Final Reflection

When I registered this class, I was worried if I can keep up with this class. This is because my English writing skill is bad and especially, I usually made so many grammer mistakes and my vocabulary is not enough to write English essay without difficulties. However, through this writing and reading class I could improve my grammer and vocabulary. In addition my English essay format improved so much. Furthermore, I never used this MLA format before but now I know how to write essay using this format. I think it will be useful when I have to write something in English formally.

I think it will be much more helpful if there is more reading comprehension time. This is because for me reading time was short to find topic sentences and answers of  questions. In addition, I hope there is more time that we can discuss about reading passages that we read so that we can improve our speaking skill as well.

Thank you so much Professor Kyle for teaching us and supporting us! Even though this class was not easy for me, I could get many things from this class.

Essay #2

Yewon Kim

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (03)

26 November 2015

Are Online Classes Necessary for University Students?

             Nowadays many university students prefer taking their classes online because it is more convenient and time-saving than taking traditional classes. In addition many universities already offer online classes of a variety of subjects to students. My school also has many online courses students can take. Many students including my friends think that online classes are very useful when they have a hectic schedule. However, in my opinion, it is better not to take online classes for university students. By taking online classes students will miss the chance of getting more knowledge that comes from interacting with other students and professors and their concentration on classes will decrease.

             Even though taking online classes has many positive aspects, it limits the amount of knowledge that students can get from communicating with others. The reason is that when they take online classes they just listen to what professors are saying and it is hard to share their thoughts or ideas with other students and professors during the class. Therefore, they cannot develop their knowledge further. However, taking traditional classes allow students to have face-to-face interaction with others. Thus, it provides students with an opportunity to be active learners. Students can express their ideas and thoughts during the class and they can get feedback from professors immediately when they need help. Furthermore, according to an article written by Chosun Newpaper in 9^th November 2015, learning effect of taking online courses is much lower than that of taking on-campus courses which allow students to share their thoughts with others. Consequently, traditional classes are much more helpful to students in that they can get broad knowledge and perspectives.

             In addition, if students take an online class, it may be hard for them to concentrate on the class. The reason is that they can have more freedom when they take online courses. In an on-campus class there is a professor who can be not only a person who teaches them but also a supervisor of the class. Therefore, students can have feeling of tension which makes them concentrate on classes more easily. For example, recently my younger sister tried to study Chinese using online classes because she was busy with a part-time job. However while listening to a class, she seemed hard to concentrate on what the teacher was saying. In addition, she said that she couldn’t even complete the course and taking online classes is a waste of money. Thus, to raise their concentration on a class, students should take a traditional class rather than an online class.

             Accordingly, because online classes prevent students from broadening their knowledge and make it hard for them to concentrate on classes, they should avoid taking an online class. Students might be tempted by the convenience of online classes; however, in the long term, this convenience will not be beneficial for them because it will prevent them from accumulating their knowledge.


Article that I used in this essay : http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/11/08/2015110801201.html

Blog post #7 Language pg. 205 ~ 210

Nowadays, whether it is right to have more than one official language in Korea or not is debatable. While some people argue that it is disadvantageous to have more than one official language, other people think that it will be beneficial to have more official language. In my opinion, it is better to use more than one language officially in Korea. The reason is that we need to be more competitive in this globalizing world and it will affect our tourism positively.

Firstly the world is gradually globalizing more and more everyday and we need to be globally competitive. Especially in Korea trade is very important factor that produce profit and languages play significant role in trade. Therefore, if we have one more official language, we will be more competitive in trade. For example, my dad who works in an export company is quite fluent in English and Chinese compare to other workers. Thus, he plays important role in many businesses. Like this, if Koreans use more than one language officially, we will be able to exercise great power in this globalizing world.

Secondly tourism in Korea will develop by having more official language. The reason is that it will be convenient for foreigners to travel to Korea. Therefore, more tourists will visit our country. In addition, using one more language officially will give them an opportunity to understand our culture more easily. For example, when my foreign friends visited Korea last year I tried to explain our culture in English. However, it was really hard to express our culture using English and she seemed hard to understand what I said. Therefore, having more official language will allow us to attract more travelers to visit Korea.

