2017/07/27

Discussion questions / Yujong Cho

1. Compare the experience of being oppressed in " In the Land of the Free" and "The Ingrate"

 

Sui Sin Far is depicted as obedient person. She doesnt' resist much corrupted coustoms officer and lawyer. What she wanted is just getting back her baby. She got furious with them but she allowed herself to pay for the baby. Other than the baby, she has nothing interest. She was seized with worry that her baby couldn't be safe so it made her conform their unreasonable ask.

 

Joshua in "The Ingrate", However, I could say he is more direct than Sui Sin Far in "In the Land of the Free". He is not passive like as her. Although his master Mr. Leckler let him know how to read and write, he accepted it well and by the knowledges he left for Canada finally. I would say Joshua is challenging person even if he is under oppression. He tried to make his own way and eventually he made it.

 

 

2. What do you perceive to be the significance of the story's title?

 

I think the title "In the Land of the Free" means 'irony'. Sui Sin Far and her husband came to America to live well but they were faced with the absurd even before they settled down the land. Their dream became shattered. The author emphasizes the miserable situation they were confronted with. 

answer to discussion questions/ Vasilev Iulian/ ISS2017

When I read these short stories ("The Ingrate" and "In the Land of Free") I felt like I was watching a documentary film. The authors pretty clearly illustrate how difficult it was to live at that time. Everybody knows that since ancient time people have treated slaves and immigrants very poorly. Even in modern life we are faced with this problem. Moreover, in every country there is racism and it is terrible.

In both stories, we can see how the main characters are trying to achieve their rights and freedoms. Even though Josh had hard time and even when white people treated him very badly, he found the way to be a free and educated person. Similarly in the story "In the Land of Free" the government also treated the main characters badly. Lae Choo with her son returns to San Francisco after the death of her both parents. At the immigration desk, the main characters had a problem. They filed their immigration papers before the birth of their child, so their son did not have proper certification. Because of this the customs officers took the child with them. After ten months they are able to finally get their child back and then they began live a little freely. To get their son back they spent a lot of energy, nerves and they gave away all their jewels.

What do you learn about Chinese culture from the Sui Sin Far's story " In the Land of the Free"

In the second part of the story, the author introduced us with Chinese culture. Chinese household decoration: carved ivories, silks, fans, flowers on the windowsill; Chinese cuisine: fragrant chicken, steamed rice in bowls. Because of these details the reader can imagine what is in these Chinese houses and what they are eating.

 

Sui Sin Far “In the Land of the Free”: questions 2, 6

1.       Compare the experience of being oppressed in " In the Land of the Free" and " The School Days of an Indian Girl"

 

"The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away"

                                                                                                               Howard Zinn

If we take a look in a Merriam- Webster dictionary, word "oppression" defines as an "unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power".  Throughout the human history a lot of people, especially ethnical minorities were subjects to oppression, examples of that we can find in many books. Both novels of Sui Sin Far's "In the Land of the Free" and Zitkala-Sa's "The School Days of an Indian Girl" are based on the stories of oppressed minorities. "In the Land of the Free" tell us about a Chinese immigrant's family who came to America looking for a better life. However their little son was taken away from them, because he did not have a pass to enter the country.  In" The School Days of Indian Girl" a little Indian girl was forced to leave her family in order to be educated, was forced to study "alien" language and give up on "mother culture".

Both stories are cases of oppression against different minority, who cannot fully enjoy the rights of the majority.  In both examples the hearts of oppressed ones were full with anger, unfairness and despair. Memory was the only thing that left.

 

2.   What do you learn about Chinese culture from the Sui Sin Far's story " In the Land of the Free"

It is universally acknowledged, that in order to understand the core of any text or story you should be familiar with the subject a story is based on.  Sui Sin Far's story "In the Land of the Free" is full of the details that give comprehension of what Chinese culture is. In the novel we can find a lot of examples of Chinese household decoration:  flowers on the windowsill, carved ivories, fans, silks; Chinese cuisine: steamed rice in bowls, fragrant chicken. All of those details make us understand the story better.

 

 


question 6 and 2/Gilanton Leia/ ISS2017

Reading 2.6 : Compare the experience of being oppressed in Sui sin Far's « In the Land of the Free » with the oppressive experience in Zitkala-Sa's « The school days of an Indian Girl » or Dunbar's «  the Ingrate »

With the text « In the land of the free » ans «  the ingrate » the two characters, Josh and Lae Chao, was oppresed. Both live in USA at different period but was subjet of oppressed but they was different. Her skin, her lifestyle everything was different but cause this oppression, the two characters lost something very important for him. First, we have Josh who are an African during slavery. He want freedom like many other but cause the oppression, denied their wish. In Second time, we have Lae Choo, a chinese woman who came in USA. She want a new live with her husband and her newborn but cause the immagration law, she denied the right to her Child and become very depressed

And with the text « The school days of an Indian Girl  by Zitkala-Sa and the «  the Ingrate » We saw that the both character was forced to change their life. For example, Zitkala-Sa was humiliated, forces and she want a kind of freedom because she was very angry and Josh is a slave, he was forced to become a slave, to slave like slave, and we know slave are horrible.


Reading 2 ,2. What do you learn abut chinese culture in part 2 of the story ? What might be the autor's purpose in providing these details ?

In the part 2, we learn about tradition and chinese lifestyle. For example she describe the street maybe in Chinatown «  gay colored lanterns ans the soung of music. », « « The completion of the moon » by Quong sum's firstborn » But with one dish too. «  The rice was steaming in the bowls and a fragrant dish of chickens andm bamboo shoots was axaiting Hom Hind ». I think this scene was very important.Lae Choo was so happy, to see her son again since the immigration, that she prepared some specifique China's food.





