Inside North Korea
This is a documentary starring Lisa Ling, which follows her and an eye doctor/ humanitarian on a trip into the hermit kingdom, North Korea. I use this film for several classes. I show part of the film to my World History and U.S. History class to show the current state of North Korea before we go back in time to the Cold War and the Korean War. In economics, I show the documentary as part of the differences between capitalism and command economies. The students are usually very engaged and want to see more. I usually assign watching the rest of the documentary for homework as the video is on YouTube. This is one homework assignment that usually has 100% participation. The film can have the tendency to show communism in a bad light so it is important for the teacher to point this out and fill in any holes in their understanding. As our students live in capitalism everyday it is easier to understand but also easier to think that the U.S.’s economic system is better. The documentary does show the Korean idea of Juche pretty well which is very well understood by our students because many of them feel similarly, the idea that it is them against the world with no one to help them but themselves.
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National Geographic: Inside North Korea
05/23/2013 07:01 AM
#1
National Geographic: Inside North Korea
This film sounds fascinating. I plan to watch it for my own knowledge and understanding of what North Korea looks like today. Thanks for sharing!
I showed this film to my students and made connections to George Orwell's 1984. They were very interested and enthralled by the similarities. This is a thoughtful documentary that gives insight into the lives of the people in North Korea. I had my students compare and contrast the film the novel, Big Brother, and main concepts. Thank you for sharing.
edited by dcoronel on 5/23/2013
This sounds very interesting and I really like the idea of comparing and contrasting the USSR and North Korea. Many of my students are very interested in North Korea since they have been in the news lately. I will be checking this out soon! Thanks!