Week 1) 20161107~20161113

English Intensive Class Assignment for March: School Bullying- Everywhere, Everyday

It was an ominously chilly winter morning and Mrs. Lim hurriedly drove back home. She was a teacher and the proud mother of two boys, and she just heard from police officers that some sort of ‘accident’ happened to her youngest son. She had no idea what happened to him. As soon as she arrived at the apartment she lived in, she saw handful of police officers standing round in the apartment’s garden. One ominous thought popped up in her mind but she tried to erase the thought. “It can’t be,” she thought. But her youngest son was there, on the frozen ground. Police officers were taking pictures of the body and marking the place. She shook him and screamed his name. He didn’t move, but was still warm. She cried with agony, “Please call the ambulance! My son is still warm, he is alive!” Nobody but an abyss of silence replied. The police officers gazed at her with compassion. She cried out his name over and over, but to no avail. This is the real story of Mrs. Lim Jiyoung. Her son Seongmin committed suicide at a very young age because he couldn’t bear the bullying of his classmates anymore. The tragic suicide of the boy illustrates how dangerous and serious school bullying is. His classmates made fun of him, battered him, and even tortured him. Later, when people asked them why they did so, they replied, “we did it just for fun”.

Admittedly, Korean teenagers these days are facing a lot of problems. Almost every day, I hear experts on TV news or debate programs saying, “Korean adolescents are addicted to smart phones and computer games, they hardly respect their teachers and parents, they do not read many books, and… Oh, they are so troublesome!” But these problems are relatively minor, compared to this huge problem: school bullying. It is reported that about 460 million Korean students are suffering from school bullying. Everyone living in this country knows a great deal about this problem due to the tragic death of many victims. Relentless tragic news about them even made some people misunderstand this phenomenon. They claim that school bullying is only taking place in this country. But, their opinion isn’t quite true. School bullying is an everyday occurrence in every country. In other words, it has been going on for many decades, and is happening in many foreign schools as well.

The 1990s were truly remarkable for Koreans: we experienced both rapid economic development and devastating economic crisis. Rapid development gave dreams and hopes to us, but the following economic crisis gave us huge economic loss and discouraged many people. So many people lost their job, went broke, lost their houses, divorced, and committed suicide. It was such a horrible and stressful turn-of-the-century, especially for teenagers: their parents and teachers shocked by the sudden economic crisis forced them to study, study, and study so that they could enter good colleges and land good jobs, their families suffered from poverty, and it was becoming more and more difficult to succeed. So they tried to relieve stress by misbehaving: many adolescents became addicted to drugs and alcohol, smoked, and bullied their classmates. The bullies made fun of weak peers. They sometimes ordered the victims to give them some money or do evil things with them. If the victims denied their orders, the teenagers were gruesomely beaten. Many teenagers suffered a lot, and even killed themselves. However, the government, the police, and schools didn’t listen carefully to the victims’ complaints and requests for help. They just said, “It is something that always happens. We have no power to stop it”. I suppose if they at least had tried to put an end to this problem, school bullying might have been eradicated from this country by now.

As I mentioned above, school bullying is not only Korea’s problem. Putting aside alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and teen pregnancy, many western adults are saying that they feel somewhat humiliated because of the serious school bullying taking place in their countries. According to 2008 article in The Guardian, school bullying turned out to be worse in England than other European countries. Americans are saying that ‘bullying is a common occurrence in most American schools’. It is reported that about 70% of junior high school/high school students experienced bullying at school in the US. About half of Canadian parents are claiming that their children are being bullied at school. Furthermore, some English websites even provide tips for parents who have children being bullied by their teachers. It looks like their situation is not much different from the situation of Korea. School bullying is becoming more and more serious all over the world and giving bigger and bigger pain to the victims.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that we can’t stop it. Yes, it is true that school bullying lasted for decades and decades, but that might be because we never dared to deal with this problem. That might be because we were too afraid. (Think about the government, the police, and schools of the 1990s) However, now, there’s no more time to be afraid: so many adolescents full of potential and talents like Seongmin were sacrificed because of school bullying, and so many adolescents are suffering from bullying even right now. We should do something right away. We should be more aware of the horrible results of constant school bullying and try our utmost to prevent it. We should not evade this problem anymore. We should be more courageous and clear headed. If we do so, we can surely eradicate school bullying.

