Should We Provide Workplaces for the Elderly?

I often saw the scenes about happy and enjoyable lives after retirement of old people with silver hair in movies and dramas. And I'm sure that many people watch those movies and dramas at home or at the theater. While watching them, we dream of the fantastic life we will enjoy after the retirement. However, unfortunately, the reality is different from our imagination. But, why? Why can't we achieve our dream? Why should some of us spend the rest of their lives lonenly in a small, stale and cold house? That's mainly because most people have to use a huge portion of their savings on their children's college tuition and wedding expenses. What can we do if we do not have enough money? Of course, we should earn more money! I think that's why we should give jobs to old people.

There are even more advantages of giving jobs for the elderly. As I mentioned, old people nowadays are very lonely. The suicide of old people is becoming a serious social problem. I believe they will be less lonely if they have their workplaces. They will get friends, who make small talk with the lonely elderly, and use their talents for good causes. Also, they can contribute to the development of Korea. According to UN,  average Korean man can live until the age of 77, and Korean woman can live until the age of 84. While the average lifespan is increasing, the number of young people and children is decreasing. Since young people who can work for the development of the country are reducing, it is essential to give workplaces for the elderly.

Of course, some people are insisting that we should not give workplaces to old people. The main reason why is the unemployment problem of young people. According to the recent research, 7.6% of the Korean youth are unemployed nowadays. Meanwhile, some old people, who are serving as professors, doctors, or politicians, earn a lot of money every year and their children, who are luckier than the majority of people, inherit the fortune. Moreover, the couple with a young child needs to spend a lot of money on their child's education. Nowadays, many children attend kindergarten or academy and some of them even have private tutors. Young child's kindergarten fee which amounts to 6,000,000 won a year burdens ordinary people. The people who oppose to providing the elderly workplaces are arguing that we can save the money if  the old people stay home and take care of their grandchildren.

Speaking of my opinion, I think that it is the old person's freedom to decide whether or not he(or she) get a job. I mean, if an old person think that he need the second workplace for his second life, the nation should support him to find such a good job. But if he (or she) decide to stay home and take care of his grandchildren, we should allow him to do it. Everybody, including the elderly, have their own thoughts about the point. I think the only role of young people is helping the elderly to do what they want.

I believe this issue is very arguable. But, I think, before we argue about this problem, we should think what is the best way for old people first. There are so many dark sides in our society and one of them is increasing of old people who live alone without any help from others. It is said that a good society is where government provide good social welfare program. So why don't we make society where old people are happy?

Moral Dilemmas

Throughout our lives, we need to make important decisions. Often, our desicions determine our lives, our wealth and even our credit. Everytime we are faced with those important problems, we tend to ponder about them seriously. But why do we ponder about the problems? Why do we spend so much time thinking about the problems? Well, there are many reasons for the phenomenon but it's mostly because of 'moral dilemmas'.

I recently read a book called  'Justice' by Micheal Sendal, the professor of Harvard University who became a professor at a very young age. In his book, he explained about moral dilemmas. Today I'm going to introduce two of them to you.

Four sailors were lost in the middle of the sea. One of them was a 19-year-old boy and other sailors were all adults. Nobody came to rescue them for several days. They did not have enough food and could not stand anymore. Eventually, even if one of the sailors disapproved with the point, the captain of the ship decided to kill the boy, who was very sick at that time, and eat his flesh. After a few days, the three sailors were rescued and the people who successfully saved the sailors found a corpse of a boy which was half-eaten.

A few decades ago, hurricane swept Florida, a city in the United States, and many people lost their houses, money and even their families because of the brutal hurricane. To make the matters worse, the stores and factories in the town increased the price of products which were essential to the survivors. The survivors became very angry but they had no other choice. They needed to buy food and tools. As the result, the merchants earned a lot of money and survivors became poorer.

Are the behaviours of the merchants and sailors justifiable?This may be an extremely difficult question for most people since they are pretty complicated. Let me explain about the first moral dilemma. Think about it, the sailors who survived insisted that all the four sailors might have died in the middle of the sea if they had not eaten anything. But they had sibling, parents and children who fed on the fishes they brought home. They might think, 'my children and parents will all die soon if I do not return home with fishes. So I have to be alive.' For the reason, the sailors' behaviour is justifiable on one hand. But on the other hand, it is not. The four sailors are 'fellows' who worked together, had a meal together and spent difficult time together. They should not eat the flesh of their fellow by all means. They rather needed to take care of the young sailor and wait patiently for a helping hand together.

As we can know through the two examples above, moral dilemmas are pretty difficult to solve. But all of us have to be faced with many moral dilemmas throughout our lives. Therefore, it is important to deal with the problems wisely and make the best decisions for the situations.

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.

