Highrise Outline

             The person I chose to analyze is John from Johannesburg in South Africa. Before watching his highrise video, I researched about the city of Johannesburg from Wikipedia. Johannesburg has the largest population in South Africa, and it is the provincial center of South Africa. It also has the largest economy in South Africa. Johannesburg also features a very dry and sunny climate with warm temperature due to its high altitude. Many people living in Johannesburg are divided into many classes, from very rich to extremely poor. These thousands of poor migrated into the city of Johannesburg from other cities and they contribute the high percentage of crime rate. I also figured out about Johannesburg's residential areas which range from very luxurious complex to abandoned poor towns.
             Having this done, I read the stories of John in Highrise. According to him, there are many hijacked buildings in Johannesburg.  He said that the hijackers often use violence and even kill the owner of the building to hijack the building. This is the way of how these hijackers in Johannesburg hijack the buildings and earn money from tenants. Also he talked about roof repair. He said that many citizens of Johannesburg throw out trashes and old belongings outside the window. He also said the 'horror stories' about Johannesburg, in which man's skull was found in lift or people were mugged and raped. This is his depiction of Johannesburg where he lives in. 

              Now I want to compare his life with my own life. His life in Johannesburg seems to be very unstable and dangerous, because Johannesburg, especially its poor area, is the place where many crimes often occur. Contrary to his life, my life is much safer. 
              I came from Jeju island, and I live in the fifth floor of apartment. I think Jeju is even the safest place in  South Korea. I see no fear of building being hijacked, or people being kidnapped and killed. I don't need to be afraid of people throwing furnitures out of the windows. Jeju city is not only safe, but also very beautiful; it is located near the ocean and Halla mountain. It would be very interesting to contrast how this different environments affected the different lifestyles. 



              Now let's talk about this issue in terms of different 'culture'. Throwing old belongings and furnitures - these kind of acts - can be understood in terms of the 'culture' of Johannesburg poor people. I think that there are many unique cultures Jeju island as well, because Jeju island is far from the Korean Peninsula (it's an island) and formed some unique cultures and traditions. These traditions and cultures have not been understood by many people who live in Seoul, or other regions. I think I can compare these unique cultures of Jeju island and Johannesburg. 
              Comparison between John's life and my life will be given after the comparison between Johannesburg and Jeju's political, social, economic stances and cultures, traditions. Then, my own experiences of living there and his experiences I watched will be compared as well. 

about Political Satire

<Brainstorm>
According to the Wikipedia, the definition of 'Satire' is primarily a literary genre or form, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule and shame somebody or society itself, for the better improvement. Satire is initially meant to be funny and entertaining, but its greater goal is to give constructive criticism to society. 


Especially, I want to deal with 'Political Satire', which is one of the most widely used forms of  satire in this society. Political satire is to ridicule politicians,  or any kind of political events and decisions made by politicians. Political satire is very different from political protest or political dissent: its goal is to entertain people, encourage social criticism and improvement. 


One good example of political satire is Tina Fey's TV show. 
She satirized 'Sarah Palin', the vice president candidate of Republican party in the 2008 election of United States. She imitated Sarah Palin's interview with Joseph Biden, the vice president candidate of Democrat Party.  


She mocked Sarah Palin's attitude in interview: her unpreparedness, ignorance, and nonprofessional knowledge was satirized by Tina Fey's imitation. For example, she imitated Palin by saying "May I use phone-call chance? Because I don't know much about that issue"


Like this, I want to deal with 'political satire'. Especially, I want to mock president Lee Myung-Bak's current problematic policies.

Reflective Essay - second draft

         I still clearly remember the first day I met him. It was the last day of January, 2010, and it was also the first day I'd entered the dormitory of  the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, the most prestigious high school in this nation. With great pride, I was just enjoying my first moments as a freshman, full of ambitious hopes for an active school life enjoyed with like-minded peers. Upon entering room, however, these hopes were shattered.  

           On that day, I met the first roommate in my entire life I'd ever had in my entire life.  His name was Jaehyuk. He was a short, chubby guy, and I could notice that he loved playing baseball, inferred from his baseball cap and gloves in his backpack.   

          " Hey, what's your name?" he asked.

          " My name is SeungChan, and I'm from Jeju-do."