Reference List

“School Bullying” Wikipedia (English), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bullying
“What Are the Top Ten Teen Problems in America?” eHow, http://www.ehow.com/info_7882465_top-ten-teen-problems-america.html
“Is your child being bullied?” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/schoolgate/aboutschool/content/2discipline.shtml
“UK schools worst in Europe for bullying” Education Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/feb/29/schools.uk4

 

 

 

English Intensive Class Assignment for Febuary: Letter from the Future

Topic: Pretend you woke up one day and there were no rules. People could suddenly do whatever they wanted. Explain what the world would be like. Use your imagination.

Letter from the Future

Dear my ancestors,

I’m writing this letter from your distant future to ask for your help. Every creature on the earth is now in danger and mankind is no exception. I’m the only human survivor as of now and I’m trying to communicate with you through this suspicious-looking gadget which is my brother’s creation. He always insisted that in emergency situations, this ridiculous little box would change everything I say into a written form, and send it to my ancestors. He is hardly a trustworthy man, but I think I have to believe him because there is no other choice now.

Okay, now let me explain what happened and why it happened. Looking back, this one was a dog-made disaster. Oh, did I say ‘dog’? I actually meant to say ‘man’ but my head is now full of dogs. I’ll tell you why in a minute. Anyway, it was a man-made disaster, just like most huge disasters and incidents. About three weeks ago, the president went to a party and there he suddenly pronounced that there would be no rules or laws from that day on. I’m not sure why he did it; maybe it was the alcohol or something. But I’m pretty sure that it was the biggest mistake he had ever made in his entire life because everything, literally everything, started there.

The next day, the 30 billion people who just woke up and were eating breakfast while watching television news were all shocked because of the president’s announcement (we don’t have any borders. The earth is one big country and everybody speaks one same language. Quite shocking fact for you guys, isn’t it?). They quickly realized that they could suddenly do ANYTHING, including murdering and stealing. At this point you may think, ‘but human beings have conscience. They won’t do such horrible things and everything will be alright’. Well, that was exactly what I thought at that time and the reason why I tried to ‘buy’ things at the supermarket hours later. The cashier stared at me as if I were a moron and silently pointed at a group of people rushing in and taking loads of stuff without paying. I suddenly became angry about my stupid rosy expectation about the conscience of mankind and walked out of the supermarket, leaving the cashier giggling and the things I intended to buy behind.

Since then, I stayed at home and tore up every single paper I wrote about the excellence of human beings and their conscience (I’m an anthropologist, by the way). The entire planet became sheer chaos. People could barely sleep. They couldn’t even trust their families and friends. People who once were friendly neighbors, kind parents and diligent workers now became cunning conmen, dangerous gangsters and horrible murderers. People killed each other, broke into each other’s houses and stole expensive things. The people who didn’t have the heart to defend themselves from the thieves and murderers asked police officers for help, but the police officers demanded an extravagant amount of money for protecting them. The folks became furious and burned the police office that night.

It was a perfect timing for the alien tribe which arrived at the earth very long time ago and observed human beings for centuries and centuries, waiting for the right moment to invade the planet. They were relatively small and weak, so under normal circumstances they couldn’t defeat humans. But in the chaotic atmosphere, they could: Disbelief and ire divided human beings, and made them vulnerable to every single attack, regardless of its scale. At last, the right moment for the alien tribe came and they didn’t hesitate. The so called DOGS didn’t hesitate to kill human beings and proclaim this land as their new colony. Animals such as tigers and bears became their slaves, and cats, the strongest alien enemy of dogs, left the planet. And now dogs are chasing me, the last human survivor.

