Final Reflection

 

Q1. Do you feel like your writing has improved this semester? Why or why not? In what ways has it improved? In what ways do you want to continue improving your writing?

; To say it directly, yes I feel like my writing skills have improved a lot this semester. Before taking the Intermediate English Reading and Writing class, I didn’t know how to write formal English essays at all. For example, at first I didn’t know where to put my thesis statement which sounds funny and ridiculous for now. Not only essay-writing skills, but I learned many other specific writing skills thanks to professor Kyle and the textbook we used. I will continue writing the blogposts in English and I believe it will help me more with my writing skills after the semester! And to professor Kyle, please come by my blog (geunkyung.blogspot.kr) during the winter vacation when you feel bored or wonder about me. J You are always welcomed!

 

Q2. Do you feel like your reading comprehension skills have improved this semester? Why or why not? In what ways do you want to continue improving your reading skills?

; To be frank, I don’t feel like my reading comprehension skills have improved a lot as my writing skills do. I did memorize many words and expressions I didn’t know, but the reading paragraph in the textbook, actually, wasn’t that hard to improve my reading skills. Because my reading skills were trained enough while I was studying authorized English tests such as TOEIC and TEPS which is a bit harder than the passages of the textbook. And I will continue to study an authorized English test, especially TOEIC in the winter vacation. I believe it will help me much with my reading comprehension skills.

 

Q3. Was this the first time you kept a blog? Did you enjoy blogging? Was blogging a helpful way to practice writing? Did you enjoy reading your classmates’ blogs? Do you think you will continue blogging in the future?

; Yes, it was the first time I kept my blog. At first, of course, it was so hard for me to use a blog. For example, I couldn’t find where to click on to put my blogpost. To make matters worse, I didn’t remember my ID and password in [wordpress.com]. Therefore, I changed my blog site to blogspot.kr where the professor had recommended and it was easier to upload my blogposts. But, as my blog is being filled with the works I have done during the class, I started to have affections to the blog. First, I googled the pictures and put it to the related blogpost to make my blog have a higher degree of completion. And then, I changed the skin and the title of my blog from IERW04 to Eunkyeong’s blog♡. It was also good to save printing costs and to look on my classmates’ blogs. It was exciting to find out that someone has a similar idea on the same subject. I will continue blogging in the future!

 

Q4. Please share any other thoughts about the semester.

; I’m so happy now to write a final reflection of IERW class. As I’m watching through all the posts I have done, I’m so proud of myself to have done all of these works. Sometimes, I was so tired of many assignments and sometimes, I didn’t think of any other ideas about the subject although I have to give three reasons about my point. But as I passed the hard time and agonized how to write better reasons, that made me with better writing skills and this satisfaction at the end. I’ll continue writing my blogposts during winter vacation. Including professor, anyone who read my final reflection, please come by my blog. ^0^

Essay #2

Eunkyeong Gong                                                                                            

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

4 December 2015

Approval essay about single-sex schools

             It is a fact that more and more single-sex schools are still produced, and every year they are producing hundreds of thousands of graduates. However, on one side, still many people are worrying that they have fewer opportunities to get along with different sex students. That is a good criticism but still there are many reports that graduates of all-girls schools typically have more leadership than those who graduated from schools of both sexes because most of all-girls schools including Sungshin, Ewha, and Sookmyung Woman’s University have a leadership program and the result was proven to be effective. Therefore, I totally agree with single-sex schools, especially all-girls schools for the following three reasons: leading girls to be more powerful women in the society, helping girls to concentrate more on their work, preventing possible sexual harassment.

             The first and the most important reason is that all-girls schools lead girls to be more active and have more leadership. For a long time, not only in South Korea, but also in other countries, usually it was men who become leader or boss of a group. For example, the head of the household was thought to be the father of the house, which is supposed to be a man. Of course, women have lost the opportunity to stand out in the society although they have enough abilities as men have. However, in all-girls schools, there is no male students and therefore female students can lead the class themselves. For example, Ewha Woman’s University is famous for its logo, “Ewha leadership” and in fact, many graduates of Ewha Woman’s University are working as a female leaders in the society.

             The next reason why single-sex schools are needed is that all-girls schools help girls to concentrate more on their studies than mixed-gender schools. For girls, adolescence is a period when they have growing interest in the opposite sex, boys, although they are not mature enough to have and continue a proper relationship with males. All-girls middle and high schools block boys from teenage girls’ sight, which helps them focus more on their studies than an interest in opposite-sex students. Many reports prove that girls of single-sex schools get better grades than girls of mixed-gender schools. For example, one report suggested that both all-boys schools and all-girls schools get a much higher academic achievement than mixed-gender schools in scholastic ability test, which is a SAT of Korea. See the picture below.