Answer to discussion questions/ Yujin Jeong/ ISS2017

Comparing the experience of being oppressed in Sui Sin Far's "In the Land of the Free" with the oppressive experience in Dunbar's "The Ingrate"

In both of two stories, there are clear situations that the main character is oppressed. But I think there is a big difference in the way that how the main character get out of the oppressive situation and whether it will last or not.

In the story, "In the Land of the Free", the Chinese immigrants couple try to bring their son back from the authorities. However, they fail it over and over like they have sent the same letter that demands for getting their son back to the home more than fifteen times. Just because they are Chinese immigrants, they receive unfair treatment from the government. To get out of that oppressive situation, they pay some money to the lawyer and they get a chance to meet their child. They could temporarily solve the problem by throwing money, but it is uncertain that it would be continued in later situation of being oppressed.

In the story, "The Ingrate", Josh who is a slave of Mr. Leckler is taught how to read and write by his owner. Though Mr. Leckler is supposed to earn more his money by teaching his slave, it gives an opportunity for Josh to be free from slavery. Josh could forge the pass because he learned how to write and made it. He doesn't intend to learn something, but that leads him to desire to have freedom. If a slave learns how to read and write, they have ability to get out of slavery. Josh gets away from his owner and is fighting for maintaining his freedom, so I think that his liberty would be continued.

The real reason Mr. Leckler gives Josh a lesson

Mr, Leckler expresses himself as a good person, but there is sarcasm. Mr. Leckler said at first the reason why he taught a slave was that the slave was cheated out his earnings. So he gave Josh such instructions to permit him to protect himself from that unfair treatment. However, the real reason was that he made Josh more intelligent, hired him out to Eckley's farm and got more profit from his slave. Also, I think there would be another reason. Mr. Leckler wanted to revenge on his neighbor, Eckley, so he made his slave be taught how to read and write and sent him deliberately to his neighboring farms. By making his slave be compared with Eckley's slave in his farm, he felt superior to Eckley.

Discussion Questions/ Rhee So Hyun/ ISS2017

Reading 2, Question 6: Comparison of being oppressed in "In the Land of the Free" with "The Ingrate"

In both short stories, the characters Josh and Lae Choo are both being oppressed by the government. Though Josh and Lae Choo come from vastly different backgrounds, they both face very similar oppressions where they are denied their rights- Josh, his freedom that should have belonged to him the moment he was born, and Lae Choo, the rights to her son the moment she gave birth to him. Josh is being oppressed through slavery while Lae Choo is being oppressed through immigrant laws. As a result of these oppressions, Josh is denied his freedom whilst Lae Choo is denied the rights to her child. Both Josh and Lae Choo do everything that they can in their power to overcome their oppression. Josh outsmarts his master, Mr. Leckler, by playing the role of an uneducated and submissive slave while secretly earning money to buy his freedom through the skills taught to him by Mr. Leckler. Lae Choo, on the other hand, sells most of her precious jewels to regain her rights to her child.

Reading 1, Question 5: What do you perceive to be the significance of the story's title?

The significance of the story's title, "The Ingrate", is to show the irony of the story. In the story, Mr. Leckler labels Josh an ingrate as Josh manages to escape from Mr. Leckler through the skills taught to him by Mr. Leckler. However, the title serves as an irony as readers, after reading the story, will know that Mr. Leckler and not Josh, is the real ingrate. Though Mr. Leckler is described throughout the story as a kind, benevolent man with high principles, he is in fact a scheming and selfish man who is only looking out for his own gains. To appear kind and benevolent, he offers to teach Josh to read, write and cipher to supposedly protect Josh from being cheated. However, Mr. Leckler's real reason for teaching Josh is undoubtedly for his own monetary gains. The author uses the title as an interesting and smart way to subtly mock Mr. Leckler's character. 

2017/07/26

Answer on discussion questions / Katharina Kosmalla / ISS2017

Opression in Sui Sin Far's ''In the Land of the Free'' and Paul Laurence Dunbar's ''The Ingrate''

What first came to mind while comparing the two stories, are the overall situations the main characters are in while being oppressed. These are also the biggest differences.                                                                                                              In Dunbar's story there is Josh, who is a slave of the white American Mr. Leckler. Josh is being oppressed in the most clear and noticeable way, as being a slave meant to be someone's ''property'' without having any rights. He had to do what he was being told to, such as doing plastering work at other family's houses.        In Sui Sin Far's story the oppression is not as noticeable at first. The custom's officers work by the law of the country and while taking the child away from their parents because it has no papers, they tell them that it will only take one or two days until the papers from the government are confirmed so the child can live in America. Only after reading on, it becomes clear that the family is being oppressed from the American government. It takes ten months before they get their child back and only because they gave all their jewels to buy their own child back.                                                                                                                     Also in ''The Ingrate's'' story money should've been the only option for Josh to stop his oppression. So the payment plays a big part in both stories and makes them very similar in the answer, how to end the oppression.

 Significance of the title ''In the Land of the Free''

 After reading the story, the first thing that I thought was how unfitting the title seems to be for the happenings in the story. At first the title would be fitting, as Lae Choo was so happy and excited to finally be back in America, reuniting with her husband and bringing their son in, to live a happy and good live. Her husband was working there for a long time and had his own shop with a stable income. They were also living in their own house. They wanted to live a ''free'' live. But living a free live was only meant for the people who got their papers signed by the government. There was no freedom otherwise and the only way to get to that freedom was by paying. Having conditions on freedom makes the whole title very ironic because the true meaning of freedom is not given. So I would say the title only describes the thoughts and hopes Lae Choo has before entering with her son and her dreams being shattered.

