I Know what you were doing every hour today

This is a personal records information in daily life
(This example of Mr.A who is a staff at National Human Rights Commission)

I Know What You Were Doing every hour today

Recently, thanks to CCTV, the criminal who attempted to take armored truck in Jongno, Seoul has arrested. The man who stole Choi Jinsil(최진실)’s urn also has caught by using CCTV.

CCTV which is set on streets, outer walls of buildings, side streets, offices and elevators puts a record of people who walk along there. CCTV is not the only one recording. It is surly recorded where you get on and off the bus or subway, when, where you go online, who do you talk on the phone with.

How much my records will have recorded from going to the office to leaving the office, get back to home then go to bed? Mr. A, who is a staff at National Human Rights Commission of Korea had examined his own daily “trace”. It is perfect enough so that it is able to reconstruct at interval of minute from as soon as he leaves home to get back to home.

Mr. A lives by himself for job. He travels from Gwangju which is his main house to Seoul on every Monday. On Monday 4 : 35 in the morning, his ‘track’ started to remain, calling a taxi by using cell phone. His face is taken as a picture in front of elevator and apartment complex, when he leaves home. Also, when he arrived at Gwangju station to take a train, his figure was remained on CCTV that is located in a gateway.

While he got off the Yongsan station, transfer to subway to go to City hall, and then he went into the office, his records was remained everywhere. After he arrived at the office and then when he accessed administration network and log on messenger or portal site, logon information was recorded. His own information has been recorded by CCTV about 200 times and his credit card number put record at 7-8 places until he went back to home.

The meantime, this kind of records has been kept in storage device independently, and it almost has been deleted when some periods has passed. CCTV images are digitized, however, it has been changing for storages devices to possible to access throughout network. Technology has developed that analyze CCTV images which put recorded at several places and then find some so that be able to reconstruct how to he or she has moved in every hour.

Personal records remained in everywhere of daily life are useful when we seize a criminal or find missing children. The problem is when we abuse it, it could be suppress a fact or be distort information beyond violation of human rights. Situation could be occurred such as the movie, Enemy Of The state, in reality. In this movie, there is a scene that information agency which killed a member of Congress for political reasons manipulates some records like CCTV images and push a citizen who has a storage device that recorded about the crime to a cliff to suppress a crime fact.

2009 Seoul Green Festival

2009 Riding a bicycle campaign
From 8:18am to 11:00am, on September 20








The event, 2009 Riding a Bicycle Campaign, will be held on September 20, 2009. Opening of the event will begin at 08:18 and it will finish at 11:00. Participants who ride a bicycle will drive by arranged course. Therefore, during that time, several traffic sections will be closed and controlled. So if someone wants to go to Ilsan or Shinchon by using KangByeon Buk road, they would pass by Olympic road or detour.






Specific controlled sections are the Mapo bridge ~ the Seo Kang bridge ~ the Yanghwa bridge and World Cup Park. Therefore cars or others can’t go.

A bicycle is one of the public transportation

Some incumbent assemblymen will participate in Green Festival. They also agree that riding a bicycle makes popular in our every life. One of the members, Kang said, “Our bicycles are not regarded as public transportation because it is limited to use for our health and everyday life. However, riding a bicycle is a great help to settle our environmental pollution and traffic problems.”
Kang also said, “The law, which was related to using a bicycle, was enacted in 1995. However, It is not pertinent to the present situation.” and “We are trying to promote suitable laws.”

Keep in mind following the rules

Prohibition of listening to something by earphone.
Participants will arrive in Kwang Hwa Moon Plaza, and they must put on a helmet.

This event is large-scale festival because about 5,000 people take part in this ceremony. Nothing is more important than making secure. So, the executive officer gives emphasis on safety and maintaining order. Also all participants have to go through H1N1 examination.

In addition, protection masks will be provided, so someone who shows H1N1 symptoms such as a high fever, she/he will be sent back to the hospital and can’t join in the race.

Because participant’s safety is important, the speed is restricted to 15 ~20 kilometers an hour here, and rider must maintain interval at least 1 meter. They can’t use cellular phone or MP3. And then, if emergency situation happens, they must let security guards know their emergency.

The destination is Seoul World Cup Stadium. Someone, who gets to their destination, receives a bicycle burglar alarm and a bottle of water which name is “Arisu”. In addition, Green Concert will begin at 10:30 . A lot of singers will play wonderful performance.



The government has been part of coping with the Climate Change because of global warming, and tries to accomplish their mission which is that protecting environment and reducing CO2 emissions. Therefore, they carry out bicycle campaign throughout the country.

* Comments

I really like to ride a bicycle. So, I want to participate in this festival. However, I didn’t apply for this event because I didn’t know how to register this race… It’s a great pity. I will be waiting for next year and certainly volunteer festival!

