Final Reflction: Thanks

 

Grammar area might be helped because it is necessary part to write a lot of sentences. Speaking area is lacking. I like the teaching style which lets us encourage to communicate one another in English. Vocabulary became better. The textbook of teaching method is good. My confidence actually became lower. Because there’s many students to speak English quite freely.

In what areas do you still need to continue improving? What will you do in order to improve in those areas?
I want to improve my speaking skill. I think that the more practice to speak, the more improve skills in speaking area. I need to make the environment which gives me opportunities to speak English often. So I am going to try to make foreign friends.

Was this the first time you kept a blog? Did you enjoy blogging?
Yes, it is first time I have kept.

Was blogging a helpful way to practice writing? Did you enjoy reading your classmates' blogs? Do you think you will continue blogging in the future?

I thought blogging didn’t seem to have helped much at first time. But as now, blogging is good educational material because it has been useful when I have wanted to refer another writing. But except for reference, I’m NOT SURE whether we enjoy the readings of classmate’s blogs. In my case, I don’t think I would continue blogging in succession.  

 

Why? I want to give 90 percents to recommend this class. Paticulary, assignments helped me to study English steadily. And It's also given a great deal of weight on assessment. It was killing two birds with one stone. However, If you want to be evaluated only by test, only by your ability, because you are already fluent-level, this class won't be fit for you.

Thanks Prof. Kyle. You always seems to consider about class to improve student's English skills.

Opposition to the Government-Designated History Textbooks

Hayeon Park
Prof. Kyle Brebner
IERW(03)
25 November 2015

Opposition to the Government-Designated History Textbooks

 It is easy to delude themselves that they are familiar with Korean history if they are Korean. Many Koreans are proud of Korean history but most of them have only a little knowledge about the history. One of the reasons is that history is not a required subject in the school curriculum. Also there is no correct answer because there are various interpretations of history. The South Korean government has recently announced plans to issue new history textbooks in middle and high schools. While the government insists that they should teach only one history, the opposition parties, historians, and educational circles disapprove strongly of it. Opponents, who against making new history textbooks, present some problems. The major drawbacks of making government-designated history textbooks is a team organization of writers who make the sole history, a short period of the writing, and a narrative of the historical issues having a point of dispute.
 

 One of the drawbacks about making the sole history is how to decide a team organization of writers who make the sole history. The government asserts that they have to make government-published textbooks to resolve unequal distribution of organizing a team of writers. Current authorized textbook allegedly are left leaning politically. So the Ministry of Education announced they would arrange writers encompassing all generations and make a compilation council composed of various careers like history, education, Korean linguistics and constitution scholars as well as parents and teachers. However, it is hard to create well-balanced organization of writers at this stage. There are more than a few people who are in the leading academic world of history and in-service professors of history dissent government-published textbooks itself. They expressed their will not to participate on national textbooks. It makes sure to organize well-balanced writers between the left and the right wings groups.
 

 Another problem of making the sole history is a short period of the writing. The government plans to write the national history textbooks from this November to next November. They also want to distribute the textbooks on site in March, 2017. According to normal production period of textbooks, it usually takes two or three years. Their time, on the other hand, is only about one year including a team organization of writers, writing& review and modification. To apply new history books in classes of middle and high school from 2017, they have to reduce the process of review and modification drastically. It is likely to make just rough-and-ready without those processes.
 

 One final drawback is a narrative of the historical issues having a point of dispute. The government would create the sole history of Korea. How are they able to weave various views of the history into one? Remaining politically neutral is really important for textbooks. There should be various ideological disputes to resolve. It risks distorting the textbooks fitting with the position of government. Also, students would fundamentally lose the opportunity to learn the history with their historical imagination arising from historical debates. The narrative of the historical issues in looking at only one aspect does not fit into the contemporary flow, which emphasizes diversity and creativity in the world supporting democracy and political freedom.
 

 Most people point out that using government-designated history textbooks is a retrograde step for democracy. It would enforce uniformity of thoughts. The publication system of textbooks has changed from compilation by the state to official certification as democratization progresses. Returning to compilation by the state means returning to Park chung-hee’s regime which called the Yushin regime. Yushin government revised most constitution and Yushin’s dictatorial powers had taught standardized history. I think we could filter the errors enough, which the government insist, by compensating current official certification. Thus, Korean government must not determine the change toward making government-designated history textbooks hastily. If they should go forward with making the sole history textbooks, we would teach and enforce to memorize the history which we don’t even know whether it is real fact or not.

Should Korea have more than one official language?

 Have you satisfied that Korea has just one official language to speak? It is good at the aspect of national unity. There are some local conflicts, even when there exists just dialects. If we had another official languages, there would be more crash between peoples. But there are some merits that more than one official language offers like Canada, which has two official languages, French and English. One or more official languages make a circumstance naturally to learn new language, reduce private education fees and helps to become a global leader.

