[Post 63] Snowboarding.

I prefer winter season than the summer, because I hate sweating. However, aside from this fact, there is the primary reason that I can enjoy the winter sports. I love winter sports such as snowboarding and skiing. Since I was 10 years old, I have ridden ski and snowboard. I believe that it is somewhat different from other sports. Whenever I am doing snowboarding, it gives me a sense of both thrill and pleasure. And it can be caused sweating, however, I can be cool by the wind while I ride a lift. Furthermore, I am able to enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery when I go up to the top. I cannot explain how marvelous it is. All of the ski or snowboard resorts are built up by cutting mountains, so the views should not be bad!! For this, I love winter season and snowboarding, too!

[Post 62] Christmas and New Year!!

After I came to the United States, I experienced a lot of cultural things that are different from Korean. There is huge difference in Christmas and New York among the United States and Korea. In the case of Korea, as I compared with Christmas and New Year's day, Christmas is more likly to a couple's day, but the New Year's day is a family union day. If I go around a popular street or a mall alone on the Christmas' eve, I should feel so lonely because there are a large number of couples in everywhere. Until last year, I always counted down the coming new year with all of my family members. On the other hand, the United States celebrate the holiday the other way as far as I knew. On the Christmas day, family members get together, and the New Year's eve, couples or friends get together to celebrate the New Year. When I  was in New York at the end of the last year, I spent the Christmas day with my family and aunt's family members. However, on the New Year's eve, I and my two sisters went to a party that was held by my cousin. There were huge number of people to greet the New Year with their friends or a girl/boy-friend. It is quite different culture between the United States and Korea, and I like both of them. I believe that I will go after the each culture at each place!

[Post 61] The Impressionist, Edouard Manet.

      Edouard Manet was born in 1832 from upper middle-class parents in Paris, France. When he first showed his interest in painting, his father denied supporting him; however, he was able to study art by the aid of his uncle, Charles Fournier. At the end, Manet became one of the well-known 19^th-century artists, connecting the gap between realism and impressionism. Realism is the artistic movement that pursued accuracy and facts, on the other hand, impressionists were freer to do their works in terms of using colors or brush strokes, and they were trying to break the regular rules. Manet showed works that broken from the canons of acceptable subject matter and stylistic treatment. However, at the same time, he was trying to draw a subject and treatment that he hoped would be acceptable to prevailing tastes. In many respects, Manet kept hanging on to his position in terms of exhibitions, or the drawing. He insisted that modern artists’ works should be exhibit at the Paris Salon, so he opposed to show his paintings at impressionist exhibitions. And even though, he was influenced by some of renowned impressionists, such as Claude Monet, or Berthe Morisot, he stuck to his own drawing style like using black, uncharacteristic of impressionist painting. In 1883 at the age of fifty one, Manet died with his achievements as an impressionist in 19^th- century.

[Post 60] MyThree Discourse Communities.

As people get older, they might experience variety kinds of environment, meet many people, and so on. For example, when we think about the first year of an elementary school, we basically belong to one community which is a school. Once we get involved in a school community, we usually make new friends and get to know what characteristics my friends have or which hobbies they have. We recognize that having a lot in common is much easy and fast way to make friends. This is what people now call a discourse community, and I have come under some kinds of discourse community. Korean language, baking, and baseball communities are what I get involved.

              First of all, Korean language, my first language, community is important to me, because I am a foreigner in this American society. So, I feel more comfortable, when I talk with friends in Korean. Since I came to the U.S.A, I have studied English and I am able to take academic courses in English. However, there sometimes have communication problems in English in terms of sharing emotion particularly. Moreover, if I would like to ensure something about official documents such as student visa, I might ask to Korean experts who are in the same community. Therefore, I consider that Korean language community is one of the important discourse communities.

             In addition, a community which is composed of people who like to bake is my other favorite community. By doing baking, I feel relax and, even more, I regain my mental security when I am oppressed by worry or feel bad. Accuracy is the most important point in order to success baking bread or cake, thus, I pay more attention to measure ingredients than to concern about something. Furthermore people easily take part in a baking community which has no limit in gender, race, age, or skills, and, at the same time, there are a lot of communities on the website which enable to access easily. Almost every people have to eat to live, so this community members share more broadened information which is related to our life than the other communities.

