Leaving my last week in AL

This Saturday and Sunday are my last weekend in Alabama. Since this is my "last" writing in the blog, I want to write how I came here and the things I'd learned here by studying abroad. I have been in here, Alabama since May to study abroad. Before coming to the U.S, I really worried about myself whether or not I can learn enough English fluently, moreover living alone without my family. Also, it costs a lot of money to study abroad in the U.S; for that, some of my friends usually go to Australia, Philiphine, or Canada- where it costs less than the U.S, so this fact-learning English in the U.S-was also a heavy burden on me. If I don't study hard, my parents would be dissapointed on me. Therefore, studying abroad was a "challenge" for me.

However, I've learned so much valuable things by studying abroad. I learned how to handle difficulties by myself; I always used to rely on my family or my friends although it was a easy thing to solve, and by living alone, I realized how my family and my friends are important for me. Also, of course, I learned how to study English effectively by learning in ELI which was well organized. Moreover, I got my dear life-partner who is going back to Korea with me;) From the first,both of us planned to go back to Korea on December;yet, now we're going back together ;)

After I go back to Korea, I will continue to study English. Learning in ELI was definitely a valuable time for me to study English effectively. I really appreciate all of the ELI teachers and classmates. When I first meet a person, it is little hard for me to speak friendly, however I got so many nice people and friends from all over the World. Let me know your e-mail to keep in touch with you! Thank you for everything ;)

Respond to the novel - Chap 20&21

The whole details of chapter 20&21 are about the combat between Iorek & Iofur and the truth of Dust told by Lord Asriel. While reading the chapter 20, which is the scene of the fight between Iorek&Iofur, I was also excited about the combat and I imagined the scene in my mind as well. As the book mentioned, I thought Iofur has lot of more advantages and conditions to defeat the combat rather than Iorek. However, Iorek became the king of the bear at last !

Reading the scene of the combat, I draw the picture in my mind how it will be described in the film , since we are going to watch the movie in a few days. Bloody althiometer, and the armor, and the most biggest fight of two bears !! I'm excited about watching the movie right after I've read the book. I believe it'll be more easy to understand the movie and more effective as well !

Reality of art in Korea

As I've mentioned previously, I had a quite big interest in arts since I was young. As, we're learning about the history about art in Renaissance, I also want to represent about art in my country, Korea. About the view and visions toward artists.

First of all, it's very hard to enter an Art University in Korea. I had learned art for about 3years. However, it wasn't enough, so I failed the first exam so I had to spend one more year to pass it after graduating high school. Also, even in small technical college's rate of competition is about 15:1. In other words, if you don't get an A or you aren't a top in class, you would definitly fail. Not only competitive rate but also there isn't enough support to them in colleges. Except only a few of colleges, most of students don't have enough support by college.

Also, they don't have enough place to work after college. Nowadays, even in small art industries see the beauty first rather that their personality. Also, they tend to have a nightshift all day long without any extra payment. For these compositive reasons, to be able to maintain as a artist in Korea, in my opinion, it's hard to get a job or to be sucessed. For that, some of them study abroad to improve English like in my case ( as English is a required subject to go to a major company in Korea), or else some of them enter in another country's college, get a new start, and study with enough support. However, as my major is art, I feel pity about this reality of these days.

English as my 2nd language

First of all, as I have left only a few weeks to go back to Korea, I wanted to write about why I came here and the my thoughts to leave the U.S. In my point of view, Studying another language is the most interesting thing. Actually every student in my country, Korea, study English as a 2nd language. Every schools are required to do that as a part of a class, and then there are another languages to choose such as Japanese, Chinese, French, German and so on. However, which I learn in my country is only the "text". For real, even though we start learning English in such a young age, whenever we collaspe with foreigners, most of the people get almost frozen and can't say anything.

That is one of the reason why I decided to come to the U.S to study English, get along with Americans and know about its culture as well. I've experienced so many things that I wouldn't forget for my entire life since May-which is the period of time I came here. Although it was pretty short time to learn English or to get a chance to get close with Americans, it was so precious time for me. For this reason, now when I think of the day that I should leave this place, I'm quiet sad and regretful.

