America Education and Korea Education

By Gabi Kim

             What do you think about a high school education in own country? Each country has unlike methods to educate students, yet they have a same purpose to educate. I want to discuss about the high school education between Korea and the USA. Education in Korea and education in the USA have some similarities, but there are many distinct differences. First of all, two countries have mutually alike things. Both are similar class size in school. Each class has 30-40 students in one class. Not only Korea students but also the USA students go to school by school bus, foot, and parent’s car for transportation. Mathematics, Sciences, social studies and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects in Korea, likewise in the USA. Especially, both have a sex education subject in school, but school in Korea take a sex education class once a month. In the other hand, they are mutually dissimilar each other. First, most high schools in Korea start at 7 a.m. and finish 11 p.m., while schools in America start at 8 a.m. and finish 3 p.m. From 7 am to 6 pm, we take regular class and then we study whatever we want until 11 pm. When I was high school student, I usually couldn’t meet my father in home because I arrive in the home almost midnight while father is sleeping. In contrast, students in the USA do variety activities after school. Second, all of students in Korea must wear uniform although only private high school in the USA wear a uniform. In Korea, people think that students who wear uniform look neat and efficient. Third, teaching methods in Korea is different from the USA teaching methods. Most of classes go along by teacher’s unilateral explaining and that effect on restrict student’s creative thinking. However, the USA classes are leaded by discussion or presentation. Students usually talk their idea and share their opinion with classmates. This teaching method makes independent thinking, so I think teaching methods in Korea need to renovate. Finally, rules in school are strict in Korea, but, in the USA, school doesn’t care about too much. In my case, my school has really strict regulations; I couldn’t wear colorful outers, bags, and shoes. Only black and white colors are allowed to our school. Not only accessories but also hair length was limited, so we couldn’t let our hair grow long. We could grow only three centimeters under ears. Besides, we couldn’t bring our cell phone and we couldn’t date with someone in school. As you can see, there are many differences between them. For these reasons, many students go abroad for studying because they don’t like Korean education policy such as cramming education, the high costs of private tutoring and the competitive atmosphere in schools. Education in South Korea is viewed as being crucial for success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. In conclusion, I prefer the USA education to Korea education, so I am satisfied with this education style in USA. 

Dream, and be dream!

Dream, and be dream!

 by Gabi

 

    When I was much younger, my parents always asked me what my dream was. Looking back, I had several dreams such as a president, professor, and teacher. Unfortunately, as I growing up, I start to notice my dream is hard to get. However, at least I tried to achieve my goal by acting I am already there. That is what I want to tell you. Some people are still trying to reach their goal. Obviously, they who are still trying to get their dream can success more easily than others who expect that their dream would come true someday. I believe if we have a dream or vision and try to achieve their dream or vision, we can finally get there.

     Everybody wants to success and be happy. Some people make a goal and keep trying to reach. On the other hand, the others give up before trying because they can’t trust themselves abilities. However, I changed after receiving book about dreams. When I set my dream, I tried to make it large and specific. If I have a large dream, I would feel huge accomplishment after I get there. Unless I reach to my goal, I would be almost there.

   There is another important point about dreams. We should continue to try to achieve that dream with strong mind. Whether my dreams can come true or not is unnecessary. Process of trying to make my plan and my guide towards my goal is already valuable things even if there are sacrifices. Additionally, it is true that only ready person give chances to success, for unready person will miss good chances because of their poor abilities. As a result, it is important to believe that I can do it and keep going without stop.

    Each person has different dreams. There are dreams would come true or looks like would not come true. For these reasons, many people frustrate because of differences between reality and dream. However, it is better to have hope for dream than satisfy normal life. In my opinion, wherever I am, whatever I do, and how old I am, dream is necessary to success, and from my experience, I strongly suggest that don’t stop to reach your dream no matter how hard is, just keeping this spirit forever in your mind to reach your amazing dream.

How to lose my weight effectively

How to lose my weight effectively

By Gabi

             How to lose weight effectively? Maybe this question is never ending for women. If someone is ready to lose weight, but doesn’t know how to do, so I will give information about a diet. We can make a few "painless" changes that will help us eat less, eat smarter, and lose weight including being clear on one’s personal goal and plan, control eating food, and doing exercise.

