Memorizing and more memorizing

     Now, we all know the pitfalls and demerits of rote learning which refers to memorizing chunks of knowledge and attending to mimicry. Maybe it is interwoven with the audio-lingual method that was in the mode in the 1950's and 60's. We also know that it had eventually died out owing to its side effects and proven inefficiency in the authentic world. What do you know? Theoretically, it vanished from the realm of this earth, but realistically, it still remains here with me and everyone else in the academic world. First of all, it does not virtually break down if the professors are keeping on giving out exams that are relevant to extensive memorizing. Second, it does not fade away if the educational curriculum itself pertains to copying and mimicking structures without referring to any meaning at all. I am also doing rote learning right now, memorizing this and that, preparing for the upcoming finals. Nonetheless, you can never underestimate the power of memorizing: It incites your brain to collect on more resources and facilitates concentration when doing something. I guess that there are two sides to everything. Good luck to other students and good luck to me as well for the finals. Peace. 

Interaction

A few days ago, I had lunch with a professor in the department of English Literature. He was from Canada, and I treated him with lunch since he wrote the letter of recommendation for me. We went to a taco restaurant near the university in which I had never eaten before.
Well, we ordered two tacos with lemonade, and it was just fine. The food was not the problem at all.
  The professor didn't seem to have any problems conveying his ideas and sentiment toward various kinds of topics to me. However, I had a bit of communication problems. I could not actually think of an expression that I really to wanted to get across. So I made use of paraphrasing, circumlocution, and sometimes direct translation from Korean to English. Luckily, the professor also knew some Korean since his wife was Korean also.
   We talked about this and that and how the university has changed in the recent ten years. He asserted that a lot of foreign exchange students are coming to the university to delve into K-pop and the Korean culture. He asked about my opinion, and I told him that I looked at it in a positive way. Diversity incites progression, and progression leads to distribution of resources that could have been consumed vainly.
   The most important lesson I learned from the conversation was that interaction was invaluable when your communication tactics break down. Thus, body gestures and facial expression are not to be neglected in any communication. No wonder you can't improve your overall conversation ability if you don't have someone to talk to.

The Small World

   

     I am starting to wonder these days how small the world is and how possibly the world that we are living in could become any smaller compared to now. To start off with the conclusion, it might. I saw on the news yesterday congressman Ahn is at the brink of constructing his own personal party to assume a new authority in politics. Having been a former professor, Ahn is now a politician, gearing up with priceless resources that he essentially needs to overcome his predicament as a politician. Another headline was sadly intriguing, commenting on the former idol group member GOD Son Ho Young failed in trying to commit a suicide in that same vehicle in which his girlfriend did.
    To tell you the truth, I do not cherish attending to mere gossips for fun. Yet, I do not actually savor in taking a glimpse at politicians' next moves, trying to rule the world. I do care for the society as a whole though. What is important is that I have to be acquainted with facts(?) or myths that other people already know. Simply put, the small world calls for information access , and that specific access to certain information is not free at all. I am bombarded with information that I do not have any concerns with. I am surrounded by commoners who are just enjoying talking about people with whom they have no relations. That does drives me up the wall. What happened to all the privacy rights in the 21st century? I mean, do other people really have to know who we are dating and what kind of underwear we wear? Oh, come on...

Free Writing

These days, it is extremely difficult me to sit down and write about what I really want to write.
I do not consider as syntactic problems or lexical problems. I tend to view it as memory lacking and content deficiency. In short, I do assume not having the sufficient details as to frame up my jotting down a decent writing.
  When I attend to analytic writing, I am usually stuck in only that aspect of writing though there are many other diverse kinds of writing. When I am focused on creative writing in which facilitation of my imagination is of utmost importance, I get lost from time to time when the time comes for me to write an analytic writing.
    So where is the solution to address my type of problem? I scanned through a prodigious amount of books only to find that the best way of not loosing one's perspective capacity or skill in writing was to simply find the right place at the right time to write. And writing for a day or so will not cut it, to rephrase what they say in the books. They strongly emphasize writing consistently and writing about disparate topics. Easily said than done, this task is admittedly arduous and suffocating, especially when he is a senior at a college or is working. Enough said, I found some time for myself to write down an analytic essay. Frankly, I had some trouble with constructing a coherent and cohesive essay. And I thought to myself, "Boy, and I thought I was good at writing.." Thus, the conclusion is 'Life goes on and I am still writing today for others and probably for myself as well."