 

 

2017/07/25

first draft/Gilanton Leia/ISS2017

During my life, I've had the chance to travel a lot. And I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world. Because, when we travel we learn many things about new culture and lifestyle but more about us. Some persons hate that because they said «We have everything here, family, friend, life so why do you want to travel » and at this question I said «  because travelling it's beautiful, we see a lot of landscapes, we meet new people, maybe my life it's here but I'm not happy, I need to see new things and learn new things »

My first big travel was 7 years ago with my parents. We were gone at Reunion Island. It's a small Island near Madagascar. When my parents told me we gonna go in travel, I was so happy and impatient. It was the first time that I flew, the first time I left France territory. For a 11 years children, it's like a big aventure. So when I arrived in the Aeroport of Reunion Island, I was very tired but very good. I looked around me and I saw new landscape, mountain, tree, birds. It was so beautiful. My parents had friend and we lived in their villa during one week in a big villa with water pool and seen on the sea. But I always remember my first meal. It was fruit but very good fruit like mango pineapple, lychee, passion fruit and more. During this travel, I walked on volcano, saw dauphin, and learnt a lot .That's why i fell in love of travel.

After that, I make lot of travel in Europe. I visited Berlin in Germany, Roma and Naple in Italia, Spain, Belgium,Wales and now I'm in South Korea.

South Korea it's my first trip without my parents and with my friends in Asia. Coming in South Korea was my dream and now, at 20 years old, I'm staying for 1 month and 1 week in Seoul. My grand mother was very worry about this trip, because she scared that something bad will happened during my trip, she told me « be careful, sleep well, eat well, don't be alone in street at night » but as I'm with my friends and I have many korean friends who can help me if something will be happenned. She little more appease. My mother was very proud of me because I finally reach my goal. I'm feel very good in South korea and until now I meet so many people who was very kind with me and very surprised that I speak korean.


I hope, in the future, make more trip. With my best friend we plan to go in England and with my little sister, we are planning to go in Japan and my mom and again, my little sister in USA, see the Americain Indians culture. I advice for everybody to make trip it's very wonderful.

First draft/Yujong Cho/ISS2017

                                                        < Sharing feelings with students >

 

I like to be with teenagers. When I am with them, I feel younger so I love it.

I've been teaching English for one year at middle school every Saturday.

It was for students from low-income families.

 

When I started class at first, I was quite confident of it since I had tutored English before. 

Of course, to teach someone I need to know all ideas of the lecture and consider how much they would understand me. 

Considering students' level of English and their attitude for class too.

 

However, they were totally different from the students that I tutored before.

They barely knew English and even didn't pay attention to class.

They were 15 year old but they haven't even learned even very easy grammar yet, for example how to use auxiliary verb or passive form.

They seemed only a few of them understood the class. I felt frustrated at first but didn't give up them.

 

I changed teaching style.

Before, I just focused on how to let them understand the class well.

With boring textbook and one sided class, it should have been boring for them.

 

I started trying to make class more interesting.

I used english movie, drama and put some game time at the end of the class.

I showed them movie "Truman show", they really liked it and it was useful material for the class. 

It seems like it was not that much difficult for the students.

English game 'hangman' worked a lot too. I had a big joy with them and could wrap up the class well by it.

 

I tried to know teenager's fun and share with them such as popular boygroups.

After every class, I listened to the feedbacks.

I accepted it and made up the class. I tried really hard to communicate with them.

 

Afterward, it was like they look like they feel more comfortable in the class than before and me as well.

I'm still trying to be more comfortable for them and make class more fun.

I would like to be a English teacher after I graduate and I have learned a lot from with the students. 

I can definitely say that It would really help much to be better teacher in the future. .

 

Writing from experience first draft/ Noemí Fuentes/ ISS2017

Moving out

 

 

 

 

When I was in my third year of highschool I took a plane for the first time in my lifetime. I was going on a school trip with all my classmates and a thirdteen year-old, obsessed with british boybands, could't have asked for a better destination, London. It was at the top of the London Eye, mesmerised its inmensity, where I realised I wanted to live in a big city. 

 

I suppose that the need to explore is not a foreign feeling for people like me, who had always lived in a small town, feeling trapped in the place they grew up. I particulary live on an Island that most people would consider a paradise, but even the most idyllic place could turn out  boring if you have already explore all it has to offer. 

 

Three years later, and with other travel experiences on my shoulders that only reaffirmed my believes, the opportunity to finally leave was right before me. I had decided to study something that I was good and passsionate about, languages. Translation is not offered on my island, that is why I had to move to another one.It was not a big change but good enough for a fisrt step. So I packed all my belongings and got on a ship with the hope that I was making the right choice. 

 

I have to admit that in some aspects living on my own was as good as I expected. The fisrts weeks of university felt like a long summer vacation with friends. Living with the newfound sensation of being completely independent, full of parties and new friendships, and without worrying about curfews or rules. However, as time passed by and the excitement slowed down, I realised how I wasn't as comfortable with my new life as I thought I would be. Learning how to do everything on my own was a difficult task, and to share a flat with my friends didn't seem as a vacation anymore. Sometimes we would argue about the most trivial things, someone forgets to take out the trash or to do the dishes for three days in a row. Things would get especially rough in exam times, when I would be secluded in my room most of the time, missing even the annoying yells of my mom telling me to tidy up.  When I finally went home after 3 months without seeing them, I truly realised how much I had missed them. When I was with them just eating or even watching tv I felt different from before, this time I really appreciated what it was to be surrounded by the people who care most about you in the world.  