*Reference of this article:
http://bikenet.chosun.com/
http://tinyurl.com/momdeg
http://tinyurl.com/n2fxhm
http://tinyurl.com/nvwh7y

Communication Gap Induces A Tradegy

Two high school girls suicide themselves tying their hands and legs together with strings of sneakers because of endless teasing at school.

Last Saturday Choi and Cho, seventeen-year-old high school girls who were best friends kill themselves by jumping off the top of the building in Pyeong Taek. Directly after the incident, they moved to hospital, but both of them passed away on that day and Sunday evening.

The police said there is no written will, but they found two empty So-Ju bottles which they might they drink on the rooftop.

Before suiciding, Choi sent text message to her Mom many times.
" Please let me withraw from my school." " I'm really afraid of classmates. I don't want to go to school."

A recent investigation disclosed the fact that they had had an argument with classmates badly on last Thursday. One of their another classmate A said, " They would be left out in the cold.

It was far difficult for them to endure organized teasing, because they were too sensitive and introspective to reveal their feelings."

"Though her school record was not good, she had a good nature. If school had showed more interests in students' school life, this tradigy would not have happened." The bereaved family of Choi insisted.

In case of Choi, her family already visited school last semester to address a protest about teasing many times. The school side has started fact finding about Choi and Cho's school life. And police will inqury about it, if immediate cause of this suiciding reveals teasing.

The miracle of Jeju Olle ; honeymoon's coming again

A number of tourist is coming to Jeju more and more. It is so brisk as much as make a tourist record change continuously. According to the tourist association in Jeju, the number of tourist visited to Jeju until last month totaled up to 4, 456,201 people. Among this, it is 4,070,989 for
local people and 385,312 for foreigner. This is 74.3% of their goal, 6,000,000 peple in this year.

yoonjong Jung, the director of tourist association in Jejudo, said that Jeju had the special benefit thanks to a lot of tourist for last one month, which was over 90 percent untilization rate on the plane and ship, hotel and condominium, pension and rent-a-car etc.
The main reason for immensely visit to Jeju is to avoid a trip abroad because of swine flu.
And also, one of the main reasons is a walking tour named "Olle" in Jeju.
Many people want to walk the 250km walking course named Jeju Olle. The route was made by connecting the small path to village which has field, mountain, beach. Hanla tracking course becomes famous and Geomunorym in Hanla mountain was designated to natural inheritance in UNESCO for the first time.

Olle is a Jeju dialect which means a by-street from a main road to the house. Jeju Olle was made by Myungsuk Han who is a former worker in the press. She pioneered first the course of Siheung Sungsan Seogypo on September, 2007. Now, Olle has fifteen courses in Jeju.
"Jeju that we have seen until now was not a real Jeju. If we take one day in the course of Olle, we can have a history, nature, people in Jeju" she said.

A man made a round-the-world trip with just two dollars

(This photo shows the man who has been traveling around the world for about 8 years with two dollars.)

by Gyoun Goo

Can’t believe it? However, a Japanese man, Keichi Iwasaki, 36, has made his tremendous wish realized, traveling 37 countries for over 8 years. What is more amazing is that he had less than two dollars when he started to hit the pike.

While he was working for his father’s company, an air conditioner manufacturing co., something disconsolate came across his mind. That was about his plain future, working for the company until his death. Then, in April, 2001, he finally got his foot on the ladder to travel all over the world. Having less than two dollars in his hands, his voyage has never been easy.

For over 8 years, he has used five bikes wandering about 45,000 km. He performed a magic show in front of crowds and gathers some money for necessary expenses. However, he was sometimes in jeopardy of his life. Coupled with the abduction by pirates in Tibet, severe trials made him have an iron will. Surprisingly, he has not only kept his journey but also challenged the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest. As a result, now, he has become the first Japanese who conquered Mt. Everest without any means of transportation.


Nevertheless, he does not yet plan to put an end to his voyage for another five years. He will go back to Japan after he conquers his next destinations-America and Africa. His final goal is to publish a book about an account of his travels. “What made me continue traveling despite bitter trials was a strong will. It is will power that makes men achieve unattainable desires.” he said.

*Reference of this article:

http://news.mk.co.kr/outside/view.php?year=2009&no=480381

*For more information related to a round-the-world trip.

http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/

http://www.travelaroundtheworld.net/

Hangeul preserves minority tribes’ language

A minority tribe in Indonesia has chosen to use Hangeul as its official writing system to save their endangered native language. The tribe in question is on the island of Buton in southeastern Sulawesi. Last July, elementary and high school students in Bau-Bau, the largest city in Buton Island, begun to learn their spoken language by Hangeul.

“I am happy now because Jjia jjia culture won’ be lost.”

