Life Changing Events

Barrack Obama depicted the life changing events of the 20th century in the American society by introducing Mary Ann Dixon’s life experiences in his president acceptance speech. She is a 106 years old lady who has lived through the two World Wars, the Great Depression, segregations, the death of J.F.K., Vietnam War, and so on. Obama illustrated her life in order to emphasize that his country and he can change this country and world. They have overcome the darkest times that the world has experienced.
I experienced the two life changing events in the U.S. I was staying in the U.S. during these two periods: One is Hurricane Katrina and the other is this presidential election. Therefore I could observe people’s states of mind and witness their miseries and hopes. I also saw them stand up again and keep going on.
In 2006, I earned my Master’s Degree in Troy University in Alabama. During my second month in the U.S., Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I experienced the gigantic hurricane in the fragile school dormitory alone, and it was one of the scariest moments of my life. My family and I had just experienced the collapse of my window shields a year ago back in Korea. I could empathize with the people of New Orleans. I did not know much about the government, but I saw a lot of volunteers who went a long way to the neighbor state. People collected everyday products such as canned foods, clothes, towels, soaps, and so on. Later I watched a documentary “When the Leves Broke,” and learned the government did not react to that disaster very well. On the contrary, the ordinary people were totally different. They acted very promptly and did go off to the ruins and helped with cleaning and reconstruction. I was deeply impressed and found out there is very good volunteering system in this country.
A few days ago I again witnessed another victory of the citizens of this country. I heard that the victory of this election began as a grassroots movement. People had watched the government’s errors and bad policies for years and had endured them. Finally their patience was over, and the rage exploded and erupted. People wanted to refresh the country like they had cleaned the debris from the hurricane in New Orleans. They started to take a giant step and succeeded to change the direction. I really wish that the new government will keep the direction it promised to the people for this country and my country.
A life changing event is a huge social happening that affects and changes people’s minds, philosophy, and lives. I joined two life changing events in the U.S. One was tragic, and the other was glorious. The honorable prospect I felt from these two events was that the subjects are people of the country. The people initiated the restoration and success of the election. The grassroots movement earned great successes in those two events. I really wish I can proudly tell my friends I witnessed these terrific events thirty years from now.

Princess Bari (Korean Folktale)

