English Gifted Class Assignment: Writing a Novel

'Writing Your Own Novel' was the last assignment of the English Gifted Class. The Gifted Class students needed to write short novels in a month. But I did not have any idea about my fiction even a week before the due date. But one day, going back home after school, I suddenly hit on a good idea. After 10 minutes, I was writing the first page of my novel. 

#1. Youngmin
When: 2013.12.24th, 7am.
Where: Youngmin's Room

I did not get up early during vacation. Since I did not need to go to school early in the morning, I had no reason to get up right after sunrise. Moreover, my ma, who overslept almost every day, did not awake me early.

However, the situation completely changed, after I failed the English Gifted Class Entrance exam last week!

My mother agonized over what she should do to improve my English ability really seriously. She finally decided to wake me before daybreak and teach me English for herself. Just because I failed the test.

Looking back, I could have passed the exam if I had not sat near the strange boy and the girl. No, I COULD passed the exam even if I had sat next to them if I had concentrated on solving problems. But....

" Hwang Youngmin, what are you doing! You should study English!"

"Ok, mom...."

#2. Hyeonsu
When: 2013. 12 . 4th. 4pm.
Where: Lotte Supermarket

You did not go home after school. Instead, you went to Lotte supermarket to buy some snacks for your younger brother. Your ma and pa were both too busy to take care of their own children. Your ma was a competitive lawyer. She came back home at midnight and went for work again before daybreak almost everyday. She even worked on weekends. She already forgot the names of her children 5 years ago. You could see your mom once a year, on the New Year's Day. While your mom was a workaholic, your dad loved to go shopping. He was a lazy unemployed man. He went shopping everyday and stayed in the local department store until midnight. Your house was full of useless products your dad bought. And, speaking of your younger brother, he was a terrible troublemaker.

The truth usually made you depressed but you were very thankful to your humble family when you met the girl at the supermarket.

"It's 6000 won" the cashier told you.

"Ok,... Wait, where's my wallet?"

You realized that you dropped your wallet somewhere and were very embarrassed. There was 50000 won in the wallet and that was all the money you had.

'What should I do? How can I get my money back? Somebody must has taken it,' you thought.

At the moment, a girl handed you the wallet. She was really beautiful.

"Maybe it's yours. I found it there," she said.

"Oh, thank you. Um, thank you very much."

The girl went away soon. And you realized that you had a crush on the girl.

#3. Nayoung
When: 2013. 12. 4th. 4pm.
Where: Lotte Supermarket

Nayoung went shopping with her elder sister to buy a Christmas gift for her four-year-old cousin.

"What about buying some snacks there?" her sister suddenly asked.

"Why not? Let's go."

There was a tall boy in the corner. It seemed that he did not realized the existance of the two girls yet. He was talking to himself about his family.

"My family is driving me crazy. Guess what, my dad spent one million won on new clothings yesterday while
I was starving at home. To make the matters worse, mom forgot giving me money this week. Frankly, I can't figure out why I need to buy a birthday gift for my mom. She may forget her birthday this year, as well...."

Nayoung's sister whispered to her while laughing, "look at the thin boy in front of you, Nayoung. He is very strange."

"Yeah. Actually, he attends same academy with me. He is a little bit strange there, too. But he is very good at English." Nayoung responded.

After his leaving, Nayoung found that he left his wallet. There was 50000 won in the wallet. That was such a big money. Nayoung thought that she should return the money to the owner and looked for him.

'Ah, he is there.'

She walked towards him.

#4. Youngmin
When: 2013. 12. 18th. 4pm
Where: English Gifted Class

The classroom was very crowded. I couldn't find any place to sit in the room except the seat in the corner. Looking back, it was my fault. I forgot everything about English Gifted Class Entrance Exam and played soccer with my classmates after school until my mom, who found me playing soccer, screamed to me in the park next to my school.

"Hwang Youngmin! What are you doing here!"

"Ok, guys. Let's start taking the entrance exam now. There are a few things you should keep in mind before the exam. Do not talk during the exam. Also, wait patiently until the exam ends after you finish solving problems. And, most importantly, do not cheat by all means," the Gifted Class teacher said.

The problems were all very difficult. I couldn't solve some of them. I sighed and stared at the boy and the girl sat next to me unconcoiusly.

'Ah? What is he doing by the way? Oh, he is gonna cheat!'

I was very surprised and thought that I should keep him from doing the misbehavior.

I stood up and said, "hey, don't...."

At the moment, I realized that the English Gifted Class teacher was looking at me and the boy.

"What are you doing?"

She asked us with suspicion.

"Oh, I was just...." I tried to explain but it seemed that she did not believe me.

'Oh, dear.'

#5. Hyeonsu
Wben: 2013. 12. 18th. 4pm
Where: English Gifted Class

You were ecstatic when you met the beautiful girl again in the English Gifted Class. You went there for the English Gifted Class Entrance Exam. You sat next to her. You wanted to know everything about her but were too shy.

