NEVER GIVE UP! DREAMS WILL COME TRUE

http://www.mydaily.co.kr/news/read.html?newsid=201106050918591119&ext=na

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=106&oid=003&aid=0003892951

http://www.mydaily.co.kr/news/read.html?newsid=201109011023201112&ext=na

The assignment which was given to our English B class was to watch the ‘Korea Got Talent’ which is a Korean program. The purpose of this program is to look for people who are talented in something such as dancing, singing or more several things. The video that I watched was about a deprived boy whose name is Choi Sung Bong. When I listened to his song ‘Nella Fantasia’, I was so impressive because he was extremely gifted at singing. He voice was enough to touch my heart already. In addition, when I heard about his story, I was deeply moved by his past. He told that he had been lived in terrible circumstances. When he was three years old, he was brought to the orphanage and he ran away from the orphanage at five because he got beaten by people. Since five years old, he slept on the stairs or public toilets and he sold gums to eke out an existence. Even if he had a hard time of living, he was able to overcome and the examiners cheered him.

Unhappily, he could not win the first unless he was in the second. He lost by a narrow margin of in this contest, but he announced that he is already satisfied that he could sing in front of the audience. He was just an ordinary boy and he was just born in a small country (South Korea) which is not really known as foreigners. However, this video started to spread out all over the world and many people started to watch him in the youtube and support him. Therefore, this situation is actually more valuable than winning.

After watching this video, I could look back into my life and reflect on myself. I did not realized that I expensed lots of money to buy things that all I want unless some things were unnecessary. I regret about my action and I really admire him. If I were him I would kill myself or I would live without any hope. He was just amazing and I cannot believe that the music was his treatment for healing himself. The music was a good remedy for him.

In my opinion, this video inspired me to live meaningful life. Also, he gives lessons to all people that ‘although you are poor do not give up and set your goals and go toward for your dream.’ He showed this lesson through this video.

                                                                                              

Ellen Gustafson

Ellen Gustafson is a Co-founder of FEED and creator of The 30 Project. She had a speech because she is trying to change the way the world eats. After watching the Ellen Gustafson’s speech, I was shocked about the hunger and obesity. The number of people who are with starvation and overeating are increasing. Both of them are extremely different problems, but both of them are increasing rapidly. Through mentioning about America and Africa’s lifestyles, I could noticed about how different they are. Therefore, when Ellen Gustafson was talking about these two issues, I was surprised about the reality.

 

             In the Ellen Gustafson’s speech, she mentioned about different lifestyles between Africa and America. Of course there are hungers in America but for America, the main problem is about obesity. She was saying that the hunger and obesity are caused by the agriculture. For example, in America, the scale of agricultural system is very huge and interesting. In addition, it is directly related to the human’s food. In contrast, in Africa, the scale of agriculture is totally different from America. Because of those things, the gap of obesity and hunger are growing. When I think about two problems, I just think that two countries need to share foods and reduce those problems. When I compare to our country, our problem is similar to America. Because people are hard-working, they usually eat fast food.

            

             As we can see in her speech, she mentioned about selling Feeding Bags or Feeding system which are for people who usually skip meals. People who volunteered to help poor people, they offer food for poor people. When we buy just a feeding bag, it means we can offer one child’s food for a year and the bag only costs about $20 to $50. It tells that only a little amount of money can save people’s lives.

            

             After watching this speech, I realized that I need to save my allowance and donate for poor people. Although I think it would not be a big help for them, unless they can have meals three times a day. As I am in a community service in school, in a community service, we offer meals to 100 children once a week. On the other hand for obesity, people just need to reduce eating fast food and unhealthy food. Through this speech, I could learn lots of lessons and I could know the purpose of Ellen Gustafson’s speech. It motivates me to work hard in a community service.

ISAC

ISAC is a sports fest among all the international schools in the Philippines. This year, games are played in Brent International School Baguio. It was kind of huge party or sports fest because it was played for 3 days. For me, this time was the first time to watch ISAC games. I was expecting a lot about the players of other international schools because I heard that there are lots of western-players. When the other international players arrived, I could see variety of nationality. Actually, I was not really into the soccer game, but I tried to concentrate to watch the game and although the weather made my emotions down, I watched most of the games. However, it was the first time for me to watch the whole game. Usually, when I watch sports games, I do not watch the whole game and I easily get bored of those games. This time was a meaningful game for me because I was able to get some interests especially in basketball.

Even players were good, so I think it motivates me to watch the game. Even if BISB lost the game, players worked hard, so it was just wonderful and the harmony of the players was so fantastic. I believe that BISB can win the game next time.