An elementary school teacher named Abidin, in Buton Island, Indonesia carefully wrote down Hangeul on the board and asked his fourth-grade students how to read it in its native language “Jjia jjia”. They answered in chorus, “I eat fish”

They know little about Korea which is located 3,500 miles away from their Island. Until a couple of months ago, none of them had met a Korean, and it is still difficult for them to locate the Korean Peninsula on the map. Buton Island, however, officially adopted Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, as their writing system and has been teaching it to students to maintain and preserve their native language which has no alphabets.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the story of ‘Hangeul Island’ saying that a tribe in Indonesia decided to use Hangeul to express their spoken language which is on the verge of extinction. It said that Koreans are extremely proud of Hangeul created by King Sejong and are planning to globalize it against Chinese characters and the Roman alphabet. They mainly target the ethnic minorities whose own languages have no writing system.

Textbooks were completed and distributed to them by linguists at Seoul National University. “They hope to preserve their language and culture” said Professor Lee Ho-young, who is leading this project.

One of the Hangeul scholars in the 1990s devised a Hangeul-based alphabet for Lahu, spoken by the tribe living in southern China and Southeast Asia but it was failed to be used.


Inhabitants of the Buton Island are not only using the Korean writing system but also hoping to upgrade cultural exchanges with Korea, one of Asia’s strong economies. Last November, officials in Bau-Bau, the largest city in Buton Island, visited Korea, looked into enterprises, and were initiated in the know-how of tourist development industry. Amirul Tamin, Bau-Bau’s mayor, dreams of building a Korean cultural center in Bau-Bau and exporting seaweeds produced in the waters around to Korea. “Korean companies may invest in Bau-Bau and start their business here” said Mr.
Tamin.

Here are luxury designs of memory!!

[an anchor]
When we choose things, the most important thing is design. The exhibition where we can see the past century history of Korea is held.
Jung-a Kim will report the news.

[a reporter]
A chubby baby model.
A woman model on the poster is the best-looking figure in those days.
every pack of cigarettes and match boxes are full of gusto.
There are one hundred things that enhance national design prestige during the past 100 years in korea.
TV with long legs and special appearances, It is so valuable that there is an opening and shutting door to hide.

[interview: Kwang-myung Choi, Banpo-dong]

"There was only one TV in a village when I was young. I tried to watch it every night in the neighbor's house....... Now my sensation is something out of the common."

A boy newspaper of laurel leaves. Gi-lim Kim's collection of poem by Li-sang designer looks like very cool even now.
'Radio A 501' that is the first electronic device seems like the beautiful curves of Korea too.

[interview: Am-jung Bank, a representative in a design museum] "It is difficult to sort whether the design of a certain thing is good or bad by only an age. There were a variety of design patterns after our mind."

The following might be 1920's picture. Ga-bun Bark who was a conspicuously popular star as a cover model to many women.
Also a lot of bags were made of communications-lines which the U.S. Armed Forces were using, and imitation bags appeared.
Even though those old design things are rubbish treatment, they were the best ones then.
The importance of design is the same for all ages

-YTN Jung-a Kim reporter-

Five Men Swept away by the Waves at the 임진river.

Last September 6, five men and two boys camped at the river, 임진강(Imgin river). When they slept in the tent, the river suddenly rose up and then they were swept away by the waves except for two people. Many people feel sorry for their misfortune when they heard the story of the accident.

Kim(36) camped at the 임진river with a party of six. They tented at the riverside and slept. Among these people, two people are elementary school students who are sons of two men.

In the dawn, Kim awoke because of the sound of flowing water, close at hand. And when he looked at the outside, he could hardly believe his eyes.

They were already isolated because the water rose up to the tent. Kim woke up his friends in a hurry and gave notice to the rescue party, 119. The river was rising gradually while they waited for the rescue party. They were so seized with fear that they decided to swim across the river to live.

Gangil Su(40), one of the people, put his son on a icebox and swam across the river about 30m while pushing the icebox. When he nearly arrived the riverside, however, his strength weakened.

He pushed his son out of the river with the utmost effort, and then he swept away by swift currents. The boy cried out to his father but he disappeared in the river.

Among these people, only two people could live.

This disaster reveals an error of the Korea Water Resources Development Corporation. A problem arose from North Korea. In the dawn, North Korea disembogued the 황강dam’s water into the river of South Korea without permission. Several hours later, the river became of a high water level. When this accident happened, alarm for escaping didn’t work because employees ignored the message about the warning. Alarm system used to malfunction, so they thought that the message is not important. According to the police, if the alarm had worked properly, victims might have had enough time for escaping from the river. So the police consider some employees, who work at the Korea Water Resources Development Corporation, as a critical cause of this disaster and they are preparing to request arrest warrants for them who ignored the working rules.