 

Now, after two years of living on my own, I can say that it is the experience that has changed me the most. Dealing with problems that I wouldn't have had to face before, made me grow up and know myself better, but what is more important, made me appreciate the things I have and I took for granted. 

 

 

 

Writing from experience first draft/ Noemí Fuentes/ ISS2017

Moving out

 

 

 

 

When I was in my third year of highschool I took a plane for the first time in my lifetime. I was going on a school trip with all my classmates and a thirdteen year-old, obsessed with british boybands, could't have asked for a better destination, London. It was at the top of the London Eye, mesmerised its inmensity, where I realised I wanted to live in a big city.

 

I suppose that the need to explore is not a foreign feeling for people like me, who had always lived in a small town, feeling trapped in the place they grew up. I particulary live on an Island that most people would consider a paradise, but even the most idyllic place could turn out  boring if you have already explore all it has to offer.

 

Three years later, and with other travel experiences on my shoulders that only reaffirmed my believes, the opportunity to finally leave was right before me. I had decided to study something that I was good and passsionate about, languages. Translation is not offered on my island, that is why I had to move to another one.It was not a big change but good enough for a fisrt step. So I packed all my belongings and got on a ship with the hope that I was making the right choice.

 

I have to admit that in some aspects living on my own was as good as I expected. The fisrts weeks of university felt like a long summer vacation with friends. Living with the newfound sensation of being completely independent, full of parties and new friendships, and without worrying about curfews or rules. However, as time passed by and the excitement slowed down, I realised how I wasn't as comfortable with my new life as I thought I would be. Learning how to do everything on my own was a difficult task, and to share a flat with my friends didn't seem as a vacation anymore. Sometimes we would argue about the most trivial things, someone forgets to take out the trash or to do the dishes for three days in a row. Things would get especially rough in exam times, when I would be secluded in my room most of the time, missing even the annoying yells of my mom telling me to tidy up.  When I finally went home after 3 months without seeing them, I truly realised how much I had missed them. When I was with them just eating or even watching tv I felt different from before, this time I really appreciated what it was to be surrounded by the people who care most about you in the world. 

 

Now, after two years of living on my own, I can say that it is the experience that has changed me the most. Dealing with problems that I wouldn't have had to face before, made me grow up and know myself better, but what is more important, made me appreciate the things I have and I took for granted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite teacher

During my school years, I meet a lot of teachers. Some are good and some are bad. But for me they are more good teacher and it's very hard now, to choose only one that I really liked. But in my High School years, I've had one teacher who helped me and encouraged me during my bad moment and I very glad she was my teacher. My teacher name Mrs Deshay. She has French teacher at the Lycée Joseph Loth. With me, she was very patient and kind because I had so many problem during my high school time and I can't worked like the other. She help me and thanks to my teacher I've had my Baccalauréat. When I saw the result of my Bac, I cried and she cried too for me because it was the end of 2 years to hard worked. Mrs Deshay was I very good teacher for me, she learnt me a lots and today I really thankful. 

My First Teaching Experience/ Vasilev Iulian/ ISS2017

My First Teaching Experience

In our life there are a lot of things that can change the course of a person's life. It can either make positive impact or a negative impact on a person's life. It's always great to have positive impact though.

I would like to talk about my first teaching experience. My first experience as a teacher was very interesting and challenging. In this year from January 13 to February 28 I took part in the "Good Manufacturing Practice" at the school. It was one of the important experiences of my life. I have always loved children, so I have been waiting for the day when I will work as a teacher at school. But subhead of school told me that I will be teaching for the high school students (grade 9), so I got a little worried. By the way, I was interested and enthusiastic to teach Korean to adults students. There were thirty four students in my class, seventeen girls and seventeen boys.

Everything was new for me the school, environment, colleagues and students as well. I was surprised when my first lesson in the classroom went better than I expected. Every day I teach them a new grammar and new words. Though the learning content was not difficult, coming up with seven weeks worth of lesson plans was something that I had never done before. Throughout my GMP at school the most difficult thing for me was how to figure out what I should do for every day, but after few days working as a teacher, the process got a little bit easier, and I started getting more creative with the lessons. Every day working as a teacher I was feeling self-confidence with students.

Sometimes I faced difficulties in explaining a new grammar to the class, because in my class there were lazy students who did not want to study. At the first time, I felt very nervous but then I controlled it and moved on teaching.

My first teaching experience gave me an answer to the question what it means to be a teacher. I have learn a lot of things about the school and the amount of work that the teachers need to do in order to the school is finished by well-educated students. I always knew that coming up with lesson plans was not easy, so I'm glad that I was able to have this experience prepare me for it in the future. Also during the lessons I learned that I do not have a good sense of time, so now I'm sure the schedule of what will be done at what time is necessary.

 

Writting from experience Repishkova Tatiana

Being a vegetarian

What is like to be a vegetarian? It is not only about not eating meat because you are feeling sorry for animals, but it is more about you, your organism, your body. You feel great, your digestive system is working as it supposed to work, you do not think about taking a nap after eating and you full of energy all the day long.

