Growing Up

Grace from Korea here.

Hi guys. I know I should be studying right now, but please, let me just take a rest for a few... few..... hours..?(Grace..) I'll promise I'll be back to study after this post. Well, yes now it's time for the final exam, it's just started from today and will be continued for this whole week. And, some of you might know that I actually have one more semester to graduate, but since I've almost taken all of the credits that I need to graduate, I only need to take one more class (which is 3credit) so I've decided to leave school, not to be in Busan next semester, but get a job earlier !! I found out that I can get that 3 credits through the online class (a.k.a OCU) so I'm going to be in somewhere else but Busan from next year. Maybe back to Seoul ; where I'm from or maybe another country..!?!?!?!? Who knows. (Actually there is something I'm going on recently but I'll let you know when it's really clear) 

A lot, I mean, a lot of things happened this year. Do you know what the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac is? Well, it's difficult to explain in English (well, I can in Korean!!), but basically, there's one specific animal each  year based on the cycle of the animal. So we all have each animals following to the year we were born. Mine is the Sheep ! And you know what? This year was the Year of the Sheep ! So it means 24 years have passed since I was born ! Well.. and we have this belief that when it's the Year I was born, something special and lucky will be happening throughout the year, that we'll be having a special year ! And i think I did. Throwing back to January, I got that chance to have a lot of fun with the kids at English camp as a Camp Counselor. That was a great opportunity for me because I've really wanted to have a chance to use English and have some time with kids at the same time. And during the first semester of this year, I got to make my own YouTube videos. It was lots of fun. Special thanks to my awesome professor Jeff ! And.. I also did the big project with my friends to visit Taiwan in August (which was the hottest month of my life!!!!) I think.. I've never mentioned that and written that on my blog.. oops. I'll be doing ! In sometime ! Right.. so many memories and great opportunities that I could step up to the next level of my life. Yes, I do think the year of 2015 has been so special. Yay, Sheep rocks!!

Oh, here are some pictures I took in Taiwan.. All food.. yes all food. heh :D

And something big has happened last week. My dear friend Jieun (Olivia) left to Singapore last Wednesday. She wanted to have that adventure of her life, wanted to learn and use English and have some experiences in another country. There was a great change to get a job in Singapore , connected to our university, so she was doing training in Korea for about one month and is doing another training in Singapore now. It's going to take a few months, like two or three months and she's going to get a job in Singapore. To be honest with you, I felt really complicated. I don't know why but I was of course happy but sad at the same time. She was always there in my life. She is my family, my sister, and my  greatest friend. So I think it's kind of weird for me to imagine a life without Jieun. I know we're not dying or what, but you know, it's still sad that we cannot see each other anytime we want to. But ! anyway ! I wish her all the best and luck throughout her journey. I'll keep on my praying for her. I miss her so much :(

< This is from the letter my Jieun wrote me on my birthday, last year.
Such a beautiful poem. I read this time to time and get a lot of strength from it.

I'm not sure whether I can upload this picture on my blog or not, but it's already uploaded on her instagram so, whatever! heh It's already online, right? :3 Yes I think she's doing really great, having lots of fun in there (You can see that haha) Please wish her good luck !

Okay, I think I need to wrap this up and go back to my books :( So lastly, I want to share one photo with you guys. It's some part, lyrics of the song 'Growing Up' from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Ed Sheeran) (Ed Sheeran's voice is more than amazing!!!!) It's the current background image of my macbook, I worked this because I was so inspired from this song. Such a beautiful song. It's also set on my iPhone and every time I see it, I just cannot help but think that I can get relaxed and do what I really want to do from the bottom of my heart. 

Here's the song from YouTube.

OK. Let's put the work in and don't worry about the praise, everybody. I also will and I won't !

:D See you.

Great Experience - Giving a Presentation

Grace from Korea here.

It's getting quite chilly in Korea, how are you over there? :D

Well.. yesterday, December 1st, I had a great opportunity to give a presentation in front of many students and professors from my faculty. The theme of this presentation was 'The programs I've been participated in which has changed my college life'

Since it was the very first time I gave a presentation in a big hall, in front of many people, I was very nervous. But after seeing some sparkles in students' eyes, I got relaxed and confident :) so I could finish my presentation safely after all.

To give you more information about myself, I was really not good at study and hanging out with friends in university until my sophomore year. I had low self-esteem and felt so impotent. I could not help but took a year and a half off.

When I was back to school, I made a brand-new start.

I took my courage to take some special lectures and participate in various programs. As experiences file by, I got more and more confident. I mean, after participating many programs, I was changed a lot because I realized what the real important things in life are. As a result, my grades got so much better and I also could get my high score at TOEIC and Opic test.

So I know how exactly it feels like to not have any reasons to go to school,

to have less confident and low self-esteem. That's why I wanted to give my message to young students (if they were struggling with college life) that they also can be changed.

The presentation went well. (I think :D) It made my day.

It also became one of my precious experiences.