 First, more than one official language make a circumstance naturally to learn new language from the early age. According to a study on the education of children, acquiring languages is as effective as people are young. Babyhood is a crucial period of linguistics learning. Chomsky, one of the linguists, said that children have an innate ability to learn languages. So if we have more than one official language, we could master another languages easier than when we are adults.

 Second, if we get more than one languages, we can reduce private education fees. These days, a lot of parents spend their money for their children’s private education. Above all, Korean parents think that early-childhood English teaching is most important of that. So some of them send their children to English language kindergarten. But, the cost of putting their children there is enormous. It is difficult for them to afford the tuition fees but there’s no choice for their children.

 Finally, more than one official language helps for citizens to become a global leader. Language ability has become important in the world we live in. Various fields of job require language abilities basically even excluding their mother tongue because most of industry need to communicate with another country’s industries in this global world. Today, most of jobs are linked in every corner of the world. So if Korean government adopt another official language, we could be competitive than other countries, which don’t choose any more official languages.

 I think two or trilingual people are likely to have a job easily, which they want to be. Because they can consider their jobs in a wide range of areas. Korean have taught their children Chinese at early age at least they are able to write their name in Chinese. And nowadays, Chinese have become more important as China grows up. How is it going to happen if we decide Chinese our another official language? I think we don’t need to learn Chinese with full stress. Also we can be competitive in the world industries.

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway

Hayeon Park

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW(03)

25 September 2015

Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway

             The first time I saw ‘Rain, Steam and Speed– The Great Western Railway’ was during one rainy afternoon in Han-ga-ram Art Museum. The sky in Seoul on that day was still dark even until noon. The surrounding environment made me feel as if I was in a tense fairy tale, with exceptions to the thunder and lighting. It felt like the dark afternoon gave me an assignment to resolve something while I rode my way by the train. Many people on social networking sites said that Seoul resembled the city of Gotham and it was scary. But I was pretty sure that the weather helped me concentrate on the painting even more. ‘Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway’ had some differences between superficial appearance and the hidden meanings. Superficial appearance of the painting looked calm and silent but there were hidden meanings giving warning.

            ‘Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway’ by William Turner looked calm and silent superficially. It  was drawn as if the painting mimicked the sky on that day. There were train that seemed to stop, gloomy fog and cloudy river in the painting. That is why the drawing was familiar to me. Especially, the train with large wheels was heading towards visitors that were looking at it from a straight point of view. So I was wondering whether it was stopped or onrushing towards us.

 Contrary to outward appearance of the painting, ‘Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway’ had some hidden meanings giving warning. First, you can see some white bundles within the painting. If there had not been a digital copy of the painting I would have never known what the true identity of the ‘white bundles’ were. Ironically, there was one white rabbit as the digital art indicated. At the period of time William Turner drew this picture, an Industrial Revolution had happened and machines set the trend absolutely. It all changed like Turner’s name indicated. People who used to plow went out to learn the ways to push buttons at a factory. So there was one interpretation that the rabbit symbolized nature that was being pushed backwards by the industrialization. It is most likely that William Turner intended to show the greatness of industrialization. Second, in the picture, the form of the train surrounded by the fog wasn’t clear. This indicated that he wanted to represent the tremendous speed of the train which could not have been compared to a horse and carriage. But William Turner didn’t paint only to show that kind of the greatness. William Turner showed us that civilization was driving out of breath. He might have wanted to let us know that machines will overtake human beings someday. Lastly, a third thing, there were two horses plowing the field on the right side of the bridge while a boat fisherman and girls dancing were drawn on the left hand side. They were drawn very dimly. This implied that they too would disappear soon among the crowd celebrating the Industrial Revolution.

After I knew the details about the picture, the Korean film ‘Snowpiercer’ by director Bong Jun-ho suddenly came to my head. The train in the movie, Snowpiercer, ran indifferently no matter how vicious and awful of an occurrence happened. But from the outside the train resembled a placid incubator. I thought carefully if there was a difference between the trains from the 19^th century and the ‘Snowpiercer’. My answer was that the sweet jelly of red beans, ordinary foods, degrade to protein blocks which were made of cockroaches while delicious foods became more luxurious. In other words, both of them showed that the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. Plus, all they presented was only order that existed except human beings. Now, one line that did not appealed to me while watching the movie went through my mind. “We need balance about everything”. William Tuner might also want the balance between humans and machinery.

Secured Booth

 Can you see the public telephone booths here and there even though people don’t use it much? These days, people who possess their smart phones have increased. So the number of people who seeking public telephones have decreased than before. How about transferring the old-fashioned public telephone booths into ‘secured booth’? Secured booth functions protected area by preventing access from something threatening and checking their body condition in urgent situation.

 Secured booth can be the protection area when you want to flee from something threatening. For example, you can enter there if you think a stranger follows you. Then it operates locking system and call the police. This will be useful especially if there’s no one to help you. Of course, Secured booth has surveillance cameras both inside and outside. It helps the police recognizes who threaten citizen.  