Actually, at first I came here, I really missed my family, friends, and of course my dog;) Also, I had a quiet difficulty to get used to live alone, because it was my "first" time to live apart with my family. For that, I really missed all the things in Korea for several weeks. However, it's sad to leave here as I started to get along and used to the thing in the U.S. I know I have to go back to Korea, get a job, and live there, but it's kind of sad and hard to "say goodbye"to the U.S.

Respond to novel-chap16,17

First of all, as the chapter goes on, it is more interesting to read. Especially I loved these chapters. Probably it was almost the climax of the story. In this chapter, Lyra leads the children to run away. Unfortunately, some of the children died because of the seperation from their daemon. However, she ran away to find John Faa and other gypsians with the children. Also during the journey, whenever Lyra is in danger, Iorek bursts in and helps Lyra.

In here, I was wondering whether or not Lyra's feeling of Iorek is real. According to the book, Lyra keeps saying she loves him. I'm expecting how the relationship will be between Iorek and Lyra. Just for friendship and the blessing of finding him armor back ? or is there something related to Lord Asriel? Also, I'm expecting how these parts would be described in the film on December ;)

Respond to the essay -soccer

First of all, it was an interesting topic for me. I could see the american's point of view about the soccer. As it mentions in the essay, I also haven't seen playing soccer in mass media, unlike football or basketball, since I came here. I think they are more enthusiastic in basketball or the other sports, especially football, rather than soccer.Actually, in my country, Korea, soccer is one of the most famous and the most popular sports which people are enthusiastic about. Especially, the party of fans(& the cheer leaders) are the other new sight to see in the sports stadium.

In Korea, red color represents the soccer fans and it's also the color of the uniform, every fans wear red cloths and you can commonly see the red wave in the stadium. It's so fantastic ! For that reason, Korean soccer group of fans are called, "Red devil". (It similiar which we call "Roll tide"in here,AL). As you can see in the picture, whenever the soccer game comes, all people gather around in the middle of the city or the busiest quarters in the city, and ready to cheer the players with red clothes on it which is the symbol of Korea. Not only watching soccer but cheering with people also is another fun !

Art

Learning about the Art in this chapter made me exciting, because I'm interested in art(since I was a little child). Since I was a little child, I liked to draw and sketch things. Therefore, as soon as I entered in high school, I learned art in art academy and entered Art University in my country, Korea after all . I was proud of myself in learning art and doing what I want to do in college. However, I'm still learning one by one about my major.Moreover, sometimes I get into a slump, because I think of myself that I don't have enough knowledge to major it.

Even though I'm interested in it, I only know some of the famous artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Picasso, Climt and so on. Not only lack of knowledge but I also didn't noticed about the whole history about art. Especially, I didn't even noticed about the ancient art as well (which is mentioned in the text book). Although it is quite short to learn about the whole history about art, this chapter really simulated and reminded me to study more about "Art".

Is Brad Pitt a good mate?

In my Speaking/Listening class, I had a controversial with this topic titled, "Is Brad Pitt a good mate?", so at that time I thought it might be a quite interesting topic to write in my blog, too.
Back to the topic, Brad Pitt represents the most famous person in the World. I thought for a moment, what if that kind of man comes to me, and propose? I think I'll not refuse for dating him. However, when I think that I will be his life-partner for my rest of the life, I'll have a lots of things to think of.

First of all, I will be always anxious about him, because there must be so many fans, especially female, around and I'll be anxious about him. Even though I have a certain faith to him, I would have to always worried about that.
In addition, even though I'm not a famous person, I'll get everyone's attention whenever I do something with my husband. Actually, especially with my mate, everyone would want to be only with your mate without nobody's attention. However, cameras and we will always be cautious and followed by paparazzis. That will defenitely cause me stress.