On my way back home, 

I found my university church had a Christmas decoration on. It was so pretty :) 

There it is !

Right, only few more weeks until Christmas. It also means that I have only about 10 more days until my final-exam. I should be prepared for that!

I hope you guys are having a great winter days (or summer days for you living down there).

:D

[Night Out Part] A Day of Uni Students in Korea

Grace from Korea here.

Yes, I've done much sleeping last night. Since I know if I put editing the video behind, I will never going to edit it, so I've just finished making the part two.

Part one was about campus tour, college thing, and the part two is about just hanging out (FYI, almost eating..)

Hope you guys enjoy it.

And I know this is not the only way university students spend their Friday night, but I'm pretty sure most of the girls would love to go out for dinner and go karaoke. 

Here's the video.

I hope to see you soon with another interesting video, or writing :D

Enjoy your weekend !

A Day of University Students in Korea

Grace from Korea here.

I've been doing camp counselor position at Junior English Camp during vacations since last winter, and I was lucky to have an amazing friends from there. Especially Alex, and Annie. We got close to each other doing 1month camp counselor job. We're all going to same university, only majors are different.

Well.. It turned out Alex is planning to go to America next month as an exchange student so I was wondering if we make a video before she leaves as our special memory! They were all happy with my opinion and that's how we make this video.

[ A Day of University Students in Korea ]

Hope you guys enjoy this video, I will come back with the next video this weekend.

Yes.. I need to sleep first.. It's 6:30 in the morning here.

Good night :D

#November, My Favourite Month of the Year

Grace from Korea here.

Hi guys, how've you been?

I know some countries are almost quite hot over the year, but in Korea, it's getting chilly these days. My favourite season, WINTER, is actually coming!! yay (Not everyone would be happy about it, but for me, yesss)

Actually, in this month, November, there's my birthday. (haha) Maybe that's why November is my favourite month of the year. Of course I had a great time this year as well, but, I don't know.. I think it's getting less special to have a birthday celebration as we're getting older. Or maybe it's just me.

All of my friends would know that I'm a huge fan of flower bouquets.

Y

es I had a great time. Thank you all.

Well, my birthday is November 11th, and it's kind of one of the lovers' day in Korea, like the Valentine's Day. There's a famous snack? pretzel? in Korea, called 'PEPERO'. They're sticks coverd with chocolate. Since November 11th is 11.11, it looks like a line with sticks, so it became kind of a traditional(?) for young people (also some of the adults too) to give Pepero to lovers and confirm their feelings for each other.

These are Peperos.

So, November 11th is the Pepero Day in Korea. Instersting, right?

I know there's a similar snack in Japan, called 'Pocky' and it seems like they are celebrating kind of a Pocky's Day in Japan, too. I'm sure it's all made up from companies of snacks, but it's still fun.

Yes, since my birthday is also Pepero Day, I've been eating a lot of Peperos on my birthday every year. Many friends were giving me Peperos as a birthday gift !! Thanks to them, it helped me a lot to gain extra weight. haha X)

It's already November 25th, my favourite month is almost passed by...

What are your plans for the winter?(or summer for you guys down there)

I can not wait to do another English Camp this winter ! Can't wait to see those beautiful kids again.

I hope to ace my final exam and enjoy the vacation with full of laughter :)

I'll let you know !

The Martian

Grace from Korea here.

Yesterday was the release date of The Martian  so I went out to watch it with my friends last night.

These are movie tickets. Movie tickets were used to be a thick, coated papers in Korea but they've changed to thin, kind of receipt.

I was looking forward to watching The Martian because I was very impressed by 'Interstellar' and got fascinated by the movies about the universe out there. I was so excited!!!!!! yay

The Martian

During a manned mission to Mars, 

Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. 

But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. 

With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, 

wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Source (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/)

No spoiler !

So I will only say that it was beyond my expectation. It was even so much better than I expected. Smart, thrilling, and surprisingly funny XD

I'm going to watch it one more time as 3D next week !!! Can't wait :)

I'm sure you will enjoy watching it too !

Happy Holiday ! Korean Thanksgiving "Chuseok"

Grace from Korea here.

It's been a long time coming :0

We had a long weekend in Korea because it was Korean Thanksgiving day "Chuseok" last Sunday. When it's Chuseok, we have 3 days off including the day of Chuseok. This time, since it was on weekend, we had Tuesday off too. It was long~ weekend x)

Normally, everybody visits their families during the holiday. But I didn't go to Seoul to visit my family.. I was lazy.. and had lots of assignments to do.. :(

But I was quite satisfied with having chance to read many books after long time.

Yay. Reading time ! haha

The only thing I missed a lot was the traditional Korean Chuseok dish, 'Songpyeon'.

(Sorry mum, of course I miss my family all the time)

It's rice cake, stuffed with sweet things. It's sticky and very tasty.

The day of Chuseok, families gather around and make Songpyeon together.

