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