          " Oooh, I came from Seoul. My name is Jaehyuk. Nice to meet you." 

          " Nice to meet you, too. I hope I can have a great semester with you."

          " Don't worry....it will be very exciting!!"

      

          Unfortunately, I  couldn't catch what the word 'exciting' really  meant. The next day, he started to enjoy this extremely 'exciting' life in the room without me.  He played a lot of computer games - Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Maplestory, and even Tetris - during self-study period. I complained about his behaviors. I had to study math, memorize Word Smart vocabularies, and do my homework, but he distracted me a lot. Of course, he didn't seem to care about it. 

       " Jaehyuk, I think you should stop playing games."

       " Would you like to join me?"

       "Arrrrrr... we have to STUDY!! This is wrong...."

        What was even more frustrating was that he always had conflicts with me over various issues. We have never had the same opinions about anything. I liked Rock music, while he thinks it is just a mere mixture of annoying noises. Instead, he listens to Hip Hop, which I regarded a very low-quality music genre. He also loves to talk about baseball, while I love Kim Yuna's figure skating video. I enjoy watching the Pirate of Carribean and the Dark Knight, but he does not like any Hollywood movies.  

    

     One day, he turned on hip hop music loudly in the room while I was studying for physics quiz. Being so upset, I urged him to either listen to the song with a earphone or just turn it off. He didn't reply to my anger. Next day, I decided to pay it back for him, so I watched an action movie right next to him so that he couldn't concentrate on memorizing TOEFL vocabularies. Next week, he  even played baseball in the 'room', in front of me, while I was writing an essay with a laptop. His baseball hit my laptop, and the LCD monitor was cracked. Next day, I threw away his baseball into the trash bin. Paying back and forth, we kept so many troubles and conflicts each other. 

     This is how I lived with my first roommate in the first semester in KMLA. We ended up with a conclusion that we were not fitting roommates for each other: there were tremendous differences in lifestyle, hobbies, and interests. 

       But something unexplainable happened after I finished living with him. It was a weird emotion coming out from my deep heart.  Even though I had many conflicts with him over various issues, I couldn't say I hated him. I was often irritated by his lifestyle, but I couldn't directly declare that I 'hated' him. Of course, I still complained about him, but at the time I realized that I also liked him for some undefinable reasons. I couldn't explain where this paradoxical feeling came from.   

       Even more weird was the fact that his absence made me feel more lonely and empty. Did I feel something was missing in my heart?  Was I missing the life with my first roommate? My reason said 'no', but my emotion whispered to me  'yes'. It was very ironical that my bad feeling toward him disappeared after that. Yes. I think I was missing him so much. I didn't know why. 

      "...I think we should've been better to each other,..right?"

      " I think so, too...I regret irritating you so much...I'm so sorry for that."

      " That's okay..I think we're still good friends.. and I miss you so much these days...

        Wasn't our first semester exciting and dramatic? "

      " Yeah....it was dramatic.... I think we can have even a better time if we become roommates again..."

      

      Now I realize that some hard times can be remembered as a valuable memory. Most often, what remains in people's heart for a long time is a very harsh and challenging memory, not an easy and smooth one. My numerous episodes, conflicts, and troubles with Jaehyuk made me keep a lot of memories about him. Whether these memories are good or bad? It does not matter. What matters is whether or not we have learned something valuable through experiencing each other. 

       I believe it was a valuable experience. I've learned this is how friendship can be even more intimate than before. We never said stuff like "I love you forever!" or even "You're my best friend until the end of the world!" to each other. We said stuff like "Hey you loser!! I'm much taller than you!" or "You don't know how to enjoy life. Let's  play a game!!"  We didn't even care about each others' birthdays. What's more, we frequently fought over trivial issues: whether we have to wake up at 6 or 6:10, or whether we have to clean up every Tuesday or Wednesday.    

      Yes. That's kind of weird friendship that we shared during the first semester in room 105. I can't describe this feeling neither in a concise manner nor with commonly used adjectives. It was a kind of vague feeling toward each other. When we had some fights, we often said "I hate you!", but I know that was not what we really intended. Although we didn't have same hobbies, interests and lifestyles, we knew we were good friends; we just didn't express it. That's how our friendship worked.