              The first thing to do is to be clear about goals and plan. We need to know what our ideal weight is, the weight that would make us truly happy. It should be clear we would like to have reached such as exact number of weight and date. Also, planning helps to build new habits and it includes discipline, so that takes effort to be successful in long-term weight management. It is better to make a specific plan, but that is not huge changes because huge changes will make us revert to our old habits, so we can give up early. Make clear goals and plan brings out good results for us, so we will never want to the back.

The next thing to do is to eat wisely through controlling appetite. We should eat breakfast always. Skipping this important morning meal can lead to an out of control afternoon appetite, oversized portions, and overeating, even later on into the night. Plus, going too long without eating may cause our metabolism to slow down. Moreover, drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated. When we are thirsty, it can easily be mistaken for hunger, so we could be reach for food when we are actually thirsty. I recommend drinking water before we feel thirsty since it can prevent from overeating. To control our appetite could be a perfect way to lose our weight.

Finally, to do exercise consistently is also helpful to diet. Exercise is essential for anyone who wants to know how to lose weight. Whenever we have time for rest, just move more than usual to burn our calories and fat. For instance, aerobics classes, running, walking, swimming and cycling will all improve our fitness levels. In addition, find exercise in our life like use the stairs instead of the lift, or get off the bus a stop before the usual one and walk the rest of the way. However, not only aerobic exercise but also muscle exercise is important to lose weight effectively. Adding muscle to our body increases our metabolism which helps to burn fat; consequently, we need to do both exercise continuously.

If we are desperately trying to lose weight, we should follow rules such as make a plan, control eating, and exercise consistently. There is no easy or magic way to lose weight quickly in a healthy way. Having a positive attitude during a diet is very important for successful weight loss and weight management; therefore, all we need to do is drop some bad habits and adapt new, healthy ones.

 



baby boys born more than baby girls

by Satoko

I heard good news today that my boyfriend's friend is going to have a baby girl! I was glad to hear the good news, and he told me an interesting thing about birth rate. He said that there are baby boys born than baby girls. A rate is boys:girls=105:100 in U.S., which means that there are 205 pregnant mothers, then 105 mothers have a baby boy, and 100 mothers have a baby girl.He made a joke that boys fight and die more often, that's why boys born more than girls. I was curious about this different babies sex ratio, so I searched on the Internet. I found "Human sex ratio" on the wikipedia, right side of chart is example of babies sex ratio. This chart state difference of boys born rate compare to girls born,and each countries girls born rate are always 1.00. From this chart there are no country boys born less than 1.00, which means boys born more than girls. In addition, China is the highest rate of baby boys born in the world. This is also my boyfriend's friend mentioned,too. He said that there are only one child can raise in China, so after parents knew baby's sex, Chinese parents might want to keep a boy more than a girl, so  some Chinese government decide not to check baby's sex before a baby born. This is because, if baby boys born rate increased more in China, it will be hard  for male to find a wife in the future.There are 2 numbers of baby boys in China, the data 1.13 is from 2011, and the another data 1.19 from 2010. By the way, I hope he will have a healthy baby girl.....

making a plan to reduce procrastination

Yilin from group B

What is your extension class? My class is fundamentals of Construction Costs, Estimating and Budgeting. It’s so hard because there are so many vocabularies I don’t know, like strikes, concrete, and carpenters. Also, the unit here use is totally different from my country. So I always feel dizzy having that class. And the final is hard to pass too… if I knew how difficult it is, I would have not chose it. So how about you guys? Did you have fun having extension class or you are same with me struggling with it?

But, I can think of this in another aspect. Maybe the class is not that hard as I aspect, and the reason I think it is hard is I will not study them until the last minute. This is really not a good habit. Technically, this called procrastination. Procrastination is a popular word for many people are struggling with it and trying to get rid of it. Procrastination will reduce our efficiency and delay the work. More important, it will lack our willpower and confidence.