Real Listening

  It is hard these days to take some of my time and invest it solely on listening comprehension. I do solve a lot of problems that focus on getting the questions right on real exams such as TOEFL or TEPS. Nonetheless, exams do not reflect accurately the exact linguistic competence of a specific person. One might score low on a certain language test owing to fatigue or lack of concentration on the test day. Test apprehension is also considered a crucial factor that plays a role when he is taking a test. As he may have scored high on mock exams at home, he might not do so on the test day. Either he could have too high of an expectation of himself or he could fail in managing himself as he is taking the test.

Conversely, one may score low on mock exams taken at home but he might score high on the real test. Thus, it is evident that simple exams do not, if at all, completely account for one's overall listening ability in second languages. In that aspect, I have resorted to my official listening comprehension score a few years ago. And yet, I realized that I had a sort of listening comprehension problem when I was watching an American drama, "The Guardian". I could make out what the theme or plot was by attending to the protagonist's facial expressions and body movements. However, I had issues with local grammatical problems. In other words, I could catch what the whole discourse was about, but I could not sort out the very details that compose the entire discourse. Maybe it was due to the terminology that the main character use since it is a legal drama. Maybe it was because of my lack of concentration when I was watching the drama. (Not everyone gives all their attention when he or she is entertaining himself or herself). Whatever the predicament is, I still have some time to figure it out and address it in time before it works against my linguistic development.

디지털 스토리 수정 제출

The Girl Chosen as One of the Most Influential People in 2013

   I read this month's issue of the magazine Time. It portrayed the 100 most influential people in the world. Ordering the time magazine and having read it for about two years, I always looked closely into the issue in which it depicted the 100 most influential people in the world. Time had the knack to intrigue me by describing each figure in a narrative voice. It provided an insight as to why each person was selected and how they paved a way in their field, forestalling obstacles which came along their way. 
    The Pakistani girl was chosen this year for her unprecedented and courageous conduct. She began blogging for the BBC's Urdu Site when she was eleven years old. On the site, she wrote how much she wanted to become a doctor and her conviction to withstand the Taliban 's wanton interception of her getting a decent education to eventually realize her future goal. 
Unfortunately, when she became fifteen, she was shot in the head by the Taliban that wanted  to teach anyone a lesson: Anyone who defies against their rule will be punished. 
    Luckily, she survived the Taliban attack and resuscitated to go back to school where she belonged. She ultimately became a national symbol for courage and willpower. She showed other kids that if you really want something, you should never give up, even though that means sacrificing your life for it. Easily said than done, people sometimes should remember this clause, "Don't ask what the nation could do for you; ask what you could do for the nation"

Getting Ready for Presentation

    After the mid-term, one of my classes proposed that I do a presentation about the pedagogy of communicative language learning. Of course, I at least had the roughest idea of what communicative teaching or learning was since I am a senior of the department of English education. Well, the funny part was that comprehension did not fully or completely relate to production of the English language. In other words, it was pretty facile for me to simply sit down in class and listen to the professor lecture about the history and implication of communicative language teaching. Communicative language learning, as its name evidently suggests, emphasized meaningful communication among diverse interlocutors and delved into the interactive aspect of language learning. Come to think of it, it is rather simple to apprehend for a student like myself who has attended the university for almost five years.
Nonetheless, the day finally came for me to present to the class regarding communicative language learning, I realized that I somewhat fumbled and failed to deliver a clairvoyant and crystal-clear speech that anyone could readily immerse in. Yes! I felt that I had made several mistakes on this and that, and do you know what the funny thing was? Neither the professor nor the students attending my presentation were cognizant of my blemish! Maybe they were indeed acquainted with my making the mistake or they simply did not reckon my mistake as that serious. Either way, I was praised for delivering a sound and comprehensible presentation despite my staggering and hesitant utterance here and there in the middle of the presentation.
I guess that practice does make perfect, and the fact that I barely had the time to practice right after the mid-term exam couldn't be truer since I was the only one that kind of felt that I was not perfect. Nevertheless, I will not stop here and be satiated with the skill set that I possess enough to be lauded. I will go on and put in effort to not be succumbed to exterior, attenuating praises that might instigate me to take a wrong path in the near future. Beautiful Night...