Story within a Story

I couldn't remember anything. And I didn't know where I am and why I am here. I tried to recall what exactly happened before I came to this room. But the scary thing was that I cannot remember anything that had happened in my life. I couldn't remember where I came from, how old I am, and who are my families. The only thing I could remember was that my name is Tony.

Something was going wrong. There was no reason why I have to be in this dark, horrid room alone. Now I guessed that someone must have kidnapped me and erased my all memories. Suddenly, I realized that I'm not the only person in this room. There is someone else in this room! 

"Hey, who's there?" I shouted

There was no reply, but I could notice that something is moving very fast. Was it a man or monster? Was it a living thing? 

"Hey, if you're a human being, please tell me who you are. Can you explain why I am here?"

There was still no answer. I cautiously moved forward with my arms stretched. Still I couldn't see anything. I touched the wall and at that moment, I could feel some liquid was flowing on the wall. 

"B.... blood....?"

What was going on? I screamed and yelled out, but nobody seemed to listen my voices. I was alone. I fainted. I fell asleep from unexpected exhaustion and unknown fear.

When I woke up, I found myself being tied near the huge stone column. I was surrounded by hundreds of candles blazing brightly. Under my chair, there were thousands of mice - hungry mice - waiting for delicious dinner. 

"Hey,....Help!!!!! Can't you hear me? Isn't there anyone?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Last week, I gave you homework to write thrilling fairy tales, right?" said Mr. Yoon

"Yes, sir" we said.

"You submitted your pieces via e-mail and I read them all already. And I think most of you did a quite good job" said him

"However," he continued, "Seung chan, what did you write about?"

"Well, I wrote about the story about person who is trying to escape from a dark, horrid room"

"Oh, that was terrible. I was so disappointed with your piece. Your story sucks. It was so null and dumb. Rewrite your essay by tomorrow!"

Chain Essay 1

In my opinion, the world has no bright side to it. People die every second from starvation while hundreds die from war. Schools that are supposed to teach kids to construct a brighter future, are overwhelmed by the competitions to raise their reputation. SAT registrations are hard to do, and chocolate milk is hard to drink. Graduation is far away while the entrance ceremony also seems far ago. School will make us wake up at 6 every morning soon, forcing us to go to morning exercises through freezing air. BUT, despite all this we do have one hope, one single hope that our tomorrow will be better than today.


Hopefully, we can expect better tomorrow. When we observe our life in long-term, our life is a kind of voyage to death. Death. The most beautiful thing in the world. Death. Which ends up all of the problems you have. Death is the only solution for our endless pains. People expect tomorrow, since tomorrow is closer to death than today. Let us die


Before we die, we have to suffer from all the quizzes. In long term, we all die, but in short term, many thing won't let us die peacefully. After graduation, males have to go to army. After finding jobs, everyone has to suffer from the fear of getting fired. In long term, we have to always work without any happiness. In this society, people can never be happy


Let's move back to the true meaning of 'happiness' then. Everyone pursues his or her own happiness. Many philosophers tried to find the answer: what is happiness? But they couldn't define it. Why? Because happiness doesn't exist on this planet at all. Happiness is an illusion that we aim for meaninglessly. If people want to achieve happiness, they have to sacrifice so many things in short-term. In long-term? People will anyway die. Happiness does not exist at all.


In conclusion, there might not be a good enough reason for us to live. Happiness does not exist. It is an illusion. Pains, sadness, and tragedy exist. Unless we can find a better reason to live, we don't need to exist any more. Let's all die. It's the conclusion. 

Re: 2nd Draft (with Quotes)

From nomination to selection, designating someone as a special person of the year is often a very subjective and controversial process. Barack Obama, the president of USA, received Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and the decision of Nobel Prize committee caused an enormous dispute as to whether a newly elected president of US deserved to get this most prestigious award. Similarly, Kathyrin Bigelow was named 'filmmaker of the year' at the 2010 Oscars, instead of James Cameron, who created the revolutionary 3D blockbuster 'Avatar'. With these examples in mind, we can see that designating 'the person of the year by TIME Magazine'  is equally subjective, and thus, very controversial. This year, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was selected for 'the person of the year', by winning over the closest competitor Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. TIME's reason of choosing Zuckerberg was that "For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; for changing how we all live our lives, and because we finally got around to seeing The Social Network and thought it was pretty good." Despite this, TIME magazine's decision also aroused controversy. For example, Nick Johnson, online campaigner said in his online website "I want the world to know that I support WikiLeaks. Assange has literally put his life on the line to give people what they want: the truth. He deserves to ge it”  

