Minjok, beyond the meaning of word.

I am in attendance at a school named ‘Korea Minjok Leadership Academy’. This KMLA is one of the most spotlighted schools in the republic of Korea. I guess it is because not only the results our school has shown to the world outside but also our unique school uniforms and the school’s name which included the word ‘Minjok’. In a dictionary, Minjok, ethnic group in English’ is defined as ‘The biggest humanity group that shares same language, culture, religion, politics, economy, tradition since they live in the specific area for a long time’. However, for the people who have lived in Korea for all life, the word ‘Minjok’ might give them some different and special feelings that cannot be explained in one sentence. It is not just a positive feeling but not a negative feeling. I can only suggest that the word ‘Minjok’ is very significant, meaningful and also the sensitive concept for Korean. As a result, people use many words which are highly related to the word ‘Minjok’ such as ‘Hanminjok’ (or DanilMinjok), and ‘Minjok identity’. Han Minjok is the word that only the Korean people use, and it is the concept that shows all the Koreans are one family with the one progenitor ‘Dangun’. This word is used when the people want to emphasize the concept ‘Minjok’. Also we use ‘Minjok identity when we tried to insist that Korean solve the problem with Koreans’ own power. These examples show that that the concept ‘Minjok’ is pretty different from the other countries’ Minjok.

Then why do the Korean people feel sensitive on the word ‘Minjok’ so much? We can find the reasons on our history. I want to divide these factors into 3 parts; the first one is ‘Dungun Mythology’, the second one is ‘many wars of invasion from other countries’ and the final one is ‘Confucianism’.

‘Dangun Mythology’ is a factor that has played very important role of form the ‘Korean identity’, or ‘Minjok Identity’. Dangun is regarded as our only one progenitor, believe it or not, and this mythology really helped people feel they are in one-blood family, and no other tribes or no other ethnic groups are bloodly related to Hanminjok’. To sum up, the ‘Dangun Mythology’ influenced on Korean people in a way of forming the hard sense of unity.

Also, Korea located on the peninsular which is a link between the continent and the many islands, was invaded by many countries. According to the calculation of the historical scholar, Korean underwent nearly 4000 big or small wars attacked by other countries in 1500 years. However, compared to the times of being invaded, Korean nearly never invaded other countries. Namely, Korean is on the location of defense most of their times of history, not one the attack side. This made people in Korea more closed to the foreigners from other countries. In addition, it is one of the reasons why people in past, present Korea has thought ‘Hanminjok’ as the most important one in their historical concept since only they, themselves can protect each other and the only one who can be believed is also themselves.

Finally, Confucianism also helped the concept of ‘Minjok’ be stricter. According to our history, from Joseon dynasty, people in Korea started to follow the teaching of Confucianism. According to this teaching of Confucianism, people became more exclusive from other countries. They regard the products of other countries as uncivilized ones. Actually, people in our countries ordered the woman who got the babies of barbarians to die with a baby, even though the pregnancy is the result of the rape from barbarians and the wars. This is because people are afraid of collapsing the concept of ‘Minjok’ since if the concept of ‘Minjok collapsed, not only the war between other countries but civil war can occur. The ‘Minjok’ is the word and the concept that has made people in Korea cooperate. This ‘Minjok Identity’ and the concept of ‘Minjok’ was also help to the people in Japanese Colonial era.

There are maybe many other historical factors that help Korean form the concept of ‘Minjok’. However, I think these three factors are the most influential ones among the all factors. These factors, as I mentioned several times before, helped develop ‘Minjok Identity’, and this developing is directly connected to the ‘Ethnicity’ of Korea. This ethnicity really influenced on the overall character of Korea. And, we could this character influenced by the ‘Ethnicity’ into 3 parts.

The first one is Koreans’ emotional personality. Not all people is emotional but generally, Korean people are pretty emotional compared to other countries’ people. If they feel they got some disadvantages or unequal treatment in a particular case, then they become sensitive in that case. This personality influences on Korean’s culture. From this emotional personality, the scholars find the reason why Korean like so-sharp tasting, why Korean like so spicy things, or so hot things, and why Koran use so many swear words in general life.