             At last, baseball community is also my favorite discourse community. I believe that sports have special ability to gather people, and moreover, it has strong power, if people cheer for a special team or a person. I am a fan of New York Yankees, so I have conversations with other fans through Internet, and share lots of information only with the team. Although I have problem with communicating in English at odd times, I may compensate this matter by knowing much about the team. Most sports fans are always welcome to someone who is interested in their team or a person. For those reason, I like to be a member of baseball discourse community.

             Those three sections are my favorite discourse communities, and I believe that belonging to some specific discourse community makes me profession in that field. In addition, the sense of belonging encourages people to get more interests and vitalize to their life. The more people get involved in discourse communities, the more they can improve the quality of their life.  

[Post 59] Profile: Bri Trader

Whenever I take the English course, I usually sit the same seat in every Tuesday and Thursday. And there is a young pretty blond girl next to me at all times. She is Bri Trader. When I was in the class, I don't have much time to talk with her, because this English course does not have much discussion with classmates. However, today I finally got a chance to talk with her to do profiling.

She was born in Alaska, 1991. She had lived in Alaska, Alabama, Utah, and finally she lives in Alabama again, because of her parents. Her parents are both computer engineer at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base. So she moved to this State and that State. Also, she has a one real brother and 1 step brother and sister.

She is a freshman in this semester as pre-nursing major, and she will graduate in 2014. After she graduates from a pre-nursing school, she would like to be a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Nurse which provides a high level of intensive care to premature infants. She likes taking care of people generally, but especially, she loves little babies, so she should be a good NICU Nurse.

Reminisce upon her school days, her favorite subject was English. She liked to read books as for fun, and she still love to read books. And when she was a student, she was one of the members of her school cheerleader. At the first few years, she and other members are cheerleading for school basketball and football player. After that, she practiced cheerleading for a contest and participated in several contests. She also used to do gymnastics, when she was young. 

She usually takes time to watch T.V or comedy movie with her cutie dogs, which are Bartok, Phoebe, and Baby Girl. She loves her pets, and at the same time, she likes comedy genre, such as Whip It, which has a power that makes many people to be happy and funny. Based on this, her favorite actress is Ellen Paige, who is a Canadian movie star. And she also likes to watch sports game, such as gymnastics or ice-skating.

 In terms of her inclination, she is somewhat combination that is both extrovert and introvert. If she knows someone, she might be talkative to them. On the other hand, if she never knows someone, she might be quite and introverted. Furthermore, unlike many southern Americans, she does not have religion, and rather than, she is an agno

[Post 58] What I learned...

Do you know how many papers students write in a semester? In academic students’ cases, they have to write at least one or two papers in a semester on average. And graduate students also should write one thesis in order to graduate. Moreover, graduates, who are looking forward a job, are required to write a resume and a letter of self-introduction. In these cases, if they have a writing skill, they might have done their job effectively and efficiently. Therefore, writing skill is one of the essential abilities to students. As I am one of academic students, I also have taken this English composition course, which enable me to learn how to write a literacy narrative, analyze a text, and write a compare and contrast paper.

At first, I learned about literacy narratives, which should include a well-told story, vivid detail, and some indication of the narrative’s significance. A well-told story means that the writer captures the readers’ interests and makes them keep reading. Vivid details are expressed by well-described circumstances, dialogue, and etc. And some indication of narrative’s significance is the purpose of the writing. When I wrote my literacy narrative, I was trying to describe well, write a dialogue between me and my mother. And I choose three people who made me to get interests in reading and wrote more detailed circumstances with them. Furthermore, I made an effort to write funny and entertaining essay. So, at the end, I made an interesting and well-explained literacy narrative.

In addition, analyzing a text was another writing skill that I learned. Analyzing a text means that interpretation it beyond what the text tells you directly. So, the key features of textual analysis are a summary of the text, attention to the context, a clear interpretation or judgment, and reasonable support for your conclusions. When I learned the textual analysis, the instructor showed us various kinds of advertisement. Ads were enough to know the analyzing a text, because they implied many different meanings in 30 seconds or a poster. Furthermore, I analyzed a sports drink, Gatorade, which was trying to attract men, because they used many of men as main characters find

At last, I got to know how to write a compare and contrast essay. Comparing and contrasting paper considers similarities and differences between two things. And there are two ways of comparing and contrasting, which are block and point-by-point method. In addition, using graph and images are good way to compare and contrast. Based on these information, I wrote a compare and contrast essay between two different kinds of sports drinks by using block method. I also searched some numerical information of them.

