REPOST: HWANG KYU JIN 200903863 1st Draft

Re-posting with my last name attached. 200903863 HWANG KYU JIN

In 2003, I graduated from George Walton High School. Yet, I did not feel the need of going to university just yet. My oldest brother graduated from Cornell and Columbia, my second brother from Cal-Tech and Columbia as well. Now both are lawyers. I was playing cute, adorable: third son who causes troubles which my parents actually adored. It seemed like that they were treating me as an extra card in their deck of cards at times. With strong desire to do something different, fun, exciting and even a little bit bizarre, I began to think about my near future. That is when I made my big decision to come to Korea and be a comedian.

         People say that you have to be funny to be a comedian. A dog licking himself would be funny. To make other people laugh was a whole different game and I was not expecting that at all. I was smoking two packs of Marlboro Reds in a day to gain decent ideas. I was not funny; instead, I came up bitter and a bit nutty. In 2004, I auditioned for the first time for KBS and I failed. When I started packing my "not-so-funny" gear up to drag myself home, I was called up by producer Seo-Su-Min. "upgrade ideas by next week. We'll see how it goes." This had to be one of my greatest moments.

         I thought of three main acts for my next audition. I had a comedic concept which compares U.S.A. to Korea. It would be funny to make fun of Korea in U.S., but it was vice versa taking into account that I was in Korea. Also, it was pretty ironic, considering the fact that I hate being compared to. With a grin on my face, I thought to myself. 'Wow, now you have to compare for living stupid.' The show was at 9PM but producers wanted me to arrive at KBS by 9AM. For 12 hours my suffering lasted. Before the show, I vomited three times. I was not even hired yet and they wanted me on the show. I was calming myself thinking about the movie 8mile, and told myself that Eminem went through the same thing when he first starting rapping. It was a ridiculous way to control my insides but it worked. After practicing the out of the ordinary self-calming method, the clock finished its race to 9PM.

 I was actually a comedian for two whole years. How did I end up in HUFS? Apparently, comedians do not make a lot of money. Well, not enough for my needs. After being on a T.V. show for so long, I was fluent in both languages. I took my newly achieved skill as an opportunity to attend here in HUFS.

Now, I am happy about where I am in my timeline and my actual location as well. I hope to graduate and go corporate in mid-thirties. I wish to maintain myself from trying to be too different from my brothers whom doesn't know, nor care about my life, and do what I am good at. Even though I do not take the event as my most proud moments but this was really important in my life. This odd adventure helped me shape who I am today. 

yejeepark

Do you know 'Hwang young Jo', 'Lee Bong Joo'? Yes. They are Korean marathon players. Have you ever experienced a marathon? Until this year, I had never thought that I would have a chance to marathon. But in April, one of my friends recommended that I should take part in marathon competition. She said that the competition was hosted by the sport brand 'NIKE' and the accessory brand 'Jestina'. Up to 7000 people could apply and Just a woman whose age is 20s was qualified. I hesitated at first because I don't like running too much. But as my friend said, I thought it could be a good experience and when I become older than now, it would be more difficult to try it. So I decided to be brave. I applied for that competition.   And in May 26, the marathons competition was held in Sang-Am World Cup Ground. When I arrived there, there were a lot of participants. Before the race, at the starting point, entertainers 'Haha', 'No Hong Chul' came here to cheer up the participants. They made players laugh by dancing and saying funny things. And then, the competition began. There were too many players and the road was quite narrow so I couldn't run well at first. So many participants including me just walked fast. The route was connected to the 'Haneul Park' out of Sang Am World Cup Ground. And the destination was the same place as one where we started. So it was total 7km. In the middle of the competition, the gap between participants was getting bigger. And I was becoming out of breath. Besides, my right ankle was little big painful. But in front of me a lot of woman participants were running so I thought I cannot give up here. And finally I arrived at destination in 59minutes. Hand some guys welcomed us at the destination giving us cool water. And as a souvenir, I received a necklace, collaboration piece by 'Nike' and 'Jestina'. Even though it was hard, it was really exciting and it will be unforgettable memory. I thought I could not do this. Because I thought it is really difficult to run 7km in a certain time. But I made it. So I realized before we try something, we don't have to worry if we make mistake or fail. Trying itself is important. In the future, whenever I try a new thing, I will not worry first. I will be brave as I was.

200904069 Park Ye Jee

Chapter 2. p. 50 First draft Park Ye Jee   Do you know 'Hwang young Jo', 'Lee Bong Joo'? Yes. They are Korean marathon players. Have you ever experienced a marathon? Until this year, I had never thought that I would have a chance to marathon. But in April, one of my friends recommended that I should take part in marathon competition. She said that the competition was hosted by the sport brand 'NIKE' and the accessory brand 'Jestina'. Up to 7000 people could apply and Just a woman whose age is 20s was qualified. I hesitated at first because I don't like running too much. But as my friend said, I thought it could be a good experience and when I become older than now, it would be more difficult to try it. So I decided to be brave. I applied for that competition.   And in May 26, the marathons competition was held in Sang-Am World Cup Ground. When I arrived there, there were a lot of participants. Before the race, at the starting point, entertainers 'Haha', 'No Hong Chul' came here to cheer up the participants. They made players laugh by dancing and saying funny things. And then, the competition began. There were too many players and the road was quite narrow so I couldn't run well at first. So many participants including me just walked fast. The route was connected to the 'Haneul Park' out of Sang Am World Cup Ground. And the destination was the same place as one where we started. So it was total 7km. In the middle of the competition, the gap between participants was getting bigger. And I was becoming out of breath. Besides, my right ankle was little big painful. But in front of me a lot of woman participants were running so I thought I cannot give up here. And finally I arrived at destination in 59minutes. Hand some guys welcomed us at the destination giving us cool water. And as a souvenir, I received a necklace, collaboration piece by 'Nike' and 'Jestina'. Even though it was hard, it was really exciting and it will be unforgettable memory. I thought I could not do this. Because I thought it is really difficult to run 7km in a certain time. But I made it. So I realized before we try something, we don't have to worry if we make mistake or fail. Trying itself is important. In the future, whenever I try a new thing, I will not worry first. I will be brave as I was.