In my opinion, the best way to reduce procrastination is to make a daily schedule. It is really helpful to plan our daily life in perfect order. No matter how many assignments you need to finish, like what to do, when to meet, and which movie to watch, you can write these plans down, and elide each assignment after finishing it. There are several notes while making plans. To summarize, I make a few points below:

1. Tell yourself your mental of study is very important, so be ready to study before actually planning on it.

2. Do not complete plans because in order to finish your schedule.

3. Do not fill your schedule full of assignments. This will reduce the efficiency of your study and also make you easily to get tired.

4. Properly entertainment is necessary.

This is a way to make short-term plan. I hope you enjoy your study and good luck~

My favorite restaurant, Asahi!

By Gabi!

One of my favorite foods is Japanese food like sushi and rolls, so I like to go to the Asahi restaurant which is located in Riverside CA. My friends who are lived in Riverside for one year recommended this restaurant, and many people who already have been there said it’s awesome.

When I went there the first time, there was a long waiting line in front of the restaurant, so I waited almost 1 hour. While I was waiting, I realized that the restaurant was really famous. All know for sure is this place is always stuffed full of many servers, guests, chefs, tables, and chairs, so the place is not enough to accept a lot of guest. However, maybe this reason makes the restaurant so popular. There is a little noisy because of crowds of people, but active and energetic mood is one of reasons I like a here.

 As soon as entering the restaurant, we can hear “welcome” in Japanese and people’s exclamation of surprising taste. Also, unique and fresh aroma tickles the nose and the wonderful smell from the kitchen makes my mouth water.

After ordering, the sashimi salad and a soup is served. The colorful sushi with little rice and variety kinds of rolls are amazing. The rainbow-colored food overpowers everybody. Moreover, the flavor is fantastic needless to say. The sushi is so tender it almost melts away in the mouth before chewing because of fresh fish .It feels like going to heaven. I never thought it would be awesome.

After knowing this flavor, nobody stops going there. The price is almost 20 dollars, but I have not regretted to pay a lot. Whenever I go there, I am impressive with the restaurant. This is the best restaurant I have ever been to. I extremely recommend going there!



Friendships From Other Cultures

by:Alya

Friendships From Other Cultures

            Having friends from other cultures is better than only having friends from own culture. Everyone knows that life has became more difficult, and that world has became more connected. For example, it is very easy to see people from other countries with different customs and traditions in one day. If the people do not have relations with other societies, they may do not knows how they can deal and connect with other people, which make them commit embarrassing situations. When someone has friendships from different countries, it may contribute to learning about new cultures and languages that will help to expand the circle of social relation, also to transfer of cultures and beliefs. In addition, making friendships from other countries is very important to understand and respect other communities. Also making friendships help people to know how their cultures were affected on their lifestyle. On the other hand, making friends from different societies have an influence to improving the future.

            First of all, making friendships from other countries will help people to learning new cultures and societies. For instance, when I came to United States, at English school, I met a lot of students from different nationalities, such as Brazilian, Turkish, Asian, and European. I was interested in learning about their societies and their way of  life. Moreover, they always asked me about my culture, and they thought my culture is very strange, and sometime they could not understand it. I am happy about that and I like anyone want to ask me, also I know and respect how they people interested to know and learn about other. In addition, if the people passion for learning about other cultures, they do not need to travel and go to watch, the easiest way to learn other communities is making foreign friendships. People will learn about many things such as, traditional food, clothes, and dancing. To illustrate this, I have friend from Brazil, she did not know anything about Arabic culture and I did not know anything about Brazilian culture too, so we always talk with each other and ask some interesting questions, also I invited her to try Arabic food and she like it a lot, and she invited me at her house which she live with American  family to spent Thanks Giving day with them, I went there and I ate turkey with them with some Brazilian dishes, and I brought with me Arabic coffee with dates. Also, there was old woman she was talking about that day and why they celebrate. We spent that day to exchange our experiences talking and asking. I enjoyed and it was beautiful experience to me. In short, making friendships from other countries  is very important to learning new cultures and communities that will help people to develop and expand their information.

