Lee Da Som's Debate Essay

Nowadays, nationalism prevails in Korea and the world. So there are many resulting problems. I think nationalism is a mere obsession, stubbornness in our unconsciousness.

Of course, nationalism advocates say that nationalism can strengthen solidarity. They also say nationalism brings big power and enthusiasm in the World Cup or other big games, which make us unite and feel patriotism. Also, advocates insist that they feel comfortable and glad when meeting the same family (race, tribe) in other country. Eventually, they think nationalism is good for people's emotions and for unification.

In my opinion, however, these are only special cases (World Cup, Olympics, meeting same family...). In everyday life, we still discriminate foreign workers due to our 'single-unity' nationalism. And similarly, people are locked in limited point of view, which can lead to intolerance of others as we can see in Jaebum's case. Also, in an extreme case, Nazis and Hitler killed millions of Jewish people cruelly, only because he thought his race is superior to Jewish people.

For these reasons, I think nationalism is never good for us. We have to break this stereotype. It is better to be a world citizen instead of locked in nationalism.

Lee Da Som's Opinion Essay

Schooling for Teen Mothers

Nowadays, many teen girls become mothers. Usually they are 15~19 years old. Although they aren't kids, they are not adults. So their job ability, maturity and sense of economy are considerably less than adult mothers.

But our government and school authorities try to kick teen mothers out instead of developing their ability, mental maturity and childcare methods.

I think it comes from Korean's conventional shamefulness and avoidance of sex or premarital pregnancy which derives from deep-rooted Confucianism.

But a school's essential goal is to educate students so that they can become mature human beings and do well in the larger society. So it's a violation of education's goal to kick teen mothers out of school. Because every student's essential rights and life are most important, school authorities have to break conventional stereotypes. We need to accept some changes in social perception in a positive way.

So, practically, we need to establish schools for teen mothers which teachers job ability and nurturing. Or it's also good to make nurseries in high school like other developed countries. Of course, childcare allowance for teen mothers should be increased. Most of all, teachers have to try to not to discriminate against teen mothers in school.

Now it's time for Korea to become a socially-developed country. Social welfare can be improved with a change of perception. I don't want to see tears on teen mothers any more.

Lee Da Som's Narrative Essay

I want to talk about my most shameful but lesson-learning story. It's about my cheating story.

It was 2 months ago, I think. I was memorizing words for a paper test. Terribly, I was so lazy that I opened the word list for the first time at that moment. But it was so difficult to memorize in a short time. I screamed, and my classmates also grumbled and groaned. Eventually, everyone in the classroom felt sympathy. So, we united for the first time. Since out homeroom teacher wasn’t there, we freely discussed our plan. After that, we started a combined operation. All of the classroom students started to write down the English words on the desk, and piled many books and calenders around to shield.

The classroom was silent. All of the student's senses were on the strain. But on the other hand, we felt somewhat... a sense of relief. We thought that we could get a good grade. While writing the words on the desk or little paper, I said "What if.... if teacher L comes in instead of our homeroom teacher?" (Teacher L is very strict and thorough. If she comes here to supervise us, we can't cheat at all.) Suddenly, my friends squealed and blamed me. They said "Shut up!!" or "Don't jinx things!!". We laughed, cause we knew that scenario was almost impossible. And after 30 minutes, we all finished. Our plan was excellent. The bell rang at 4:30. It was silent. We heard someone walk toward our classroom. We could see the silhouette. But.... it wasn't our H.R teacher. Door was opened.

"Hey students! Let's start! Put away your books and come apart!"

The other students and I were shocked. All hope was gone. She was teacher L .

I was vacant. We just looked each others faces. "What are you doing?" teacher L shouted. It was unavoidable. We put away everything, and the paper test was started. I took the exam in a state of ignorance.

The result was terrible. I got only 60. I said to my friends "I had least expected that things would come to such a pass. I think we got heaven's justice."

From this event, I learned a lesson which is very simple but I had forgotten. It is that there is nothing to achieve with tricks or without effort. I realized the importance of sincere effort and an honest attitude of mind. Of course, I can accomplish something with tricks. But now I know that it's not blessing or luck. It's just foreshadowing of retribution.

Kim Go Eun Yi's Debate Essay

Is nationalism good?

Nationalism is extreme pride in the history, culture and successes of one's nation. That means to have love for your own country and the belief that it is better than any other country. People who approve of nationalism insist that nationalism is necessary and good because it is natural. It leads people who live in your country to have the power of unity. But l think over-nationalism is too conservative in globalization. For example, 고종‘s father, 흥선대원군, insisted on the "closing-the country-policy" and failed to accept other countries cultures appropriately.