201003568 - Wonchull Choi - p.50 - 1st draft

'Klassenfahrt' - a German word standing for kind of class trip taken place once in a year and one of the main alive cultures existing in German Middle- and High Schools. As a student who went to one of those in north-western city called Duesseldorf, I also have several hilarious experiences related to that culture.

This was when I first got in the country and jumped into the school as a ninth grader. Due to bad language ability, I was sent to a specialized foreign class, literally a class consisted of only foreign students and the greater part of them were those from Russian speaking countries. So was my first class trip in Germany with fully lots of Russian speaking friends who are generally well known as habitual drinkers (no offense) and its destination was a city called Maastricht in south-eastern Netherlands in the middle of November.

"Priviyatt! That's how we greet in Russian when we meet friends. Repeat you it!" Chitchatting with friends and tossing my eyes out the windows of the bus especially to scenes that it snowdusted a lot (I was kind of happy to see those snow-covered scenes, since in the part of Germany, where I stayed, it was hardly to be found but only raining by driblets.), my first experience to cross over a border not by an airplane came true and it was also very interesting to see all those minute change of scenes like all of sudden there were only signboards in Dutch put up in the buildings or Asian people were hardly to be found there unlike in Germany.

After arrived into an outwardly hostel-looking-like structure and unpacked, I and some classmates decided to take a look around the surroundings of our residence and the downtown. "Oh my god, look! Right at this moment I even don't envy god!" Viktorija, one of my classmates yelled at me and made me astonished. Right behind the hostel was a large-scaled river to be found and a big cruise ship floating around with those various national flags fixed onto its ceiling made a tremendously eyesome scene. Much similar looking to German's were the streets and people and it kind of relieved us to feel like being home. Even at Mcdonald's for quick dinner, all of employees there were capable of being fluent in German and English (they somehow seemed to be curious about the fact that I was communicating with my classmates in German language, though.) and it kind of evoked the convenience yet again to me how useful the language ability for travel is.

The absurd incident began when I found out that my Russian friends smuggled(funnily to describe) a good few bottles of Alcohol into the hostel. Even though I was elder than them, I was totally experienceless in drinking, because I'd never been interested in it above all and it was also implicitly and strictly banned among us, teenagers in Korea. 

Also, our accompanied instructors admonished about it to regulate us and prevent us from any kind of dangers. These things made me detain them by the sleeve in a fright at first when they took the bottles out of the sack, but sooner or later I, this little pinwheel, was fully convinced and caught with chaff so easily. All of sudden me drinking straight from the bottle marked a beginning of my first drinking experience and it didn't stop.

All of my classmates were startledly watching me and actually busy to handle with my acts of the drunkenness, so this continually getting loaded procedure got even worse by the time. To my surprise, now I guess I was fully enjoying this procedure and recalling the feeling that I had right in the middle of that time, it was like the more sips I took, the more steps I took away from the then current realities(like all the loneliness from that I had to care of myself all alone from cleaning to cooking or the grottiness from all unexpected racial discriminations that I had to go through a lot of times when going outside etc…) - "I don't get it why a lot of people judge others so easily only with the appearances! I never ever do that! It is so mean. What do you guys think about that?!"

I didn't have many chances to become intimate and get along with my classmates back then since I was transferred to that school in the middle of the semester and even about the relationship with the boys, I wasn't good and also not interested in sports. In addition, I never imagined I could get to know them better and deeper by this kind of way, but surprisingly I truly was sharing my thoughts with them and gaining the full of sympathy by them, even though we were speaking in a language which didn't belong to any of us as a mother tongue. At that moment, this little boy identified with all the grown-ups including his parents and probably also those number of anonymous drunkards that he'd seen so far in his life why and what exactly for they willingly drink.

Except for that I drank up almost two bottles of Vodka all alone by myself at that night and so all of my classmates had to hunker down, patting me on the back in the toilet and watering to me between whiles for the whole night and it consequentially aroused the humongous rage of our instructors and a curfew order of them, my first experience to both of drinking and class trip was just phenomenal, even though I had to chase the hangover on the following day by some cheesy oily chicken nuggets, creeping out of the hostel with some of my classmates of course and perching in a corner inside a KFC branch. - "You should look around carefully whether any instructor find us, Vicktorija!"

I till nowadays thank myself for not having even one mean drunken habit like slapping the next table guy all of sudden or shouting away noisily. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to look back on that days by chatting through Skype with my first foreign friends so gladly even to this day now and antecedently above all, my following journey to school life wouldn't be that easy and smooth among them like it indeed fortunately was!

Jae min Park 200904071

When I was 15years old. I went to USA to study. I didn't realize that I had to live alone without my family until I got the school in USA. Of course I did know I should leave alone but when I got school I did faced the reality and feel lonely so bad. For a month, every day I cried and regretted that I shouldn't have left home. Every day I miss my family and friends in Korea and sick of saying 'are you ok'? As I always cried and said nothing to anyone, I became alone. I didn't talk with anybody and I didn't even go school. Like this, I was living in USA. One day, I went picnic with friends in school. When I was having lunch at the river alone, everybody cried staring the river. Someone was floundering in the river. Suddenly I don't know how I can do it but I jumped at the river. I couldn't even swim well. As soon as I barely got her, we realized that it's very shallow river. After the day, I became like a hero in the school and even in ohio state.  When I walked through the road, people came and asked me about the day and praised me. Of course I could make many friends in school. Looking back, it's really dizzy but precious memory in the USA. I really love the days in USA and miss my friends all.

Hosun Lee/Chapter 2, 1st draft

 

 

First of all, I have to say that I'm not a student of HUFS. I'm a sophomore of Korean national police university. As a student, I could have a chance to be given on-the-job training last summer. I was assigned to Songpa police station where my father was working in the criminal investigation section. I was so excited to see my father in his office, but I couldn' because I took on-the-job training in transportation section different from my father's section.

