Korean Job Discussion Forums

[huck]

One of my Korean 10th grade students wrote this. The topic was "What inspires you to do well in school?", but I think she chose to be ironic and wrote this...Keep in mind that this was just for a weekly essay topic...To her, it's just a random, not-too-important assignment.


"The Unfiltered Universe

From the mixture of fluorescent lights, a peach figure falls apart and moves forward. A face, I guess, based on my experience that a circular object dangling about that height is usually a human face. Probably mine. But that�s all I can figure out. Although it continues to get closer, the figure still remains at the no-more-than-a-pinky-bouncy-volleyball state. As I walk further toward the mirror, the volleyball gets carved into a facelike lump. I see two dark brown spots, which must be my irises. Yet outer white parts disappear, since their color blots with the lamp light. As if I am examining an unfinished piece of oil painting, I barely distinguish the nose and the mouth solely depending on the subtle change of colors. Usually the lips are much redder, but this time I can hardly recognize its pale tint. The eyebrows are nearly erased by the other parts of my face, magnified by the fatal flaw shared by my both eyes.

Surely I am not only myopic but also astigmatic. Since I was approximately 10, my eyes have been handcuffed by two menacing pieces of glass. I do want their freedom, but without the glasses, they will soon be deceived by the mischief of fake afterimages. So I always have to make a big fuss every morning to find my glasses to fix my impaired sight. As soon as I wear them, they mechanically start to fix the vibrating images I initially get. Although I often try to remember how the world seemed to me before wearing the glasses, my memory only comes up with a bunch of smudged, blurry images. But still I sometimes make some vain attempts to get a clear view of the surroundings without my glasses, trying to analyze the mystified world and the real one.

When I am off with my glasses, all images seem to vibrate, as if they are snapshots caught the air around a tuning fork that never allows me to grasp the definite form of surroundings. Those soft, roundabout images are so indirect that they often make me feel a little dizzy, but they are not as acerbic as those from the real world. Besides, they are artistically beautiful. For instance, every source of light transforms into a bouquet of yellowish flower buds. The only difference is how many buds each source contains. The full moon approximately has at least five buds while a street lamp has only one. Then those buds mingle with each other to form a bigger halo, making my eyes watery.

Although I already have made several mistakes�such as tumbling downstairs from an eighteen-step high staircase�without the surveillance of the glasses, I still like unfiltered sights, which are more flexible in interpretation. Although week eyesight is often regarded as defective, mine actually complements the fixed one by moderating its stubbornness, providing another viewpoint to see the world. In my unfiltered paradise, I feel generous enough to laugh at flaws and weaknesses embedded in me."

You can sense that's it's not a native speaker, but I'm still impressed.

[Ya-ta Boy]

That was good. I'm glad you posted it. I was thinking about posting something about this topic as well, so I'll add my example here.

I teach at a school with only adults--soldiers. At the end of our semester, each group of 10 have to put on a skit for the school. Last week was the end of my second semester here, so I've seen 20 of these skits and each one has had at least one thing that was special. I'll tell about one scene from one skit last week as my example of creativity.

The Race for Lunch

(The overall story is about their day at school. This scene involves the hurried daily rush to another building for lunch.)

The MC announced the scene and two students came out, sat on the right side of the stage and began talking like TV sports announcers. On the screen behind them came up a picture of the school and the road to the cafeteria.

While they were talking exactly like sports geeks, in slow motion 5 students came on stage, 'running'. As they came to the center of the stage, different students took the lead, then there was a 'stop action' shot while the commentators rattled on. On signal, the 'runners' started running in place, completely synchronized. A moment later, one commentator said, "Let's look at this from Camera 2", and the runners swung around so they were in precisely the same position, arms and legs still synchronized, but we were looking at them from the front. (Those years of close-order marching drill really paid off). Then the 'camera' went back to Camera 1 and the original 'angle'. Then came the 'high angle' view as the runners laid down on one side and continued to run while we saw the tops of their heads.

It was imaginative and extremely well-done. That group won 1st Prize.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Given the overwhelming number of bash Korea threads, I think this one deserves a chance to survive: BUMP

[SHANE02]

yeah, Korean students can be very creative. My class of elementary kids are, that's for sure. They know creativity and originality is valued in our class, and that it will get them along way in the future.

We've done films where they do everything through to filming.

I find they just need time, enthusiasm, and something to light a spark in their imaginations.