Entertainment…?

I used to watch more than ten dramas each year, which is quite a lot compared to other students in Korea. My mom – thanks to the students who devote themselves in studying – always got pissed off and blurted out the same phrase over and over: “Why don’t you memorize some SAT vocabularies if you have time to watch TV for hours and hours?” Despite my mother’s consistent nagging, I keep on watching TV shows and dramas. Why? It’s simply because I feel like my stress is going to burst out and explode any moment if there’s no entertainment around me – whether it is from the media, books, cultures. Almost all of the students around the world would think exactly the same as me. We, especially high school students, are pressured with massive amounts of school works, tests, and exams. However, most of the “typical” Korean students tend to refuse to be exposed to media and from the “teen culture”. Alright. GPA is important, as well as AP exams and SATs; but there’s no need to get obsessed with it, which is, that we need some time to relax and enjoy entertaining TV shows or even dramas etc. Watching 2 hours of TV a week would not kill you, and it’s not the end of the world. Try watching. For that two hours, it will make you free from all the high-pressured work and high expectations from your parents.

(Drawn by JR)

Top 5 Classics

I personally enjoy listening to classical musics, especially when I’m studying. So I found the top 5 popular classics among people.

09-10 What I learned in Eng. Class

Hmm… Sophomore year went so fast; it seems as yesterday that the year started. I wasn’t sure if I was going to succeed in English class when I first came here; however, as I look back at that time, I would like to mention that time just passes whatsoever. Everything passes away whether it is a tragedy or pleasure.
I definitely could find myself improved compared to the very first day I sat down in this class taking a pop-quiz about the books we were assigned to read during the summer. I remember myself struggling with the pop-quiz, for it has been a while since I read the book (I know … a lame excuse). I was all busy during the first few weeks of school; I was a new student; I had to meet up with the high standards that each teachers were expecting from me as a student; I needed to get adjusted to the school’s system. It took me a bit of time to keep on track with everything that was going on in English class.
Throughout the year, I learned how to interpret a piece of literature deeply and profoundly, thinking more on the hidden, implicated meaning of each word, text, and the whole passage. I used to read books line by line; at the end – obviously – the only thing left in my mind was the actual, basic summary of the novel. I read the summer books and Beowulf like this, which made me difficult to join the class discussions, in which extensive analysis was talked through. However, as the class continued to read books, discussing the concepts, I started to get an idea of how a literature piece should be read.
Another thing I improved from this class is gaining confidence. I am not an outgoing person in places where everything is unfamiliar and new; yet, once I get used to it and adjust to the atmosphere, I make a complete about-face, that is, I become talkative and lively. Whenever we had discussion, I could feel butterflies in my stomach; yet, as we had discussions constantly- after every assigned readings – I could feel myself participating more than before and gaining confidence in sharing my ideas and views with the whole class. Ms.P used to write me comments on my report card: “Speak up in class.” for the first three quarters. I personally hope Ms.P writes me a comment other than that for 2nd semester. Well… I definitely admit that I still need to work on it, and I’m not even close to perfect right now. But, at least, I think I improved than the beginning of the year, and I will continue working on it.
The projects we did throughout the year contributed as one of the main factors that helped me boost my skills. Discussion leader, MGP, Macbeth Presentation, OPEs – all these were one of my favorite projects. (I used the sentence pattern – YAY!) Whenever I completed these projects and turned it in, I always felt proud of myself: “Wow … I never thought I could actually do this at first, but then I completed it!”
I definitely think the course of English class helped me prepare for junior year, which will start in three months from now. This year has been a great year, especially with Ms.P, and I hope I find myself improved as well at the end of my junior year.

(I will never forget this classroom!)

Globalization of Korean Foods

Whenever I visit countries outside Korea, foreigners often ask if I come from China or Japan. If I say I am not from either of the countries, they curiously stare at me waiting for my answer. I would eventually find myself explaining that I come from South Korea. Apparently, South Korea isn’t widely known by foreigners. Attempting to introduce the excellence of Korean culture, the strategies are mostly focused on the globalization of Korean food, for it seems to gain popularity among foreign people. I sat down with the owner of a Korean food restaurant, Jong Min Baik and chatted about his contributions of the globalization of Korean food.