In order to gain some insight I tell you my own "turning vegetarian" story. I made the switch to vegetarian 7 years ago.  All of my family members are meat-eaters and were them for whole of their lives. They cannot imagine one single meal without eating something greasy and meaty. I was as like as they are. I will never forget when I was a child 10 or 11 years old I ate meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However it did not last long. When I turned 16 years old as a result of some circumstances, which I prefer not talk about, all the systems in my organism were disrupted and my organism refused to digest meat anymore. I had not lost my appetite and still enjoyed eating everything except meat. However I was daydreaming to eat it, I contemplated to passed days when I cut a steak into thick slices and enjoined each and every piece slowly chewing it out. It was a time of my struggle.  I tried to think about animals, their feelings when they are about to be killed: fear and helplessness in cow's eyes that is about to be slaughtered. All of those efforts were made in order to forget the taste and gross myself out. After a few months my attempts gained its fruits.  I was going to vomit every time I took a look at meat.

I reached my goal, however, simultaneously, some problems emerged. In my hometown in Russia I had not been going out often, I was cooking at home most of the time. In Russia my social life was not impacted much. However after I moved to Korea I felt like to I am a loser every time I said I had gone vegetarian.

If you ask me what is the best and easiest way to make friend in Korea I would say it is going out and eat together. Food seems to affect every aspect of life in Korea. You can often hear how Koreans say about what and where they eat. There are even entire films and dramas based around Korean cuisine. For Koreans food is much more than just simple fitting the belly and meat is one of the most important components of Korean cuisine. You can find meat everywhere: seaweed soup with beef, dumpling, beef ribs soup – all of the traditional and most preferable Korean food consists of meat. And being a vegetarian started to interfere my social life here in Korea. As I mentioned before, it is hard to make friend without going out and eating. However someone can say: " Try to find a restaurant where you will have some options, however it is quite a challenge to find even a salad in place which serves meat. That is why when there is a not to gathering or outing I tend to not to know what to do, I become the odd one out. If you ask me if I have any friends - Yes, I do, but most of them are vegetarians as I am.

ISS Summer 2017 Repishkova Tatiana

Repishkova Tatiana

The worst teacher ever

Have you ever got a gold medal? I have never, but I was very close to get one. In Russia those students who get all excellent grades for the last four semesters in school and final examinations are awarded a gold medal. Gold medal gives you a bunch of opportunities: scholarship, extra points for a prestigious university and others.  I was a very diligent student dreaming about my medal. In my last semester I gave up on my social life and the only thing that I did was studying. I studied everywhere – in buses, during the break time I used every minute I had. My family encouraged me also promising to go to Europe if I get a medal. However, I had one problem – geometry. Geometry was a class I hated with all of my heart, mostly because of my teacher – a divorced overweighed woman in her 40s who hated her students as well as teaching. All her class was about reading a textbook, so it was a big deal to do well on exams. I had nothing to do but go to private geometry teacher and my grades started to go up. However I had a light hope to get an "A" as my final grade. One day I came along to her and ask if I have a possibility to get an excellent final grade, after few minutes of thinking she said: Yes, but you must do 100 out of 100 on your final next week". I thanked her and went home to start my preparation.  After a week of sleepless nights I got my 100 score and was about to packing my things to go to Europe, However, when I checked my final grades list I   was shocked, letter " B"  was written  next to class name " Geometry". I run to her right away hoping that it was a simple typing mistake but the only thing she said was sorry, I forgot about my promise.  With this" B" letter my flight to Europe was cancelled and my hope to get into a top university disappeared.

Real teacher in my whole life/Yujong Cho/ISS2017

< Real teacher In my whole life >

 

Teachers could be not only someone who deliver knowledge but who really help out people who are in trouble.

In this aspect, I would say my real teacher was a platoon leader when I was in the army.

As I was first assigned to my unit, he helped me out a lot.

Normally if you are the last of the team, you do most of work of your team so it would be really harsh time for you. I had been the last of my unit over 5 months and still can't forget that period.

When my team go out for work or training, I have to get up much earlier and make a ready. Not only just about work but some chores like checking up everyone is in the room, organizing everyone's shoes, ironing my seniors' uniform, pulling up all curtains and so on.

While at work, I have to carry most items of equipment and work much more than others. Doing everything more quickly than others is obvious(It was busy season at that time so it made me feel more frustrated).

I felt really stressed, because normally we would have junior under each after 1~2 months we are assigned to team. However, there was not any junior under me quite a long time. But I tried to do my job well. .

Platoon leader of me knew what's going on around me, so he encouraged me a lot to keep up my job a bit more. I had nobody to rely on other than him in those days.

There was actually nothing he could do for me like doing my job instead of me, because we had our own rule in team and I didn't really want that too. However, his words of encouragement supported me mentally and emotionally. Thanks to him I was able to overcome those hard times.

Now, I still keep in contact with him and feel appreciate him. I would say he is my real teacher in whole my life. If he had not been my leader, I would have not overcome early.

My Favorite Teacher/ Rhee So Hyun/ ISS2017

My Favorite Teacher

I never really had a favorite teacher. Growing up, all my teachers were the same in my eyes. They came to class, taught us a few concepts, gave us assignments, and ended the class. I had subjects and classes that I liked. For example, English Literature was my favorite subject but that did not mean that my English Literature teacher was a teacher whom I liked. Therefore, all the way till University, I thought that it was impossible for me to have a favorite teacher.

However, during my second semester of my sophomore year in University, I took a Drama class which changed my life. The teacher of the Drama class, Professor Kwang, was quiet and soft-spoken. I did not think much of her until she started teaching her first class. I was blown away. She was so passionate about Drama in such a subtle way that the passion rubbed off on me, without even me noticing. I was never a passionate person and rarely had a passion for anything. However, after taking her class, her passion truly did rub off on me and I learnt what passion was. She was always respectful of everyone's opinions and made me feel that my thoughts and opinions truly mattered.