 

In the OJT, I could have a bunch of experiences like chasing law-breaking cars, investigating traffic accidents, giving tickets about speeding or parking, controling traffic signal during rush hour etc. All these experiences were thrilling but above all, they gave me precious lessons to be a successful police officer.

 

The most striking event happened to me at midnight. I was patrolling around by squad car with an officer. There was no one in streets at 4 am. In addition to the silence, satiety made me sleepy because we had instant noodles for late-night meal.

 

But all of a sudden, we encountered two guys breaking the silence of midnight. We approached to them. Then one guy who appeared to be intoxicated recognized us and shouted.

"I was about to call you, buster!"

Anyway we got off the car. Then the drunken guy abruptly came to the officer and kept pushing him with insulting words. At that time, I couldn't hide my anger and thought that how could he do to the officer working for his public peace even at this midnight. So I was about to tell something to the rude drunken man but there is nothing I can do as a trainee. Because I reminded that the officer had asked me to keep still without his permission.

The drunken guy kept talking down to us with bad words, but contrary to me, the officer acted calmly and sometimes, firmly. He responded the guy's insulting words with his impudence and sense of humor but he strictly stood against physical fight. Finally, he was the one leading the conversation.

 

The whole story was revealed soon. The drunken guy had been crossing a street at a crosswalk and the other guy driving truck had almost hit the drunken guy. It was turned out that the signal had been green when the drunken man had been on the crosswalk and the truck driver was to blame. After addressing that accident, the drunken guy told something to us.

"I'm sorry for my behavior. I drank a lot and was so surprised by the accident. So I might behave like that without thinking. I sincerely sorry for my rudeness."

After assuring that the drunken guy went home safely, we kept our duty.

 

Finishing our night duty, the officer said to me.

"You didn't have to frown your face like that."

And he continued his words.

"Most of traffic accidents are easy to address if you reveal fact relevance. But the problem is that how to calm down the agitated persons directly involved in the accident and draw precise statements from the persons involved. And also, you will see many accidents everyday as a policeman, but as an ordinary person, the accident could be a liftime of experience. So don't let these accidents make you stressed out. You have a duty to treat all accidents regardless of your emotion."

 

I was so ashamed not to control my mind. And I realized that it is so important to control my emotion as a policeman. Although people ignore, criticize or even insult police, we have duty to exert administrative action in fairness and impartiality. There is no question that this is our role in this society.

200901527 Paek Haegyung 1st Assignment

My first and favorite pupil

 

     "I cannot thank you enough." This was the last word that I said to my student, saying good bye to her. And this could sound unusual because normally it is students who thank to their teacher on the last class. Well, let me explain.

     It was the beginning of this semester that I had to apply for the volunteer work of teaching to earn credits at HUFS. Yet, I was not willing to do the volunteering at first. It was the last semester for me and I was not sure that I could care the student well. Besides, I did not really "volunteer" for this teaching work, but the university forced me to do. So, I thought the result of this work would be nothing more than a formal procedure in order to graduate. However, my prediction was miles out. Meeting with the student in Pungsung middle school changed my mind and the memory with her means a lot to me now.

     The first impression that I got from Punsung middle school while entering is that the school is more like the one in the countryside rather than the one in Seoul. The schoolyard not that neatly maintained, the school building not that large, distracted atmosphere in the teachers' room… All made me feel nervous as it was different from what I had expected. Waiting for the teacher who is in charge of the volunteer teaching, one little girl caught my eyes. She was chattering with teachers in the room without constraint. Though she was small, the bright energy venting out from her seemed to fill the whole room. To my surprise, the teacher taking charge of the volunteer work introduced her to me as my student for this semester. I smiled at her and she smiled me back, and that was, I think, when I began to like her.

     The English class with her was always a pleasure. She was very inquisitive and full of curiosity. We talked about many things in class time. Well, actually she had many questions for me. She asked me about HUFS, foreigners especially Americans, and their lifestyle. Although she was not good at English, she dreamed to be an English teacher and go to the United States when she grew up. When my final exam period ended, we went to HUFS together and I introduced the buildings where I study. I was glad to see her eyes twinkling. As the class went on, I realized how much it is crucial in teaching to keep rapport with students. I also started to understand one professor's saying that every student, if come across out of class, is adorable. The last class with her was two weeks ago. While having lunch with her, I thanked her with all my sincerity. When I found a wistful feeling in her eyes, I also felt sorry, and we promised to meet again.

Even though there will be a lot of difficulties that I will face in the future when I become a real teacher, I think I could deal with the problems and overcome them thanks to this wonderful memory with her.

ChaiHyeon Nah/ Ch2

201101068 ChaiHyeon Nah

 

The Most Special Birthday Gift

         Every birthday is special, but when it comes to your 18^th birthday, it is even more special. You are officially an adult from that day on. So, at the night of 14^th of July, 2008, the eve of my 18^th birthday, I was really excited because I was able to go to Japan for the field trip with my friends from highschool. I told my friends that my birthday is the 15^th of July, and was obviously expecting a surprise party.

         The time went on, and it was almost close to the midnight. I took a walk and bought some snacks and beer for my birthday party and came back to the hotel room expecting the cake and the surprise party from my friends. When I entered the room, there were two girls watching the television. I was a little confused because the room was clean, there were absolutely no sign of a "surprise party".

         "Guys, I back."

I murmured entering the room, with the bags full of snacks and the beer bottles in my hands.

"Well, ChaiHyeon. What are those in your hands? Where have you been? We've watching this hilarious show, come and join us."

Standing on the door step, alone, I was red like a tomato. I noticed that my friends weren't actually preparing me a surprise party! Maybe they don't even know that my birthday has past 10 minutes away already. I tried hard not to cry because of this kind of silly thing. I tried to sound as cool as possible.

"Well, the thing is… Hey, it's my birthday, today. The July 15^th. Remember? You guys are really mean! Come on, I bought some snacks and stuff. I am officially a grown up now so let's drink and hang out all night! Where's everyone?"