Digital Story 제출

Digital Story Script

    Hi, I'm Yong-ju and I would like to introduce my family to you and some of the things that describe me. This is my father. I believe that he took this picture when he was about fifty years old. He is an architect, an engineer, and a specialist. He works in a global firm engaging in architecture. He is presently in Ethiopia, Africa as a member of Koica, doing volunteer work for the nation. I respect his volition and all the hard work he has done for my family.
    This is my mother. She is a lecturer, counselor, and an entrepreneur. She majored in psychology and management. She managed an educational firm for twenty years. There were
ups and downs, yet she never lost the balance between managing her firm and my family. She is warm-hearted and enthusiastic enough to affect anyone. I adore her.
    This is my brother. This picture was taken at his graduation day. He graduated from a prestigious law school. His goal is to be a lawyer in the field of sports management. He has played basketball in combination with law. He has been my friend, my mentor, and my peace maker. I hope you keep your health up buddy.
    This is of course me. It's hard to explain who I actually am, but I'm going to further you to what I like and how the constructs influence my self-being. My house. Starting with my room. My desk is where I do all the work, not only academic but also associated with my pastime.
These days, I rarely have time to sit down and do some activities at my desk for I work a lot.
    This is my diner, where my family members gather together to eat, chat, and discuss family matters. Here comes the living room. In the living room, I watch TV, work on the computer, take a nap on the sofa. As with others, I feel kind of comfortable when I take a seat on the sofa, a kind of a soothing feeling after arduous work for the day.
    This is myself on the motorcycle taken in the parking lot. Yes, I'm on it, obviously trying to park the bike. I usually wear a helmet. I took it off as I came in. Riding in the bike is different from riding a car since it lets you actually cruise around the city. When I go for a drive, I relieve the stress and tension I had, allowing me to go on with my life. But you have to be extremely careful.
    A picture at a debate ceremony in Chung-ang University. Our team, Love and Peace, won the English Debate Contest that year. I believe it was 3 years ago. I have been participating in debating for about ten years. I like to talk about this and that, including casual and serious topics. Debating provoked enhancement of my English speaking skills and instigated me to meet various kinds of friends. I especially remember that year when our team won. Literally, it was a moment to remember.
    To play the flute is another of my pastime. I have played the flute for 20 years. I have partook in an orchestra and unleashed myself to also engage in manifold competitions. Nonetheless, playing the flute myself is still the greatest experience. Maybe the phrase, "Calming the Soul" would fit.
    This is a drawing that I completed a few years ago. Well, it is simple but revealing. Drawing could be considered one of my talents. Not to brag, but my hands are a little bit more sensitive compared to other people. With that fact made, drawing builds up my creativity. I want to be creative and innovative just for the sake of it. Drawing plays a crucial role in making that point.
    I am reading the encyclopedia Britannica. My mother bought the whole set costing approximately 4,000,000 won at this point. She bought it for my brother and me back in the states twenty years ago. Now that a lot of e-books emerged, encyclopedia is indeed priceless. I tend to look at it from time to time to either study or to satiate my curiosity. I get a lot of ideas for my writing an essay or studying for an exam.That's about it. Thank you for listening to my family, my pastime, and finally my house.

Reading Extensively

       

Owing to the mid-term exam week, I could not attempt to do a lot of reading. Indeed, I did some reading for specific purposes, or for one cetain purpose: To excel in the mid-term. Nonetheless, we all know that this kind of test-oriented reading is not sufficient to boost up your English reading skills. I normally read about 80 pages of English per day. I read the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Law Journal, or various kinds of science journals posted on the net. The New York Times is free but for a few scienc jourals, I have to pay a monthly fee of 20$. Thus, after the exam, I scanned through the New York Times looking for interesting news as well as trying to increase my reading rate. Then, I went after science journals. The fields of science that I attended to were closely linked to chemistry, biology, and physics. To be frank, physics is very, very, very hard for me to understand despite the fact that I majored in biology before coming to the department of English education. Well, I thought I knew science, but I was wrong. Every time I try to read physics journals, I could hear myself sighing and mumbling how awful this could get. However, as I almost always do, I could not explicitly tell anyone that I have improved but I could proudly feel that I am enhancing with respect to reading speed and comprehension. It is a tough and slow process, and I could imagine how scientists throughout the world is investing their precious time to do the human species a favor. I want to thank them and maybe I want to thank myself for not giving up.