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.

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 :)