"We are so sorry, ChaiHyeon. We didn't know that. Sorry! Um… everyone is actually, the thing is…. they are at the swimming pool in the hotel. Sorry"

I was embarrased even hearing the their excuses. It is my 18^th birthday and everybody didn't know that. I didn't know what to say. I looked down and tried to find something cool to say, just to break this awkward moment. But then,

"Ta-Dah! Happy Birthday ChaiHyeon!"

All of my friends were on the door step, holding a cake, with teasing smile on their face. It was "really" a surprise birthday party. They knew that I was expecting a surprise party, so that they've been planning to give me a real surprise party. I've got 18 roses, and a perfume from the boy I secretely liked from a semester ago. However the most happiest gift was, of course, the surprise party that my friends gave me that very special night at Tokyo.

Park.kyeongmin/ First essay assignment

 

Winter break intermediate English writing (2)

Park. Kyeongmin

Having finished military duty in 2010, I was very excited and confident enough to see a bit more of the world by myself, so I went to Australia. But it was not easy at all with limited cash and English skills. During the first two weeks in Sydney, it was great. Everything was new to me, and I took hundreds of photos, visited every single corner of the city once I heard it was famous, and be friended with diverse people from all over the world. Although it struck me as a culture shock to share a room with girls at a backpacker, but even that was a quite experience at the beginning.

And then, magically, Sydney, one of the world's most famous cities turned to be just another city, and my life became boring. I was also tired of Subway sandwiches, McDonald's hamburgers, and the fact that I was still a tourist. What I wanted was a real Australian life. I looked for a way to share life with natives and found a memo on the Sydney tourist center webpage that Mr. Thompson, a management consultant who was at that time looking for someone to help him with his building project in Bundaberg which was in a kind of rural areas.

For next eight solid months, I lived under the same roof, enjoyed a lot of interesting stories of the Thompsons, and most of all I did such a wonderful job in building a new Queenslander-style house in which they have been living so far.

One day, I had to take care of the house on my own, because one of their friends was ill in New Zealand. Within a radius of a mile, there was no one but me, a cat named Bing, and four chickens were left behind for ten days. I was a complete free man and it was the most extraordinary time that I have ever had in my life. I would sit in a long comfortable chair watching Bing chasing birds and the chickens with a glass of beer always in one hand. At night, when I turned all the lights off in the house, I could see thousands of stars and even the Milky Way. It was spectacular view.

However, that moment didn't last long. I noticed that Bing behaved in a strange way. He was extremely cautious, crawling on the floor, looking in every direction as if being afraid of something. But I didn't give him much attention, because I thought that he was playing. Next day, it was about noon, I was having brunch watching TV at the same time, and Bing was also enjoying his cat food on the floor beside me. Then suddenly, Bing jumped right up through the air, made a weird scream, and dashed to the back door at a speed of light. I was totally surprised with my mouth half open. I was just about to say something to him, then, I saw.

"Holy shit!!", I gave a cry.

It was a dark, enormous, and horrifying creature that I never encounter that close. I climbed up the kitchen table and looked down a python slithering in from the front door. As soon as I saw it, I just knew that it could kill a man. My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it. I grabbed an iron bar which I had been using as a barbell, tried to chase it away to the front door again. It was unbelievably heavy to move, I could feel that from the tip of the iron bar. Luckily, I got the python out of the house. I thought it was over. Through the glass of the front door, I saw it sitting on the stair case. I took photos and even short videos as a proof of my triumph. To my stupidity, a thought struck me that if the giant snake freely hanged around the house, I couldn't go out! I didn't want that situation, which means either of one could live unless the other died.

I ran like a wind through the back door and went to a shed where all the tools were stored. I chose a shovel and got close to the front door again from the outside. The snake was not there. A Qeenslander-style house was about a meter high above the ground, because of possible floods or humidity. I searched thoroughly under the house. The free-ranged chickens helped me and I didn't know they were brave or just stupid. Anyway, after a while I found the monster and it seemed that it was heading back to bush. In an open place, I could its whole body. It was approximately 4 meters long, and I was not sure, but it looked like the python had already eaten something because its abdomen was swollen.

This was the moment that I still don't understand. Certainly, I could let it go, but somehow I killed it. I chopped it several times with the shovel, and it was a hard job for its skin was really tough. I thought that I could easily cut it into half. Then suddenly, a strange feeling came into, and I could describe it as nothing but guilt. The snake was not an ant or any kind of small insects. It was a being. And it was first time for me to take a life. I don't know how this affected me after all, but whenever I close my eyes, this scene becomes so vivid as if my whole body remembers it.

Kwang-Jin Lee / Chapter2.(p50) 1st draft

Car Accident in Heavy Snow

 

When I was 5^th grade in the elementary school, my family was living in the United States of America. We lived in Boulder, Colorado. And when the winter vacation started, my family went on a vacation to the south-west region of the US by car. We toured lots of cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, etc. and lots of attractions like Grand Canyon and Salt Lake. We really had a great time for about two weeks. When the time came to return home, my parents woke me and my younger sister up very early in the morning. "Wake up. We have to leave here early so that we could reach Boulder tonight. It will be a long journey from here," dad said. So my family ate breakfast really fast and hurried our way back home on the highway. When the evening came, we were on the left side of the Rocky Mountains but still had to cross such a high mountains. And while going across the mountains, my family had a terrible car accident.

 

The weather seemed to be very bad. It started to snow and became very heavy as the night came. Mom seemed to be worried because the highway was very steep and slippery. "It's snowing too much. Let's find an inn and return home tomorrow. It's too dangerous." But he said, "But our kid's second semester starts tomorrow. They have to go to school." Mom tried to persuade dad that safety should be more important, but dad didn't agree.

 

Dad drove the car up to the top of the mountains. And after we reached the continental divide, we started to go downhill. But it was more dangerous than going up because the car could easily slip forward. "I've got to step on the brake pedal carefully," dad said. There were no guardrails beside the highways but just dangerous cliffs. I broke out into a cold sweat. The outside of the car was full of darkness with heavy snowing. Snow on the road piled heavily that I couldn't even recognize the boundary of the highway and cliff.