The second one is ‘extremeness’. Through so many wars or so many trials in our history, extremeness becomes one of the most representative personalities of Korea. This personality plays a positive role as well as negative role. For example, the Miracle of Han-river was possible because of Korean’s extremeness. We achieved the remarkable economical growth which took 200 years for Chinese and other counties, in just 30 years. Also our parent’s fervor for the education is very extremely hot.  However, many violent accidents during the Assembly plenary session and candlelight vigil show double-sidedness of extremeness in Korean’s personality.

Final one is that ethnicity is very strong compared to other countries. Since we insist ‘Hanminjok identity’ throughout the history, we have very strong sense of fellowship and strong cohesion. There are not many countries whose people make their town(Koreatown) in the foreign countries, except Korea, China, or Jewish etc. Also not many people in many countries sincerely laugh or cry because of the win or the lost of their national team of sports. Also we, Korea have special tradition. For example, there are ‘Doorae’ and Pum-at-I’. This tradition is the custom that people help each other when one family has some big events such as the harvest or wedding etc. When we see the phenomena occurred in Korea, or our traditional custom, we could guess how ‘Han-Minjok identity’ influenced on the formation of Koreans’ personality.

red devils gathered in 2002 to cheer the korea national te

Then, what is real meaning of ‘Minjok’ for me? When I hear the word ‘Minjok’, there are two feelings that come from my heart. The first one is touching or passion. I just think it is only possible for Korean to gather one million people in one place and cheer for one national team or one person. When I seethe people in Seoul square, gathered to cheer up the 2002 world cup Koreanational team, I just felt kind of touching, and felt what Minjok really it is. However when I hear the news that we still are closed to the foreign people such as black people or southeast Asian etc, and exclusive to them, I doubt why Minjok Identity needs and why people are so sensitive on the concept of ‘Minjok’ though this is globalization era. Also the issue that is rising these times is a multicultural family. Do we have to define them as the ‘Han-Minjok’ even though they don’t share our culture for a long time and even they are not pure Korean?  Therefore I think the concept that we have on the word ‘Minjok’ needs change. I like the mutual help between Korean, and the extreme personality of Korea, and the cheering culture that people gather in one place, but now we need to change our exclusive posture to other countries’ people. We have to acknowledge the multicultural family as well.

  

In a globalization era, Minjok is still important in the terms of keeping our own culture and tradition, but I insist that we acknowledge the people from other countries and accept them in the different concept of ‘Minjok’. For a long time, Minjok is a word that points the group who only shares culture for a long time. However, now the definition of Minjok should be changed to the people who love Korea as Korean, unrelated to their birth and blood 

P.S

This video is about the origin of the concept of 'Minjok'. Though it is in Korean, you could understand more about the Korean's Minjok after watching this video 

Change of the world in 21st century

The 21st century has begun. What changes do you think this new century will bring? Use examples and details in your answer.

 We, the human beings, have accomplished a lot of great, glittering and surprising developments since when the human beings appeared in the earth. The development speed had been so slow. It seems like there were not any changes in the human history. However, after the Iron Age, people started to develop technology with the increasing speed and we achieved so great and amazing things in every single parts of our life. Now the topic of our history is what changes that 21^st century will bring.

             Since the technology in the present is developing in a very high speed, I will choose a technological development as the first factor of change that 21^st century will bring. Before 21^st century, the technology had developed in 4 main sections; physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. However, in the 21^st century, the science and technology have been departmentalized and developed in so many different sections include the 4 main sections. This will make the life of human beings more convenient.

             Additionally, the development of technology in many sections will bring other annexed changes. The most important change that occurred because of the technology development is the extension of life expectancy. This extension of life expectancy will cause a lot of change and a lot of problem in the 21^st century. An aging society will appear. The burden to the young people will increase; the infrastructure for the old people will also increase. These kinds of change will have old people work in their ages unlike today.

             Finally, globalization will be accerlated, so more unions will appear. Since 20^th century, more unions such as UN or APEC appeared because the each nation felt the necessity of cooperation. So I expect that more unions include even the world union will appear so that many people can equally have a right to get the same welfare and same protection from the world union.

             I bet the change that I mentioned is not whole change that 21^st century will bring. More changes and more developments will occur. However I’m really sure that the people will try to protect the earth and protect the people themselves on the earth since they know their behaviors has destroyed many things on the earth. This will bring many positive changes to both earth, human beings and everything on the earth.

Nacirema the shock

Nacirema.

