VOA慢速英语2012 Education Report - The Problem With Plagiarism in South Korea

 

Education Report - The Problem With Plagiarism¹ in South Korea

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

South Korea's education system is highly respected. But there are concerns that academic dishonesty could harm its image in the world. That dishonesty includes cases of falsified research. And in recent months, two South Korean lawmakers have faced accusations² that they copied work for their doctoral dissertations⁴.

Of course, problems like these are not limited to South Korea. In April, Hungary's President Pal⁵ Schmitt resigned after a Hungarian university withdrew his doctoral title. A committee found that most of the pages of his dissertation³ on the modern Olympics "were either direct translations or showed partial similarity to other works."

Mr. Kim is a graduate student at Korea University who asked to be identified only by his family name. He says Koreans may not have a well-established understanding of plagiarism. He attended schools in the United States and says Americans seemed to understand that claiming other people's work as their own is wrong.

MR. KIM: "In Korea, that history may not be as long. So there still isn't a huge consensus⁶, in general, amongst all Koreans as to what plagiarism actually means. What is the extent of plagiarism and whether plagiarism itself is acceptable or not."

A VOA reporter asked South Korea's education minister, Lee Ju-ho, how seriously he takes the problem of plagiarism. Mr. Lee said the problem is not as bad as it used to be. He says these incidents gained a lot of attention seven or eight years ago. But he says the problem has mainly disappeared since then because of increased awareness⁷ and training. Still, the education minister says he wants to put more effort into eliminating plagiarism.

Mr. Kim, the graduate student, says current efforts to educate college students about plagiarism are not very effective.

MR. KIM: "Korean universities usually have at least one class or some kind of seminar in the beginning of the semester to talk about plagiarism. But as far as I know it is also quite optional. So there are a lot of people who just do not go to the seminar."

He say British and American professors who teach at South Korean colleges are helping⁸ to fight plagiarism.

MR. KIM: "One professor in my grad school found a student plagiarizing⁹ and automatically gave that student a zero. And I am hearing more of those [incidents] these days."

Lee In-jae is a professor of ethics¹⁰ education at Seoul National University of Education. He says the training should start in elementary school. He says children should learn that copying their classmates' homework or not identifying their sources of information is wrong. If they understand that, he says, then they will be able to write honest papers later in life.

Michael Neil Shapiro, a Canadian, taught at seven different South Korean universities. "In Korea," he says, "there are both ancient and modern reasons for thinking that it's OK to use other people's ideas without giving specific credit." But, East or West, he says, one reason for plagiarism is the same: "intellectual laziness" and the hope not to be discovered.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Mario Ritter.

1 plagiarism   

n.剽窃，抄袭

参考例句：

• Teachers in America fight to control cheating and plagiarism.美国老师们努力对付欺骗和剽窃的问题。
• Now he's in real trouble.He's accused of plagiarism.现在他是真遇到麻烦了。他被指控剽窃。

2 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

3 dissertation   

n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文

参考例句：

• He is currently writing a dissertation on the Somali civil war.他目前正在写一篇关于索马里内战的论文。
• He was involved in writing his doctoral dissertation.他在聚精会神地写他的博士论文。

4 dissertations   

专题论文，学位论文( dissertation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We spend the final term writing our dissertations. 我们用最后一个学期的时间写论文。
• The professors are deliberating over the post graduates dissertations. 教授们正在商讨研究生的论文。

5 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

6 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

7 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 plagiarizing   

v.剽窃，抄袭( plagiarize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was accused of plagiarizing his colleague's results. 他被指控剽窃同事的成果。
• Moderates are plagiarizing his ideas in hopes of wooing voters. 温和派为讨好选民在盗用他的观点。 来自辞典例句

10 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。