Retold by Soonju Ahn

Once upon a time, there lived a king in a peaceful kingdom Saam. He had a 16 year-old prince and wanted a perfect bride for him. There was a huge bride selection ceremony, and he finally found out the perfectly beautiful and wise young lady. When the king looked up his Shaman according to the custom, he heard a bad premonition from the shaman. If the prince married this year, he would have 7 daughters; otherwise he would have 3 sons. However, the prince fell in love with the beautiful lady; he did not listen to the shaman.
The prince soon became the king, and the queen began to deliver beautiful princesses. After sixth birth of princess, the young king was so mad that he had no prince. One day, the queen had a great dream about dragons in the palace. Since the dragon meant a boy, the king had a great expectation. But the seventh baby was also a girl. He was so angry that he gave a silly order to his servant to fling the baby away. Mother Queen was so upset and begged him, but he didn’t listen. She begged him for that she could just give the poor baby a name at least. The furious king merely allowed it. The Mom named her “Bari”, which meant the “abandoned one (in Korean, 버리다)”. A loyal servant of the king put the poor baby in a sturdy chest and floated it on the river. All of a sudden a golden turtle appeared from the sea and carried the chest to a kindhearted old couple. They took care of the little baby very well.
When Bari turned to 15, the King became very sick. No doctor could cure him. His health became worse, and the whole country was very concerned about him. One night, a messenger in blue attire from Buddha came to visit queen’s dream and told her that the king was cursed because he threw the precious gift from the heaven away. The only way to cure him is that one of his daughters should go to find ambrosia in the deep mountain of the far west.
The king regretted his absurdness, but it was too late. The king and the queen asked if any of their daughters would go to the far west. But their daughters were selfish and cared about only themselves. No one would volunteer. One day the loyal servant thought about the King’s long lost daughter and tried every way to find her. Finally, he found the beautiful Bari who lived with the old couples.
After listening to the whole story from the servant, angelic-hearted Bari soon agreed to go to the far west to find out the Ambrosia. Her parents were so grateful and ashamed of themselves. They didn’t know how to reward this favor, but Bari told them that having her in mother’s womb for 9 months and giving her a life was enough reward for her. Bari disguised her as a boy and off she went to the far- far- away land.
Bari had to go through a lot of ordeal to go to the far west. She was almost killed by an avalanche, went near the world of the dead, and met The Sangje, who is the owner of the underworld. Finally, with the help of Sangje, she arrived at the mountain of the far west, but there was a scary guardian hermit in front of the shrine. He gave Bari 3 conditions for the ambrosia; that she had to cut woods for him for 3 years, light the fireplace for 3 years, and ladle the water from the well for 3 year. When she finally accomplished all the tasks, the guardian hermit figured out she is not he. He was furious of the lie and gave her another condition; married him and gave him 7 sons. After another 9 years, Bari gave him 7 sons and begged him to give her the ambrosia. The guardian hermit finally gave her the ambrosia and the other plants for her parents, but he couldn’t let go of her by herself because he fell in love with her so deeply. Bari went back to her homeland along with her husband and 7 sons.
When she went near the castle of her father, she saw an array of a funeral. It was her father’s memorial service. He didn’t make it until she came back. Bari approached the casket and opened it. She poured the ambrosia in his mouth and put the plants on his eyes. Soon the king resurrected from his coffin. Everybody in the country sang the song of heroic journey of Bari.
The king was so glad and asked Bari to make any wishes. He even suggested that he would give her the throne, but she refused it. After decades’ experiences, she became psychic, she could see the both worlds, so she asked to her father that she wanted to be a guardian of the dead people and advocate for them not to go to the hell or mitigate their penalties in front of the Sangje. Since then she became the godmother of the entire shamans. Every shaman in the country sang her song at the end of their ritual ceremony because they believed that her name guaranteed the connection to the underworld. She endured the ordeal and finally became what she wanted to be.

Picture url:

http://review.empas.com/img/org/8416524/desc/1/1/0

In English education, technological support is absolutely supportive in Korea. No other subjects have CD-Rom title for teachers and students, and audio tapes. There is an online self-study website, and vocabulary learning site is added last year. The ministry of education is working on a new English website for comprehensive learners right now. There is even English education public channel (EBS English, Educational Broadcasting System English). However in the practical class, there are times when those fancy websites and materials are not sufficient. I like to make special PPT for my students. When I need image file, I usually look up the Google image search. There are countless picture filed posted. Then if I need movie clips or audio files, I access to You Tube. If I type the proper word, I can find various kinds of materials. Funny junk dot com is one of those sites, but it is not precisely ESL learning website. There are many kinds of interesting items in it such as funny pictures, movie clips that are captured from Google and You Tube, puzzles, etc.

If we need some interesting pictures and movie clips to motivate and stimulate students, this site is very helpful. There are lots of authentic discourses and audio files in it. They are categorized according to the topics such as animals, news, pranks, sports, etc.
You should, however, be discrete to use the materials in this site. Some contents are not appropriate for young learners. To introduce the site directly to students is not recommended. For instance, there are lots of games in this site. Some games are very addictive. Even I was sidetracked for half an hour while I was searching for the information. If any young learner is distracted with unsuitable contents, the fortes of the good site will be diminished. The teachers need to modify the contents fit to the purpose of the lesson. For example, in lesson six of grade 3 text book in Korea, students learn how to count the number of animals. The movie clip, “Puppy Time” is very useful for the activity. There are several different numbers of puppies in the movie, and they are all very adorable. Students will love it and fully engage in the class.
There are also flash movies. These movies are good for teaching American Culture. Children love cartoons and animated movies. The flash file, “This is Halloween” is good for teaching the famous holiday. After teaching some distinctive features, I can use the flash movie as post-listening activity.
Selecting good materials out of zillion contents is a crucial skill for teacher these days. Fascinating students with old fashioned way is very difficult. Now, it is time to speak in their language.

