Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Final curtain with lots of tears.. :(


Grace from Korea here.


Hey guys,
Grace here with tears..





So, my final exam ; SPECTACULAR of English conversation 318 has finished. I had my hang-out show with many lovely companies yesterday :) It was so much fun and interesting with full of laughter.



These are some photos of yesterday's show.








Q came to my place and did our 'spectacular' together. And beautiful girls who have done interesting show about 'Lookism' came over to my place after their show and had a little chit-chat time :)






Omigosh..

How can I explain this feeling !!!

We(our English conversation 318-04 class) had little vocab quiz today so that was the very last time we were all together..
When Jeff, who has been and will be an awesome captain of our English 318 class forever said "Okay, bye.", I was just about to cry and I saw some tears from other girls!!!
I've never felt like this before.. It just doesn't make sense..
How could it be so difficult to say good-bye when one class, semester's finished..
It was literally 'for the first time in forever'.. 




Aww.. I had so much fun, and it's been rewarding.
I learnt a lot from Jeff since I'm dreaming of being a good educator, I got so many ideas from Jeff.
I'm sure I'm going to be in touch with all the members of our class :)







Even though I'm very sad.. I still have to do what I have to,
so ! the summary of my show is,

[Misconceptions and truths about Korea]

and there were 4 questions.


1. Do we really eat dog meat?
2. Do Koreans get plastic surgeries a lot?
3. Are Korean women submissive?
4. Do Koreans like to get along with Koreans?



Here's are comprehensive opinions from our show.



1. We used to eat dog meat when the time Korea was really poor.
And there are still people who eat dog meat or stew made out of dog meat to enhance their stamina. But it's rear. And it seems like to be thought as disgusting thing to 'eat' a dog in our generation.

2. There were 2 girls (including myself lol) who ever got plastic surgery among 6 girls from last talk show. So it seems like it's true that Koreans get plastic surgery. But as you can see not everyone, not a lot. According to the girls talk show about 'lookism' which was done next to my turn, it's kind of important to have good looking in Korea. Good looking has become one of a good qualifications for our resume for job-searching. So it's true that we are considering getting plastic surgery to get a good job or better appearance but not everyone is getting it and it's still difficult decision to make.

3. Dongmin (one of the participants from yesterday) said "NOPE" as soon as I popped this question lol. Are Korean women submissive? When Korea was Choseon dynasty (1392~1910), we were highly influenced by Confucian ideas. And according to Confucianism, Women have to support men, men can't go into kitchen, do the chores.. kind of like that. So male sex was considered as more important than female sex. Since my grandmothers generations were influenced by that Confucianism, they are very submissive. They babysat by themselves and did all the chores. But now, it's 2014. Women powers are getting stronger, right? so are in Korea as well. So, we are not submissive I think, but we do respect men :)


4. It's true that hanging out with companies who came from each others' countries makes us feel relaxed and comfortable. Because we can understand each others' better. Maybe that's the reason why foreigners can see many Koreans getting along with themselves. And being afraid of talking in English can be one of the reason as well. We have some idea that speaking English not perfectly is kind of embarrassing. Koreans like perfection. I think we are on our way to change our thoughts but it's still difficult to raise our hands and speak loudly. Anyway.. so, we can't say it's Korean thing to get along with someone who came from each others' countries, right? Because I'm sure everyone will enjoy spending time with homies :) 








Okay! So that was pretty much about last night.




I'll keep on posting on my blog. It became my precious asset :)

I'm looking forward to meeting our companies from Eng318 in another class next semester.
Aww.... I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M CRYING !!! NOOOOO






T_T had so much fun with you guys,

love you so so so much, please let's keep in touch..






with lots of blessings, Grace

xoxo



Tuesday, December 2, 2014

[Final Spectacular] South Korea(n), misconceptions and truths.



[Final Spectacular]

image from Evan and Rachel's Youtube clip.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb4g-35nah8)






Welcome :+:..:+:..December..:+:..:+:!
I just noticed there are only 3 more weeks left to the winter vacation. (2 more weeks to final exams :0) And I'm happy to prepare this final spectacular through out this blog. I'm sure it's been an amazing journey and I'm more than excited we're about to have a final 'spectacular', not final 'exam' ! yay :D



So, for my final spectacular, I want to talk about 'South Korea(n), misconceptions and truths'. I'm sure you guys have heard "Oh Korea(n) ! You must be~~, or, It must be~~~ " at least once from foreigners. Yes I want to talk about that kind of misconceptions (it might be turn out as truths, though.) and hear some thoughts from you guys.



Outline
will be like below.


  • Short introduction of myself
  • Own opinions and stories about Korea(n).
  • Answering to few interesting misconceptions about Korea.
  • Sharing our stories and solving misconceptions about Korea(n).









So !
This Grace Lee, I'm South Korean. I'm a student of Busan University of Foreign Studies, majoring Japanese and English. Obviously, I'm interested in languages and different cultures, so, that's why I chose this topic to talk about for this final spectacular.