The first reason of why Mark Zuckerberg received 'the person of the year 2010' is that he was extremely influential . No one denies his invention and creation has brought us tremendous change; Facebook, armed with its convenience and speed, now replaces other social network services. It facilitates fast communication and exchange of ideas among people, and enables users to search and strengthen their social relationship. What's more, Facebook provides a variety of applications and functions so that people can freely enjoy it. It led to a drastic expansion of social network services and altered the map of the global IT market. He was indeed an influential person. 
           But the 'significance of influence' must not be the only factor that decides the winner. What we have to question is whether the influence is positive or negative; this is perhaps why some people disagree with TIME magazine's decision this year. Of course, in the history, there have been a few examples of negatively influential nominees. Adolph Hitler, the German dictator, actually commenced World War II and killed millions of innocent people. Despite this, he was designated the person of the year in 1938. Joseph Stalin, the tyrannical Soviet ruler, was even nominated twice, in both 1939 and 1942. Everyone can agree that they were influential, but not many people will answer they were influential in positive ways. Similarly, those who disagree with Zuckerberg's case insist his invention, Facebook, is bringing uncontrolled side effects. They say Facebook infringes upon individual's privacy, attracts Internet users with its addictiveness, and creates further security problems. On the other hand, Zuckerberg’s supporters say Facebook has been, and will continue to be, influential in positive ways.

I personally believe Zuckerberg deserves to get the person of the year for 2010. He was obviously the most influential person this year - which fulfills the first prerequisite: 'the significance of influence'. Moreover, I think his influence was quite beneficial to people as well. Now I can easily connect with my old friends even though I'm living in the dormitory boarding school. Many of my friends, seniors and teachers in KMLA can have free, fast and convenient communication, which they couldn't have through other social network services such as Cyworld, MSN Messenger, and Twitter. Of course, I think there are some problems such as privacy matters or addiction. Yet these problems can be fixed through system updates and preventing excessive use. I believe the harms do not outweigh the benefits. The positive influences are more significant than the negative ones. Moreover, he also said "When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power." ,from which we can infer that his intention was very positive.

Considering that another candidate of 'the person of 2010' was Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, I firmly think Mark Zuckerberg deserves to get it more than Assange does. Some people say Assange is worthier than Zuckerberg, because Zuckerberg actually sells private information to corporations and gains profit from it while Assange frees secret information to the public without any financial gain. Despite this lack of monetary motivation, we cannot say that his work is good or bad. In fact, giving off classified and confidential military secrets to the public through Wikileaks does more harm than good, because he's playing with individuals' lives and societal security against governments. For example, Julian Assange said "our next target is to attack the Wall Street bank system" What a dangerous thought!
             Now here come two decisive questions: Which is more beneficial to people? 'Convenient and enhanced social connection' or 'Classified government secrets being revealed'? Which is more harmful to them? 'Weak privacy policies that can be fixed later' or 'Endangering national security that cannot be reversed later'? I strongly argue that Zuckerberg is a more positively influential person - he deserves to get 'the person of the year’ for 2010.

My First Roommate: Reflective Essay

               I still clearly remember the first day I met him. It was the last day of January, 2010. And it was also the first day I entered the dormitory of  Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, the most prestigious high school in this nation. I was just enjoying the very moment of being a freshman of KMLA, which were totally shattered the next day in the dormitory room 105.

           On that day, I met my first roommate in my entire life (I had never ever lived with others in one room until I came to KMLA.)  His name was Jaehyuk. He was a short, chubby guy, and I could notice that he loves playing baseball, inferring from his baseball cap and gloves in his backpack.   

          " Hey, what's your name?" he asked.

          " My name is SeungChan, and I'm from Jeju-do"

          " Oooh, I came from Seoul. My name is Jaehyuk. Nice to meet you." 

          " Nice to meet you, too. I hope I could have a great semester with you."

          " Don't worry....it will be very exciting and funny!!"