Being such a passionate teacher, she truly wanted us to learn and taught me what passion and true education and learning was.

My Experience Living Alone/ Rhee So Hyun/ ISS2017

My Experience Living Alone

Living alone may be someone's dream and another's nightmare. To me, living alone has always been my fantasy ever since I was little. Fortunately, I had the chance to live alone when I moved to Korea to attend University when I was twenty, after having lived with my family in Singapore. Since then, I have been living alone for three years and in this course of three years, I have experienced the numerous pros and cons to living alone.

There are countless of perks of living alone. The biggest perk of living alone is, without a doubt, freedom. Living with my parents and older brother under the same roof for twenty years made it difficult and almost impossible for me to experience freedom. The constant knocking on my door by my brother trying to borrow money, my mother yelling at me to help her with the chores, and inhaling the cigarette smoke from my father made me despise living with my family.

Living alone, however, I am free from my family and have the freedom to do whatever I want. I can go to bed at 6 in the morning and wake up at noon without having to feel guilty or getting yelled at by my parents for my bad sleeping pattern. I can also laze around all day long while playing video games, watching television programs, and taking afternoon naps without having anyone to judge me. My parents, being typical Asian parents, are quite strict, especially when it comes to being diligent. Therefore, when I was living with them, I had to adhere to a pretty strict daily routine where I had to wake up early to do my chores, study, and basically be as productive as I possibly can. Though this routine was effective in making me productive, I was constantly feeling stressed and always felt guilty whenever I was not being productive like taking an afternoon nap. Living alone definitely allows me to live out my stress-free and lazy lifestyle which I feel, to a certain extent, is important in keeping a person sane and happy.

Not having a curfew is another big perk of living alone. Being a university student, I do enjoy the occasional drinking and partying scene and not having a curfew did help me enjoy the partying a little more. One of my favorite memories of drinking with my friends is the time when I was drinking with one of my close friends at the school bench. When it got to around three in the morning, it started pouring. Without a word, my friend and I whipped out our umbrellas immediately and continued drinking in the rain till six in the morning. Though I did catch a slight cold the next day, it is a precious memory that I share with my friend. Such precious memories would have been difficult to create if I was not living alone. Curing a hangover is also definitely easier when living alone. With my parents around, they would nag and reprimand me for drinking excessively which would make my hangover worse. However, when I am living alone, I can just sleep off my hangover without having to hear my parents' constant nagging.

Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder as living alone has improved my relationship with my family.  As my family lives in Singapore, I get to see them at most twice a year. Thus, when my family gets together, we try to make the most out of it and treat each other the best that we can. The number of times my family and I argue has drastically gown down ever since I started living alone as I have experienced loneliness whilst living alone, and have come to realize the importance of family which makes me respect and treasure my family.

Though living alone comes with countless of perks, it does come with many downsides as well. Financial stress is one of the biggest downsides of living alone. Ever since I started living alone, I had to buy all my food and necessities with the limited allowance given by my parents. Who knew that toilet paper could cost so much? I remember once when I had around 10,000 won left and a week before my next allowance. I had no choice but to live off of instant noodles for that week. Even though I love instant noodles, I cannot say that I enjoyed that week.

Another downside to living alone is the insecurity and fear I felt. I constantly fear that someone is going to break into my house or that an insect will appear in my room. When I was living with my parents, I always felt safe. Whenever there was an insect in my room, all I had to do was call for my father or brother to catch it for me. However, living alone, I have to catch all the insects that appear in my room which is a frightening task each time. There was once when I was drifting off to sleep when I heard a deafening shriek coming from the corner of my room. It sounded like an animal in pain. In the moment of darkness, I had the strong belief that the shriek belonged to a rat. The fear I felt during that moment was indescribable. When the shrieking continued, I had no idea what to do as I was frozen with fear. I ended up calling my friend who lived nearby and begged him to come over and catch the rat. My friend grew up in Africa and had a few experiences catching rats himself. He came over, equipped with gloves and an umbrella, to catch the rat. He searched my room from corner to corner and luckily, no rat was found. The next day, the shrieking still continued and I called the house owner who explained to me that those shrieks belonged to birds which get into the ceiling from time to time. My friends and I, to this day, joke about this incident which was terrifying yet hilarious.

My experience living alone has had its ups and downs but overall, I had, and am having a wonderful time living alone. Living alone definitely taught me the hardships that come at the expense of the freedom and taught me to treasure the things that I was not able to before living alone.

Teachers / Katharina Kosmalla / ISS2017

In my school years, I've had many different teachers. Some of them I really liked attending to their classes and in classes of other teachers I always wanted the lesson to be over. When I was in High School I had this one teacher, who will always stay on my mind as a really good teacher and sometimes really frightening as well. From grade eight or nine on she was my chemistry teacher. When I chose chemistry as one of my main subjects for my two last years in school she became my advanced chemistry teacher as well. What made her a good teacher was the fact that she was very fair to every student. She never treated one person different than the other, no matter how good or bad they were in class. Her classes were well structured and we actually learned a lot. What also made her a good teacher was her aura. Whenever she was in the room and held her classes, no one was talking. When she wasn't speaking sometimes you would've heard a needle falling to the ground. But because her classes were hard it made her very scary at some points as well. At least for students like me who weren't as good as others.

Whenever she asked a question and it was again dead still in the room everyone was thinking the same. If our 'cracks' in class won't answer, she will pick someone to answer and for me that was always the scariest part of my day. I would sit on my chair, looking down on my books and putting on my ''still thinking'' face, hoping she will pick someone else. Luckily most of the time I got away, without minutes of awkward questioning because of her, trying to bring me to the right answer.