As a result, this persistence made Joseon's mordenization slow. Nationalism is extreme or fanatical patriotism. Of course, proper nationalism is sometimes fine. But over-nationalism is not good. So appropriate nationalism is important.

Lee Da Som's Self-Introduction

Self Introduction

Hello! My name is Lee Da Som. I was born in Gwangju on April 19th. I live with my mom and dad, and a brother seven years younger than me. I lived in Gwangju for 16 years until middle school. I chose to go to Naju High School, so now I live in the dormitory.

When I became a high school student, pizza and chicken became my best friends. And now they are my soul mates.

Sometimes my friends call me enfant-terrible or devil, cause I'm so mischievous and wild. I also think I'm addicted to making fun of my friends. I think I have to be more prudent, gentle and mild because I'm 19 now.

From now, let me introduce my hobby and goal. My hobby is taking pictures--especially nature scenery. It makes me feel calmed down and makes me breathe in this dreary, tight high school schedule. I also love going outside and being exposed to wind when I'm tired or bored. I feel freedom from cool wind blowing that moment. As I love nature and relief, my dream is also simple and naturalistic. I want to be a country-side school English teacher. And after class, I want to enjoy my life by taking pictures of beautiful nature scenery.

So.. what I want to say is that my ideal life style is to take a rest and find myself in peaceful nature. Thank you for reading my self introduction.

Kim Sora's Narrative Essay

The best way I can

By Sora Kim

When I was a student of middle school, I went camping with a schoolmate. On the second night, we had the opportunity to do a candlelight ceremony. A recreation instructor told us "You have your parents who always sacrifice for you. As a candle sacrifices itself. it makes light. Your parents sacrifice like candles themselves, they give you their food, clothes, love, everything. They make you happy and hope you go well. Maybe, do you think it is natural to forget to thank your parents for their work?"

The speech made me think again about my parents. My parents are farmers and work in a melon house. They go to the melon house in the early morning and come back home late night. When they come back home, their faces are full of fatigue. My older sister and I often went to help them there. Inside the house was very hot and the work was very hard. I was exhausted quickly, so I went outside to rest. After, I often repeated that behavior. However, my parents didn't work like me. They continued to work under those conditions. Probably, in that situation, I thought as the work is parent's job, I didn't have to do it.

After camping, I realized I had been stupid at that time. Parents worked for us. I was so regretful. So I realized the best way to help them is by studying hard. Right now we should do our duty. I really thank and love my precious parents who always love me and sacrifice everything for me.

Kim Sora's Debate Essay

Our debate title was "Is nationalism a good thing?" Nationalism means that people have great love for their nation. So nationalism is often associated with the belief that a particular nation is better than any other nation.

The pros insist three opinions.

First, nationalism leads people to have self-esteem about their culture, politics, and nation. Second, people who love their nation know a lot of information about their nation, so it can make nation develop easily. Third, nationalism is a good thing because it makes us come together for the Olympics and the World Cup.

On the contrary, the cons insist three opinions.

First, if nationalism exceeds appropriate levels, it can result in discrimination about culture, politics, and race. Then, it will lead to wars between many nations. Second, in globalization, nationalism leads nations to cultural and economic recession because they reject advantages of another nations. In the present, for example, North Korea does not accept America's developed science technology. So that nation is in a recession and has a lower GDP (gross domestic product) than any other nation. Third, it can lead to intolerance of others. That is why it makes outsiders.

The conclusion, I think the cons are more than the pros. Of course, nationalism is used to develop nations. But nationalism includes the decline of another nation. Accordingly, it can't accept advantages of other nations. However, the best solution is to have minds that love their nation and respect other nations. Namely, to balance between two opinions.

Yu-hyun's opinion about Nationalism

Debate about Nationalism

Nationalism is a great love for a nation.
It is often associated with the belief that a particular nation is superioty to any other nation.
Nationalism can be good ideology to their nation. But on the other hand, it can bring about a wrong side.
The pro's side say, Nationalism is necessary and they prefer nationalism. Because, Nationalism has an aspect of unification, so when the original policy and order is being changed. conflicts and severe quarrels can happen. In this situation, Nationalism bring a way which is resolve the problem under the name of "Nationalism."
But I think it can bring about incorrect and wrong sides. If Nationalism oversteps bounds, it can cause discrimination. It means, if someone has excessive nationalism, they think "Our country is better than any other country, we are top of the world." So they can ostracize the other race.
And it can bring about cultural, economical recession.
Because people think "We don't need another country's culture or anything, Because we are the best. our culture is the only excellent culture and the others are inferior."
So to speak, in various situations Nationalism can bring about many wrong sides.
So I think the overreaction of nationalism is not helpful for everyone. so we have to found the correct and right meaning of Nationalism. It can be helpful and encouraging for every generation.