             I had learned those three types of writing skills in class. As I am an international student, composition is a pretty difficult part; however, I get to know how to write with effect. Furthermore, I like the method that I always had chance to write about what I learned before. I could practice it, noticed my weaknesses, and at the same time, made corrections. Therefore, I satisfy my English composition course, and I am looking forward to have more opportunities that I can learn other writing skills.

[Post 57] Profile: My cousin, Peter Chun.

Have you ever had luncheon with Rihanna? Many people are eager to see celebrities and look at photos of their daily lives while some people style themselves on their favorite celebrities all over the world. So, it is rarely happens that ordinary people get to meet celebrities in reality. However, one of my cousins, who works at a magazine publisher in New York, has luncheon or takes time with celebrities, such as Rihanna or Shakira at odd times. He is the man, Peter Chun.

      Mr. Chun was born to Korean parents in New Jersey in 1982, and he has one older brother. Since he was born, he has lived in the same state, New Jersey. He graduated from Rutgers University as Sociology major in 2004. After graduation, he was employed in a Consumer Marketing and Circulation department for Rolling Stone of Wenner Media. He also has been special interested in the music field, so he became a Managing Partner and Marketing Director for Base NYC as a sideline. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, and at the same time, he likes watching tightly-plotted movies and listening to the music of his favorite Korean singers, like 2NE1 or Seven by himself. 

      Wenner Media, where Mr. Chun works at, is a media company in the United States, and they own three popular magazines, "Rolling Stone", "Men's Journal", and "US Weekly." Rolling Stone has covered everything from music and popular culture to in-depth politics for more than forty years. The consumer marketing and circulation department of Wenner Media mainly manages the magazine subscriptions. In addition, another company, Base NYC, was launched in 2004, and it is an event planning and marketing firm. They host a party every Friday and special holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's Eve with live performances of celebrities or artists.

       Based on those his personal and company information, I asked him that "Do you get a sense of achievement through doing your job successfully?", and he said "Definitely. Otherwise, why do it?" When his Director compliments his work or when he has reached his goals, he feels good. Once he completes large projects there is relief to know not only that it has been completed but that he was able to do the job and meet his goals successfully. At the end of this question, he added "Achievement = growth of an individual."

           Carrying on the interview, I inquired about "Would you say that you have to communicate a lot with others to do your job successfully?", and he said "Yes." When he works as a consumer marketing and circulation employee, "part of my job is to communicate with a fulfillment house out in Iowa that handles all of our billing, renewing, customer service, and customer database." His department has to communicate with them at all times to make sure that they handling business efficiently and effectively. Since he is not working in the same office or even in the same state, he "must" communicate through e-mail and phone calls to make sure that everything is being handled correctly. Furthermore, as a party planner, communicating with his coworkers is necessary. The party can be only held by support of various departments such as a public relations or a guest-invitation. He emphasized that "it is very important to remain cordial with work peers so that work can get done in a beneficial manner."

      He is very detail-oriented in his field. A lot of his job is making sure that reports are correct and that he meets deadlines. He should "pay attention and look at his calendar to make sure everything is up-to-date" so that the workload does not pile up and gets completed in time. He also keeps tons of notes and has a checklist of jobs he needs to do so that he does not miss a step. In this context, he said that "being active on e-mails and copying right people on e-mails is also very important." He likes to organize and save his e-mails to make sure he can cover himself if any problems arise. Furthermore, as one of the alumni of Sociology, he is fairly analytic to human social activity. So he is magnanimous and quick to understand in a casual relationship. When I looked up his Facebook profile, he has more than one thousand friends on it. It is true that people can make a friend, who never knows each other, through the Facebook. However, I believe that he has kept contacting with his considerable number of Facebook friends in daily life.

      As I interviewed Mr. Chun, the quotation of Oprah Winfrey struck me that "Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." Mr. Chun always has done his job deligently in his day job, and he keeps thinking and managing his own business to upgrade the quality of his party. His continuous attention to his friends through both online and offline sticks his friends with him. These made what he is today, and simultaneously, these would make him a better future.