 

Just then, "Be careful!" Mom shouted. Our car slipped and became out of control to the right side of the highway. But fortunately, there was some space where we slipped to, similar space like the shoulder of the road. Anyway, we could avoid falling down the cliff, but became stuck in snow. "Ah, the wheels can't get traction in such a deep snowbound," dad said. But until then, although he seemed a little disappointed, nothing seemed dangerous. "Don't worry, kids. I'll go out for a short time to see our situation more in detail," dad said. And he went out the car and wondered around to see exactly about our situation. After that, he opened the door and tried to come in. "Hey, th……"

 

Suddenly, a car crashed into the side of our car. The door beside the driver's seat was torn off and Dad was bleeding in his left hand. "Are you alright?" my sister cried. But though he was bleeding, he tried to relieve us. "I'm OK. I'm OK." After he tried to relieve us who were shocked by that accident, he patiently called the 911 and tow truck. "I will go to the hospital alone. You take our kids home and take a rest," dad said to mom. "OK. Take care of yourself. I'll go to the hospital after I take our kids home," mom said. We took a seat in the tow truck and our broken car was pulled behind.

 

It was a short and terrible accident, but I've got some lesson from it. I never doubted that my parents would be with me forever. After the accident and critical situation that might make me lose someone in family, I realized the importance of my family. And I was very surprised that dad was so patient with the sense of responsibility for family. I became more respectful to my dad.

 

Han sang deok / first draft

Meaningless Effort

 

          Memorable experience.. lots of memories pass in my head. Good memories, bad memories, etc. Age 22, third and fourth semester in Korea, is the time to start and do 'something'. People decide something big and huge at this time. They find hard examinations and challenge to them, go to serve in the military, and study abroad to look at the big picture. My big picture was already set to police and I needed to have the dedication and commitment to the society. So I decided to do some volunteer work.

 

          I did volunteer work with all my heart at that time. While doing the volunteer work 2~3 months, all were good and happy but the most meaningful experience was the activity at the Aram Teenager Mentoring Center.

 

          Aram Teenager Mentoring Center is the center for the economically poor and economically ill teenager, which provides various programs to aid and help them. One of those various programs is one-to-one mentoring program. This program matches a teenage student with a college student. After matching, under the program they do lots of activites to have close relationship. Its purpose is to give those teenagers high–quality education and emotional stability.

          Participating, I was matched with a girl named Park Si Un. About her name, at first I confused her name 'Si-un' with 'Si-yun'. At the teaching time it was okay, because I could just pronounce quitely when I called her. But, sending a text message to her was another thing. Even in my phonebook, her name was saved 'Si-yun(un)'. Finally I got a trouble. I texted her with the name 'Si-yun'. She was really ticked off and disappointed with my indifference. At that time I excused to her that I mistyped it, but i'm still really sorry about that.

 

          I taught her math. Math is the study of number. In order to do math well, there are minimum conditions. You need to be familiar with numbers. Also, you need to have 'normal' memory. Nevertheless, she didn't meet those conditions. I was frustrated. When I teach, I usually get bunch of empty papers on the desk. With writing basic notions like set and sequence, I explain every inch of them. Finishing, satisfied, I smile at the paper dense with my writings. And finally I let my student to solve the problems.

 

          However she was totally different. I couldn't smile. First this poor little girl dislike numbers. She got lots of calculation mistakes and she could not remember whether she did plus or minus even a second ago. Naturally, she got depressed when meeting lots of numbers. Second, she had poor memory. She kept asking me same notions I taught in the paper. I got upset. I didn't know what to do with this girl. I used to get angry and yelled to her.

 

          Friends and seniors thought me strangely and said to me on the bus "Why do you do that to her? she already give up studying. She can't calculate well, you know that." "It is just volunteer work. Volunteer thing. You know what it means. Seriously, do you like her?(of course not)" Even in the manager of that center said to me that I need to be calm down and face the reality. To sum up they said that my effort was meaningless thing.

 

          Time went by. It was the 9th meeting. She gave me a piece of paper. It was a report card which was marked '1' on the math.

 

          3 months passed. she gave me another paper. It was a certificate for the university. In fact she was 'choosing' the univiersities. She asked me "Where do I have to choose? Deok teacher"

 

          There is no endeavor in the world which is meaningless. 

Songyi Baik - Chapter 2 first draft

Frightening race with a dog

 When I was a kid, getting a puppy was one of my long-standing wishes. But my parents always said no because it requires great deal of chores to raise a pet. I argued that I could do all the chores, but they never allowed me to have a pet. However, now I don't like animals anymore and even hate them due to one accident that totally changed my mind.

 One day I went to the friend's home after school. Her house was on the second floor, so I went up the stairs and called her name. Instead of my friend's answer, I could hear the dog barking. There was a giant brown dog in the yard. I'm not sure whether the dog was really big or it seemed big because I was so young. I was very happy to see the dog, so I went close to it. But it barked fiercely to me as I was a stranger.

 I couldn't go inside because the dog stood right in front of the entrance and it was still barking fiercely. My friend went out to let it go inside a dog house. It was then she missed a leash and the dog ran into me. There was no time to yell for help. I quickly went down the stairs and ran away from the dog.

 The dog chased me rapidly, so I ran as fast as I could. There was a small stream next to the friend's house. I might run about 50 meters along that stream. I tried my best, but I got caught not long after. The dog bit my left leg and went back to my friend who was following behind us. It wagged its tail as nothing had happened. I burst into tears not because I got hurt, but because felt relieved that it's all over.

 The injury was not serious, so I just got a shot and took some pills. It was the frightening experience that I can clearly remember until now, but I could learn that animals become more aggressive when strangers come close. So nowadays if there's a pet at other's home, I tried to be more careful and keep a distance at first.

Chapter2 Writing 20100278 Jieun Lee

Unexpected slope

What comes to your mind when you think of Canada’s winter? You will definitely recall lots of snow and ski, ice skating, and other many winter sports. Last semester, when I studied in Canada as an exchange student, I spent whole semester anticipating going skiing after finishing final exams. Particularly, it has been snowing a lot in this winter, so whenever it snowed, I couldn’t wait to go skiing. Finally, after long, long final exams finished, the time to prepare going there came. I was very excited to find the place I could go, and prepare all equipment I needed. Fortunately, I could be given ski clothes from my homestay mom, but I forgot to buy ski gloves. I didn’t expect that this little mistake would make me regret all day, trembling with totally frozen hands even until I rode the shuttle bus.