I’m certain that they can find me any second now because of the GPS on this gadget and that’s why I told you the whole story. You, my ancestors, are holding the key to the solution of this disaster. Obey the laws and teach your children and grandchildren the importance of laws. Tell them what will happen if they don’t follow the rules and laws. I know this may sound a little bit old fashioned and run-of-the-mill, but it’s the only way to solve this problem. So don’t go against the laws and make sure everybody around you knows the importance and preciousness of rules, so that your future generations won’t dare to destroy them. Please follow my instruction for the prosperity and happiness of your grandchildren’s grandchildren. Also…

…Bark bark! Bark bark!

Wait a minute, I just heard dogs barking. Dogs are coming. They are getting closer. I think they found me. I still have tons of things to tell you but probably I’d better stop writing this letter for a second….

Bark bark! Bark bark bark!

…..or stop it foreverrrrrrrrr…..

Bark bark! Bark bark! Bark bark bark bark!

English Intensive Class Assignment for January : Different Personalities, Different Genre Preferences

Topic: How do different genres appeal to different kinds of people? What is your favorite genre and why does it appeal to you?

Different Personalities,

Different Genre Preferences

I intended to start writing this essay yesterday, but couldn’t resist the temptation of reading 'Cuckoo's Calling',  J.K Rowling’s detective novel, and 'Sherlock Holmes', the classic crime novel.  I really enjoyed the procedures of solving mysteries and the thrilling climaxes. The monstrous crimes that took place in those stories were breath-taking. Watching the detectives stumbling on crucial evidence after days of (or months of) careful research delighted me: Yes, as you might already notice, my favorite fictional genre is the crime novel. I like it so much. But, is everybody fond of crime novels just like me? Of course not! It is very unlikely that everybody likes the same fictional genre. Apparently different individuals have different genre preferences. It is common sense, everybody knows it. However, most people may not know the relationship between personality and genre preference. Why is your energetic adolescent son such a great fan of Edgar Allen Poe? What personality of yours made you read science fiction during your holiday? You may find out the answers to these questions while reading this essay. In this essay, I’m going to deal with the three most popular fictional genres (comedy, science fiction and horror) and the typical personalities of the people fond of these genres.

The first fictional genre is ‘comedy’. Psychologists found out a great deal about the relationship between fictional genre preference and personality after conducting various experiments for decades. Especially, the findings about the personalities of comedy film (or comic book/novel) lovers are truly remarkable. Comedy is the fictional genre full of fun and excitement. Also their plots are generally unpredictable most of the time. So it may be quite natural that comedy lovers are more open minded and fun loving than others. And this means: when you suggest a new and creative project to your boss who is a great fan of comedy films, he or she is more likely to accept your proposal than your boss who loves to watch romantic dramas (romantic story lovers are known to be a little bit conventional).


Then what about the science fiction mania? Science fiction is, as you may all know, stories about the implication of actual, imagined, or potential scientific technology. Tons of impossible and surprising things take place in the stories: humans are able to talk with their pets, robots and humanoids demonstrate and riot against human beings, mars becomes the battlefield of aliens and humans, and so on. Science fiction lovers generally want to run away from reality by having amazing experiences indirectly. Whenever their everyday lives become boring and stressful, reading science fiction gives a new energy. They tend to read books or watch movies to pass time, relax, and motivate themselves.


Finally, the horror story lovers: the people who love to read books and watch films that can frighten them (and sometimes even disgust them). Their personality slightly resembles the personality of science fiction lovers: they want to escape from the boring daily grind with the help of fictional stories. They feel excitement and thrill by indirectly experiencing impossible and dreadful events. Horror story lovers enjoy taking risks and experiencing thrilling adventures. Then, does it mean that they are outgoing? Well, there is an on-going debate on this problem. Many research and experiments proved that horror story lovers are outgoing and energetic. But some latest researches found out that horror story lovers are less extroverted and somewhat gloomy. So we can’t be sure about this point to this day. Maybe we can wait a few more years for a more apparent result.