When I first read this strange essay about the world of Nacirema, I just think it’s just a boring and dull essay about the one tribe in the world. So I just wrote my essay without consciousness about what ‘Nacirema’ really stands for. I insisted that this tribe is such a strange tribe that strongly believes a lot of different superstitions. In the writing people insist that the writers explain about the superstitions such as mouth-rite or medicine men’s temple. Without doubt, I believe it really exists in the real world. And when I recognized the true of ‘Nacirema’ which is a lampoon of American, I was really shocked. I really never expected the truth before teacher told me.

Yes! Nacirema is a satire of American. And the whole superstition that is written in this writing actually symbolizes the bad culture of USA. It satires the lookism in the USA and the excessive consumption of American. I am very surprised that most of students include me don’t recognize this fact. Actually, if this writing was written in Korean, we might be able to understand the true meaning.

With reading this writing, I am very embarrassed and disappointed myself because of the fact that I lack the creativity and English reading skill and the critical thinking. Also, I felt the necessity to read more articles and extend my perspectives. Having the diverse perspectives on the one article or topic is very important to read critically and to pick what the writers really want to say.

Finally, with the necessity of the extending the perspectives, I just thought this articles about the Nacimera is not just pointing the American’s negative culture but also we all ourselves.

Your Choice : Academic Review for the movie 'The Age of Stupid'

Are you stupid? In other words, are you a person who wants to be stupid? What is your answer? Absolutely, with no hesitation, you will say ‘No, I’m not!’ However, in this movie, the archivist who lives in 2055 says ‘Yes, you were! As long as we don’t make a change in a lifestyle which can harm the environment seriously, we, who live in 2013, don’t have a right to say ‘No, I’m not’ And in that sense, this movie ‘The age of stupid’ strongly indicates us that we are totally stupid enough to be blamed as ‘the ones who destroyed the earth’ from the ones who will live in the earth at not very distant future. Through the archivist who keeps the human’s relics, the movie shows us a lot of human’s environment destroying acts which we have been doing. Then, he just asks us ‘Why didn’t we stop the climate change when we still had the chance?’ Namely, in our descendants’ perspective, we might be seemed as stupid people.

            

Then, why didn’t we stop it? Why don’t we stop destroying the environment though we know our act will result as the destruction of the world? The problem is irony! The African girl in the movie is suffered from her surrounding conditions such as the waste land and the adulterated water. She criticizes the life style of American which is waste of sources and the cause of her pity lifestyle. Paradoxically, however, she says that she wants to live like them. In addition, the people in a village refused to build wind farms even though they recognize the seriousness of the climate change. NIMBY! Also, the heroic man who saved a lot of people when the gigantic hurricane ‘KATARINA’ hit the Louisiana, worried about the climate change, but, unlike his words, he used a lot of energy such as electricity or petroleum. They know how serious the climate change is, but it seems like they don’t know how urgent it is. Namely, most people don’t care about the future earth and their descendents and what will happen in 2055 like the movie.

                                           
                                               The great global warming swindle(BBC)
            

This sort of the people who don’t seem to worry about the climate change or don’t recognize the seriousness or urgency of the climate change has their own reasonable reasons. For example, the documentary program named ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ which is broadcasted by BBC insists the global warming is not true. They cast a doubt on the global warming or climate change, insisting that global warming is just a trumped-up issue made by some interest groups such as scientists or politicians. Watching this documentary, some people might be persuaded by it. However, our movie ‘The age of stupid’ not only gives us its own reasonable clues, but also appeals to our emotion. That is the biggest power that this movie has and the power that change my mind which was very skeptical to the climate change because of the BBC documentary. I’m sure that there is a possibility of that the global warming or climate change is just an overestimated concern made by some interest groups. However, think that our act can harm the environment even it moves at a snail’s pace. Think that what we do today can play a really important role of destroying the future earth. What we have to do for the preservation of the earth which seemed to be quite simple and concise

   


   Since the basic cause of this global warming is not the overusing of the petroleum or emission of a lot of CO2, but the human’s desire to more convenient life, we have to focus on the human’s greedy mind. The ‘Rich-poor gap’ makes the rich use more and more resources while the poor were suffered from the limited resources and climate change. People who agree with the necessity of alleviating the climate change refused to do anything which will help reducing global warming because of their benefits. People should abandon their avaricious mind. It is very old and boring cliché but one of the most important factors to solve the climate change. Throw away your selfishness and find what you can do even if it is small things such as walking in a short distance or using the public transportation. Remember the most basic things can be the best solution for the biggest problem but the hardest things to practice.