Consequently, by having one more official language in Korea we will be able to gain more power in this globalization and it will allow us to produce more profit in tourism. Some people might argue that by using other language officially our traditional language will get damage. However, it can be other way to protect our culture and language by spreading exact information about our culture. 

Blog post #6 technological innovation pg. 181 ~ 186

Nowadays, internet plays the most significant role in our daily lives. When we don’t know how to reach our destination or when we need to find some suitable information we get help from the internet. Thus, I think the most creative technological invention of this generation is Facebook. Facebook is invented by Mark Zuckerberg and it begins a new era of the internet. It has many positive impacts on our daily lives. Through Facebook, we can share useful information with other people and communicate with others in unique ways.

‘Share’ is one of the functions Facebook has. This function enables us to share useful information with not only my friends but also people who I don’t know. In addition it enables us to store information on our private page so that we can use this information whenever we need it. I got so much help from this function when I did my project last year. It was project about Korean economy and we needed to make presentations in front of people. Therefore, we need eye-catching power point. When we designed our power point, we used helpful information of designing power point that I shared on Facebook before. Thank to this information, our team got good score on this project.

Furthermore, Facebook has unique communication function. Our traditional method of communicating was just sending message. However, on Facebook we can get in contact with our friends by leaving comment and tagging on postings. Through these functions, we can share our daily lives as well as communicate with our friends. For example, I usually communicate with my foreign friends by tagging them on hilarious postings and leaving comment on what they wrote on Facebook. These methods make us feel that we are close to each other even though they are far away from me.

Facebook has positive effects on our daily lives such as being able to share useful information and providing us more unique method of communicating. In this respect, Facebook is very creative invention. However, Facebook has not only positive impact but also negative impact such as wasting time on Facebook or internet bullying. Hence, when we use it, we should be aware of negative side of it.

Essay #1

Yewon Kim

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (03)

3 October 2015

What If Korean Universities Stop Using Suneung for Evaluation?

             As many people know, Korean universities use Suneung exam to evaluate students and decide if students deserve to get into their school. In Suneung exam, students are tested on five subjects which are Korean, math, English and two social subjects. Because students have to cover various subjects, they spend most of their time and money on studying. These days many people in Korea, including myself, think that this evaluation process is quite inefficient. If Korean universities cease using the Suneung exam as their evaluation standard, there will be many positive effects on students such as being able to get deep knowledge and   reducing private education expenses.

              For Korean students, the purpose of studying is just to get good result from the Suneung exam so that they can get into high level universities. Therefore, even though they learn various subjects, the depth of knowledge is quite shallow. However, if Korean universities do not use the Suneung exam for evaluation anymore, students will be able to focus on what they really want to study. As a result, it will be easy for students to get professional knowledge of one specific field and having professional knowledge will be helpful to students in the long term. The reason is that they can utilize this knowledge when they take the first step into the society. For example, they will be able to get a job more easily because they already have a profound insight in what they have studied. According to the journal written by Korean University Newspaper, although university entrance rate in Korea is quite high, its employment rate is very low among OECD countries. Therefore, if students accumulate profound knowledge from high school, it will be beneficial for students. In addition, students will be able to have more satisfying university life because of deep knowledge they have. For instance, when I have first class in my university, it was very difficult for me to understand the class and this is because even though I got basic knowledge of my major from high school, it was not deep enough for me to keep up with the class in university.

              Furthermore, private education expenses will be decreased if Korean universities use other evaluation methods instead of Suneung. As I mentioned before, Suneung consists of five tests. Many parents in Korea want their children to be good at all subjects. Therefore, they force their children to go to academies for every subject so that their children can get better score in the Suneung exam. For example, when I was in high school I usually went to four academies a week and it cost a lot of money. It burdened my parents so much but they couldn’t stop me from going to academies because they still want me to enter a high level university. However, if Korean universities didn’t judge students according to their Suneung score, then students wouldn’t need to spend much money on academies that provide them education only for Suneung. Instead, they would go to academies when they really need help with studying. As a result, the amount of money spent on private education will dwindle.

