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.