In the shuttle bus, even though I didn’t slept very well and woke up very early in the morning, I wasn’t sleepy at all, and rather, I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be skiing. As soon as I arrived at the ski resort, I was so surprised at all steep slopes waiting for me. Even though I expected of slope to some degree, it seemed more serious than roller coaster I failed to ride before. At that moment, I started to feel uneasy for the first time. However, with friends’ shout and expectation, I became overwhelmed by excitement again. After renting all equipment we needed to ski, we went to a line for lift. Thanks to very cold weather and constant snow, there were not so many people than expected. From this moment, everything started to make me frightened.

Contrary to Korean ski resort, there was no guard net under the ski lift. All the way to going up, I couldn’t look down because it constantly made me imagine what if I fell off. Besides, when the ski lift reached middle, lift stopped all of a sudden. Without even knowing the reason, it was the moment that made me scared even before skiing. What was waiting for me after arriving at the starting place through panic was unbelievably steep slope. Even though I wanted to start at primary level, it was closed that day. At the moment I looked at the slope, my confidence with experiences in my childhood disappeared, and I trembled with fear. A woman who noticed me trembling approached me and said “Do you want help?” She was the only gleam of hope because all my friends already went to much higher level course. “Are you first time? Do you want to follow me?” I answered “Sure!” Even though my answer was so short, in this answer, all my relief, desperation, and panic were contained. She explained how to go down to me. “Make me pizza shape!” She said I had to make triangle in order to slow down.  

No matter how hard I tried, it was really hard to make triangle and turn at the same time because she said I should go down diagonally, not straight to slow down. To make matters worse, at both end of the slope, there was no fence to protect from falling down. Every step made me frightened and I was not able to be relaxed. When I felt a little bit relief from the fact I came down the first hill, I fell with a bump. During that short moment, my hat flew away, I miss my poll, and I rolled down many times. My face became covered snow and it was hard to open my eyes. At the moment, I was so surprised and it was really painful. The woman turned back because of my shout, and came to me for help. “Are you okay? You can do this. Don’t be scared and give your legs strength.” She encouraged me to try again and cheer me up.

Of course, it was not my last fall. I rolled down so many times after then as well. However, at the time when I left just one hill, I started to feel excited and confident. As soon as I arrived at a point of arrival, I went to a line for lift. Even though all my body was covered by snow and I decided to stop skiing in the slope a little while ago, I wanted to try again with excitement. The slope that I looked down secondly seemed really steep just as it did at first. However, I took my first step. I tried to make triangle and go down diagonally in both direction. When I didn’t focus a little bit and give my legs strength, it started to be fast and I couldn’t control my body. I fell down and rolled many times in this try as well. However, I started to get the feel of the way rather than being afraid of falling down.

Even though it was getting dark and cold, I didn’t stop and started to have fun at that moment. In the middle of coming down, I met the woman that helped me a lot. She was very surprised at my significant advance. “On my god! You look so great. I told you can do this.” At the moment, I was so proud of myself. I am the faint of heart, especially when it comes to many sports and amusement park rides, so I could give up at once as original. However, in this time, I didn’t give up trying new and scary thing to me, and it seemed that I could everything as long as I try. I think there will be a few slopes in my life as time goes by. In my life journey, I would definitely fall down sometimes just as I fell down in this ski trip, but I will stand up and go to a new line for my future without giving up.

Chapter2 Writing 201002708 Jieun Lee

What comes to your mind when you think of Canada’s winter? You will definitely recall lots of snow and ski, ice skating, and other many winter sports. Last semester, when I studied in Canada as an exchange student, I spent whole semester anticipating going skiing after finishing final exams. Particularly, it has been snowing a lot in this winter, so whenever it snowed, I couldn’t wait to go skiing. Finally, after long, long final exams finished, the time to prepare going there came. I was very excited to find the place I could go, and prepare all equipment I needed. Fortunately, I could be given ski clothes from my homestay mom, but I forgot to buy ski gloves. I didn’t expect that this little mistake would make me regret all day, trembling with totally frozen hands even until I rode the shuttle bus.

In the shuttle bus, even though I didn’t slept very well and woke up very early in the morning, I wasn’t sleepy at all, and rather, I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be skiing. As soon as I arrived at the ski resort, I was so surprised at all steep slopes waiting for me. Even though I expected of slope to some degree, it seemed more serious than roller coaster I failed to ride before. At that moment, I started to feel uneasy for the first time. However, with friends’ shout and expectation, I became overwhelmed by excitement again. After renting all equipment we needed to ski, we went to a line for lift. Thanks to very cold weather and constant snow, there were not so many people than expected. From this moment, everything started to make me frightened.

Contrary to Korean ski resort, there was no guard net under the ski lift. All the way to going up, I couldn’t look down because it constantly made me imagine what if I fell off. Besides, when the ski lift reached middle, lift stopped all of a sudden. Without even knowing the reason, it was the moment that made me scared even before skiing. What was waiting for me after arriving at the starting place through panic was unbelievably steep slope. Even though I wanted to start at primary level, it was closed that day. At the moment I looked at the slope, my confidence with experiences in my childhood disappeared, and I trembled with fear. A woman who noticed me trembling approached me and said “Do you want help?” She was the only gleam of hope because all my friends already went to much higher level course. “Are you first time? Do you want to follow me?” I answered “Sure!” Even though my answer was so short, in this answer, all my relief, desperation, and panic were contained. She explained how to go down to me. “Make me pizza shape!” She said I had to make triangle in order to slow down.  

No matter how hard I tried, it was really hard to make triangle and turn at the same time because she said I should go down diagonally, not straight to slow down. To make matters worse, at both end of the slope, there was no fence to protect from falling down. Every step made me frightened and I was not able to be relaxed. When I felt a little bit relief from the fact I came down the first hill, I fell with a bump. During that short moment, my hat flew away, I miss my poll, and I rolled down many times. My face became covered snow and it was hard to open my eyes. At the moment, I was so surprised and it was really painful. The woman turned back because of my shout, and came to me for help. “Are you okay? You can do this. Don’t be scared and give your legs strength.” She encouraged me to try again and cheer me up.