I had some other teachers similar to her and others that I couldn't respect at all, but her classes will always be on my mind, when I think about teachers.

2017/07/24

Revision of paragraph/ Vasilev Iulian/ ISS2017

Teachers.

We meet a lot of teachers in our life. Some are good and some are bad. The teacher plays a major role in our lives.

How noble it is to be a teacher; and give others knowledge. Of course, not everyone can become a great teacher. To do this, you need to work hard and do self-education, so that lessons can become interesting and useful.

I believe that every teacher is worthy of love and respect. But when the question arose before me about which teacher to write, I put in some seriously thought. I wanted to write about several teachers at once. But still, my choice fell on a teacher who, seems to have had the strongest influence on me - a teacher of Russian literature Andrew Borisovich Anisimov. He was always very kind, intelligent and patient with us. Andrew Borisovich possesses all qualities of a great teacher – a creative mind, delicate sense of humor, a strong concept of honesty, and love to children. He taught us well and helped us learn many things. I am glad to have meet such a brilliant teacher in my life.

 

Revision of a paragraph/ Yujin Jeong/ ISS2017

Teachers

We meet a lot of teachers in our life. Some are good and some are bad. One of the good teachers I really liked. When I was 18 years old, I met her in high school. She not only taught us the knowledge of math well but also helped us relate the knowledge we have learned to what we can apply in our daily lives. For example, we were studying trigonometrical functions. When I learned sine and cosine functions first, it made me feel so confused to distinguish those two functions. Whenever she gave a question to me, I felt like my spine go cold, everybody was watching me and it was as if time stood still. The teacher became aware of it and let me know the way to remember it easily. She said like that "If you imagine the Korean flag, you can find the sine function in it." Moreover, she always encouraged and supported me not to give up by saying "I am always happy to help you!" I am glad she was my teacher.

Writing an essay about my experience/ Yujin Jeong/ ISS2017

Standing Alone

I am 22 years old girl who is facing a graduation from university and eager to gain my freedom from the restriction of parents. I have recently been thinking about the independence from my parents. The independence from parents that I am saying is both financial and mental independence. In other words, I have to be able to keep my life and finances by myself and not to mentally rely on parents. I should be able to solve the problems I have in my daily life without parents' help. When and how would I completely stand on my feet?
As most Korean parents are, my parents are more or less conservative. They don't want me to get home late and even call me too many times whenever I hang out with friends at night. They always say that they worried me. I always answer them I grow old enough to keep to myself and they don't need to care about me at every moment. However, they did not change their attitude toward me. It made me feel like I was getting too much controlled. The more they did like that, the more I got rebellious mind. I longed for freedom for a long time. One night, I hung out with my friends as usual. On the particular day, the weather was perfect and the breeze was nice enough to make me worry about nothing like "It is 11o'clock, I have to go home." But I was getting scared of being scolded for arriving at home late. Moreover, I didn't want to make the relationship between my parents and me worse. The more repeated fatiguing situation, the greater I didn't get to know why I am naturally at home until around 12am. It is my life to decide when I get back home. Ironically, my parents wanted me to be financially independent. They wanted me to earn my living, buy clothes, cell phone and laptop with my money and sometimes pay my school expenses. I think it is natural at my age to be ready for financial independence if I have a power to make a decision on everything about me. But I had no power even to set the time to get back home. In this situation, I think it is not naturally reasonable. So I have declared that I will live on my own. I struggled for having a chance to live alone and failed every moment. My parents claimed that I have no capacity to be financially independent and I am too young to stand on my feet. Also they said I am not prepared to live away from home where parents are because I don't know how to cook "rice" the basic way to make a meal and they thought I would not clean my room if I live apart from them. In spite of their expectation, I just decided to do it without thinking about things that are going to happen to me.  – To be continued

2017/07/23

Writing from experience first draft/ Katharina Kosmalla/ on Fear/ ISS2017

Fear. It's something that every person in this world has or will experience. It's for sure nothing I like to experience. While some people like the thrill of being scared, I absolutely hate it.

But fear was and still in some moments a part of my life. Not in a way I can't deal with, but in a way that I don't tend to notice, unless I think about it or get confronted with it. The fear is subconscious. I notice, when I catch myself thinking too much about the future at night, when my friends say they will scare me in a second and I still jump when they do. It's there when I see a frog on the ground. I feel like I can't move, like my arms and legs won't listen to me anymore. My friends asked me, ''Why are you scared, it's just a frog?'', but in my head I'm just thinking about what move the frog is going to do next, where he's going to jump, how far and how high he will go.

Just a few weeks ago, while I was outside in my families yard, I got in a pretty scary situation.

It was a mild and clear summer evening and me and my friend were enjoying a beer on our terrace next to our pond. When walking over the grass to get another beer I barely noticed something frog-like on the dark ground in front of me. In the moment of a second I jumped in fear and screamed so loud my friend jumped as well. I didn't even want to, but I had no control whatsoever. Probably pretty shocked from the scream and quick movement of a giant, the frog was immediately gone and I was sitting on our terrace for the next thirty minutes, watching every movement on the grass with hawks eyes, waiting for the frog to show up again.

 

The thing with that kind of fear or some would call phobia is, that it is really hard to overcome and it can take a long time. I always admire the people who got over their fears. The good thing is, that it is something you can work on. Just like being afraid of the future or me, wanting to be in control as much as I can. Before I get to that ''future ßproblem'' there is something else I want to share.