You needed to solve difficult problems not to fail the exam but couldn't concentrate on taking exam. At that time, you saw the girl writing her name on her test paper.

'It will be okay. I just want to know her name.'

You stood up and tried to find her name on the paper. Since you were quite logical, you might not done the stupid thing in front of the teacher if you had not fallen in love with the girl. Love surely made you blind.

A young boy who sat near you tried to block you but it was too late. The English Gifted Class teacher was staring at you. Maybe she thought that you and the boy were cheating together.

She walked towards you and took your test paper. She drew a big and round circle on it and gave it to you. She drew the same thing on the boy's paper and scribbled something on a thick notebook. The girl stared at you with anger. You realized that you made a big mistake.

#6. Nayoung

When: 2013.12.28th.6pm

Where: Nayoung's Home

At the English academy she attended, Nayoung's friend told her that she passed the English Gifted Class exam and became the gifted class student.

"Congratulations, Nayoung" her friend said with smile.

"Thanks. By the way, what happened to Hyeonsu?"

"Oh, he did not pass the exam. My mom said that he cheated there."

"Really? How did she know that?" Nayoung pretended that she did not know anything and asked her friend.

"I think one of her friends told her. The friend's daughter also went there to take the exam and she sat next to Hyeonsu. Didn't you realize that he was cheating?"

'The girl was me, actually.'

Nayoung was puzzled when she thought about Hyeonsu's behaviour. Hyeonsu was famous for his excellent English ability at school. But he tried to cheat in front of the Gifted Class teacher. She could not understand his behaviour. And it seemed that she wouldn't figure out the reason why he did the misbehaviour ever.

"Hmmm.... Life is full of mystery."

My Debate Script: This House Would Require Hgh School Students to Take Classes in Fine Art and Music

The famous artist Picasso once said, 'children are all artist, but the problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up." As Picasso said, we are all inborn artists. But the society and education are making children less creative and more stressful. At school, they should memorize so many important and unimportant things. Their teachers and parents scold them everytime they get poor scores in exams. After school, most of them have to go to academies immediately and study like study machines. They can not even get enough time for self reflection. In the end, all the children who were creative artists in the past become ordinary people. These are the lives of ordinary children and young adults. Now, for the development of our country, we should make some changes to their lives.

Meanwhile, I'm Eujin Jo, the Prime Minister. The topic for today's debate is that "this house would require high school students to take classes in fine art and music" and our team strongly support the topic. That is because, first, art and music class will make students creative. Second, high school students can release stress through classes. Also, the classes will reduce school bullying. Today, as the Prime Minister, I will give the split, define the terms and state our team's three arguments. And the Deputy Prime Minister and our Whip will rebut the points of the side opposition, state our team's last arguments and tell you the reason why our team definately win the debate.

I'd like to define terms first. We, the government side, define the term 'high school students' to mean 'all the Korean adolescents who are attending high school'. Also, we define the term 'fine art and music class' to mean 'the classes where students draw pictures, play instruments or sing songs.

I'm gonna state our team's arguments from now on. Firstly, art and music class will make students creative. Creativity is something inside our mind. We can grow our creativity. We can be creative like famous inventors and scientists if we know the way to make it grow. Then what can we do to improve our creativity? As many scientists and artists proved, one of the best way to grow our creativity is to draw pictures or play instruments. And that is what we ususally do in art and music class.

Secondly, high school students can release stress through taking art and music classes. They are very stressful because of pressure from study, conflicts with their parents and so on. In fact, so many high school students commit suicide every year. Thus, they need to do something to release stress. While drawing pictures or playing instruments, they will find peace of mind.

El Sistema

Moreover, art and music class will reduce school bullying. El Sistema is an orchestra found by an economist a few decades ago. It is a sort of art class for poor and troublesome children. The children and adolescents who were bullies or gangs before became happier and found that they could do something more productive and informative instead of blackmailing weak children and using slangs. As the result, bullying reduced in the town. Like the town out of which the economist made El Sistema, many students are suffering from school bullying these days in Korea. Reinforcing art and mucic education will be the solution to the problem.

There is something that is more important than math or English. It is 'happiness'. Happiness is something we need to find out by ourselves. And our team strongly believe that music and art class can make high school students happier.

My Debate Script: THW Outlaw The Reclamation Of Coastal Wetland Areas For Development

"Development of our country, protection of the mother nature, which is more important?" This is a question people often ask themselves. Mostly, the second one is much more important but there are some exceptions. One of the exceptions is reclamation of wetlands.