                                                                                              For our bright future

           At last, yet, you have a chance to change your answer for the question ‘Are you stupid?’ What could be your answer? ‘No’ or ‘Yes’  It’s your choice to make, but remember this. Only your choice can make the earth different place for your sons and grandsons and our whole descendents who will live in the earth after we pass away.

Menard Speech

Menard Speech Test.

Hello, everyone. My name is jinwoo kim. Thank for gods who give me an opportunity to give my address, or personal narrative for the first time in this class. I ask you to understand me if I make some mistakes during talking regarding that I am so nervous because I’m the initial one to start this speech test.

 Before starting my speech, I want to ask you very, very small things which is very fundamental or basic to survive in KMLA. Who has TOEFL score? If you have TOEFL score, please raise your hands up! One, two, three….. I guess all people in this classroom have TOEFL score. How about you, Mr. Menard? Yes, you have! Absolutely!

 The reason I ask you this question is the topic that I will tell you from now on is related to ‘ETS TOEFL Test’. The Test of English as a Foreign Language always annoys me and makes me feel terrible and stressful. And, there is no doubt that you guys are also suffered by the score of TOEFL……

 Let’s get into the point. Frankly, I don’t have TOEFL score. Even I’ve never taken the TOEFL test before. You know why? You may laugh at me, if I tell you the reason. I actually registered the TOEFL test twice a year ago. However, I could not take the test because of my terrible mistakes.

 For the first time when I go to the test center, I was rejected to go into the test center. Oh! How terrible it is. The expiration period of my passport had been over before 3 days. I remember the first Toefl test day is July 8^th, 2012 and the expiration day of my passport is July 5^th,. Because of 3 days, or 72 hours, or 2160 minutes, or 129,600 seconds, I just could not take the TOEFL test and blow my 170 dollars off. I am so shocked of the fact I cannot take the test. In addition the fear that I can be spanked by mother overwhelmed me. So I cannot go back to my home immediately and stand in the center of the park of the university for 2 minutes watching webtoons and observing people.

 And the second time I just made sure that my passport is not over the day of expiration. Without any concerns, I went to the test center which is totally different place from the last place where I tried to take the test. That is the start of the problem. Believe or not, I just took the different bus which ran to the opposite direction. Again, I just blew my 170 dollars off. Wow!!!!   Actually this time my mother spanked me…… without hesitation.

 Eventually I have no TOEFL score yet. It is may be because my English ability is not enough to get the score, or because I just blew my 340 dollars off.

 This two mistakes which made my mother very angry and made my 340 dollars go off in to the air and make me feel inferior to the friends in KMLA, taught me that there will no success without preparation. In other words, without preparation, there will be no success.

 I planned to take the TOEFL test next month, and I hope that I can get the score which can fulfill my mind. In this time I will never make mistakes that can blow up my precious money. 

  Thank you for listening my speech or stupid stories!!

Personal Narrative -- Stage fright is nothing; Thank for KMLA

Personal Narrative. – ‘ Stage fright is nothing -----thank for KMLA

Have you ever heard of ‘stage-fright’ or have you ever seen the people who are anxious about their ‘stage-fright’? If your answer is ‘no’, now you can say ‘yes’, since I am the one who are concerned myself about the ‘stage fright’. Actually, I enjoy giving presentation or address in front of the public, but the problem occurs when I go up to the stage to show my talent such as dancing and singing. Every time when I dance or sing in front of many people, I just forget the sequence of dance or lyrics of song. This makes me avoid everything related to the performance on the stage.

The story that I will tell you from now is about the performance that I showed in front of the KMLA students a week ago.