Yes.. I missed that warmness so much last weekend :(

But it's okay.. I'll look forward to having a New Year's feast. haha

Anyway..

Happy Chuseok everybody ! :D

Practicing Speaking English by Shadow Reading

Grace from Korea here.

I practiced speaking English by shadow reading. :D

The original video I practiced was Oprah's speech video that she told Harvard graduates ; <There is No Such Thing as Failure>

Oprah's speech video from English Central

As usual, English is difficult.. haha :-p

I got to think again that we have to keep practicing reading English !!

Because learning English is always hard for who are learning English as a second language.. right?

Here's my 'Before' audio that I recorded.

Grace's shadow reading - Before

Let me write down the subtitles of speech here.

<There is No Such Thing as Failure>

by Oprah

I know that you all might have a little anxiety now

and hesitation about leaving the comfort of college

and putting those Harvard credentials to the test.

But no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way, you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal.

There really is only one, and that is this :

to fulfill the highest, most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.

You wanna max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family and the people around you.

Theologian Howard Thurman said it best.

He said, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs."

"Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that,

because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

And here's my 'After' audio !

Grace's shadow reading - After

What do you think?

Did it get better? :)

I need to keep on practicing and I will !

Why don't you try ?

And the website I used, 

English Central is a very great website to learn English !

Please check it out.

See you soon ~ :D

Preferred Careers in Korea

Grace from Korea here.

Continued to last posting, I would like to talk about 'jobs', especially 'preferred careers in Korea' today.

I remember, when I was an elementary school student, my classmates dreamed to be a singer, lawyer, soccer player and even president. Many girls wanted to be a pop star, they practiced dancing and singing after school. I also remember boys had so much passion about sports. They were always kicking balls after lunch and PE class was their favorite.

But a recent study shows quite different result from my childhood. Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training studied students aged from 12 to 18. What do you think the most preferred career for students was?

Well.. Elementary school teacher ranked first place.

Doctor ranked second,

and government employee ranked third.

It's been few years that students choose an elementary school teacher as their dream job.

It seems like they are greatly influenced by their parents because the same research for parents had the same result.

The top 3 reasons why they chose those jobs as their dream job were

1. It's stable.

2. It's less stressful job than others.

3. It's high-paying job.

Obviously nowadays in Korea,  young people prefer having stable job to challenging one. I can understand because I've been hearing things like 'You need to get a stable job like a teacher so that you can get married well'.. It's public social mood in Korea.

So, I would like to know what your dream job is and why, also public standard that people choose a career as their dream jobs.

How is it like in your country?

What's Your Dream Job?

Grace from Korea here.

Only 1 more week to go to final examination :(

and I have 1 year left in my university. I'm on my 2nd semester of Junior year.

Recently, as preparing my presentation for English Presentation class, I had this opportunity to think about my future dream job, as well as my career goal. (Maybe it can be same meaning)

So, here's the question.

"What is your dream job?"

When I was a child, adults always asked me about what I want to be in the future. There were many answers had changed many times. As time goes by, there was passion in my heart towards children over the world.

My final goal of my life is having my own foundation to give children in poor countries opportunities that they can learn whatever they want, for free.  Basically, I want to teach them many languages because languages are like a door , a key to the whole new world. I want them to see and experience the world by their own eyes. 

So, that's my long-term goal and my short-term one is getting in educational publishing company.

There was one question what I asked to myself 2 years ago.

It was,

"What do I like?" 

The answers were 'I love kids so much' and 'I love making things for them'.

I searched for occupation by these keywords and I found the job 'Children's Materials Editor' interesting and will be perfect for me !

Children's materials editor makes books or materials for children. I'm more than interested in educational materials and making things for children so I think I'm great fit to educational publisher.

So I'm preparing myself for the job, such as working as an Au-pair and camp counselor at English camp. I would like to make some books before I graduate so that my future job interviewer can see how much I've been wanted this job.

My students from 'Lilac' class at 2015 winter English camp.

With my lovely boys I looked after in Australia.

So,

What's your dream job?

What / How are you preparing for it?

What motivated you to have that dream?

I hope we all can live a life doing what we want to do :)

, doing what we feel happy when we're doing it.

I'll keep up my work for my dream job !

Of course I'll let you know every steps of it.

Wish me luck ! I wish you luck, too :)

[Korean Culture] What is Jjimjilbang? 한국 문화 체험 - 찜질방

Grace from Korea here.

This time, my friends Q, Jieun, Sungji and I went to Jjimjilbang to show you Korean culture about public bath ; sauna. 

There will be 2 videos about it, and this video is the first one. 

Please enjoy watching it and always feel free to let me know what you want to know about Korean culture and any feedback.

이번에는 제 친구 큐, 성지, 지은과 함께 

한국 사우나 문화를 소개하기 위하여 찜질방을 다녀왔습니다 !  

두개의 비디오로 나눠질텐데요, 이번 비디오는 그 중에 파트 원이에요 :) 

재밌게 봐주세요~!

See you soon with the part two !

:D