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..
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.
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 someinteresting 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.
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 :)
If you asked me 'what do you mean by that? what love?', then I wouldn't know what to say. What kind of love.. right, what kind of love are you doing?
Have you ever watched the movie 'Love Actually' before? That movie starts with narration by Hugh Grant. He says 'you'll find that love actually is all around' at the end of his narration. I was just moved by that phrase but wasn't sure what that meant.
I used to think that 'love' was a word mostly applied for couples. Even though I did know that there's love between friends and family.
But after my working holiday in Australia, my idea of Love has completely changed. I want to tell you about my 3 stories about love to you guys.
1. Family, unconditional love.
I went to Australia to be an Au Pair. Au Pair is similar to nanny but it's a bit different since Au pair lives with host family and it's more about cultural exchange program. I wanted to learn English and the way western people lives. And most important thing was I love children so so much so that's the reason why I chose to be an Au Pair.
My host family in Australia was very lovely Christian family. Since I was Christian as well, I was more than happy to be with them. I learnt lots of things from them. They were praying all the time. Not only when we had a meal but also when kids were in trouble. It was very lovely and good example for me to think about my future family. For me, prayer was symbol of love. Because if I didn't care about someone, I couldn't pray for them.
For example, when we're about to eat something, eldest boy (his name was Zeke) asked us to tell everyone about 'today's good and bad things'. Zeke said "What was good and bad guys~?", then we started to share our story what happened today to everyone. It was impressive. Since I used to have dinner with silence atmosphere or little chat only with my mum, (Of course I love my father but he's very bold and typical Korean man. He just eats dinner and goes back to in front of TV..) it was nice and feeling warm thing to share each others' stories to rest of the family. Family shares everything, with no condition. That little thing happens on dinner table, grows to trust, faith for the family.
And when kids were in trouble, like, they fought each other or they got hurt, family were praying for them. As I was getting used to that situation, I could ask kids to pray for me when I got hurt. I still can't forget that youngest boy, Joel prayed for me when I injured my leg. He said "God, Grace's leg hurts. But thank you that it gets better. Amen!" with a lovely quiet baby voice.
So many stories with my host family in Australia. As time goes by, they became my Real family. I'll tell you more about my life in Australia on other posts.
But yes. My idea of love towards family has completely changed. Now I love my family even more than I did before. I can feel that. I couldn't imagine my love can be bigger than it used to be but it turned out it's possible. Maybe it's more proper to say that now I know how to love my family, how to show them I love them.
2. Friends, they're there for you before you're aware of them.
There are few people who I can call them as a friend of mine. I couldn't imagine my life without them. I'm sure you can not either, right?
'Life without friendships is the same as a world without the sun'. It's my favourite phrase about friendship. Maybe it's not difficult to get acquainted with people around us. But it is difficult to have a deep, serious relationship with them. We can't do that on purpose, by our intention. There's a relationship which just flows as a river, goes like a wind, becomes important.
First 3~4 months in Australia, I was in hardship. Getting used to unfamiliar environment was not easy of course but communicating with people who were grown in totally different culture was most difficult thing to me. It's going to be really long story to tell you all of it but I was unhappy for first few months.
In that period, my best friends in Korea tried really hard to cheer me up. They called and texted me everyday and let me know all of their stories happening in Korea. They supported me even though I was not with them for about 1 year. That's not easy I think. Because people have their own things. The wonderful thing that happens between good friends, they are there where they've been. There was nothing awkward when we finally reunited after a long time. I think that's it.
Friends, they're always there.
3. Nobody is perfect.
It does work because you can complementeachother.
There's a long history behind my boyfriend and I. I've crushed on him for nearly 3 years before we go out. He was my senior in my uni and we're doing same major. I met him when I was in 2nd year.
Most of my friends were really shocked when I let them know that I fancied him. They were always saying "Why Grace why?? You guys are so much different. It won't work out.". I was also curious about myself why I liked him so much. Yes we are really different. I'm really aggressive and enthusiastic on everything and I also like to plan something and do it. He's kind of passive and he doesn't like to plan something to do because it's going to be changed anyway.
I'm much more do-er, action-taker than him and he's more calm, relaxed than me.
At the first time, it was hard because we Were really different. Sometimes I thought that I just wanted to stop doing all these things because it was so tiring to make it work out. I was more "why don't you tell me about your feeling?" and he was more "Why do I have to tell you everything? If I can say everything by words then on the contrary, that means nothing.". I couldn't understand him. I think he couldn't either.
I did think 'Why I like him so much? I don't want to. It's too hard for me!!'. But I couldn't get myself sorted. I tried really hard to get over him but I just couldn't.
But after a long time, little by little, I found myself I was understanding him. I let thing be the way it was. Now I can see it. We Are very different so that makes it is able to work out. I can see what he can't and he can show the way I can't find.
Every friends of us was very shocked when we told them we decided to go out. They said that they couldn't imagine that we could be a couple. And I know what they meant. haha
But nobody's perfect, right?
Sometimes some couples we can pass by on the street make us curious in many ways about how they can be together. Sometimes I judged some couples by their appearances or their surrounding environments. But now I know after I experienced my situation with my boyfriend that they Are together because they can complement each other and that it really can work out.
Lastly, I want to introduce one of my favourite song.
I really sympathized with every single words of this song.
Adele - one and only
You've been on my mind, I grow fonder every day
Lose myself in time just thinking of your face
God only knows why it's taken me so long to let my doubts go
You're the only one that I want
I don't know why I'm scared, I've been here before
Every feeling, every word, I've imagined it all
You'll never know if you never try
To forgive your past and simply be mine
I dare you to let me be your, your one and only
Promise I'm worthy to hold in your arms
So come on and give me a chance
To prove I am the one who can walk that mile
Until the end starts
Have I've been on your mind, do you hang on every word I say
Lose yourself in time at the mention of my name
Will I ever know how it feels to hold you close
And have you tell me whichever road I choose you'll go
I don't know why I'm scared 'cause I've been here before
Every feeling, every word, I've imagined it all
You'll never know if you never try
To forget your past and simply be mine
I dare you to let me be your, your one and only
Promise I'm worthy to hold in your arms
So come on and give me a chance
To prove I am the one who can walk that mile
Until the end starts
I know it ain't easy giving up your heart
I know it ain't easy giving up your heart
Nobody's perfect
(I know it ain't easy giving up your heart)
Trust me, I've learned it
So I dare you to let me be your, your one and only