      Unfortunately, I  couldn't catch what the word 'exciting' really  meant. Next day, he started to enjoy an extremely 'exciting' life in the room.  He played a lot of computer games - Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Maplestory, and even Tetris - during self-study period. I complained about his behaviors. I had to study math, memorize Word Smart vocabularies, and do my homework, but he distracted me a lot. Of course, he didn't seem to care about it. 
       " Jaehyuk, I think you should stop playing games."
       " Would you like to join me?"
       "Arrrrrr... we have to STUDY!! This is wrong...."

        What's even more frustrating was that he always had conflicts with me on various issues. We have never had same opinions about anything. I liked listening to Rock music, while he thought that Rock is a mere mixture of annoying noises. Instead, he listened to Hip Hop, which I regarded a very low-quality music genre. He also loved to talk about baseball, while I loved Kim Yuna's figure skating video. I enjoyed watching the Pirate of Carribean and the Dark Knight, but he did not like any Hollywood movies.  

    
      This is how I lived with my first roommate in the first semester in KMLA. We ended up the semester with a conclusion that we were not a fitting roommate for each other: there were tremendous differences in lifestyle, hobbies, and interests. 

       But something unexplainable happened after I finished living with him. It was a weird emotion coming out from my deep heart.  Even though I had many conflicts with him on various issues, I couldn't say I hated him. I was often irritated by his lifestyles, but I couldn't directly declare that I 'hated' him. Of course, I still complained about him, but now I realized I also liked him for some undefinable reasons. I couldn't explain where this paradoxical feeling came from.   
       Even more weird fact was that his absence made me feel more lonely and empty. Did I feel something's missing in my heart?  Was I missing the life with my first roommate? My reason said 'no', but my emotion whispered me  'yes'. It was very ironical that my bad feeling toward him disappeared after that. Yes. I think I was missing him so much. I didn't know why.

      "...I think we should've done better to each other,..right?"
      " I think so, too...I regret irritating you so much...I'm so sorry for that"
      " That's okay..I think we're still good friends.. and I miss you so much these days...
        Wasn't our first semester exciting and dramatic? "
      " Yeah....it was dramatic.... I think we can have even a better time if we meet again as a roommate......."
     
      Now I realize, some hard times can be remembered as a valuable memory. Most often, what remains in people's heart for long time is a very harsh and challenging memory, not an easy and smooth one. My numerous episodes, conflicts, and troubles with Jaehyuk made me keep a lot of memories about him. Whether these memories are good or bad? It does not matter. What matters is whether or not we have learned something valuable through experiencing each other.

       I believe it was a valuable experience. I've learned this is how friendship can be even more intimate than before. We never said stuff like "I love you forever!" or even "You're my best friend until the end of the world!" to each other. We said stuffs like "Hey you loser!! I'm much taller than you!" or "You don't know how to enjoy a life. Let's  play a game!!" instead. We didn't even care about each others' birthdays. What's more, we frequently fought over trivial issues: whether we have to wake up at early 6 or 6:10, or whether we have to clean up every Tuesday or Wednesday.    

      Yes. That's kind of weird friendship that we shared during the first semester in the room 105. I can't describe this feeling neither in a concise manner nor with commonly used adjectives. It was a kind of vague feeling toward each other. When we had some fights, we often said "I hate you!", but I know that was not what we really intended. Although we didn't have same hobbies, interests and lifestyles, we knew we were good friends; we just didn't express it. That's how our friendship worked.

next assignment keywords

15
Losiah
wealthy family
midget
loves a girl in his class too much
outgoing, bright
short, fat

Zuckerberg - 2nd Draft

From nomination to selection, designating someone as a special person of the year is often a very subjective and controversial process. Barack Obama, the president of USA, received Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and the decision of Nobel Prize committee casued an enormous dispute as to whether a newly elected president of US deserved to get this most prestigious award. Similarly, Kathyrin Bigelow was named 'filmmaker of the year' at the 2010 Oscars, instead of James Cameron, who created the revolutionary 3D blockbuster 'Avatar'. With these examples in mind, we can see that designating 'the person of the year by TIME Magazine'  is equally subjective, and thus, very controversial. This year, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was selected for 'the person of the year', by winning over the closest competitor Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Of course, TIME magazine's decision also aroused controversy.