 Even if it was only for international schools, I think the ISAC is a very good program or event because it gives most of all the athletes to play/compete against each other. In addition, it gives the other students a chance to meet other international students and interact with them.

2012

What newness or changes would you like to do for yourself in this new year? (You can come up with two or three aspects and expound on it.)

We cannot turn back the time, so every second counts and every moment is important to us. Every time, when we hail the New Year, we usually bemoan about the things that we did wrongly and the things we failed to do. These can be for family, friends, school, work or just own personal things. Although it would be hard for us to change, we make resolutions to improve ourselves and we try to make thing better and right. Just like other people, I made some new year’s resolutions in an effort to improve myself.

Working hard for having a higher GPA is my first resolution. I have just spent one semester in Brent school but I am already in grade 10 which means that I only have 2 years to enter a university. Though I am a new student here, I realized that my GPA is not good enough to enter my aspired university. Of course, no one wants to go to universities which have bad reputation and my aspired university requires lots of things. Therefore I want to get more than 3.5 of GPA although it is a big challenge for me and I want to satisfy my parents.

Looking back my action, seeing the many things or the things that I bought and ate makes me realize that I spend too much money. Every time I see my allowance, I sigh because of significant negative number which means I spend more money than I am supposed to spend. Instead of spending money for eating, I would save money to buy necessary things such as shoes, bags and more several things. Moreover, my second resolution is to save 1000 pesos from my allowance every month.

Teens today make using bad words part of their lives. I am a teen and I also made using bad words part of my life although using bad words is not good for me. If I keep on suing bad words, I think my future children will learn wrong values from me and it will get worse and worse. So I have decided not to use bad words even if it might be the hardest thing for me but I would give an effort to achieve my goal.

I am looking forward to many positive changes, this 2012. My resolutions which are reaching a higher GPA, saving money and discontinuing the use of bad words may be difficult for me but I believe that I can do it. Through my resolutions, I hope I can have meaningful 2012 and I want to achieve everything though, it would be hard for me.

The exam

Technology has been developing rapidly since the 1960’s and one of the best inventions is the internet. These days, most people communicate and exchange information through the internet and the internet starts to manipulate the whole world. Therefore, it naturally causes many negative effects even if there are lots of positive effects. I agree that the invention of the internet has had negative effects on our civilization. Here are several reasons to support my opinion.

First of all, the internet can destroy communication. I think almost all people use the internet every day. Facebook, which is a communication network site, is one of the examples. Every second, millions of people are using facebook and people can easily get addicted to it. As people are spending more time in the internet, they might be distancing themselves from their friends or families. It is because people might always prioritize the internet.

The next reason is people who are addicted to the internet, cannot distinguish between the real world and the cyber world. I watched the news about parents who killed their baby. The news was alarming. It became a nationwide concern in Korea. The news revealed that the parents were addicted to the internet so they forgot to feed their baby. In addition, they did not usually stay at home and just stayed in PC room without their baby. Eventually, the neglected baby died of starvation. The most heartbreaking thing was the parents thought that they considered their baby as one of the characters in the computer games. It shows that they could not distinguish reality for the cyber world.
 

             The last reason is there are more crimes. As technology has developed, the number of crimes increases rapidly. When people just join some websites, it means that they are already sharing their privacy to others. For instance, sometimes hackers in China will get all information of a South Korean’s privacy or sell or use it. Also when the hackers get the number of Koreans, they will call them and lie that they are policemen or the government or people who work for country. If people believe the hackers, they might lose lots of money. Not only these things are happening, there are also crimes that people cannot see. In addition, the methods of committing crimes are evolving. This situation can cause the world to be more dangerous.

             In brief, I disagree with this statement because the internet can destroy our civilization such as destroying communication, having difficulties of distinguishing between the real world and the cyber world and causing more crimes. Therefore, I suggest people need to know how to balance the internet wisely and correctly. 

Interveiw with modern woman (My mother)

Interview 

After reading the book named ‘The Long Season of Rain’, students were asked to interview an acquaintance who is a modern woman and I decide d to interview my mother. It is because in my opinion, she is different the women who lived in the past.  

What is your name and maiden name?

My name is Lee Mi Hyang. In Korea, we do not change the surname when we get married. Therefore my surname is Lee.

What is your date of birth?

March 1, 1964

What is your place of birth?

I was born in the country side, Pho Hang and I was born in my house because at that moment, we do not usually go to hospital to birth.

What is your ethnicity?

I think my ethnicity is ‘harmony’ and ‘family love’ because I am Korean.

Where were your parents, brothers and sisters born?

They were born in the country side, Pho hang, as same as me

Where were your children born? Include their names.