 

             The final reason is that all-girls schools protect girls from possible sex-bullying such as saucy jokes and sexual harassment. Not only girls, but also boys have a growing interest and demand for the opposite sex, girls. That’s a natural part of growing up, but unfortunately, some boys who did not receive proper sex education express their interest in girls in ways that are not so commendable; sexual harassments and jokes on female students. They might think it as playful, but it can possibly make a heartbreak and distorted thoughts that all men are preverts.

             To conclude, single-sex schools, especially all-girls schools have a good impact on girls for social, academic, and sexual ways. Therefore, I think more and more single-sex schools are needed. Also, to lessen the side-effect, less opportunity to get along with boys, I suggest that it would be better if schools provide programs with boys such as sports, discussions on weekends. Then, both boys and girls can get an opportunity to share their concerns and interests about their school life, for example and I think it is enough to get along with the opposite sex after graduation. In companies or communities, there is still an inequality between men and women which is so-called ‘glass ceiling’. However, I strongly claim that allowing students to enter single-sex schools will help both sexes to have a self-respect. How about seeing in the bright sides of all-girls schools and allowing our daughters to enter those schools?

Blog post #7; The world-common language

      While, the media and the internet communication is going broader, the term "global village" is made, and more and more people worldwide are communicating with each other more freely than before. However, still there's a language barrier between a speaker and a listener. Therefore, there's a need for world-common language to speak. Everyone should speak the same language in common for these four reasons; cost savings, academical improvement, to be friendly, and the improvement of a language itself.

     First, the world-common language will lead to cost savings. If every people be able to communicate with a only language, it will be much more easier to toss the information around without any kinds of transcription or interpretation. That means, it makes us save unneeded cost and possible energy.

     Another reason is that there will be an enormous academic improvement. Every scholar report and information will be written in the world-common language in order to aloow for greater international collaboration and research. It means that scholars worldwide can plunge into a same subject, and of course, wider information will be collected and can change a depth of scholar research.

     The next reason is that it will be easy to get several events worldwide and to travel without a barrier of language. That means, it can make the world more familiar with each other. To say, there will be a less psychological distance between each other. According to one survey taken by The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, travelers said that the language barrier is the greatest inconvenience they experience while traveling. Also, an another survey taken by the Visit Korea Committee between September and October last year showed that 66 percent of travelers complained about the language barrier during a travel.

     Finally, it will make improve the language itself. As more people speak the same language, more words will be made and at the same time, less spoken words will distinguish. It makes the language more convenient to express what the speaker intents to say. While some people argue that setting the world-common language may upper the possibility of disappearing unspoken languages, it can be solved with a constant study of their native language in schools.

     To conclude, it is a good idea for the world and the language itself to establish the world-common language in the point of followed four reasons. I wish for the world of one language and at the same time, still speaking the native languages.


Essay #1

Eunkyeong Gong
Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

29 September 2015

Modigliani’s “Jeanne Hebuterne, assise” and its ambivalent painting

 

             How much, do you think that one’s feelings and emotions can affect in his or her artistic work? As you can expect, emotion, especially a depression is a very important element of Modigliani’s paintings. Have you heard of the painter “Modigliani”? He’s a painter who was born in Italy and painted in Paris. The painter Modigliani is well-known as one of the close friends of Picasso. He married Jeanne Hebuterne, and painted a portrait for her. My favorite painting is that of Modigliani, ‘Jeanne Hebuterne, assise’. The picture shows his happiness and pain at the same time ambivalently.

Modigliani had painted the eyes of people when he thought that he knows the people well. In other words, when you can find the eye in Modigliani’s picture, there’s no doubt that the subject of the picture had a close relationship with him. I first saw the picture at the Seoul Arts Center. While seeing the exhibition of painter Modigliani, the explanations said that Modigliani usually didn’t draw people’s eyes while Modigliani was specialized in portraits. As you can see in the following picture, the picture has an ‘eye’ which is painted with emerald color. The target of the picture is his wife Jeanne Hebuterne, therefore he thought that he had an intimate relation with her, and painted her eyes to emerald, which is one of the brightest color he thought.

Also, the painting was drawn during his wife’s pregnancy. Therefore, Modigliani used bright colors while he usually used dark and gloomy colors. It means that he had a bright days of his life while painting the picture “Jeanne Hebuterne, assise” On the other hand, they were in the circumstances that it was difficult to meet each other because of their poverty and opposition of Jeanne’s parents of their marriage. However, I guess that, also because of the background, Modigliani might have felt more joy than he usually had, before when he met Hebuterne. One of the reasons why I love this painting is that the picture clearly shows his joy of meeting his loving one. When you see other pictures Modigliani had done, you can easily find out that you are getting depressed a little bit. But, this picture somewhat gives us an energy and happiness that he might have felt.

             However, there’s also one bad background detail behind the picture. After painting the picture, Modigliani’s health began to deteriorate rapidly. Soon after, he died lonely in his room and was found by one of his friend. After hearing about Modigliani’s death from his friend, his wife in the picture, Jeanne Hebuterne decided to follow him and killed herself. When I heard the long story, I felt so sorry for the baby who had gone without ever seeing the brightness of the world.