The first reason of why Mark Zuckerberg received 'the person of the year 2010' is that he was extremely influential. No one denies his invention and creation has brought us tremendous change; Facebook, armed with its convenience and speed, now replaces other social network services. It facilitates fast communication and exchange of ideas among people, and enables users to search and strengthen their social relationship. What's more, Facebook provides a variety of applications and functions so that people can freely enjoy it. It led to a drastic expansion of social network services and altered the map of the global IT market. He was indeed an influential person.
           But the 'significance of influence' must not be the only factor that decides the winner. What we have to question is whether the influence is positive or negative; this is perhaps why some people disagree with TIME magazine's decision this year. Of course, in the history, there have been a few examples of negatively influential nominees. Adolph Hitler, the German dictator, actually commenced World War II and killed millions of innocent people. Despite this, he was designated the person of the year in 1938. Joseph Stalin, the tyrannical Soviet ruler, was even nominated twice, in both 1939 and 1942. Everyone can agree that they were influential, but not many people will answer they were influential in positive ways. Similarly, those who disagree with Zuckerberg's case insist his invention, Facebook, is bringing uncontrolled side effects. They say Facebook infringes upon individual's privacy, attracts Internet users with its addictiveness, and creates further security problems. On the other hand, Zuckerberg’s supporters say Facebook has been, and will continue to be, influential in positive ways.

I personally believe Zuckerberg deserves to get the person of the year for 2010. He was obviously the most influential person this year - which fulfills the first prerequisite: 'the significance of influence'. Moreover, I think his influence was quite beneficial to people as well. Now I can easily connect with my old friends even though I'm living in the dormitory boarding school. Many of my friends, seniors and teachers in KMLA can have free, fast and convenient communication, which they couldn't have through other social network services such as Cyworld, MSN Messenger, and Twitter. Of course, I think there are some problems such as privacy matters or addiction. Yet these problems can be fixed through system updates and preventing excessive use. I believe the harms do not outweigh the benefits. The positive influences are more significant than the negative ones.

Considering that another candidate of 'the person of 2010' was Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, I firmly think Mark Zuckerberg deserves to get it more than Assange does. Some people say Assange is worthier than Zuckerberg, because Zuckerberg actually sells private information to corporations and gains profit from it while Assange frees secret information to the public without any financial gain. Despite this lack of monetary motivation, we cannot say that his work is good or bad. In fact, giving off classified and confidential military secrets to the public through Wikileaks does more harm than good, because he's playing with individuals' lives and societal security against governments. For example, Julian Assange has said that his next target is to 'attack' the Wall Street bank system. What a dangerous thought!
             Now here come two decisive questions: Which is more beneficial to people? 'Convenient and enhanced social connection' or 'Classified government secrets being revealed'? Which is more harmful to them? 'Weak privacy policies that can be fixed later' or 'Endangering national security that cannot be reversed later'? I strongly argue that Zuckerberg is a more positively influential person - he deserves to get 'the person of the year’ for 2010.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring - 2nd Draft

In the film ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring’, the monk tries to teach his young child by making him suffering from the same pains he inflicted on the fish, the frog, and the snake. The monk tied a heavy stone on the child’s back and said that he will not be released until he releases the animals. Unfortunately, the fish and the snake already died, which made the child fully regret for his wrongdoings. The method the monk used to discipline his child was to feel and suffer from pains in the viewpoints of others. Perhaps he wanted his child to learn that every single life, no matter how it is big or small, is valuable and it’s wrong to treat them violently.

I learned the very same truth when I was eight years old. At that time, I always wanted to have a pet. One day, my father came home and gave me a present – a pair of birds. He told me that I have to take good care of the birds. At first, I really liked them and enjoyed feeding them. However, as time went, I gradually didn’t pay much attention to them, because I lost interest in raising animals. A few weeks later, my father discovered that the birds were already dead, because I forgot to feed them for three days. Due to my laziness, valuable lives starved to death. My father was so upset that he didn’t give me dinner. From that experience, I learned that I have to take care of every single life, even though it is small and weak.

In this film, another major thing that the monk wanted to teach his child was perhaps the fact that everyone’s behavior is always followed by the responsibility. Through making him regret of his wrongdoings, he could teach his child that responsibility is important. Likewise, after killing my birds, I also learned that I have to keep ‘responsibility’ in my mind. My mother told me, “they were your pets and their death is your fault. If something wrong happens, it means there must be someone who has to responsible for. You must keep your responsibility.”