So now you know about the relationship between personality and fictional genre preference, and the only thing left for you to do is applying that knowledge to your own life. Psychological researches and findings are worthwhile only when we use them. Maybe you can find a perfect novel for your parents who are so tired from hard and boring work these days. Maybe you can assume your new classmates’ personality by asking them their favorite fictional genres. The chances to use this knowledge are certainly infinite!

References

Olivia Chausson, “Assessing the Impact of Gender and Personality on Film Preferences,” Gender, Personality and Film Preferences (2010): 1-30


Raymond H. Hamden, M. Christine Badsilio, Elena Andriotis and Naila El-Abiary, Movie Genre Preference Personality Inventory (Dubai: The Foundation for International Human Relations, 2012)

“List of Literary Genres” Wikipedia (English), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_genres

SMUN 2013 Summer Session

Last July, I participated in a MUN conference called SMUN (Susung Model United Nations).  The conference was hosted by Susung High School in Daugu but most of the chairs and staffs were from other schools in other cities. Although it was the first SMUN conference, about 300 middle school and high school students took part in it.  The delegates had to discuss the agendas, write resolutions, pass the resolutions and make amendments in two days. Although the schedule was somewhat hectic, I believe it was a very enjoyable and meaningful experience for me.

But, what I felt when I arrived at the school on the first day wasn't a sort of excitement or thrill. It was rather a mixture of nervousness and depression, actually. There were two reasons why. About one or two weeks before the conference, I participated in a debate competition held in my school and lost to the seniors who were in the third grade. That was mainly because I and my team members were pretty much overwhelmed by the aggressiveness of the opposing team. Putting logic and organization of the arguments aside, they were full of confidence that our team, consisting of three freshmen, was no match for them. I was facing the same reality again. Since it was obvious that I was the youngest delegate in my committee, I wasn't sure I could debate actively without being overwhelmed by other delegates much older than me. Also, it was the very first time I took part in a real MUN conference. I've joined the KIMUN workshop hosted by Kyunghee University last May but what I did there was a 'mock MUN' which was somewhat different from real MUN. While thinking about the two things, I opened the door of conference room  and went into the room.

I was the delegate of Brazil in GA (the General Assembly) which was one of the English committees. The two agendas of GA was, a) establishing global cooperation for sustainable development, and b) developing aiding mechanisms for Least Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs). As soon as I entered the room, the chairs called roll call and the conference started. The delegates did three-hour bout of debate on the agenda a. Some delegates argued that we needed to educate young people of developing countries to help the countries develop sustainably. Others insisted that we should control the carbon emission of the developed countries. I, as the delegate of Brazil, argued we should reform the Kyoto Protocol which was becoming useless because of low participation rate of developed countries.

After having lunch, we started a debate on the 2nd ageda. Truth be told, I was a little bit embarassed when the chairs proposed to move into the next agenda because I thought that the delegates would debate one agenda a day. There was almost nothing I prepared for the 2nd agenda so I had to deliver impromptu speeches for the last 3 hours of the first day. Delegates proposed various aid mechanisms to deal with the problems of LEDCs such as hunger, illiteracy, disease, civil war and so on. The two mechanisms I suggested were tobin tax and ecotourism. After delivering my first speech about tobin tax, I received so many notes and POIs from other delegates requesting more explanations about the taxation system. It seemed that since they weren't familliar with the term, tobin tax, it was a little bit difficult for them to understand the concept and expected effects of the system. As the result, I had to deliver speeches related to it over and over that day. At that time, I wasn't happy about it.  But now, looking back, I think proposing enforcement of tobin tax and answering the questions of other delegates gave me a lot of opportunities to share my opinions with other delegates and persuade them.

We spent almost half of  the second day's conference finishing writing resolutions. I wrote a resolution on the agenda a with some other delegates but didn't write one on the agenda b because I couldn't find anyone to write it together. My group went through some trials and errors while writing it but I thought we did pretty well. After finishing the work, the resolutions were introduced and delegates started criticizing their opponents' resolutions. Our team's resolution got numerous criticisms from our opponents. Although I couldn't find them while writing it, there were a lot of defects in the resolution. At the end, our resolution failed and the resolution of the opponent passed with almost unanimous vote. But I wasn't that disappointed because I knew our group did our best.

