Fyse 101-17 Schedule
Asia Today: Current Topics in the ASEAN+3 Countries

Our seminar is unlike any other class that you will take during your Marietta College career. Because the seminar is not rooted in a particular discipline, does not rely on a textbook as the primary source of learning, and is a current-events based seminar, we do not have a measured amount of class materials "to get through". As well, since the purpose of the seminar is "learning how to learn" rather than learning a specific quantity of material, we will proceed at a slower pace and pay more attention to the process of learning than you would in other College classes. Thus, the schedule is a blank document at the beginning of the semester, and will take more definite shape as we proceed through the semester.

• Seminar welcome and introduction with Professor Grace Johnson and Professor Jeanne Arbuckle
• Personal introductions and photos

• Subscribe to The Wall Street Journal
• Subscribe to The New York Times
• Individual assignment for Monday, August 25: prepare an annotated bibliography for six articles (from six different sources) about the conflict and tensions leading up to and taking place during the Beijing Olympic Games. Use the summary annotation format described on this Web site.

• Discuss annotated bibilography assignment

• ASEAN + 3 map quiz
• Assign seminar work teams (two teams of three students and one team of four students)
• Team assignment for Monday, September 1: research and prepare an interesting one-page overview of each of the countries assigned to your work team. Several starting points for your research might include the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Web site, the CIA World Factbook Web site, "Background Notes" from the U.S. Department of State Web site, the World Bank, United Nations, and World Health Organization Web sites, and World Atlas' Web site (for maps). Also, locate two current events for each country and summarize them. Remember to include a Works Cited page and to use internal citations.
  • Team 1: Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan
  • Team 2: Korea (North and South), Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar
  • Team 3: Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

• Talk about effective work teams

• Teams present their country overviews

• Environmental issues such as Komodo dragons in Indonesia, China's environmental challenges
  • September 8 - QUIZ #1

• Celebrate Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. East moon cakes, drink tea, read poems. Location: Thomas 123

• Distribution of Case Study #1. Due back on Friday, September 26 at the beginning of class.

• Education in Japan, Korea, and China

• health care concerns in ASEAN countries and China

• No class -- use it for work on Case Study #2. Distributed October 15 and due back on October 22 at the beginning of class.

• No classes -- meet with me for 10 minute, one-on-one discussions (grades, adaptation to MC, etc.)
• October 17: Francesca, Cody, Frank, Tim, Brittany
• October 20: Will, Tina, Richie, Julie

• Domestic migration: China and Japan -- please access and read
  • "A massive migration of workers", October 6, 2008, China Daily
  • "After Earthquake, Sichuan Jobs Crisis Forces Thousands of Workers to Leave", October 8, 2008, The Wall Street JournalPage A13, -- Retrieve from "Today's Paper" | "Past Editions" | "October 8, 2008" to locate the article (the result from the search function yields a broken link to the article)
  • "Village Writes Its Epitaph: Victim of a Graying Japan", April 30, 2006, The New York Times

• Guest lecturer, Mr. Bill Fournier, Career Services Center

• Guest lecturer, Prof. Joe Straw, Instructional Librarian

• Guest speaker, Dr. Salleh, Ohio University

• Debrief Dr. Salleh visit; outmigration and remittance income project from central Ningxia

• Fashion, food, sports and entertainment culture

• Guest speaker, Dr. Mark Schaefer, Department of History, Political Science and Religion, Marietta College
  • Be sure you have read the Thomas Friedman article from The New York Times, "A Manifesto for the Fast World", March 28, 1999

• Lunch at Fusion Japanese restaurant, Vienna, WV. Depart Thomas Hall at 11:00am, return approximately 1:00pm.
  • Be sure you have read "Sushi Bullies", by Katy McLaughlin, from the October 24, 2008, Wall Street Journal

• Ohio University Alden Library research field trip. Depart Thomas Hall at 11:00am, arrive in Marietta approximately 5:00pm.

• Students' choice of topics

• Teams present their semester projects in a poster session (Thomas 123)

• Seminar evaluation