Blog Post #7 - Unit 9 (Languages)

Should Korea have more than one official language?

As time goes by, the importance of English is becoming bigger and bigger in Korea. Maybe almost Korean parents want their children to be fluent in foreign languages. So, some children start to learn English when they are very young. Even they go to a special kindergarten using only English in all process. So, several people say that English can be used as an official language in Korea. However, Korea does not need to have more than one official language because it can bring lots of problems in various parts.

The first reason why more official languages are not needed is that it may cause some social confusion. It includes diverse categories such as region, culture, or education. For example, Belgium use 3 official languages, which are French, German, and Dutch. Although Belgians are in same area, they are undergoing regional conflict and regionalism caused by respective language. Usually, people living in northern area use Dutch and others living in southern area use French. Although the government has tried the public to share their culture each other, they are still separated.

Another reason is that it can destroy the value and existence of Hangeul (Korean alphabet). Disappearing of aboriginal culture in Australia can be recognized as a similar case. Before the invasion of Britain, the aboriginal people made their life with their own way. They had their own language, culture and social system. However, the invaders tried to remove native culture from Aborigine after the aggression. The Aborigine could not use their language. Instead, they were forced to use English. As a result, the aboriginal culture in Australia faded away and now the Australia is trying to preserve the culture.

Furthermore, it leads to incur a lot of cost and take time. If Korea decides to have more than one official language, it will bring a situation that covers expense in many parts. In education and culture, money will be required to teach the new language to people and facilities in new official language will be needed. Moreover, it will take a long time to adapt to new word. Especially, the middle-aged and the elders will require more time than young people. While some people say that it is worth spending money and time socially and economically, it will cause great inconvenience for many people.

        In the cultural, social and economic respect, there is no reason that Korea should have more than one official language. Rather than having more official language, it will be better to find a way to preserve and develop Hangeul well.

Formal Essay #1 - Rewrites

Su Yun Kim

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

11 November 2015

Painter who Loved the Nature

             Alfred Sisley, the British man who painted the painting on page 3, was born and lived in France. He is a representative impressionist painter and was a friend of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He especially drew lots of landscapes as an impressionist painter. As a result, he left a lot of masterpieces that depict a glint of water and forest in nature mostly of Ile-de-France, the surrounding region around Paris. Although he wasn’t those kind of painters who makes showy color or draws anything special, I think his works are worthwhile because he expressed details and calm things of nature through his own way. Some impressionists praise his consistency in impressionism of how he focused on air, sky and landscape. And they say that he was hidden under his great friend, Monet, at the same time. So I will explain why his paintings have not seen the light compared with his friend in my view.

             As you can see in the title of View of Canal Saint-Martin, Paris, this painting is showing the view of Canal Saint-Martin in Paris during the winter time. Since he yearned for life of countryside, he usually used a rural scenery as the material of his paintings. But, exceptionally this one shows the city scenery. The Seine River flows quietly in the middle of the painting and there are also some bare trees and buildings. People are simply drawn as a black figures along the road and on the bridge. Even though this painting is about winter scenery, his idea of using the blue color makes the water stream and the clouds look softer and warmer. And more, he added the movement to the painting by using natural light and a short brush stroke. It helped making city scenery more tranquil like the atmosphere of the country.

             In my opinion, I think those materials in this painting reflect the reality of himself. For example, his characteristic or his financial conditions. Since the decline in wealth in 1870, he lost support from his father. That was when he completed this painting. So he had to live in poverty. Personally, I think that he and his painting were substantially affected by this financial condition. The background of this painting, which is the winter, reflects his financial condition. More specifically, clear sky, pure cloud and the river which mirrors them could be interpreted as the life he had looked for and desired while he was living in the destitution in reality. The second analysis is about his character. He was recognized as the quietest and gentlest man among the impressionists. I believe his equable temperament influenced on his painting techniques that he used. As the result, he drew only natural scenery and mostly of rural places.

             The reasons why I like his paintings are his unique peaceful mood, the color of pastel tones and sustained painting style. Also, these characteristics are the reasons for him being a representative impressionist artist. Surely, the best reason is the place he painted on this painting, the Canal Saint-Martin. Personally, I have a special memories of the place. When I lived in Paris as an exchange student, I used to have a stroll and enjoy the cool air with friends. It remains one of the best memories there for me. However, I wonder what if he has tried something different with his paintings. It is because I feel sorry that he has been undervalued and always been compared with Monet and Renoir, who were his friends and also contemporary artists. If he had tried something different like using not only the nature but various things as the material of his paintings, I think those would have been also another great works with different impressions. So, although the world consider him as one of the best impressionist painters, I recommend you to imagine how his works would be if he painted city scenery or weird thing that we can’t easily understand.

Blog Post #6 - Unit 8 (Innovations)

Discovery of Artemisinin

Have you heard about malaria? It is an infectious disease caused by mosquito. When a person is bitten, parasites in the mosquito’s saliva come into the person’s blood. Generally, it is concerned with poverty so that it especially appears in poor countries. It is one of the reasons that a million of people are dying in tropical developing nations. But, Dr. Tu Youyou, a Chinese medical scientist and pharmaceutical chemist, found out artemisinin used to treat malaria and it saved a lot of people suffering from malaria.

Her discovery is significant because it means an improvement of human health. For example, this substance has rescued numerous patients who contracted malaria in developing countries. Only in Africa, approximately 10 million people survive every year by the substance she discovered. Furthermore, it helps relieving their terrifying pain. After 10 or 15 days from biting, infected people usually can feel the symptoms of malaria such as fatigue, fever, headache, vomiting. In the severe case, it leads to yellow skin, seizures, coma and death. It means that patients can be free from the pain of malaria.

And her discovery is important car it promoted integrated traditional Chinese and modern western medicine. She found artemisinin from sweet wormwood, traditional medicinal herb in China. It is because she was very interested in chinese medicinal herbs. After her discovery, China has produced large amounts of it. Now, it results in that China has become the biggest producer and exporter of arteminisin. At first, she tried to find some information from Chinese classic literature 1600 years ago. And her idea that arteminisin can be extracted from sweet wormwood occurred to her mind from the ancient book. She failed it 190 times but succeed in 191th attempt.

Her discovery is regarded as an important detection and new direction of medicinal field. Her passion for medicine and chemistry became a great discovery. As a result, she was selected as first Chinese winner of Novel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015 in recognition of her service to the field.