             Thus, if Korean universities change their evaluation method, students will be able to have more profound knowledge of one specific field which helps them to get a job without difficulty in the future and have more pleasing university life. Moreover, parents will be free from the burden of private education expenses. Consequently, changing evaluation method will bring about positive influence not only on students but also on our society as a whole.

Blog post #5 Ensuring a sustainable future pg.157 ~ 162

Nowadays, ‘sustainability’ is important issue among people around the world. There are many movies related to sustainability and they show us what things will be happened in the future. In addition there are many theories about disasters that we will be faced in the future and how we can survive from them. In my opinion, for future survival we need to use more renewable energy sources especially solar energy and use more public transportation instead of private cars.

Firstly, we have to try hard to utilize more solar energy. By using solar energy, we can produce electricity in more environmentally friendly way. Large amount of electricity that we use is produced by burning fossil fuels and it is very harmful to our environment because the gas produced from burning fossil fuels can cause air pollution. Therefore, we have to induce people to use electricity produced by solar energy. Government can encourage people to use solar energy by providing subsidy for installing machine used for solar power generation so that even ordinary people can use eco-friendly electricity. In addition, government can induce factories to use solar energy in their process of production by cutting tax imposed on them. If factories that consume huge amount of electricity start to use solar energy as their source of electricity, considerable amount of air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels will be reduced. 

Secondly, people should make an effort to use public transportation instead of private cars. Exhaust gas produced by cars is the main cause of air pollution. In addition people consume large amount of oil to drive a car and Korea is not an oil-producing country. Hence, we have to stop using private cars and start to use public transportation. By cutting public transportation fees, government can induce more people to use public transportation. Recently, there is considerable increase in public transportation fees in Korea and it burdens people so much. Therefore, by cutting fees, many people can access to public transportation more easily. In addition, if travel agencies make many tour courses that people can enjoy using public transportation, the use of private cars during holidays will be reduced. Consequently, it will be helpful to reduce air pollution caused by exhaust gas and to save oil for future use.

For sustainability, it is very important to utilize more renewable energy resources and use more public transportation instead of cars. This is because we can save our resources as well as protect our environment. Therefore, government, companies and even ordinary people have to keep trying to take actions for our future generation.

Blog post #4 Explanatory essay pg. 132 - 137

Korean Drama - 'Pasta'

‘Pasta’ that I will talk about in this essay is not food. It is name of the most popular Korean drama. As you would expect already, it is a drama about chefs. The reasons why this drama drew attention from people are love and passion that can be seen in this drama. Besides these, there is other important element that we have to focus on and that is ‘Kitchen’ which is the most important place in this drama. ‘Kitchen’ is where characters grow up, fall in love and cooperate. Therefore, through kitchen we can feel their desire to be chefs, companionship and love.

There are main girl character called Yu-gyeong and boy character called Hyun-wook in this drama. Like any other dramas, these two characters fall in love each other and their love starts from the kitchen. There is one scene that we can feel how much he loves her. When he starts to work in the restaurant called La Sfera as a head cook, he announces that there should be no love between girls and boys in the kitchen. However, he falls in love with Yu-gyeong later which means that he breaks rules himself. Therefore, he declares in the kitchen that “She likes me but I love her. However, I don’t want to ask your forgiveness for my love. Therefore, I will leave the kitchen from now on.” In addition, we can feel not only love but also companionship among characters in the kitchen. Before Hyun-wook publically discloses his love in the kitchen, the youngest cook spreads rumor about his love. After that, he leaves the kitchen because he feels guilty. However, Hyun-wook forgives him and accepts him as his student again.

Through kitchen, we can feel their passion and how desperately they want to be a chef as well. In this kitchen, there are two groups. In one group there are people who learn to cook in Korea and in the other group there are people who learn to cook abroad. These two groups always compete and argue each other in the kitchen. In addition people who learn to cook abroad always ignore people who learn cooking in Korea. Hyun-wook, the main boy character, is a leader of a group of people who learn abroad. Therefore, Hyun-wook always mistreats and ignores the people who get training in Korea. However, even though they are not treated well in the kitchen, they always keep trying hard to be a chef and never give up.  

