There are plenty of ways to study English and various studying materials to help improve our English skills. Needless to say, English has been the global language and people want to study it with a little effort and maximize the output with much efficiency. Therefore, I would like to introduce my experiences of learning the language and suggest the efficient methods, I think, in this essay.
We all want to find Mr. and Mrs. Right when we decide to marry, because getting married is an important step in our life as individuals and also it is a meaningful action in our community as members of society. Then, what kind of values can we think of in the marriage? And what makes our marital status more stable and solid? I will talk about these wonders and try to find the answers now.I think one of the most important things in marriage is trust, which is based on the love between husbands and wives. Men and women have lived in different environment where we have different culture, different parents, and different background, etc.
24 Oct. 2003(Gender, Communication, and Culture JULIA T. WOOD)Feminine and MasculineBy Ko, Mi KyoungMen and women are clearly different animals each other. They have reciprocal features physically and mentally. For example, left-brain functioning is more superior in men, while women have much right-brain oriented features than men. Also, feminine and masculine have different psychological process to operate certain work. We can observe these kinds of differences in our everyday life. First of all, the way of their communication is dissimilar, so unless people understand the communication style of opposite gender, they could be confused or felt unpleased.Let’s consider these more authentic. All of the Korean girls may have following experiences in their school age. That is “going to rest room together.” Grown ups also do this! We used to go there together and wait our friend finish their work like school or friendship custom. Such as “Wangtta” (bullyed girl) only go there by oneself. Even I have witnessed two girls go into same space! But boys never do. The reason feminine and masculine act differently is they have different social behaviors. To generalize feminine is dependent, synthetic, static and emotional on the other hand, masculine is independent, analytic, kinetic and rational. These classifications do not mean one gender is prior than another.Here is another example. I sometimes feel sorry from my boyfriend, because I think he is not as me. Frankly speaking, I would like to hear “lovely expressions” as frequently as possible to my boyfriend. And I always want to have real conversation that deals with sort of “how much he loves me”, or “I want to do that thing with you.” etc., but the actuality is different from my wish. I also know the reason he acts and speaks like that is not he doesn’t but he can’t. I think masculine only do conversation when there is a problem and they believe that woman should know their mind in spite of talking. Say this again, masculine is taciturn and feminine is expressive. To read this article, once again I could understand how masculine and feminine are different from each other. To have true and clear communication, we should study the opposite gender thoroughly. I think to learn about each other is another pleasure in life.
10 Oct. 2003(The Impact of Confucianism on Interpersonal Relationships and Communication Patterns in East Asia JUNE OCK YUM)The Impact of Confucianism on Linguistic Codes in KoreaBy Ko, Mi KyoungA few days ago Korean movie “Scandal” released and has been gaining in public favor these days. The movie with Chosun society has a true picture of that time’s usage. In Chosun period people had to discriminate the language using according to speakers and listeners. There were proper terms or expressions and linguistic codes, so women must say in a reverence manner to men except low-class people like servant, whatsoever those men are young or not. And women should observe the regulations that there is a distinction between men and women, for that reason they did not dare to speak roughly to men. As you know these are intense influences of Confucianism. And now I try to look into phases of Confucianism in contemporary Korean linguistic society, especially relate to women. The major injunction of Confucian ideas instructs that one always respect and obey one’s superior and extend every courtesy, for this reason people have had plenty of polite and honorific speeches. We tell words in conformity with the other party’s social status, profession, age or sex and so on. Especially women were disregarded, so that brings abasing words for women. We can find easily such expressions in proverbs or Chinese characters, for example, there is the saying, “암탉이 울면 집안이 망한다.”(amtalgi-ulmyun-jibani-manghanda);it means “woman make a family goes down” and another saying, “여자와 북어는 사흘 걸러 때려야 한다.”(yeojawa-bookoeneun-saheul-guleo-ttaryoeyahanda) means “women have to be punished as frequently as possible, so they become docile and good.” In Chinese character there are in no small quantities of bad or negative meaning letters that contains the letter女 :girl or woman, for instance, 奴:servant, 奸:crafty or 放:disturb.Confucianism has made our society members to be polite and loyal to seniors in some way, while it has occurred disregard and social hierarchy between men and women. Therefore we should understand our ancestor’s Confucian way of life before adopting certain notions or usages at present.
21 Nov., 2003(Intercultural communication in cognitive values: Americans and Koreans HO-MIN SOHN)The way of communication –Differences in eastern and western talking stylesWhen we met foreigners especially except Asians, the reason a communication is not reached to further stage is not because of the language fluency. I think this discontinuations is occurred from eastern people and westerners have different communication patterns And so, what kind of features do Koreans have when they are talking to foreigners and what skills do not we know?Most Korean people start a conversation with foreigners from asking one’s personal affairs such as a nationality, a profession and an age. The most frequent questions showed up in the very first conversation are “Hello, well… where are you from?” “What do you do?” “What’s your name?” We do not know to ask these sorts of stuffs are pretty impolite and enough to make foreigners perplex. The reason to perform this act is we belong to “High Context” society. We are used to sharing basic information as beginning a conversation. According to the partner’s age, profession and social status the way of communication should change. By partners, a subject or stem of a word must be different. For instance, we ought to use jeo or je instead of na and –hashinda or jumushinda instead of –handa or janda as the reverent style of language. So, notice of the other person’s age or social status beforehand, we could know what level of status we are and perform a proper speech. In this reason we often and without hesitating ask personal stuffs at first.Then, what should we do to carry a good conversation? The answer is to start a conversation from the outside of personal and individual things. Western people tent to communicate each other to start from general things, because of they are in “Low Context” society. To them, to know companion’s personal issues are the second steps, not the first main topic. If you are in a park, try to begin a conversation with general things or the situation based talks. Let me say, “How fresh air it is!” “The scenery is wonderful isn’t it?” Doing so, the foreigners friendly respond to our speaking and there is nobody to interrupt this natural approach. This tip is not a difficult or very complicated thing.The above I mentioned is very simple if we understand the other country’s cultural properties. It is not rude or culturally inferior when we ask strangers personal affairs. As you know this differences or misunderstandings occurred by cultural gap. To well informed of other societies natures we can have not only good conversation, but also deep relationships.