Lee Ji Hye's Debate Essay

"Is nationalism good thing?"

Nationalism is a political belief which thinks of race preferentially.

I think nationalism is good thing and necessary for our lives. If we think nationalism is important, we can establish order for a nation.

But if we don't think about the nation, our places will be tarnished and other countries will neglect our country.

Some people may say nationalism is bad, talking about German Nazism.

But that example is not pertinent because German Nazi's got their profit on the pretext of nationalism and that misused a sense of nationalism.

A essential sense of nationalism is thought that people are very very important in their country. Therefore, for our people and our country, nationalism is necessary and good thing.

Choo Da Ye's Debate Essay

Is Nationalism necessary?

Is nationalism a good thing? Many people might be divided into pros and cons. My opinion about Nationalism is on the 'pros' side.

I think nationalism is necessary. Because nationalism is an important source to maintain a nation. Nationalism is not to think just about race, but to know the source of the nation, to love the nation and to have pride in the nation. So, if many people don't have nationalism, their nation couldn't unite and the power of the nation could be weak. Therefore, nationalism is necessary to keep nations powerful.

The people who disagree with nationalism think nationalism as racial egoism. For example, many Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis because the Nazis only thought their race was most important. The objectors think that case occurred because of the nationalism of the Nazis. So, the objector insists that nationalism could break the order of the world. In this case, however, that incident occurred because of over-nationalism, and the Nazis used nationalism for pretext to kill Jews and despotize. The real meaning of Nationalism is not to kill the other race.

Nationalism can be an essential thing or a dangerous thing. But, it is plain truth that each person has their race and nation. We cannot ignore the relation between humans and nations. Therefore we have to think about nationalism carefully with its affirmative and negative aspects.

Lee Young Eun's Debate Essay

Nationalism is person's great love for their nation. We live in a time of globalism and many races live together. So we thought about Nationalism.

Some people think that Nationalism is necessary because Nationalism leads people to cooperate. For example, the World Cup and Olympics. When we have those events, we cheer for our team together with arms hanging on each others' shoulders. And along with people who are strangers we cheer for the same team loudly in street. And Nationalism helps maintain unique culture. In the case of Korea, Nationalism helps our unity.

But over-nationalism can bring about racial discrimination, like the pogrom of Nazis. Also, it can lead nations to cultural and economical recession. For example, historically "JoSeon dynasty's closing-the country-policy" makes the nation's development slow. And it can lead to intolerance of others. Last year, members of our nation showed intolerant to JaeBum, who just complained about Korea because of his pain in a different culture, so a young man who had a bright future became depressed and brought guilt to his idol group.

Consequently, I think over-nationalism is not good. Proper Nationalism is useful. But if it exceeds appropriate levels, our society will have many problems.

Lee Yu Hyun's Narrative Essay

One morning when I was fifteen years old, I felt too much pain in my throat so my tears fell when I was eating breakfast. The day before, it was not a big deal, but as just one day passed, the pain became so terrible. I thought 'It is just a cold. It will be fine' and then I was ready to go to school. But my father said "You had better go to hospital rather than go to school. I told your teacher that you will be late." I thought it was an overreaction, so I was convinced that it was just a cold while we were going to the hospital. But my thinking was totally wrong. The doctor said that I am very patient person because the source of pain was not a cold. It was tonsil inflammation. The pain was so terrible, but I had been enduring it. Furthermore, I had to have tonsil surgery. I felt dead and horrible. My tears fell down spontaneously. Father said to me, "Don't worry sweetheart. I am here beside you. It will be okay." Father tried to relax and relieve me.

Two days later, I had tonsil surgery. Before the surgery, I took six injections. It was like chaos. Six injections... It was an unforgettable experience. Maybe, it was my most painful moment in my life.

During the surgery, the pain was so terrible, so I cried continuously. At the end of the surgery, I had a double nose bleed and couldn't say any words for 2 weeks.

I vomited blood mass. I could not even sleep because of the blood. After 5 hours, I went back home. I could eat only cold liquid food. I was starving during those days. But my father also had a tough life. He did not go to work because of me. Everyday, he always care for me. I was very sorry and grateful.

When my father was sick, I ignored him and just did my work. What a bad attitude!

I thought at that time, I was so stupid. My tonsil surgery experience gave me lots of lessons and I will mend my past posture.