What will you do if you marry a famous person? Of course, just for a moment, it will be nice and you will enjoy it ! But if that is for my rest of the life, I'll have to give up so many things such as my privacy because of living with him.

Respond to Novel- Chap.10.11

After noticing about the truth of Lyra's family and Alethiometer, she follows with John Faa and the other gypsians on their way to North to rescue the captive children and to punish the Gobblers. On the new chapters 10 and 11, Some of the new interesting characters appear such as the witch consul whose name is Martin Lanselius, or the queen of a witch clan, Serafina Pekkala, and the armored bear, Iorek Byrnison. I believe they are the important characters and do something special in this novel as they appeared in the middle of the story.

However, I was curious about why did Lyra tell the whole truth to Dr. Lanselius about the Alethiometer. On the top of the page 173, it has mentioned that Farder Coram didn't want Dr. Lanselius to know of Lyra's power. I also thought like him because if he told the whole truth about the relation between the Alethiometer and Lyra,which is that Alethiometer can be read only with Lyra, Dr. Lanselius might want to get Lyra from John Faa and use that special ability to the witchs.

I still don't know the truth unless I read the whole story. However, it's has been a quite interesting story as I read more and more. I also saw the preview of the movie on T.V a couple of days ago. I can't wait to see the movie soon. I'm wondering whether or not it'll be better than the novel(for usually most of the movies which had remade in the film, it's not better than the novel;), but I'm expecting to see the movie as soon as it's on the theater.

Serious issue in Korea

I want to write about the news that I've read in Korea internet web-site.
There was a male model / actor whose characteristic was shown as a woman in every films in Korea. I thought that was just his role in the film , but afterwards I heard that wasn't just a play.
He was a person who wanted to be a woman ! Finally, I heard from the news that he had a surgery and changed his sex from man to woman.

I saw that news a few days ago by internet, it was pretty shocking for me, because I've never imagined he would change his sex to woman. However, for that reason recently in Korea, this actor is on hot issue because of his sexexchange operation. Many netizens are discussing about him whether he should act in film as before or not.

In my opinion, we should respect them as normal person. I feel pity rather than to blame them.
I think it's not their fault that they were born like that. The truth is those people who changed their sex don't have an opportunity to work as normal people. According to the documentary I've seen in Korea, most of the transsexual people work in a strip bar at night and sell their body, because they have to earn money but they can't find the job to accept them . I think it's still a big problem to change in every country as well.

Respond to novel - chap.6,7

From chapter 6,7, I found lots of interesting facts about Lyra and her parents. We can notice all of the whole "real story" about her parents, who is Lord Asriel, father, and Mrs.Coulter,mother.
She also finds out that the Gyptians have been watching her ever since she was born, and John Faa, who is the lord of the western Gyptians, is the person who tells the true story of her mother and father.

According to the story until chapter 6, I've guessed there must be some kind of relationship between Lord Asriel and Lyra. I realized that in mind when she was caught by him in the wardrobe, because even though he twisted her arms and gave a pain to Lyra, she didn't even resist and endured her pain. For this reason, actually I wasn't so surprised that Lord Asriel was Lyra's father. However, I never thought of Mrs.Coulter as her mother. It was a kind of reversal part of the story for me.

Also, I was surprised that there was a particular person, who worked in the kitchen in Jordan College, had been looking every single thing that Lyra was doing ever since she was born. When I read that part, I imagined how Lyra would be feeling at that moment. If I were Lyra, I would be so scary and feel a thrill of horror or something like that. From these chapter, it was so interesting to know about the true story about Lyra's family and the story, and I am expecting what will happen to Lyra with the althiometer.

How to punctuate

According to the article "How to punctuate" written by Russell Baker, it gave me many informations about how to punctuate in a certain punctuation marks that I haven't even recognized before. From this article, I looked back of myself whether or not I had used right punctuations in a right situation.

Sometimes it is very confusing to know when can I use the right punctuation mark. I always confused between semicolon and colon when I first started to learn about punctuation marks. Therefore, before learning about this, I used to make lots of mistakes in my essay with using the wrong punctuation marks, even though I didn't know when to use, then I realized that too much punctuation marks makes my writing more worse rather than to prove my skills as it has mentioned in the article.