I believe the filmmaker also wanted to convey the message that life is valuable and responsibility is important. When I watched the movie, my old experience overlapped with the film’s theme. Life is indeed precious and everyone has to take his or her responsibility as much as possible: these simple, but valuable messages were emphasized again in my mind during watching this movie.

Thirty things you have to know about me

1. My name is Kim Seung-Chan
2. I was born in Jeju island, and I lived there for ten years.
3. I have one brother and one sister. Both are younger than me.
4. I enjoy roller coaster rides in amusement park.
5. I travelled Beijing, Tokyo, Pattaya, Bangkok, and Ankor Watt.
6. I have never been to United States
7. I love Physics
8. I have played piano since when I was 8 years old; but I don't practice it nowadays.
9. I never play computer games
10. I'm junior in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy.
11. My most valuable belonging is my laptop. I can't live without my laptop in KMLA
12. I hate morning exercise, especially kendo
13. I used to love Mathematics
14. My favorite movie is 'The Dark Knight' by Christopher Nolan
15. My favorite animation movie is 'Toy Story 3'
16. My favorite trilogy is 'The Lord of the Ring' series.
17. I am not so good at memorizing Word Smart vocabularies.
18. I am now reading 'Emma' in British Literature class
19. I love Tomato juice and soybean milk
20. My favorite sport is swimming.
21. I believe English Only Policy of KMLA does more harm than good
22. I am a member of Minjok Herald Writing Crew.
23.  I'm conducting Physics experiment regarding the speed of falling objects in the air
24. I like english debate so much
25. My puppy's name is Terry
26. I used to like listening to rock music. Now I enjoy listening to K-Pop
27. I have always successfully managed relationship with my previous and current roommates.
28. I'm very interested in science field, but I'm not sure I'll be engaged in science work in the future.
29. My favorite politician is Barack Obama
30. I am struggling in Mr.Ganse's AP European History Class this semester

Diamante Poems

 1.    
                     Literature
                Beautiful, Artistic
        Reading, Writing, Interpreting
  Shakespeare, Austen, Gauss, Pythagoras
        Solving, Proving, Claiming
                Challenging, Difficult
                    Mathematics



2.
                     Week
                Busy, Hectic
         Studying, Learning, Preparing
     Exams, Quizzes, Club activities, Home
         Playing, Resting, Sleeping
              Relaxed, Free    
                 Weekend

Mark Zuckerberg deserves it!

Mark Zuckerberg deserves to get "the person of the year 2010"

          Designating someone as a special person of the year is often a very subjective and controversial process, from nomination to selection. Barack Obama, the president of USA, received Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and the decision of Nobel Prize committee has casued enormous disputes among people as to whether newly elected president of US deserves to get the most pretigious award during his first year. Kathyrin Bigelow was granted  'filmmaker of the year' in 2010 Oscar award ceremony, while many people expected James Cameron to be designated for producing 3D blockbuster movie 'Avatar'.  Likewise, designating 'the person of the year by TIME Magazine'  is very subjective, and thus, very controversial. Some people might agree Mark Zuckerberg deserves to get it, while others do not.

          First reason of why Mark Zuckerberg received 'the person of the year 2010' is that he was a influential person. No one denies that Zuckerberg's invention and creation has brought us tremendous changes; Facebook, armed with its convenience and speed, now replaces other social network services. It facilitates fast communications and exchange of ideas among people, and enables users to search and strengthen their social relationship. What's more? Facebook provides a variety of application webs and functions so that people can freely enjoy it. It led to a drastic expansion of social network service and altered the map of global IT market. He was indeed a influential person.
           But the 'significance of influence' must not be the only factor that decides the winner. What we have to question is whether the influence is positive or negative; this is perhaps why some people disagree with TIME magazine's decision this year. Of course, in the history, there have been a few examples of negatively influential nominees. Adolph Hitler, the German dictator, actually commenced World War II and killed so many people. Yet he was anyway designated the person of the year in  1938. Joseph Stalin, the tyrannical Soviet ruler, was nominated even twice in  both 1939 and 1942. Everyone can agree that they were influential, but not many people will answer they were influential in good ways. Similarly, those who disagree with Zuckerberg's case insists his invention, Facebook, is bringing uncontrolled side effects. They say Facebook infringes upon individual's privacy, attracts Internet users with its addictiveness, and creates further security problems. On the other hand, the supporters of Zuckerberg say Facebook has been, and will be influential in positive ways.