As a student who's majoring languages, I've had many chances to meet foreigners, have opportunity to be friends with them and visit their countries. So I've been receiving many questions about Korea and Korean and I want to tell you about my 'own' ; personal opinions and stories to that questions.


1. "Grace.. do you really 'eat' dog meat?!"
Oh my goodness, no ! I've never eaten. No one will invite you for dinner and serve you a 'dog meat'. I know There are some records of people eating it thousands of years ago in Korea, when the country was extremely impoverished. And there are still few people, usually older gentlemen, eat a stew ; called 'boshintang' made out of dog meat to enhance stamina and virility. But it's rear. I've never met young girls and boys who like to eat dog meat. They will be disgusted if they were asked that they eat dog meat.


2. "You know, Koreans get along mostly with Koreans.."
Why is that..? I've received this questions quite a lot. I don't know why but I think we do. Of course I like to hang out with foreigners and I'm sure Koreans who are living in foreign countries would love to make foreign friends. But it's true I feel more comfortable when I'm with Koreans because we can understand each others better. And regardless of nationality, wouldn't it be more relaxing to get along with people who are from same country with ourselves? But still 'yes', I can easily find out Koreans get along with Koreans in other countries and I feel we tent to hang out with ourselves compare to other nationality.




3. "Korean girls are beautiful! Well.. you guys get plastic surgeries a lot, right?"
To be honest, I think it's highly considered to get a plastic surgery in Korea. I saw one survey conducted by online job portal career, found that 30 percent of male and female university students in Korea plan to get some kind of plastic surgery during their summer vacation. Because the unemployment problem is serious in Korea so undergraduate students try hard to get better qualifications for job-searching. And nice looking definitely has become important as one of the qualifications at the moment.


(http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/01/daily-chart-22)

Wow.. No.1 it is, Korea.
Yes I think we can't deny there are many people got plastic surgery. But that doesn't mean that most of Korean girls just do it for their beauty but it's still not an easy thing to decide to us(Korean girls) and obviously most of Korean girls haven't gotten one.







Questions above were I was usually asked from foreigners about Korea and Korean. I want to hear some opinions to those questions from you guys so I'll look forward to having you in my Hangout show ! :)

And next, I want to introduce some interesting misconceptions about Korea(n) and answer it. FYI, answers are going to be my personal opinions but I did ask my friends for their ideas so I'm sure it's quite universal as well.



1. Korea is underdeveloped country?
I think this misconception is made because people don't have an idea what Korea is like inside. When Korean is on a foreign TV shows, no offense, I can find out that TV shows want Korean(or Asian) as a poor, pathetic character who just rescued from a war or an underdeveloped country.  Actually it is true, short time ago, Korea was very underdeveloped. But it's industrialized, modernized and developed very rapidly so in these days, you can find modern cities, architecture and every modern convenience anywhere in Europe and America is in Korea. And the UN rates South Korea as the 15th best country to live in 2013's UNDP Human Development Index - higher than Japan's 17th ranking.
(http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-2-human-development-index-trends-1980-2013)
I want to show you guys one video about capital city of Korea, Seoul. And you'll see it's now quite developed and modernized. :)





2. It is such a dangerous country to live?
I understand people might think Korea is dangerous country to live because we're technically at war since North and South Korea never signed the peace treaty. But since 1953, there hasn't been a war and it's been the ceasefire. I've never felt it's dangerous to live in Korea, but rather I felt Korea is quite safe country from natural disaster likewise earthquakes, hailstones, floods. Of course we can't say it's 100% safe from war since we're at the ceasefire, but after that, there were only few small clashes.
 
 
 
 
3. We’re all big fans of K-POP?
I can easily find out people who don't watch Korean TV shows, don't listen to K-pop songs, I mean, who nearly hate K-pop things. I know K-pop is what everyone sees because our media highly promotes them. In my case, I'm one of them actually. I don't like Korean idols, boy bands, girl singers(we call them 'idol-girl-group') who shake their bodies doing lip-sync. So, obviously, not every Koreans are big fans of K-POP. There are so many artists who have really great songs and voices. But Korean entertainment management companies keep making boy,girl bands who have good looking because they want to make big money. (Asian market to K-pop is enormous.) I hope real good musicians in Korea will be more supported so that K-pop can be more various and colorful.






There are still many misconceptions about Korea and Korean behaviors.

(Again, it can be turned out truth.)
I want to talk about more on a our Hangout show which is coming on next Monday ; 8th, December !



So, Questions I mentioned above were,


  • Do Koreans really eat dog meat?
  • Do Koreans tent to get along mostly with Koreans?
  • Do Koreans get plastic surgery a lot?
  • Is Korea underdeveloped country?
  • Is Korea dangerous to live?
  • Are we all big fans of K-pop?







I'll be studying and researching more about this topic and will upload few extra interesting questions we can discuss about.


I hope I can hear some opinions from you. Please share your stories and thoughts about 'Misconceptions about Korea'. I'll be looking forward to it :)



See you !














reference datas from: http://listverse.com/2011/12/20/top-10-misconceptions-about-south-korea/