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?