             I personally believe Zuckerberg deserves to get the person of the year 2010. He was obviously the most influential person this year - which fulfills the first prerequisite: 'the significance of influence'. And I think his influence was quite beneficial to people as well. Now I can easily connect with my old friends even though I'm living in the dormitory boarding school. Many of my friends, seniors and teachers in KMLA can have free,fast and conveinent communication, which they couldn't have through other social network services such as cyworld, msn messenger, and twitter. Of course, I think there are some problems such as privacy matters or addiction. Yet these problems can be fixed through the updates of system and preventing excessive uses. I believe the harms does not outweigh the benefits. The positive influences are more significant than negative ones.

          Considering that another candidate of 'the person of 2010' was Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, I firmly think Mark Zuckerberg more deserves to get it than Assange does. Some people say Assange is better than Zuckerberg, because Zuckerberg actually sells private information to corporations and gains profit from it, and Julian Assange frees unveiled, secret information into mass public without gainin no benefits. But gaining no profits does not necessarily mean that his work is good or bad. In fact, Jualian Assange is actually giving off classified and confidential military secrets to the public through Wikileaks. When it comes to safety and security of people, I think Assange does more harm than good, because he's playing with individuals' lives and societal security against governments. For example, Julian Assange said that Wikileaks's next target is to 'attack' Wall Street bank system. What a dangerous thought!
             Now here come two decisive questions: Which is more beneficial to people? 'Convenient and enhanced social connection' versus 'Classified government secrets being revealed'? And which is more harmful to them? 'Weak privacy policies that can be fixed later' versus 'Endangering national security that cannot be reversed later'? I strongly argue Zuckerberg was a more positively influential person - he deserves to get 'the person of the year 2010'.

Assignment #1: An Ode to Mathematics

An Ode to Mathematics

By Kim Seung-Chan (David)

Dear Mathematics

Let me be frank. You might remember when I firstly met you in the elementary school. I was an eight-year-old boy who did not even know what ‘Mathematics’ is, right? Of course, I clearly remember the first day at elementary school. I kept turning and turning the pages in freshmen mathematics textbook, but I still didn’t know how to do add ‘three’ to ‘sixteen’, whereas others around me could already recite the multiplication table with ease. I felt so shamed that my friends were all good at arithmetic unlike me.

But I didn’t give up. In the school, I learned how to do add, subtract, multiply and divide. I also recited multiplication table and basic concepts of geometry, algebra and probability. My math teacher taught me how to solve problems as well. Step by step and year by year, I studied you, Mathematics, and made myself proficient in solving math problems.   

I remember, dear Mathematics, middle school life was when I started to enjoy you a lot. My math teacher asked me, “Why don’t you participate in Mathematics competition, Seung-Chan? You have so far improved a lot and you’ll do a great job in the competition” At first, I hesitated. Up until then I have never thought I was better at math than others were. However, she strongly encouraged me to challenge upcoming math competition.

Since then, I tried to solve really hard and complicated problems. It was quite interesting to learn number theories, inequality techniques, and Euclidean geometry. The more I learned you, Mathematics, the more I was attracted by your beauty and purity. Whenever I learned new formula of equations, I applied them into other hard questions. Whenever I studied new geometrical theories, I drew them again and again to thoroughly understand them. Whenever I faced with challenging problems, I never gave up. Instead, I tried to come up with new solutions and new techniques. Even though my solutions were often wrong and flimsy, I learned so many things through trying those wrong solutions as well.

Now I am high school student and I’m in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. But if I hadn’t met and enjoyed you, mathematics, I would have never received many awards and medals in the competitions. Maybe, my passion and love toward Mathematics, you, was perhaps a propelling force for me to challenge to enter KMLA, which is Korea’s best gifted high school.

Regretfully, during my high school life, I haven’t so far put much attention to you, Mathematics. I have so many burdening tasks to do. I have to memorize all the SAT words, prepare for Physics Quiz and write European History term paper. Now I have my own problems, so I have no time to solve your problems. I feel really sorry. But please know this: I was so happy to learn you. I have enjoyed you a lot. Even though there are so many things to do, I will never forget you forever.

Started Blog!

This is a blog for English Writing Course Assignment!