 Another reason why secured booth is necessary is that it can check your health right on the street. When you are sick on a sudden on the street, you can check your body briefly in the secured booth. If you need, you can contact a doctor or pharmacist on the spot through video call. Then medical team prescribes patient’s condition fast for them when they go to a hospital as well.  

 With secured booth, we can also reduce the waste of useless space. It would not only protect citizens but also increase space efficiency. Therefore, we have to create more public telephone booths formed ‘secured booth’ on the street from now on. Secured booths might contribute people to protect themselves in the hazard-possible world.

What is the Eco-Drive Zone?

 Government needs to create the Eco-Drive Zone for sustainable future. Eco-Drive Zone indicates the area of cutting fuels off. Drivers can lessen fuels at that area by refraining sudden unintended acceleration and taking their foot off gas pedal on the way down. It leads to cut the energy down and therefore we can reduce environment contamination. Saving natural resource and reducing global warming are just two reasons for creating the Eco-Drive Zone.

 One reason is that EDZ Impedes the depletion of a natural resource by using fuel-cut. Fuel cut means to prevent fuel supply for avoiding increasing velocity while vehicles speed up to some standard. We can raise fuel efficiency from fuel cut. If we move our foot off on accelerator, function of fuel cut operates at the speed from 1500 to 2000. In this, it allows to run itself by momentum, so it can achieve the fuel efficiency. A downhill road is the best for taking advantage of the fuel cut and it is designated as the Eco-Drive Zone. Drivers could drive their car only by inertia at that area without the accelerator. According to government notice, drivers can reduce about 5% of fuels from starting point to the end of area. So EDZ could let cars run with specific speed not exhausting their fuels. Ultimately they can drive more with the same amount of fuels.

 Another reason to make the EMZ is that it reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Most of the carbon dioxide, which is the main factor of global warming, are emitted from fumes of the cars. So we can contribute to preserve environment by reducing carbon dioxide from cars. For example, there are 74 sections, which is a range of 25.7km, that have 65000 tonnes of carbon dioxide reduction effect as well as 26000kl of energy saving effect in Seohaean Expressway.

 Designating the Eco-Drive Zone is a good way to ensure sustainable future because it enables drivers to use less natural resource, and it also reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Besides being good for the environment, Eco-Drive Zone has additional benefits. Eco-Drive Zone induces drivers to form good driving habits. So it leads reduction of traffic accidents in the black spot, especially in the downhill road. By creating the Eco-Drive Zone, we can ensure the reduction of environment risk and the reduction of exposure for us from the risk at the same time.

The place to find true love - 'Letters to Juliet'

Have you imagined how it would have felt if one of the films you liked was set in another place? Most film directors and writers intend where to decide the location when they set conceit of the film at the beginning. They usually decide it for an appropriate reason. Setting a proper place helps them to unfold a narrative effectively. Letters to Juliet is an ideal example showing that kind of effect. The location, Italy, is a very important element of the film Letters to Juliet, because the city lets the story become more dramatic. The reason why Italy makes film dramatic is that it is famous as a travel destination for finding and confirming love and it is the place where exists the real Juliet's house.

Italy is famous as a travel destination for finding and confirming love in a real world. Clare visits there with her grandson, Charlie, to find Lorenzo who she loves in her early days. Similarly, Sophie travels to Italy with her fiancé as a honeymoon before marriage. Italy is a place inspiring people to think to be able to find true love there. Sophie and Charlie get to know each other while they look around every nook and corner for Clare’s love, Lorenzo. As time goes by, their relationship grows, however she is already engaged with Victor who is a chef opening his restaurant soon. Although she is still questionable about his love, she has to say goodbye and come back to the lodgment where Victor is. Charlie realizing his true feelings for Clare follows her up to her accommodation, but he returns back to his way after he discovers her hugging her fiancé in the balcony.

Another reason why Italy makes the film more dramatic is that there’s the real Juliet’s house. Juliet’s house is located in Verona where characters stay and meet each other in the film. Sophie observes secretaries called ‘Juliet’s secretary’ there at Juliet’s house. After she joins them she discovers a letter which was mailed 50 years ago lodged within a stone wall, and replies to that letter. Surprisingly, one day Clare impressed by her letter visits Juliet’s house with her grandson, Charlie. If it wasn’t for Juliet’s house, Sophie would not have answered the letter and meeting one another would have been impossible. This is because the balcony has special meaning as it was the place to promise love in this film, therefore their first encounter was at the balcony. Furthermore, the balcony of Lorenzo’s house where Sophie and Charlie confirm what is at the bottom of their hearts is important as it is where they finally meet again at the wedding of Clare and Lorenzo.

All the clues they find for their true love are started from Italy. So Verona, ltaly couldn’t be replaced by any other city in Letters to Juliet. Sophie comes back to Italy from New York, the United Stated through her experiences of Italy. As long as the story of Romeo and Juliet is remembered, the film with the background of Italy is a best-setting film to draw undying love. After watching this film, you might want to travel to the city, dreaming the chances to find eternal love.