Baik started the restaurant seven years ago. “It was a challenging task for me as a beginner to open up a restaurant, which didn’t have much popularity at that time,” he said. The restaurateur mentioned that Koreans, when eating out, prefer Western foods to Korean foods, which made it more difficult for him. Baik eventually came up with a strategy of maintaining the Korean food as it is – that is to say, in its purest traditional form. “A lot of experts in Korea insist that the most effective way to globalize Korean food is to develop a new Korean menu that could attract others’ appetite.” But Baik disagrees, “The moment they adjust the food, it becomes nontraditional, contradicting the whole purpose of introducing Korean foods”.

Baik, looks to the strategy Japan came up with to internationalize its foods. Westerners saw Japan’s food culture – eating raw fish – as barbaric. However, today, sashimi is in the limelight; in fact, sashimi has become the symbol of Japan. Baik stated, “The Japanese approached the Westerners by emphasizing that sushi is a healthy diet. They did not study the foreigners’ appetites, but rather stressed the health benefits of sushi,” Baik stated, “By doing so, the unfavorable view towards ‘barbarian food culture’ gradually changed, bringing success in globalizing the dish”. “That is the approach that I am taking and will take in the future.”

Baik’s Korean food restaurant has gained fame among foreigners- especially the Japanese. “Almost 40% of the customers are foreigners,” according to Baik. Japanese broadcasting stations – NHK and Ohsama – came to his restaurant a couple of times to film the foods and interview Baik about the restaurant itself and how healthy Korean food is. The publishers of — magazines visited the place as well.

“The number of foreign customers increased drastically after it was exposed by the media. They are more interested in and praise the healthiness of Korean food,” said Baik.

“I am going to continue on giving out traditional Korean food as the way it is, and I hope the day of Korean food’s success in globalization comes,” stated Baik. With this unusual approach, Korean traditional food gained popularity. His contribution will continue over the coming days, and I hope the day comes when foreigners ask me: “Are you from Korea?”

What I LOVE !

I love… SUSHI and SASHIMI!

When I’m talking about sushi, I’m talking about Japanese sushi not Korean. The cooked vinegared rice topped with fish or other seafood and sashimi, raw fish, are one of my favorite dishes. I eat it at least twice a month with my family; the fish are so soft and it corresponds well with the rice. Yumm.. thinking about it makes me want to eat it right away.

I think I enjoy seafood since I lived in Singapore when I was very young and then lived overseas where there were a lot of seafood. I guess I was exposed to such food and enjoyed it until today.

Most of the Asians like sushi and sashimi, probably not much as I do, but Westerners don’t. I hope sushi and sashimi becomes one of the favorite dishes to people.

What I like about learning …

The purpose of learning, at least for me, is to attend the dream college and further on achieve my future career. Thus, what I like about learning is that I can accomplish my goals and lead the way of living a life which I am satisfied of.

I might have to say that I like learning academics since I can approach to my goal closely. However, learning arts is different from learning academics; I learned piano and ballet. It makes me relieved from the stresses, and increasing pressure of college admissions I get as a high school student. As I learn something new, I discover skills of my own that I had no clue of before; and I feel the excitement.

I will keep learning and remain as an opened student to my concealed abilities.

My biggest weakness in English Class

The first thing that pops out of my head is discussion. Discussion, discussion, discussion… According to my memory, I was very outstanding in discussions when I attended the American Schools overseas. However, as I came back to Korea and attended two years of Korean school, I assume that my English speaking skills decreased a lot. I may have lost my confidence in speaking up in class discussions, and I remember that I barely spoke during the first semester of school. My classmates often say that they dislike writing essays and would rather have class discussions; yet, I have the exact opposite opinion. I feel more comfortable in writing than speaking up in class; it’s not that I don’t hang out well with my friends, it’s just that I lost confidence in expressing my opinions and thoughts about one piece of literature. However, I feel much more confident as we continued on discussions, even though I would have to improve more. For the rest of the year, which is about 42 days from today, I am going to improve my discussion skills to or above the level of confidence in writing. I hope I get positive, favorable comments from Ms.P other than ‘Needs to speak up in class’ at the end of 2nd semester.