 

I was in Canada at that time and I just turned sixteen. On the news, I heared of a shooting at some store near where I was living. I didn't feel too concerned then. What really got me frightened were the news of a man shooting his brother, just 200 meters down the street. I can remember like it was yesterday. I wasn't in danger at any time and I know that now, but as a girl coming from a safe neighborhood, where I had nothing to worry about; that night was the worst of my life. Going to bed, with the thought in my head, that someone was murdered and the culprit was still on the run was just frightening. I didn't sleep that night. The wind was rattling at the windows like someone was outside, wanting to get in and the trees in our backyard ached. My room was on the ground floor, right next to my host-moms room but I was so scared.

One reason I couldn't go to her or my host-sister was embarrassment. I was embarrassed to admit that I was scared. The reason I actually couldn't go to them was because I couldn't move. I never laid that still for such a long time in all my life. I was fully rapped in my blanket, just my eyes peeking out. Some minutes I had them open, looking back and forth between my window and the door and other minutes I had them thigh shut. My body was barely moving while breathing, laying totally still. I stayed like that for the whole night, afraid that the murderer would come into the house, find me first and shoot at me as well.

When I went to school the next morning, I saw the police car parking in front of the house where the shooting took place. The police officers have been there the whole night through. I never felt so stupid being so afraid that something would happen to me, but at the same time I was so relieved as well. Nowadays I find myself stupid for fearing thinks I have no control over.

 

Going on to the kind of fear a lot of young people share. It's the thought of the future. Not only the future in five, ten or twenty years but also the outcome of the next test, presentation or anything similar to what will have an impact on the future. I used to think way too much over all those things and I got way to stressed out to the point where I hated to even think about anything that will have to do about what I want to do later on in my live. For Example, if I should go to University and what I would study there. At my last year of High-School I had absolutely no idea. I'm not saying that I don't worry about those things anymore but I want to show that it doesn't help at all to stress out too much. Over the years and through all those different incidents, with fears or worries of all kinds of shapes and forms, I believe now that everything will fall into place at some point. The things that are supposed to happen in my live will happen in one way or another and I need to except the challenges, make the best out of them, enjoy my live with some parts of seriousness and don't worry too much.

 

2017/07/19

Waiting in Line at the Drugstore/ Noemí Fuentes/ ISS2017

Noemí Fuentes 


Journal Entry 



Even if there are parts with which I can feel more related than others, this whole essay made me realize how fate plays a big part in the direction of our lives. The moments we have lived, the experiences we've been through are what makes us who we are. There are always events that we consider the highlight of our lives, and that makes me wonder if I had made different choices in the past, would I be the same person that I am today?. But fortunately I can't know the answer, I don't want to live regretting what could have happened or questioning all my past decisions. Dwelling on things we can not change is not worth it, we need to accept life as it comes and try to make the best out of it.



"I was eighteen then and a drop-out, but I was deep into the wonderful world of literature and life."


This phrase has to be one of my favorites of the essay. If you've read through all of it you'd know he was kind of lost in life, being a drop-out and working in a district where most of the people were white and treated him like a second-class citizen, especially in the drugstore. However, it was in that place he dreaded where he found his passion in life. This phrase proves that your life doesn't have to be perfect for you to find happiness, just doing what you love is enough. 

Journal Entry

Noemí Fuentes 


Journal Entry 



Even if there are parts with which I can feel more related than others, this whole essay made me realize how fate plays a big part in the direction of our lives. The moments we have lived, the experiences we've been through are what makes us who we are. There are always events that we consider the highlight of our lives, and that makes me wonder if I had made different choices in the past, would I be the same person that I am today?. But fortunately I can't know the answer, I don't want to live regretting what could have happened or questioning all my past decisions. Dwelling on things we can not change is not worth it, we need to accept life as it comes and try to make the best out of it.



"I was eighteen then and a drop-out, but I was deep into the wonderful world of literature and life."


This phrase has to be one of my favorites of the essay. If you've read through all of it you'd know he was kind of lost in life, being a drop-out and working in a district where most of the people were white and treated him like a second-class citizen, especially in the drugstore. However, it was in that place he dreaded where he found his passion in life. This phrase proves that your life doesn't have to be perfect for you to find happiness, just doing what you love is enough. 

Barriers/ Katharina Kosmalla/ ISS2017

On ''Barriers'' by Rolando Niella


When I started to read I didn't know where Niella wanted to go with his description of learning to play tennis. What got my attention was his comparison from learning tennis and a new language. He says his problem is not learning tennis now but ''daily conversation with people […] I am a foreign student, and in playing tennis as in speaking English, I am still in the learning process.'' I was a foreign student before in Canada and am now in Korea. Before I was learning English and now I am learning Korean. Luckily I don't clearly remember my times learning English and struggling like Niella did. When I came to Canada I was relieved and astonished on how much I could already understand and that talking wasn't that hard. But it did took me a few days to get into the language. Especially understanding my host mother who had a strong Korean accent in her talking. Now with learning Korean and with any other subject I had that wasn't easy for me I can relate to Niella. Actally, I used the words ''forget it''  so many times before. Not to someone I was trying to explain something to but to the person trying to explain to me. I stopped trying to understand because it was frustrating seeing myself and the other person struggle. Trying to communicate but not getting anything out of it, just the stress and anger of not understanding, not knowing the right words. It is hard to learn anything new and there will always be points where we just want to give up because we feel it's too hard.

Like Niella said in the end, ''[…] in the long run there will be a reward […]''. I strongly believe so as well. I experienced getting a reward a few times before and I must always remind myself again, when I feel like giving up.