Reviewing BBC Learning English

BBC Learning English is one of the vast and the well-organized English learning website present by BBC. The British Broadcasting Corporation also well known as BBC is a UK based Broadcasting Corporation. They provide quality English learning tool free of charge. There are tremendous reading and listening materials. The levels of materials are abundant from basic to advance level. Learners can acquire British English by experiencing different types of activities along with the sections listed on the left; business English, news English, Watch & Listen, Grammar & Vocabulary, etc. Topics are also various. Learners can select the program according to their learning style and goals. Let me introduce some brilliant programs.
1. The teacher
This is a movie program that teaches idioms, learners can study three idioms watching simple movies, practice using them and post them online. Online teacher gives homework for the learners for a certain period of time. For teacher’s sake, we can download the movie and script in pdf file version to use in the classroom. For advanced leveled learners, the teacher challenges them to pick their own idioms, make them scripts by themselves, and even create audio files.
2. Quizzes
Young learners tend to prefer games to other activities. For those who like soccer game, BBC provides simple quiz that helps improve vocabulary while answering the reading text. Throughout the activity, learners can improve reading skills and vocabulary. There are crosswords, golf game, and quiz game.
3. Learning Blog
BBC offers blogs for teacher and students. Learners from all over the world can communicate with each other. They succeed to assemble the most interactive learning environment. Learners posted their opinion, trivia, travel journal, or any topic that can think of. This blog gives an insight for organizing an educational blog for me along with Mrs. Siebert’s recommendation.

Korean government and some rich city office of education also try to develop free English website and improve public English Education system। Some website is so popular that the website is busy with traffic frequently। I think BBC learning English can be a good model for planners who want to design ESL/EFL learning website because it considers learners’ level, tastes, needs, and learning style

Experiencing Rosetta Stone Program

Recently I happened to see the commercial for Rosetta stone। The famous Olympics gold medalist, Michael Phelps was advertizing Chinese language learning program। He said that Rosetta stone was the fastest language learning program। After I had access the website, the narrator in the demo program explained the concept of the program। He said that in order to accelerate the language learning, the program combined five different skills; images, intuition, interactivity, instruction, and immersion. This program seems to fulfill the needs of beginning learner of the target language. Throughout the pattern drills, learners will quickly catch the basic vocabulary and simple sentences.
In the program, I could practice simple Turkish words and sentences such as a boy, a girl, a man, a woman, and read. It did not begin with Turkish Alphabet. They taught the words right from the beginning. I could see the pictures that introduced the words. This program was not kind because there was no translation, which was described as immersion. Although they did not explicitly explain the meaning of the words or sentences, I could understand the meaning of written and spoken Turkish. The pictures were associated with the words. These small language fragments were soon extended to sentences after a few repetitive drills. If the learners have certain level of intelligence, they could easily follow the procedure without losing the right track.
The program strictly follows the Natural Language Approach. Babies start to learn from listening at first. They keep listening repetitively until they can associate the words and the visual images they see around them. More than a year later, they finally begin to produce the words. The Rosetta stone follow the same path. From simple words that are connected to pictures soon develop to complex sentences by spiral learning approach. Learners can build linguistic features of target language by connecting to the familiar images that surround them.
In the demo program, I could not find the further detail because they did not show the advanced version. However, learners seem to record or listen to their own voices according to the advertisement. I had participated in designing an online English learning program before I came to the U.S. We tried to develop the interactive program that users can actively engage in the learning process. For instance, learners can create dialogues with computer voices, recording their own voices in the computer, listening to them, and typing in the blanks, etc. Even if it is a virtual reality, interactive environment is crucial in technology based learning situation. I wish I would get a chance to see main part of Rosetta stone.

My first formal entry. : )

I created this blog a few days ago. However, it was categorized as a spam blog. What a surprise!
I tried to figure out the reason, and saw my blog address back in Korea.
So my friends, please be careful when you post a website address in your blog. You could be categorized as a spam. ; )
Anyway it seems to be okay now.
Happy weekend~!