Teaching Korean cultural constructs to American students: Examples from a South Korea study abroad course

Abstract

The blend of traditional and contemporary culture in South Korea offers study abroad students a valuable setting to learn about psychological constructs. Despite South Korea’s potential as a study abroad destination, the body of literature on teaching psychology abroad in the country remains undeveloped. An immersion experience can be a valuable way to teach study abroad students about culture-specific constructs. The present article highlights how I attempted to teach three culture-specific constructs (han, jeong, and chemyon) during a short-term, intensive study abroad experience in South Korea, utilising various excursions and activities. Examples of learning activities discussed in this article are The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum to learn about han, Baby Box to facilitate discussion of chemyon, and dining out experience to learn about jeong. As appropriate, I integrate student written assignments and results from a survey to illustrate how the learning of the culture-specific constructs took place.