Of course, it was not my last fall. I rolled down so many times after then as well. However, at the time when I left just one hill, I started to feel excited and confident. As soon as I arrived at a point of arrival, I went to a line for lift. Even though all my body was covered by snow and I decided to stop skiing in the slope a little while ago, I wanted to try again with excitement. The slope that I looked down secondly seemed really steep just as it did at first. However, I took my first step. I tried to make triangle and go down diagonally in both direction. When I didn’t focus a little bit and give my legs strength, it started to be fast and I couldn’t control my body. I fell down and rolled many times in this try as well. However, I started to get the feel of the way rather than being afraid of falling down.

Even though it was getting dark and cold, I didn’t stop and started to have fun at that moment. In the middle of coming down, I met the woman that helped me a lot. She was very surprised at my significant advance. “On my god! You look so great. I told you can do this.” At the moment, I was so proud of myself. I am the faint of heart, especially when it comes to many sports and amusement park rides, so I could give up at once as original. However, in this time, I didn’t give up trying new and scary thing to me, and it seemed that I could everything as long as I try. I think there will be a few slopes in my life as time goes by. In my life journey, I would definitely fall down sometimes just as I fell down in this ski trip, but I will stand up and go to a new line for my future without giving up.

200903756 Han Chan yeon / Chapter2 : First draft

Making food for a birthday party for the first time

 

My family says that I could bring disaster with my own hands. I'm not good at making something. I'm not a talented artist. I realize my drawings are not attractive and fancy like other students since I was a little kid. I also didn't like crafts class because crafts class makes me disappointed. I always needed more time to finish my work and what I finally made was easy to break and unstable.

Like all the other things I could make with my hands, I didn't have much sense at cooking. I sometimes tried to help my mother but my pace to cut or peel vegetables were so slow so it didn't help her that much. What I can cook without making it have weird shape and weird taste is ramen and scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs are the only food I could cook with eggs. I even can't make fried eggs because when I try to cook eggs, they always get stuck to the pan and shape of it looks so bad. I often burn it, too. So I was not fond of cooking at all and cooking was my mother's duty in my house.

However, I decide to make food for my father on his birthday this year. 'I am 23 years old now but I didn't cook breakfast or dinner for my parents. What a shame!' I thought. It might be turn into a disaster in the kitchen as usual, but I felt I should try anyway. I wanted to be a good, thoughtful daughter, not a bad one.

When my family was having breakfast together on his birthday I asked him, "Dad, I'm going to cook dinner for you tonight. Tell me what you want to eat. Please don't pick too tricky one." My word shocked all of my family members. My little sister teased me, "Oh my god, will there be any food that we can actually eat tonight?" I ignored her. To tell the truth, I have nothing to say. She was the one who can do magic with her hands while cooking, and I was like an evil witch who spoils everything. "How about spaghetti? I really want to eat it these days." My father answered. I boasted him that he could choose dinner menu by himself, however, I don't know the exact recipe of spaghetti, so I asked my mother, "Is it too difficult for me to make? I watched you made us spaghetti but I'm not sure I could do it well." She eased my mind, "Not that much. It is quite easy one. You can buy spaghetti sauce at the market, that's not enough, but anyway." Aha. Then I decided spaghetti as my very first food that I made on my own.

After I made my mind, I searched recipes on the internet. It was not that helpful, though. We didn't have spices or tools that recipes mentioned. But I could choose a spaghetti sauce I'm going to buy. There was a sauce that 70 percent of it is made of real tomatoes.

The rest of the ingredients I have to prepare needed mother's help. "Mom, can you go to the grocery store with me?" She rejected, "You said you are going to make it and that means you also need to buy you need by yourself." I kept ask her to go, "But you know I'm not god at finding fresh one among lots of vegetables. I really want to make it delicious this time." She smiled, "I can help you with that, but I'm just going to give you some tips about that. That's all. OK, what are you planning to buy?" So I could buy vegetables like tomatoes, onions, and mushroom on my own with her tips. I'm not sure I picked the best one, but still, they were acceptable. I also packed meat and spaghetti sauce.

Now it's time to cook. What I first tried to do is peeling tomatoes and that was not an easy one. My mother was watching me and explained, "Now I'm going to boil the water, you make slits in the tomatoes like cross and then blench those in the water. It'll become soft and easy to peel." Thank god, she was so kind! She helped me until I finished cooking. The fact that she is standing next to me calmed down my mind. I felt like I could cook it properly and I believe that even though I've done something wrong, she could let me know what's wrong and help me fix it. Cooking was not that stressful burden as I thought.

After I finished making spaghetti for the first time, I tried it before my dad came back home, and I almost polished off a dish. It was so delicious! Maybe that was because I made it by myself.

"How is it? Is it OK?" I asked my family and we started to eat dinner. I was a little bit nervous. "It is delicious, I like it. You should make this one again later." My little brother complimented me. "This is one of the greatest birthday presents I've ever had." Dad told me and hugged me. Ah, I finally realized the feeling that cooks feel! Watching family eating my food with joy was so happy. Cooking was not a horrible thing to me anymore. It's love.

1st draft of Chapter 1 / 200800851 Chanil Kim

 

On My Own

I remember how happy I was when I first heard that I had been permitted to attend Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. It was one of the most pleasant and meaningful moment of my entire life. After that moment, however, my family had to concern about my housing. My hometown, Daegu, is far from Seoul where the HUFS is located. Besides, we do not have any relative living in Seoul. So, I decided to apply for the dormitory on campus. Fortunately, I came to be allowed to live in the dormitory. Since then, I have lived by myself.