A Picture of a Wetland from mercercountyohio.org

Hello, I'm Eujin Jo and I'm the Leader of the Opposition. Today's topic is that 'THW outlaw the reclamation of coastal wetland areas for development' and our team strongly disapprove the topic. Because, first, we can build more buildings and houses if we reclaim the wetlands. Second, there are so many economic benefits of wetland reclamation. Third, it is more beneficial to use the money for other causes. Today, as the Leader of the Opposition, I'll give the split, rebut the points of the Prime Minister, and state our team's first three arguments. And the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and our Whip will rebut the points of Deputy Prime Minister, state our team's last arguments and finish the debate.

Before I state our arguments, I'm going to rebut the points of the Prime Minister.

(impromptu speech)



The picture of Saemangeum, the reclaimed wetland.



From now on, I'd like to state our team's arguments. First of all, we can build more buildings and houses if we reclaim the wetlands. According to Wikipedia, about 50004441 people are living in Korea as of 2012. Korea is one of the most populated countries while its size is only 99720km2. It's too small, isn't it?. Thus, we need to use the land efficiently and effectively. If we reclaim the big wetlands, we can build more buildings, factories and houses. Our lives will be more convenient and less stressful. Reclamation of weltlands is one of the ways for contributing to welfare of Koreans.

Also, we can get so many economic benefits if we reclaim coastal wetlands. Once we reclaim the wetlands, the wetlands become more useful. Let's say that we make a port, a building and a factory in the reclaimed wetland. The port will make trade easier then before. The building and factory will make our country richier. Plus, they will provide jobs. Nowadays, 3.5% of Koreans are unemployed. They just stay at home or do antisocial behaviours. Now, it's time to give them jobs by reclaiming the wetlands.

Last but not least, we can use the money for other causes. Keeping the wetlands requires a lot of money. However, these days, we should concern about more serious environmental problems like global warming or water pollution. It's essential to invest more money to solve the problems. But the amount of money we can use for solving environmental problems is limited. Then what can we do? One of the actions we can take is developing wetlands so that we can use more money to solve the serious problems. Also, we can use a portion of money from the factories and companies built in the wetlands for protecting the mother nature.

 Of course, our team don't believe that coastal wetlands are not that valuable. But we should tackle more serious and important problems first. As the old saying goes, we should sacrifice something smaller to get something bigger. That's why our team strongly disagree with the topic.

Shakespeare

Most of my classmates are interested in idol singers these days. They willingly buy the stuffs related to the singers regardless of the stuffs' prices. Also, in break time, they talk about their favorite singers and their songs so enthusiastically that the students who do not have much interest in singers like me know the name of the famous singers.

According to the psychology book I recently read, the phenomenon I mentioned is taking place because of 'Romeo and Juliet Effect' which is one of the main reasons why people fall in love with each other. My classmates like those singers but most of them can't be the girlfriends or boyfriends of the singers whatsoever. Likewise, 'Romeo and Juliet Effect' makes people fall in love with someone they should not be in love with -like singers or the people their parents dislike-. The effect was named after Romeo and Juliet, the tragic play written by Shakespeare. Through this example, I could know that Shakespeare's pieces are so famous that even psychologists use the title of his play to name a psychological effect.

When I was in the 1st grade, I used to stay in the school library for hours afterschool. There were so many books in the library. But I, who was very young, couldn't find the books I could read since most of the books were thick and difficult for young children.

Oneday, I was wandering around the storybook section of the library. Some new books in the section caught my attention. They were the pieces of Shakespeare. After reading the first page, I found that the books are very interesting.  Since then, I became a huge fan of Shakespeare.

In GLPS, I did a history presentation about the reason why people love Shakespeare's plays. At that time, I claimed that that was because Shakespeare's plays were so gruesome and horrible. But, now, I think that the phenomenon is also because his plays are something that 'people' like. I read a book about the way to make an awesome play and according to the book, writers who wrote a story that he (or she) liked couldn't succeeed as a writer mostly. Only the person who knew exactly what people want to read or watch could make such a famous play. This guideline for writers is quite famous nowadays but almost everybody did not know the fact when Shakespeare lived. I think that Shakespeare found the truth by himself long before the book for writers was published. He was truly a great writer.

I thought that Shakespeare 'created' all the plays for several years but I realized that I was completely wrong a few days ago. The E-book library of my school opened recently and teachers were encouraging their students to read a lot of books there. I once found a book about Shakespeare. The book said that Shakespeare did not 'create' his plays but just 'imitated' old stories of Eastern countries. Really, the plays were very similar to the falk tales of Europe. He just copied the tales and changed some parts of the stories. However, I think that Shakespeare was an awesome writer, though. I did not even know the existence of the folk tales although I liked Shakespeare's pieces before and so did my friends. But, unlike the folk tales, Shakespeare's plays are very famous in almost every country on the Earth (who knows? Aliens in other planets may read his plays.)

Of course, there are so many exceptional writers and some of the them are even better than Shakespeare. Yet, our ancestors loved Shakespeare's pieces and we did as well. His pieces told us so many important lessons. Also, Shakespeare knew how to appeal to people. I'm sure that our future generation will love his pieces like us.