During the closing ceremony, I won a prize. It was great but I learned something greater than the prize in the SMUN: the skills to persuade others, negotiate with others and cooperate with others. I also learned that during debate it is important to be aggressive like a hunting eagle. It was truly an awesome experience which gave me a lot of knowledge and lessons. I hope I can do better in the next MUN conference by reflecting on my mistakes in this conference.

My Debate Script: THW Make Counseling Mandatory For All Substance Abusers And Their Families

Simon Park is an English writer who worked as a priest for over 20 years. Though he could earn a lot of money and be respected by other people as a priest, he suddenly quit his job since he thought that he needed change in his life. He started his new career as a clerk in a local supermarket and, after three years, he wrote an essay about his experience in the supermakret which was called . The book was mainly about the lessons he could get as a clerk. In his book, Simon Park insisted that only the poeple who knew what happiness was could make other people happy.

In today's modern society, the people who do not know the meaning of happiness may be the drug abusers. Since they started using drugs, their lives were ruined. The lives of their families became nightmares. It's time to make substance abusers and their families come to know what happiness is again by mandatory counseling.

Hello, I'm Eujin Jo and I'm the Prime Minister today. Today's motion is 'THW Make Counseling Mandatory For All Substance Abusers And Their Family" and our team strongly approve the topic. That's mainly because, first, counseling can help the addicts cure themselves, second, the situation is becoming more and more serious these days, and, lastly, we have to treat the addicts as human beings.

Before I state the three arguments in more detail, I wanna define the terms first. I define the term "counseling" to mean "having conversation with professional counselors and finding ways to cope with the problem together". Also we define the term "all substance abusers and their families" as "all the people in this country who can not live ordinary and peaceful live because of drugs as well as their parents, husbands, wives and mature children.

From now on, I'm going to state our team's three arguments. First of all, drug abusers can cure themselves while puring out their heart to the counselor. There are 'cause and effect relationship' in everything though we sometimes ignore the 'causes' and just discuss about the 'effect'. Likewise, there are reasons why the substance abusers are addicted to drugs. Most of them use drugs to neglect the status quo. They may have troubles with their families. They may suffer from poverty. It is a well known fact that if you have a difficulty, you can overcome it by revealing the problem to others. This common sense shows that if the addicts talk about their problems to the counselors, they can cure their minds and find the ways to solve the problems.

Secondly, the number of drug addicts are increasing more and more and the drug addiction problem is getting mroe serious. According to the 2010 research of Korean Supreme Prosecutors' Office, about 9732 people were arrested on the charge of using drugs that year. It truly is a serious situation and we need to put more efforts to cope with the problem. When we are hesitating to make counseling mandatory for the addicts, drug addicts are dying on the street and using their money to take drugs. Now, there isn't enough time to hesitate.

Lastly, we should treat the drug addicts as individuals and legitimate members of our society. Generally, we control the addicts' behaviors by medicines as if we are treating the dogs which suffer from rabies. Drug addicts are not dogs. They are humans. So we should provide the treatments for humans to them. A few months ago, a nurse tied an old woman who had some health problems on her bed just because she bothered the nurse. Controling the addicts with the medicine is just like tying old and weak patient on her bed. Actually, the drug addicts are our neighbors, friends and families. They should be respected. In terms of respecting the addicts, counseling is much better than giving them bitter medicine.

According to SBS, the Korean broadcast station, the real number of substance abusers are actually 30 times more than the number of the addicts who were arrested. This means that the real number of drug addicts in Korea amount to about 300000 people. It is a definite sin if we just ignore the difficulties of the addicts or try to control them with medicine without curing their mind. We should tackle the problem together. Drug addicts are not the criminals but the victims of the modern society, where only the winners can survive and the losers are forgotten.