            Making friendships from other societies is very beneficial to understand other cultures. All countries around the world have different ways and special ritual. The people who want to visit different society need to learn and understand about their customs and traditions, so as not to commit mistakes that make people feel embarrassed. For example, I always have an embarrassing situation with United States people, and I cannot shake hands with male that what I learned in my religion and my culture, but that very common and normal here which making me feel embarrassed when someone wants to shake my hands.  Because I have a lot of friends like my classmate and my teachers, they understand my culture and they became never shake my hand once again. Another example about how is making friendship important to understand other culture, According to Ezinearticles.com “in Thailand it is rude to enter a person’s house with your shoes on, and equally rude to cross your legs when sitting. Therefore, pointing your toes at someone." when I talked with some friends about that they were agree and they gave me reasons to understand that ideas. In summary, friendships from other countries are useful to understand and accommodate customs and traditions of others.

            Making friendships from other environments may affect to improve people's future. When people expanded social relations between them and other people that will help people to develop and change their life and future. They will learn many new languages and they will receive a lot of new skills. Through friendships people will change their look for the better, and will be able to distinguish between the kinds human beings, who is a good or bad person. In addition, making friendship from other countries is important to sharing experiences and expands knowledge; also people will learn principles of dialog and discussion. Moreover, they will learn how they respect the freedom and privacy of others. All these positive points will help people to be qualified to get a good position, able to carry responsibility, and they will have a successful future. To sum up, expand the circle of social relations, through making friends from different communities which will help to improve and develop the personality that may causes to a successful future.

            In conclusion, having friendships from other communities is very important than having  friendships from own country. Because of the openness and the spread of cultures

also the movement of people from country to country, It became important to configure the new social relations of different countries and communities. making friendships from other countries will help the people to learn more about other societies that it will help people to development of knowledge, beside that making friendships will contribute to understand and absorb the lifestyle of other communities, which help people to respect other cultures. Finally, through making friendships that will be strong factor to change human thought, and it will makes a successful person and help people to improve their future.

           

San Diego

by:Alya

san Diego

　

I came to U.S on 21st March, I lived in San Diego for three months. This city has many beautiful places, I studied in down town . There is a active life. Most people in work in progress. San Diego has Trolley; you can go where you want. The weather is very nice. On weekends we went to beach , sometimes Coronado beach or Jolla beach . It’s a nice city. Also, there is old town , this place has many interesting things. In addition, there is lake that has many trees, ducks, and boats. In the lake, there are places for barbecue.

On

the other hand, San Diego is bigger than Riverside. There are many places for shopping. It has Fashion valley mall, outlet, and Mission valley mall. Also, there are Zoo and Sea world. This place is very nice. Finally, if you like plant or flowers you should visit Balboa park, it has beautiful gardens , so San Diego is best enjoyed outside, and it has beautiful beaches.

Half Price Tuition

By hoon

Today, Republic of Korea’s president is ‘Myung Bak Lee’. Before he is president, one of his election pledges becomes really hot issue. It is about university tuition, we commonly called ‘half price tuition’. Actually in Korea, a person's educational background is all-important, so it is really sensitive problem. Of course Duty education is until high school. Because we have stereotype and thinking is very poor, it is difficult to live without a bachelor’s degree. These election pledges have a lot of problems. That is spontaneous and unplanned. Even candidate had lied. For election, they said that kind of lie. They just thought time will resolve the dispute. Because private university has serious corruption, this problem is going up. They still are investigated about their finance. However mostly Korean know they involved a lot of corruption. Most of funny thing is that it was president’s election pledges and government should resolve that problem. But whole people’s target is only private university. Of course private university make it clear that their finance. Actually thay already have used tuition to wrong way. I know they need to government’s help. Anyway because of university’s corruption, they should resolve this problem. However president and his party have a duty. They evoked this issue. That’s why they need to suggest an althernative.