Ever since I was born in 1989, I had never lived alone away from my family. My family has never lived out of Daegu, so moving and living alone in Seoul seemed a big deal to my family as well as me. I even did not have any idea of what it was like to live on my own, far away from our own home and town where I had lived since I was born. Anyway, I had to prepare to disappear from where I was used to everything. After packing all my stuff, I moved into the dormitory by my father's car. It took around four hours to get there. I had stayed one year in the dormitory before I moved out to serve in the army.

On finishing my service, I should think of where I was supposed to stay again. At that time, I did not want to live in the dormitory where I thought the atmosphere was not that free; there were some rules that we must follow while living in the dormitory. Those rules actually made me sick of living in the dormitory and find a rental room. Since then, I have moved twice and lived in such rental rooms.

I think that I have gotten a little bit more independent than before I started to live by myself. In addition to just living on my own, I began to do what I had never done before such as cooking, doing dishes and laundry, and cleaning my room. Instead of asking somebody to help me to do what I have done with others, I realized that I was supposed to figure out how to deal with those things on my own.

Now, I even came to enjoy doing things alone; last year, I have traveled around the United States almost all by myself. I learned that there is nothing I cannot cope with and that many things happen to be addressed without help from anyone; I am totally willing to do whatever I am going to face, even with pleasure!

200903756 Han Chan yeon / ch.1 p24~25

 

1.      What are your strengths as a writer?

Even though I'm not that qualified writer and I don't have much confidence in writing, I like writing something. Well, except writing an essay, actually. I like keeping journal and I like free writing that I don't have to care about structure or grammar which is my weak point. I think this is one of my strength because love what you do is really important. Your attitude toward it can affect the results. And this can help me not to feel so tired about practicing writing. I do feel tired and I do not want to practice writing sometimes when it's too hard, but still, I think I can enjoy it more than those who hate writing.

Moreover, I'm not ashamed of getting feedback from others. I heard some people feel bad when they got feedback, especially negative kind of feedback pointing out mistakes or giving advices. However, I'm rather willing to get other people's idea than avoiding it. I know I'm not a perfect writer and those new ideas I couldn't think of will rich my writing. I don't have courage to ask to give me feedback first, but when we have feedback session during the class, I really like it.

I'm not sure I have more strength as a writer, seriously. I'm not that creative, organizing idea is one of the difficulties I always face when I write, feedback I got always say that 'I can't understand what you wanted to say with this sentence' however, maybe I have ability to write something longer. This could be strength and weak point, actually. My essays, for example, usually have lots of examples and explanation but it might be considered as unnecessary part.

 

2.      What do you find most difficult about writing?

The most difficult thing about writing to me is getting ideas. It is really hard for me to get interesting topic or proper supporting idea. Even though I have time to brainstorm during the class, I can't finish my brainstorming on time. When I choose specific interesting topic, them I realize that this topic has little things to say so I have to find another one. Writing about my personal experience is the most difficult part. I don't have interesting or shocking events that changed my whole life. My life was quite clam and happy life without big trouble or accidents. So I can't think of things to say about this.

Second, organizing ideas is also hard for me. Of course I know the basic frame such as introduction, body paragraph, conclusion etc. but I feel the flow of my writing especially flow of my essay is not that natural. Maybe that's because I'm not good at using conjunctions. But I think the bigger problem is lack of coherence. I need a lot of help from others since it is not easy to find out what's wrong in my writing.

Also, one of the most bothering problems is paraphrasing and sentence structures. After I finish my first, rough draft and read it again, I find out there are too many same words, phrases and structures. I really want to use various kinds of sentence structures and want to be good at paraphrasing; however, my English is not proficient enough to achieve that level. I'm always worried my essay would look like a writing of a child especially when I wrote about something serious.

 

3.      Describe your writing process by answering the following question: How do you usually approach an out of class writing assignment? Do you start early or put it off until last minute? Do you write only one draft or revise your essay one or more times? Where do you go for help if you find a writing assignment difficult?

Before I start my writing assignment I usually do brainstorming since it's hard to think of good topic and good reasons. I make an outline when I have enough time to do that but I usually don't, because I always put my essay assignment off until the last minute. I know it is a bad habit but I can't start something unless it became urgent. After I finish writing first draft, I revise it because I know that one is too rough to just hand it in. it's more like a stream of consciousness rather than a good, organized essay. However, even though the writing assignment is too difficult for me, I don't ask help to others because there's almost no one I could ask easily to give me good feedback.

 

 

4.      In what ways do you hope your writing will improve by the end of his course?

At the end of this course, I want I could write really interesting, natural writing that readers are very willing to read it further. But writing something interesting seems like it is a goal hard to achieve in 16 days. I'm not going to be a professional writer in the future of course, but I hope my readers-who are very kind to read my writings-could be interested and happy because of my writing. I want to write a story someday, but that's not the point. To achieve this, I need more interesting ideas for reading and my writing should be natural.

I also want my grammar & structuring could be better. I know it is not a grammar class, however, if I write several times and get used to it, I could learn something about this area too, I guess. I'm sick of writing like an elementary school student. How could that kind of writing make others impressed? No one could like or convinced by those writings with full of errors and boring structures. The most important thing in writing is its contents, but the container containing ideas also should be good or at least, acceptable.

Furthermore, I want to improve my revising skill at the end of this class. Getting feedback could help me but I can't always get feedback from others. I always try to revise and edit my essay or writing, but it doesn't help much. Because the writer and the people who revise the writing is the same person, the point of view is also same. And I know there's something wrong and not sufficient, but I don't know how to change it.

 

5.      What do you think will help you most to improve as a writer?

The most useful ways to improve my writing is getting feedback from others, in my opinion. As I mentioned above, I have problem with fluent, natural flow of the writing and therefore it is really helpful to know what others think. It is a part hard to change all by myself. Moreover, I have lots of grammar problems either so feedback from a person good at grammar allows me to correct those errors.

Practice writing could be helpful, too. I could keep a journal or practice writing essay and so on. When I write a lot, I could find my own writing style and see my strength or drawback of my writing; therefore I could try to improve myself. And practice makes perfect.

Also, reading good examples a lot can be useful to improve my writing. Good examples give me ability to look at writings and it could lead me to revise myself well. Reading also can help me get used to the flow or style of the writing.