weeks of practicing how to read these hard texts. Some texts though for example cranes, stray bullet, and the Korean war captive in Japan were all very interesting and so I felt more engaged in those readings. I like the first hand account because I feel like I am looking inside the event. It feels more personal like a story and it gives me so much more emotion. In addition to liking certain readings better, I feel like as the class progressed, I enjoyed the content more. Starting from when we learned about the Imjin War I feel like I felt more engaged and liked learning the content more. I also really enjoyed the story of Prince Sado. I said in my first reflection I was really interested to see why the Korean War occured, and we got to that! It started when the North Korean Army invaded the South in an attempt to unify the two again and this was across the 38th parallel. The North was communist with the influence of the soviet union and the south was non communist. I also was excited to learn about North Korea specifically after the war, adn again we got to that! When choosing a topic for my chapter I was looking into doing North Korea after the war. After much thinking I am very happy I chose to go with the Kim family. This is something I am interested in and so I will enjoy doing research and writing this chapter. When there are exams in a class, I feel like I just try to memorize the material. This class allows me to not just memorize, but to also engage with the material as well as understand. I don’t feel the pressure to have to rush to learn the material, since there’s no exam and I can take my time to fully comprehend the material. By doing projects, blog posts, and discussing in groups, I feel that I get more of a chance to review the material as well as gain a better understanding since I am constantly expanding on what I have read and learned by engaging in conversations and different projects. In other classes I study a week before the exam and then immediately forget the material, and this class allows me to constantly “study” since I am always reviewing information. My goals for the second half were to engage more in class and to get better at understanding the texts. I definitely think I understand the texts more and I also think I do participate in class. I still think I can participate more though.