Advertisements: The Most Dangerous Temptation For All Human Beings



Gordon Moore

In 1965, Gordon Moore found something very amazing. His discovery is called "Moore's Law". and it is a theory that the amount of information we can store in our microchips increase double every 18 months. When Gordon Moore first found the theory, it was such nice information for consumers since they could know when was the proper time to buy new electronics. Also Moore's Law was gorgeous information for corporations since the companys thought that they could make people change the electronics more frequently than before. And, with the help of Moore's law and a 'small method' to fuel people's infinite desire, the corporations achieved their goal. As the result, the earth became more polluted and people started suffering from horrible natural disasters much more than before.

So what, do you think, was the special method the corporations used to fuel people's desire? As you might guess through the title of this post, it was "advertisement". The effort the corporations put to make people buy more products created a horrible vicious cycle. As soon as they finish their hectic day at the workplaces, most people loll on their sofas and watch TV. It is obvious that they need to watch some advertisements while watching TV programs. Oh, actually not "some advertisements" but "NUMEROUS advertisements". Annie Leonard, the narrator of the famous video Story of Stuff, insists that nowadays people watch more advertisements in a year than the people of 1960s watched in their lifetime. The advertisements keep telling people that they need to buy something new. So, as the result, after watching the ads, people go to their workplaces again and work more dilligently. And, when they are payed their salaries, they go shopping and buy the products that are, in most cases, unnecessary for them. Then they return home, turn on the TVs, and watch new advertisements. And then... they take all the previous actions again. In the vicious cycle, people not only lose their money but also destroy the earth.

Most of us are in the vicious cycle. We are programmed by the advertisements and, if we don't escape from the vicious cycle right now, we will be the slaves of the corporations in the near future. So it is obvious that we should get out of the circle. However, it is totally impossible to escape from it if we do not know how advertisements work. We should know what strategies the advertisers are using first.

Narcissism

So today, I'm going to explain top three ways the advertisers use to make people purchase the goods. First, they satisfy people's narcissism. Narcissism is basic human instinct that we all have. All of us want to be famous and be treated as heroes. I heard that some young villains who are full of narcissism often request police officers to give them newspaper. When they finally find the picture of themselves on the newspaper, they think they become famous at last and become very delighted. Advertisers use our narcissism to sell their products. The famous movie stars or atheletes often appears in advertisements and say something like, "you are very special. Thus you have the right to be the owner of this car". Consumers in front of televisions feel great since they are respected and, when they go shopping, they willlingly buy the products.

Advertisers not always praise or respect consumers. Sometimes advertisers threaten people by making consumers think if they do not buy the product or take the action, they will be heretics. We all have the fear of being bullied. So the advertisers, who know our thoughts very well, keep telling us, "do you wanna just follow others or lead others?", "oh, didn't you use this awesome product? 20000 people are already using this!" Everytime we watch those advertisements, our inner voices tell us that since they don't want their owners to be ugly ducklings, we should buy the famous stuff. If we follow our irrational inner voices, we will eventually fall into the vicious cycle and put a lot of efforts to buy the products. Therefore it's very important to be rational and think whether or not this product is useful before we buy the stuff.

Lastly, advertisers are using the words that have positive and good meanings such as "special", "good", "best", "courage", "family", "happiness", "love", "patriotism", and "friends". While using the words to describe certain product, the advertisers are trying to "brainwash" us. Our brains tend to connect the words with the object other people are describing using the positive words. So, if we watch the advertisements that are describing a product with the positive words again and again, we end up thinking that the product is truly awesome and our lives with the product will be very charming. As the result, when we go shopping, we unconciously choose the product.

These days, mankind is faced with a huge crisis which will destroy every human being at last: the global warming.  While we are watching the advertisements, the earth is becoming hotter and hotter. While we are fueling our desire to buy the new products, polar bears are starving at the north pole. And while we are unconciously buying useless products after watching the advertisements, the Tuvalu residents are losing the place to live. It's time to do something for them. We should resist the temptation of purchasing fancy but useless products for the mother earth and for the future generation.