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.