As college students enter the latter stages of their undergraduate programs, a common obstacle that most of them face is writing a palatable resume. Fortunately, Korea University (KU) helps students experiment with formulating documents including resumes and cover letters through providing the general studies course Business English Lab. With the help of an enthusiastic instructor, students can develop practical English writing skills and cultivate methods for making themselves attractive to future employers.

Marking its thirteenth anniversary this semester, Business English Lab has consistently provided KU students a haven for those who are drafting job application documents. Professor Park Hae Soon (Department of English Language and Literature) has taken on the task of providing this course since 2013. What enhances this course to another level is the professor’s belief that the use of language is a social activity that reflects the cultural, political, and historical circumstances of the time. In this course, the learning does not stop at simply curating resumes but extends into developing critical thinking skills.

Guidance in an Online Setting

Most KU courses are mandated to be held online under the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) regulations, and this applies to Business English Lab as well. Professor Park meets her students for an hour every week through Zoom, where she introduces various business materials in relation to real-life skills such as critical thinking, organizational research, and decision making. As a person who values intercultural interaction, Professor Park stresses the need to understand why it is important to learn and utilize these skills.

The central objective of this course is to become familiar with writing a creative resume and cover letter in order to grab the attention of prospective employers. Students are to create authentic documents or hypothetical resumes for the purposes of this class. During several thought provoking sessions, students are required to ask themselves, “What is considered a good resume?”. This allows everyone in the class to each create a unique resume with a hint of their personal color, a feat difficult to achieve through only the traditional format of one-sided lecturing.

Another major part of this course is in learning how to create a business proposal, an opportunity attained through a group project in which students can choose to either showcase a 10-minute presentation or submit a 5-paged written proposal. Over the span of eight weeks, students begin with understanding the basics of research, progress into developing meaningful negotiation skills, and eventually become familiarized with process-oriented group discussions and projects. With the final month of the semester focused on group interactions and instructor feedback, students learn how to cooperate as a group and ultimately enhance their overall business English language competence.

Looking Beyond the Coursebook

The key aspect that sets this course apart from other English lectures is the fact that it is a lab course instead of a theory-based program. This becomes more evident while revising resumes and business proposals, where students are expected to actively reflect on feedback from the professor. In fact, Professor Park’s passionate attitude towards this course is what maximizes the students’ learning experience. As the course’s main instructor, Professor Park has dedicated hours into perusing student feedback on the course at the end of each semester and constantly studied ways to improve Business English Lab.

In fact, Professor Park revealed that she “received complaints from students who are accustomed to learning according to the coursebook” and even confessed that some approached her with resentment over how much work is needed for a single credit. She admits that the course had an ambiguous purpose and scope of learning in the first few semesters, which resulted in frequent changes in instructors. However, her efforts in improving the syllabus have proven to be fruitful as the course has now gained some ground as a valid and reliable lecture.

Regarding the future direction of this course, Professor Park believes that it depends on how much she actively interacts with her students and how accurately she “reflects the changes and demands of language through analytical and critical thinking.” Given her enthusiastic take on this course, it is no surprise that she receives mostly positive reviews on Klue, a KU-specific course review site. For students who wish to perfect their resume, there is no better candidate for a mentor than Professor Park, who always reviews her students’ work very thoroughly. As long as students focus on improving their own work with the help of a passionate instructor, this course could easily be the most rewarding one credit course KU provides.

To gain insight into the experience of taking this course, The Granite Tower (GT) interviewed Kim Soo Ah (’19, School of Art and Design), a former student of Business English Lab.

GT: How did the lecture help you as a student? Please provide a specific example.

Kim: Personally, I was planning to study abroad after this semester. I have also been preparing job applications as I wanted to do my internship at a foreign company while studying abroad. I found this lecture very helpful, particularly thanks to Professor Park, who was very considerate of students like me. Not only did she detail the mechanics behind writing a resume, but she also delved into cover letters and business proposals, both of which I believe would be very necessary in the job market.

GT: Would you recommend this lecture? If so, who would you recommend it to?

Kim: As I mentioned earlier, I would like to recommend this lecture to anyone planning to work in a company. The skills that students learn through this course are not just limited to experiences related to foreign firms but also apply to domestic corporations. Additionally, the small class size allows the professor to provide detailed feedback on students’ assignments, which becomes incredibly helpful during the revision process. However, it should be noted that prospective students should not assume a light workload even if it is a one credit class