I have only child whose name is Kwon Na Young and Na Young was born in Seoul.

Where have you lived?

I have lived in the country side, Pho Hang and did not do regional immigration.

What language do you speak?

I speak Korea

What is your citizenship?

I am Korean

Birth to Adolescence

Where did you live as a child?

I lived in the Pho Hang. The location was in the country side.

When you were growing up, what was the role of boys and girls in the family?

The time I was born was about 1960’s so there was discrimination between girls and boys. At that moment, boys were more important than women. Therefore, the roles of boys and girls were extremely different. Usually, boys did not do anything, but for girls, they help their mother such as washing clothes, washing the dishes and more several things. I think… this story is all about me,.. (smiling^0^) If I use an example, I think I should talk about my mother.

My mother always took care of her husband and worked outside such as farming. In brief, boys were the king.

Were there any “coming of age” ceremonies or significant events?

At that moment, we do not celebrate a lot. When I became 20, I just celebrate with my friends. I had the 

meal in the expensive restaurant and I went to the coffee shop and talked with my friends. My parents were indifferent about the ‘coming of age’ ceremony so it was natural that I could not have any present or small event. In addition, my siblings and relatives were in different about the ‘coming of age’ day.

Describe your neighborhood when you were in junior high school (grades 6-9).

My father’s job was a teacher, so we transferred the house a lot. When I was grade 6, I did not live with my mother for a year. There were only 3 houses and I was not so close with my neighbor. However when I turned to grade 7, my family moved to another house. There was a policeman who lived next to my house. He was so friendly and his hobby was fishing. We were close each other so he usually caught fish and gave them our house. Also there was another neighbor who had an orchard. The family lived in front of my house. I used to go to the orchard and ate apples.

How are young boys and girls treated at that time? Were you treated differently?

From the ancient time, daughters were scorned and there was a prejudice that males must not come in the kitchen. Girls were just recognized as the people who make meal every day. The discrimination was not so severe but boys were the first all the time. I have two sisters and one brother, so my sisters and I could feel favoritism especially when it comes to buying things because my sister and I could not buy anything because of my brother. I was treated differently if I think about my brother.

What were the roles of adult women in the family?

The roles of adult women were a lot. They always had to take care of their families. In my opinion, they had to do everything such as preparing meals, washing the dishes, and so on. They most important thing was adult women always had to think about their husband’s families. In addition, if there were some ceremonies in their husband’s families, women were the one who prepared everything for events.

 Adult life

What jobs did you throughout your life?

At first, I helped my mother to work as household affairs. After few years, I moved to Seoul and I worked in the City Hall as a public official

What were women doing during your adult life? What roles did they perform?

At that moment, even if we had a dream, we could not have any choice because women were limited in the society. Also there were no variety jobs for women. At last, women work as a housewife or get pregnant and take care of their babies.

What difficulties did women have to go through?

Women have to overcome the favoritism. For example, women were limited in the society and it also happened in the company. When girls get pregnant, that is the time when they had to mind co-workers to defend to be fired. It is because companies usually do not prefer women who have babies. For example, if their children have any problem, they might be absent or after the pregnancy, they need to rest. Therefore there is some discrimination. Another problem is a son preference. If women birth a baby girl, some women had to get pregnant again to birth a baby boy. The other problem was the conflict between mother-in-law and the wife because mother-in-law always had high expectation about the wife of her son.  

What cultural beliefs surrounded the way women:

Dressed, Behaved, Worked, Studied

I do not have any cultural beliefs about the women.

Performed duties such as being a mother, wife, sister, or daughter

Duties of mother are taking care of children and marry with a good husband. For duties of wife are a wife needs to take care of husband and help the family to live healthy so that the family can perform a happy family. For duties of sister are, taking care of younger sisters and if they have any problem a sister need to help them and take care them as a mother. For duties of daughter is to study hard so that the daughter can achieve the expectation of mother.

What influenced changes in culture? Western culture? Education? How?

I think international cultural exchange inflows, Christian culture, development of IT (Internet) and more several things were the factors of changing Korea.

Women of today

What is your opinion of women of today?

In my opinion, modern women are very different from before. In addition, high percentage of education made women to have variety careers. Nowadays, many women who are open-minded and global help to raise the social participation of women. Unlike the past, women started to share with their husbands on parenting issues.

What advice could you give to young women like me?

First, you need to be humble, honest and truthful all the time. You always need to respect parents and you need to be friendly friends and siblings to get a sense of companionship. Memory of school days is very important and it does do comeback so please do not waste the time and do not spend it regretfully. I recommend to have your dreams and goals. Try your best as you can. Thank you.