Review Of 'Enna Burning'

As I mentioned in my first post, I really love to read books. I once read almost 100 books a month and this year, I read 39000 pages of books from March to November. Among the books I read, some books were totally terrible while some books were amazingly well written.  Enna Burning written by the American writer, Shannon Hale, is one of the well-written books I have ever read. Years ago, I found the book in my school library. I never thought that I found a great book at that time but while reading it, I noticed the fact. Enna Burning is a fantasy novel but, unlike most of fantasy novels, tell us so many precious lessons that can help us a lot. In my point of view, this book is even better than Harry Potter series!

However, I also think that there ARE some points to improve in this book. (Of course, nothing is perfect.) Therefore, I'd like to review the book from now on.

#1 The Plot

Enna's parents were long gone so she lived with her older brother who had the ability to make fire with nothing.  At that time, a war between Bayern and Tira, Bayern's neighbour country, was taking place. Enna's brother fought bravely and even used his mysterious ability for Bayern but died tragically in the battlefield. That was because he used the ability too frequently. Enna found a document about the ability of controling and making fire in her brother's clothes and unconciously read it. The document gave Enna the same ability it gave to her older brother.

Ever since her brother died, Enna came to live as the maid of Isi, who was the queen of Bayern and Enna's best friend, in Isi's castle. Isi had the ability of communicating with wind and controling it. When Enna tried to learn the ability to make fire from her brother, Isi kept her best friend from doing so since she thought that the ability of controling fire was dangerous.  Therefore, Enna, who got the ability, felt sorry to Isi.

Like most of other adolescents in Bayern's forest, Enna wanted to be 'special' and 'famous'. She also thought that the new ability she got could make her really famous and special. So, she made fire on the enemies' camps in the midnight. The citizens of Tira thought that a witch from Bayern did all the misbehaviours and tried to catch her. One day, when the soldiers of Tira found Enna making fire, they arrested her.

The captain Sileph, who was a good speaker, took care of Enna and encouraged her to make fire to her nation. He drugged Enna and she willingly burned the camps and soldiers of her country without any hesitation.

At that time, Isi was hectic since Tira was defeating Bayern. Of course, she wanted to resque Enna. But she knew that there weren't enough soldiers to resque her. And Isi wanted Enna to know the fact. So she pretended that she was a working-class woman of Tira and succeeded in breaking into Tiran camp. Isi's visit gave Enna much courage and made her get out of the camp by herself.

#2. The Story... 10/10

This book is totally amazing. Actually, Enna is very similar to most of today's adolescents and young adults. When she was young, she was very happy. She was satisfied with her life in the forest. However, she suddenly felt as if something was missing. Her best friend, Isi, became the Queen of Bayern. She could control wind and communicate with birds, also. Finn was the best soldier in Bayern's Own. Her older brother could control fire and made Bayern win the war. But Enna was nothing. She was just an ordinary forest girl. She wanted to be special. I believe that many people may emphathize with Enna.

This book also tell us the importance of 'friendship'. As the old saying goes, 'birds of a feather flock together'. The person who have dishonest and immoral friends is immoral, just like his or her friends. On the contrary, the person who have a good company is usually very nice. In this book, a bad, dishonest friend was portrayed as 'Sileph' and a good and moral friend was portrayed as 'Finn' and 'Razo'. When Enna fell in love with Sileph, she made fire to Bayern (she did not even thought that it was a misbehaviour). However, when she was with Fiin and Razo, she wasn't that cruel. With them, she felt comfortable and was sure that she was doing a right thing. Enna Burning will make you realize the importance of making good friends and maintaining freindship.

 

#3. The Title And The Cover....7/10

Everytime I choose a book to read in my school library, I usually choose a book by its title since I don't no whether or not the book is well written. I like the books with unique titiles like a novel called 'Frindle' by Andrew Clements. (And, really, most of the books which have unique titiles are pretty interesting) The title of Enna Burning's Korean edition is ' The Maid Of The Princess And The Secret Of Fire' (it's pretty long, isn't it?). Both the title of Korean edition and the title of English edition are very unique.

But I think that the picture on the front cover is somewhat plain and monotonous. This book is very creative, interesting and unique. But the cover is just 'ordinary'. In the picture, a girl who is wearing a yellow cape is riding a horse in the midnight. How can we imagine the gruesome adventures Enna go through in this book through the picture?

Of course, this book is interesting enough without any fantastic picture on the cover, but I'm sure that it will look nicer and more people will read the book if the cover is as creative as the story.

#4. Overall...9/10

Though the picture on the front cover is somewhat plain, there is no doubt that this book is great (and I believe that the people who read this review will read the book regardless of the picture) The author portrayed each character's characteristics and emotions very well. Also, even if it is thick, Enna Burning not that difficult to read.  I believe that almost everyone, including elementary school students, 40-something housewives and old people, can enjoy the book. Therefore, I strongly recommend this book, Enna Burning, to you. You will find all I'm insisting is true after reading it.