From now, I knew lots of informations about punctuation marks, so that I can improve my essay better than before. Even though it would be a little change, I believe it will cause a big positive affect in my writings and essays even in my speakings.

Useful thing in learning English

Recently, I spend lots of time watching T.V. The reason is to try to listen English without seeing any script or captions. When I first came here, I couldn't understand all most every words, so I started to watch with captions on it. However, all of a sudden I realized that I wasn't concentrating in listening, I was just watching the captions on the bottom. My eyes were following the captions whenever I watched T.V.
After then, I began to watch without the captions. Although I had to tune in the T.V with the highest volume, it was really useful for me to improve my English. Actually, if it were your own language, I wouldn't recommend this method. However, to be able to listen more (not just an academic English), I believe T.V is a good method to improve your English through News, Talkshows, or even reality programs.

Respond to novel - Chap.2,3

By chapter by chapter, it is getting more interesting about figuring out about new words or the other new character , such as the words "Alethimeter", "Dust", or the new character "Mrs.Coulter" who appears in the end of the chapter 3. On Chapter 2, Lord Asriel makes Lyra to keep hiding in the wardrobe and listen to the every single word what Master says. Therefore, with no choice, otherwise she was also curious about the wine, she agrees to hide herself. During her uncle's speech, she hears all the things that the Master and the Librarian whispering, and she was also curious about one part of her uncle's lecture which he'd mentioned about the Dust.

However, on chapter 3, the author mentions about the whole history and rumor and the things people saying about the 'kidnapping group' called "Gobblers". According to the rumor, this is some kind of mysterious group who steals little children. Also, a beautiful young lady with her daemon golden monkey is the person who attracts the children. At that time, Lyra founds out that Rogers, who is Lyra's best friend in Jordan College, was also missing. She tries to find, but he is nowhere. However, at that time her uncle introduces Lyra ,few of the persons concerned to him, but there was a woman with a golden monkey whose name is Mrs. Coulter.

In my opinion, Mrs.Coulter could be the person who is suspected by the Oxford people as a "Gobbler". First of all, I can only guess by her appearence, because that is the only thing that had mentioned until chapter 3. However, it ended with her name, so I believe she might be the person who is the 'Gobbler'. I think Lyra would be the main character who solves and finds about Mrs.Coulter and about the things happened to her friend, Roger.

Understanding Behavior

According to the chapter in the text book, it was interesting to find about the variety sides of behavior.In the book, it also says that behavior is a very important part of the ecological role of any animal. It definitely affects them to survive and reproduce. Last, but not least the book tolds that the actions of the animal have the same motivation as the human being. However, we can't guarantee whether its motivation or directions are same as the human being or not. The animals may not have the same motivations unless we could figure out what they're thinking about.

For me, the most interesting part was "Human behavior",that "phobia" such as a fear of snakes isn't a natural(heredity) behavior, but a learned behavior. Actually, when I think of the days I was young, I had never been afraid of the bugs, flies or insects as well. I didn't react any differently than to other moving objects as it mentions in the book.

Girl Suicide

According to the article " Girl Suicide", which I've read today morning on the newspaper, the rate of teenage suicide is increasing rapidly than before. Surprisingly, The average age of the teen suicide is 15~16 years old. Moreover, the method of killing themselves also have changed. Recently, they are using their own firearms instead of strangling themselves. That means even the young teenagers can purchase guns or weapons easily than the past days. Experts are now in urge to solve this social problem , which is spreading fast to the whole country.

These days 'Teen Suicide' also has been a serious problem in my country, Korea. Unlike in the U.S, most of the teenagers jump down from the high building or the apartment. Usually , the reason is because of the grade(score) in schools or the pressure by their parents. From the research, Korean parents have almost the highest passion of education to their children among the other countries. This causes their children stressful and to be cowered. I believe that is why they choose to kill themseleves.