As I mentioned before, through this drama I could feel their enthusiasm for cooking and love between Hyun-wook and Yu-gyeong. These things are shown centering around the kitchen. Therefore, kitchen is the most significant element in this drama. In addition, through the kitchen, I think the writer of this drama want to tell us that if we have passion and love inside of us, there is no reason of fail.

Blog post #3 Geotourism pg.109 - 114

These days, many people take attention to the concept of geotourism. This is because it can benefit both local residents and travelers. For local residents, it allows them to have more job opportunities and experience local economic growth. For travelers, it enables them to experience more local culture and heritage. In Korea, there is a famous travel destination which is called Busan. Even though this place is already famous for tourism, I think it needs to start geotourism to protect its nature and local economy.

A beach in Busan, called Haeundae, is well-known to many travelers. Therefore, every summer, a large number of beach-loving travelers come to visit Haeundae and enjoy sunshine and nature. However, after this summer holiday season, there is always tons of trash remained. To protect this beautiful beach from pollution, Busan have to take first step for geotourism. Jonathan Tourtellot, a pioneer of geotourism, said that Coasts are important for biodiversity because much of marine life has its nurseries in coastline area and coasts are extremely vulnerable. If Busan starts geotourism, it will bring positive effects not only to us but to future generation

Second reason why Busan have to try geotourism is that there are too many big franchise resorts such as Hanhwa resort, Lotte hotel and Western Chosun hotel which means that money made from tourism doesn’t go to local economy. Therefore, Busan have to support local accommodation through geotourism. For example, if there is local accommodation which allow travelers to experience local living style and local food, travelers will be able to get more than the money they paid. As a result, it will be beneficial not only to local residents but also to travelers.

It might take long time to launch geotourism. However, it brings Busan many benefits in the long term and local residents can also prepare for their younger generation by keeping its nature clean and helping its economy to grow. Therefore, it is necessary for Busan to start geotourism.

Blog post #2 Summary [Gender in the wild : Three studies reveal new findings] - pg 12 ~ 14

Summary

In this reading, it talks about how gender influences family relationships and social structures in the wild through three studies that were conducted in three different African national parks. In the first study, it says that female elephants were considered more social than males in the past but recent study proved that strong bonds are also existed among male elephants. Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell who is a behavioral psychologist in Stanford University argued that male elephants have strict social hierarchy. Therefore, older elephants usually teach and discipline young males. This system is very helpful when there is drought. In the second study, it mentions about gender behavior of geladas which are reddish-brown colored primates. Chadden Hunter, Australian wildlife biologist, asserted that even though female geladas are smaller and less-distinctive looking than males, they play important role in their families. In typical gelada family, females make significant decision such as what to eat, where to sleep and when to move. On the contrary, males just support females and try to protect young geladas. In addition when other males try to get into their families, they chase them away. Lastly, in the third study, it talks about how female and male chimps play differently. According to a primatologist at Harvard University, Richard Wrangham, female chimps usually play using sticks and copy what their mother do but male chimps usually enjoy active play such as climbing, jumping and chasing each other.

 

Opinion

 

It was very interesting fact to me that in the animal world, females often play significant role, because I used to think that males are usually more powerful and play more significant role in herd than females. In addition, I was quite surprised that the way young chimps play is much like what human beings do in their childhood. Furthermore, through this reading passage, I feel that there are strict rules and order in the wild much like our society.

 

Introduction

Hi! everyone in intermediate reading and writing class!

You guys might not be familiar with me because I enrolled in this class after the first day of this class so I couldn't attend. My name is Yewon Kim and 22 years old. My major is economics and I am double majoring in international trade. You guys might be curious about name of my blog. As some of you guys know, 'Andante' is music notation  which shows musical tempo and it means that the music should be played fairly slowly. The reason that I choose it as name of my blog is that even though it takes time, I want to complete my work and things that are given to me without mistakes. Actually, 'Andante' is also my motto. I usually make mistake when I do my work fast so instead of doing fast, I try to do it without mistakes although it takes more time.

I hope to share as many ideas as possible through this blog with you guys so visit my blog often and leave comment whenever you want!! :)