             This picture both has a positive and negative sides together. He might have been happy with his wife while drawing the picture, but because of their poverty and opposition of parents, they were having a bad end. In that way, I felt that the story of Modigliani is so similar to that of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, which is one of my favorite books either. And, that’s why I had a great interest in Modigliani’s life and this picture. Also, the picture itself clearly shows his joy of his life than any other pictures he had painted. These two factors are the main reasons why this picture is my favorite. The exhibition of Modigliani is held until November in the Seoul Arts Center. Why not go to the exhibition to see the paintings and have another idea of your own about the painter Modigliani?

Blog post #6; Medical Innovations - Robot surgery

           Have you ever heard of “the robot surgery”? Since it was first operated in Yonsei Severance hospital in 2005, many patients are getting through the robot surgery because it is more complicate and has more accuracy than the original surgery which is operated by hands of doctors. (Thesis statement) Then what is a “robot surgery”? You might imagine the scene that the robot itself conducts the surgery whole as you might see in the SF movies. However, in fact, still doctors conduct the surgery using the exquisite robot machine.

         Robot surgery is a critical innovation because it can make less pain in patients. The Dr. Robot’s hand is known to be just 5~7mm, which is far smaller and much more complicate than doctors’ hands. That is, it can have a smaller damage on normal cells which do not need medical touch, than the surgery by doctors’ hands. And it can lead to a less pain and faster recovery than the original surgeries.

           Second, robot surgery is important because it has a low possibility of failure. Because the surgeon can have a broader view of the patient’s body by 3D camera during the surgery, there’s low possibility of causing a ‘fake’ cut on the patient’s body. And of course, patient can have a quicker recovery from a possible pain and danger.

           The robot surgery is a medical innovation in that it can have a less harm on the normal body cells and that can lead to a low possibility of failure. There’s much more good points in robot surgery. And therefore robot surgery market is growing bigger and bigger although it causes more money as well. In research conducted in 2015, the percentage of robot surgery in the whole surgery market is over 11%. And, it will be growing much faster and bigger. I wish the ‘robot surgery’ technique will grow more to meet the demands of patients.

Blog post #5; Ways to gain a sustainable future

           It’s a fact that people nowadays are producing more of greenhouse gases than nature can replenish. More and more, it is causing global warming and climate changes. Some environmentalists argued that humans will no longer live long in the green world, and it’ necessary to change their overconsumption of resource such as oil and coal. However, the future is not without hope. We can reduce CO2 emissions by two steps; to use less private cars and to restrict the factories with their emission.

           First, it is good for nature to use less individual cars and more public transportations. As we know already, private cars make lots of greenhouse gases, as well as car stuck in rushing hours. Also, public transportations such as buses, trains, and subways are developing in ways to use less oil. For example, in recent years, buses are using natural gas instead of diesel, and subways are using electricity.

 

* While the usage of cars are decreasing and the usage of public transportation (e.g. buses, trains) are growing, still more people should aware that using cars is not a good way within the framework of environment.

           Second, it will make a big difference when we restrict the company factories to make less emissions. For one example, we can get some taxes from those who make large emissions and pay back to those who make less emissions or those who cut down emission in a large amount. Then, they’ll start finding the ways to help the nature and it will lead to a more cleaner world.

           Greenhouse gases can be cut down by using less cars in non-official circles, and by restricting companies in official circles. But always remember that just a small act you’re making can have a great difference. How about being a green-environmentalists from now on?

Blog post #4; Weekend in Paris

     How much do you think that a place or settings can affect in movies or books? There are several movies and books that are affected strongly from settings, and often Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is used for the settings of the movie. One of the examples is "Weekend in Paris" (2014). Paris is a very important element of the movie because the movie mainly focuses on the yesterday and today of Paris.

     30 years ago, newly married couple Nick and Mac went on a honey-moon trip to Paris. They both were happy just with each other, although they had no enough stuffs and money. One example is that, they felt romantic and lovely even while they are climbing up the stairs of an old hotel.

     Nick and Mac, now married couple for 30 years go on a second honey-moon trip to Paris again to look back on their love, happiness, and life. However, they find a big difference between 30-year-ago
Paris and present Paris. For example, they run away from a luxury sea-food restaurant without paying their food. It makes the watchers laugh out loud, but also describes that they also changed a lot during 30years. However, they check their love on each again within the shadow of Paris. And, in these scenes, Paris is described beautifully and lovely.

     In the view of  Nick and Mac, Paris was very different before 30 years and present. Of course, Paris had developed a lot for 30 years. But, in my opinion, I think that a personal change in Nick and Mac also makes the city different, although the city haven't changed dramatically. Until now, many married couples go on a honey-moon trip to Paris. Therefore, I think that Paris is the best place to show Nick and Mac's romanticism and recheck their love with each other. Also, "Weekend in Paris" will remain a great movie for both old couples and newly-married couples who long for a beautiful city, Paris, within the framework of their forgotten love and Paris.