In KMLA, there is a few customs that we have to keep. Most of them are kind of unwritten law that is made by prior seniors. For example, in ‘Freshman Welcome Party’, some freshmen have to profess their love to the freshgirl whom they love in front of the whole students of KMLA. Additionally, some freshmen, not ‘freshgirls’, have to dance with dressed up as a woman in the party.  Indeed, I had became a member of the team that dance with dressed up as a woman because of the 2^nd grade student’s recommendation. I really hesitated to participate in the member, but with the senior’s recommendation and advice, I decided to dance in ‘Freshman Welcome party’

 The practice was really hard. The song that we would dance to is ‘Poison’ of the ‘Secret’. Since it is sexy dance, and there are so many parts that I have to do sexy wave. Those parts are the hardest parts for me. And the fact that I have to do such things in front of the whole students in front of whole KMLA students really annoyed me. I really consider, but the teammates and seniors gave cheer to me. That is motivation and impetus for me to continue our project.

When the D-day came, again, I became so nervous that I could not do anything but practicing.

It was the first time after entering elementary school to dance in front of many people. Having seen my nervousness, the senior who came from the same middle school said me that there is nothing that I have to do except enjoying it. That really helped me relieve my nervousness. Though many people encouraged me as I explained and made me relive, I just could not stop worrying about making mistake. With practicing and being concerned about the mistake that I might make, the time that I have to perform finally came. When I was going up to the stage, I could not think about anything. And, when the music starts, I moved my body with instinct. I cannot remember what I did on the stage even now, but I can just remember that there is a big, big applause and a big, big cheer. How incredible it is! Everybody is applauding and cheering for us who perform the sexy dance.

After the party, many students said that we had done the most impressive performance compared to other whole performances with the words that I did really good job. For this performance, we became really famous and seniors really like us. Moreover because of the performance we did, we get some benefits and we apply to the club that we want to go.

This performance and this experience will not lead me to overwhelm my whole ‘stage-fright’.  That’s very true that I cannot deny. However, through this experience, I have some belief that I could also overwhelm my ‘stage fright’. Thank for the teammates who danced together, and thanks for the seniors who recommend me to dance, and thank for the KMLA where I could get the opportunity to overwhelm my stage-fright which I cannot conquer for 6 years.

Monthly Toefl Essay #1 : The Origin of mutual help, kimjang

 There is no doubt that Kimchi is the most well-known food to foreign people among the many other traditional Korean foods. However, compared to Kimchi, kimjang culture is unknown to foreigners. Generally, Korean defined kimjang as the progress of making kimchi in winter with neighborhoods, relatives, and friends. In our traditional society, through kimjang culture, people developed their own relationship. And I think it is very meaningful because, the kimjang culture has played a significant role of forming unique relationships, such as doorae or pumashi. Since, I have heard that foreign society is overflowing with individualism; I would like people from other countries to adopt kimjang culture or kimjang custom which is very helpful for their society.

 Firstly, kimjang culture helps people become more familiar with each other. When the winter comes in Korea, many people prepare for kimjang. This period is called as ‘kimjang season’. Even though, one house makes Kimchi for one day, we called it as ‘Kimjang season’. This is because of the characteristics of Kimjang culture. The one who makes Kimchi will be helped by the neighborhoods or friends on the kimjang day. Then, if the neighborhoods or friends’ kimjang day comes, the one who got helped is supposed to go their homes and help them make kimchi. This is why we called it as kimjang season not kimjang day. Through this kind of helping each other, many people can make Kimchi more easily and efficiently. And this custom help people in korea forge a bond and become more familiar with neighborhoods. If the foreign countries which have Thanksgiving Day or such day like it, adopt this mutual help, Individualism, at least, can alleviate.

 Also, it is very good for the education of their children. Children naturally see their parents and neighborhoods helping each other in the Kimjang seasons. Through this direct experiment, children can learn a spirit of mutual help. When they grow up, this kind of experiment helps them adapt in the society. Indeed, there is thesis that researched about the kimjang culture’s influence to children. In this research, the researcher found that people who grow up with seeing their parent’s kimjang do better in the society than the people grow up without seeing it. This research also found that the people who grow up seeing kimjang make much better results when they do group work. These results show us that kimjang culture can change the world where the extreme individualism is prevalent.

 However, unfortunately, the media has just made issue of the flavor of Kimchi, or the way to make Kimchi. It is very true that we did not regard the kimjang culture as the important factor of our culture. However, as I mentioned in the prior 2 paragraphs, there are many advantages of kimjang culture not only for the foreign country but also our country. So we have to be proud of our kimjang custom. To conclude, I insist we not only keep our kimjang culture as long as possible, but also try to make foreign countries adopt our good custom.