However, I didn't realize that this is also a big problem in the U.S. We should solve this problem quickly before we can't even deal with it. In my opinion, I think it's too easy to get a gun(firearm) in the U.S. The stores must have a limitation of a certain age of selling the products such as weapons or guns. Also, most of them who kill themselves just need a person to listen to their troubles in mind. If you read something on their face, I believe you should not just ignore and pass them by.

Respond to novel - Chap.1

The Golden Compass, which I am reading these days, is an interesting novel. Although I have read only few of the pages, I am very curious about the rest of the stories that will happen next time.

In the story, the girl whose name is Lyra is a very interesting character. From the novel, I found out that she like to detect and solve the issue what she had seen in the wardrobe. However, even though her uncle, Asriel, was fierce and even she had be punished by him, for some reason Lyra seems that she just doesn't want to ignore the thing that had happened while was in the wardrobe.

However, according to the novel I'm expecting that Lyra might be a person who would be a defenitive character and find a conclusive evidence for this case,as well.

My Strengths and Weaknesses in Writing

I have been studying English since I was in middle school in Korea. For this reason, English was always part of my life. Actually, English has been a 2nd language in my country even now. It is important to get a high-level job, as well. That is why I choose to come here and study abroad in U.S to improve my English skills, and it certainly helped me to improve writing skills by studying abroad.
However, my strengths in writing are vocabularies. Of course, I am not perfectly fluent as native speakers, but I'm getting much better in this part since I came here. Actually , I have lived in U.S for about 2~3years when I was a little child. Even though my memories in U.S are unclear, because I was such a little child, that experience in U.S really helped me improving English than before and it was much easier to understand than other foreigners in ELI. I believe my ability of making vocabularies have been set at that time.
On the other hand, my weaknesses in writing are structures. I always get confused which grammer that I have to use in a certain sentence. When I came here to learn English, I got more confused because I had to learn in English and I couldn't understand few of vocabularies and had to find the dictionary and translate all the words quickly. However, that didn't really helped me to improve my grammer skills. For that reason, to improve my structure skills, I decided to just listen and pay attention what the teacher was trying to say in class, and I studied alone after class and I only asked questions that I really can't solve by myself. It seems simple, but it took a long time and patience to study. Now, I believe I am getting better than before because of this method that I tried.

my best experience in U.S

My best experience in U.S is that I have got so many friends from all around the world.
At first,I thought it was difficult to get closer with them because we didn't had anything in common but that was my wrong estimate.
We shared about each other's culture and cooked own country's traditional food to the other side and often had a party in the domitory. After that, we got more close to each other day by day.
Actually it was an advantage for me to get along with them. That was the only way to improve and have a chance to speak English except the classes in ELI.
I feel proud of myself, and I think I will never forget this moment of time for the rest of my life.
When I think of the time when I have to leave ELI, I already feel sad and I will miss all of the friends that I have met in the U.S.

my entrepreneurial idea

My intrepreneurial idea product is to make a company who helps you do work that you can't
solve or having a difficulty in it.
Whenever you need help , you can call to my office for help.
It costs maximum of $100 on every request. You don't need to feel risk of money.
It's not that expensive. We can handle any hard thing which is possible to solve.
It can be an emergency, we can follow on a person's tail, if you want,
and of course we can do an errand for you.
However, There's a limit of age, you need to be a person of legal age:18 years old
and you need to charge advance payment, just 10% of the payment.
If so, we will do the best as we can to do your favor.
Thank you.

The ideal job

I think the most ideal job is the work that I can enjoy.
The work may be stressful and give oppressions for me
but it can lift a burden from my job the moment I start to enjoy it !
To be enjoyable in my job, I think it's important
to do what comes naturally and find a work that I like to do.

In my case, my major is art in my university.
For that reason, after I graduate college,I want to get a job related to my major, art.
Whenever I concentrate in my work(drawings or sketching),
I feel happy and don't even notice the time goes by
although I have to spend all night to do my work.
I enjoy my work in that degree ^^

Therefore, getting a ''enjoyable" job is the essential part of working.