Leaving Riverside

by.Jenny

             (In airplan, when I was coming to U.S.(on Dec.31) 

 I will leave Riverside on June 18, 2011. I have been here since Dec.31.2010. It’s almost 6 months. After leaving Riverside, I’m going to travel some of big cities in U.S. like a New York, Washington D.C, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and San Antonio. It will take about 1 month. I’m looking forward to traveling. After then, I will go back to Korea.

While I’m staying Riverside, I always wanted go back to Korea. That is because I’m really getting fat, and I have a skin trouble in here. Also, I missed my family, and my friends in Korea. I think I had a home sickness at that time. I thought Riverside is boring.

 However, I like California because weather is good, and Sunset is really nice. It has many colors at the same time. Palm trees are also nice. It is not common in Korea. In addition, I could experience many things like American cultures. There are a lot of differences between Korea and U.S. For example, people never wear shoes inside the houses in Korea. Also, I could learn about American circumstance, and it will be helpful for me. Moreover, I could travel many cities in California. I have been San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and Los Angeles. Each city has different charming points. I will never forget about my trips.

 Above all, I could make many foreign friends!!! The reason I’m sad now is my friends. I went shopping, ate some foods, studied together, and hung out with foreign friends, but it is hard to meet again after I go back to Korea. Making foreign friends is not possible in Korea. It’s precious memory which is with a lot of friends in Riverside. I really want to meet my friends again. (Also, I will miss my 543 classmates. You guys are always kind to me. Thanks to you guys.J Please keep contacting me.) I hope I can visit Riverside again.

Is It Possible?

By: Turki

We used to think about some imaginary thoughts in our early life. I think most of children (including ourselves when we were at that time)think about the flying cars, also the movies sometimes borrow that imaginary ideas from kids minds, and implement it in their scenes. However, nowadays we witness much of very fast developments and unbelievable things that appear in the market every day. There are different kinds of video games that we never thought it will appear and show up. There also that cars that can move in either water or the land, there are cars that try to reach to the plane speed; in fact, they are not normal cars, you will never see in the roads because they are experimental cars, so it is there. In addition to that, look at the computer and the level of development it reaches, and the applications that concern the high tech computers in different ways i.e; in the cars, in hospital for curing applications, in observing either the astronomers or the what is happening underground. My question now in respect to all the facts that I drew before; can we see the flying cars one day???

Life's Priorities

By: Turki

It is really an important thing to prioritize your life. Many people do not know even what " priority" means? In fact, it is so easy to scatter your life and make it mess, but making it well organized requires you to understand the different responsibilities that lay on your shoulder. Also, it requires you to identify the most important actions that you need to do first. This is exactly what we mean when we say "prioritize your life".

Consequently, this will help to understand and classify your life actions; moreover, you can save a lot of time if you order your life in a regular basis till it become a habit in your life. Furthermore, it is really recommended to learn your family who acquire this kind of skill. Yes I can call skill since it needs you to learn more about its techniques, and I know there some short courses that help in gaining this skill.

The influence of music on our conscience.

by Diana
Well, Today I would like to talk about music and its huge role in our lives. My stance that the music is the strongest power, which can influence people in a greatest way! Music is one of the most gorgeous forms of art, which has been ever created. It can influence on our conscience in many different ways. For instance, it can create the mood of a person, it can help people to relax, to handle a hard situation, or just have fun in the case of the party. Anyway, without the music people's lives would be boring and lack of creativity. Just let's imagine there is no music in our world! What are we going to do if we feel sad or exciting? How many masterpieces of art and literature would never see the light of the world! Moreover, for some people music is the only way to express themselves. Let me give you an example, Beethoven in the end of his life when he was totally deaf, music, and to be more specific the ability to create it, helped him to keep leaving;moreover, he created one of his greatest masterpieces as Moonlight Sonata. However, for ordinary people, music is just the way to relax, have a good time or just take a break and think about important things because good music is usually touches the deepest and the most sensitive parts of our soul and heart. Also, music can be very helpful in the process of learning foreign language. For example, listening to it, people learn how to pronounce some words, get used to that language and which is important, the become acquainted to that culture because music usually the best representative of the specific culture.
In conclusion, it must be said that the music is the art of sounds which will be actual in any generation and in any historical period of time.