Parenthood

To be able to be a "parent", I think we need "responsibility" to take care of the family.
Also, you have to spend more time with your family than spending your personsonal time unless you have a child.

In my occasion, my parents tried to spend time with me since I was a little child and that made me chance to get closer with them. Some of my friends don't even try to have a conversation with their parents since they passed through adolescent, which is the age of puberty.

However, in my case my parents tried to understand the storm and stress of that age and neither I didn't even think of assuming a defiant attitude toward my parents as my friends did,at that time of year.

Looking back in those days, I perceived the truth that children's attitude or behaviors depends upon on how their parents treat them since they were a little child. Also, I apprieciate about my parent's wisdom that the way they raised me. That makes me feel to return their favor somehow ^^

slang

Using a slang is a quite serious issue in Korea.
Many middle and high students say bad words although they know how bad the meanings are. Most of them follow the slangs from the movies or television, as well, since they were young.

For this reason, lots of children,even under middle school ages,can also approach bad words (slangs) easily than before. It is a serious problem for them and also for the parents
because the children learn the slangs before they know the meanings of it.

Therefore, they can use those bad words to any persons in any situation, such as to their grandparents in a formal position. This might cause a big problem for the whole society, if most of the young children uses like that. Unfortunately, this problem has already been spread out in society of Korea.

Therefore, We need to try to decrease using slangs in mass media, which is easy to approach by children. We need to set a good model to the children, who are the hope of our future.

Compare English with Korean

Between English and Korean: there are more differences than something in common.
English have many differences with Korean. First of all; subject, verb and object of the sentence's order is different with English. Actually, it's opposite with English.
For this reason, Koreans run against into lots of difficulty learning in English at first time.
So did I ! It really confused me and and every sentence's order complicated me, as well.
The second thing is its pronounciation is hard to pronounce to Korean.
Therefore: It takes quite long time to pronounce English well like a native speaker to us.
These things made me confused to learn English, but now I am getting used to it
and going through these obstacles ! :)

Describe the attitude of Koreans

Etiquette is the most important thing in my country.
For this reason, attitudes toward the politeness is very essential to the people who lives in Korea.
It's important to indicate the respect,especially to the old.
We usually learn how to behave politely and some of courtesies to act in front of the elderly, before we learn scholarly activities in school.
Most of the adults consider the good manners as the most important thing in Korea. That is why they teach etiquettes to their children since they are young. The children have been taught lots of manners from their parents, such as table manners or behaviors in public places in front of the old.
Therefore, attitudes toward the etiquettes to the elderly plays an important part in my country.

My source of strength

My source of strength is "Having a various experience" in my life.
I think having an experience is the most important thing for our own lives. Although it wasn't a good memory or well experience in the past, it could be a living lesson during your life someday.
This is the reason why I have chosen to study abroad. I thought it could be a good experience for my life, and it is ! ^^
When I arrived here in the U.S, I had made lots of mistakes because it was so unfamiliar for me to understand other country's cultures and language. However, all experiences that I have gone through is being a good lesson of my life, even today. I am passing through a varied experiences and learning a living lesson from those, at the same time.
Therefore, having a various experience is the most important source of my life, and it's worth it !

Life as an ELI student

Being an ELI student in the university is quite fun and interesting experience in the U.S. There is lots of positive sides than the negative one. First, Making friends from all around the World makes me joyful and getting know each other's culture is interesting. I have been studying English here in ELI since last session. At first, I was nervous because it was my first time for being alone in another country without my family. However, as soon as I get used to it, I made lots of friends from another countries, and get along with them easily. So we became more closer by knowing each other's cultures and livings, although we can't understand each other's own language. Also, learning English here in the U.S is one of the most exciting exprience because I don't have a chance to speak with a foreigner, if I study in my own country although I study hard. Talking against to American makes me more easy to improve my English skill. Therefore, life as an ELI student is being an exciting experience , even today .

hello ~

my first writing ~