Actually, there were other people near the riverside. But they were rescued by the relief squad fortunately. The government is considering the possibility that North Korea applies the inundation tactics. But it said "We can't conclude the purpose of North Korea yet."

I’m very angry because we can prevent this disaster if we were more cautious. We always used to regret that we don’t give more attention and prepare the proper equipment after the accident happened. From now on, We have to never make the same mistake.

In September 13, the families of victims had a joint funeral ceremony at the hospital. Many celebrities visited there to console the families. I want to give them words of comfort sincerely.

There are some related articles and videos :

http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/376473.html
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/politics/defense/376244.html
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/politics/defense/376471.html
http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/nwdesk/article/2439505_2687.html

Is she really a HE? The women 800m world champion, Caster Semenya turned out to be a hermaphrodite.

Caster Semenya (18-year-old), the Berlin World Championships in Athletics for 800M Women Gold Medal List, who arisen sexual identity controversy recently, turned out to have both male and female organs.

Before the World Athletics Championships in Berlin where she won the gold medal in the women's 800-meter race, Semenya was given blood and chromosome tests as well as a physical examination last month. The tests determined she’s an hermaphrodite- having both characteristics of men and women.

She, South African champion, has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female. Her developed muscles, deep voice, and mannish appearance have arisen from this.

According to the IAAF, Semenya's dramatic improvement as a runner contributed to questions about her gender. After the race, defeated rivals alleged that she was a man. She has shaved eight seconds off her personal best time in the two-lap race in the past year.



In this connection,a spokesman of IAAF, Nick Davies, have announced,

"It's a medical issue. It's not an issue of cheating. We're more concerned for
the person not to make this something which is humiliating for her and something
which is going to affect her in a negative way.”

Also, IAAF will ask semenya an operation, because it would be fatal for her health if the bisexual conditions are maintained.

Meanwhile, Sporting officials in South Africa have reacted angrily to leaked gender tests on South African world champion runner Caster Semenya. The reaction came after newspapers in Australia and Britain reported the examination showed she had both male and female characteristics. Officials and South Africans in general expressed outrage over what they saw as an extreme violation of the 18 year-old woman's privacy.

The World Ground Sport Union claimed that there is a possibility that Semenya might lose obtained Gold Medal due to the result and it is highly likely that the Union will face a great friction with South Africa.

Similar cases have occurred in the past. But the South African public has been particularly incensed by the breach of confidentiality in this case and the pain it has caused the athlete's family which lives in an impoverished village in northeastern Limpopo Province.

Gastric cancer, fatal to the younger generation

[Anchor]
Recently, as the late talent Jang, Jin-young died from gastric cancer, an awakening of the cancer among the younger generation has been increased.

It is said that cancer is more fatal to young people.

In ‘Today Health 365’, we will ascertain the reason and precaution of cancers.
Even though the rate of the disease of the younger generation is lower than that of the older generation, once a young man is taken ill, a survival rate is very low.

This is the graph of breast cancer but a survival rate of the younger generation is 10% lower than that of old people.

How can we explain this fact?

Though there is no distinctive cause, in the scientific world they have paid attention to the fact that 침윤형 암(invasive cancer) is more common in the younger generation.

Its feature is that the spreading speed of invasive cancer is faster than other cancers and no sooner gets someone sick than it starts to spread. Also there is a presumption that because the younger generation is hard to check their body regularly, it is difficult to find a cancer in its early stages.

Normally salty food, drinking and smoking are called as three enemy of a cancer.

There is an assumption that young people do more active social activity resulting in more exposure to the three factors.

Especially, medical experts say that it is diet and smoking that most deadly factors of a cancer are.

According to a survey of National Cancer Information Center, food and smoking were at the top of causes of a cancer. On the other hand, drinking accounts for only 3% showing that if we abstain from heavy drinking, it is not a big factor to cause a cancer.

Cancer of the stomach is more dangerous because it is hard to distinguish it from a digestive trouble. Therefore, if there is stomach ache longer than two consecutive weeks, it is better to take a close medical examination. Also to consult about family history (가족력) or take a gene diagnosis in advance are a good way to prevent a cancer.

In this autumn, A horn comes out on a shoulder of women?

AUCTION prospects the fashion trend which is the shoulder of the women emphasized

◈ A woman wears a man? No.1 Power Shoulder Jacket
The expectation has been given that there is a horn (shape) on the women's shoulder meeting on roadsides in this autumn. This is analysis to say that the popularity of the women’s jacket which emphasized the male nature is big in this autumn. Online Market-Place AUCTION (www.aucion.co.kr) selects ‘Hit Fashion Items Best 5 in Autumn/Winter in 2009’ and ‘Power Shoulder Jacket’ (power shoulder: emphasizing the shoulder by putting a shoulder pad) selected as a No.1 of the most popular item in the latter half of the year.
It is exaggerated the upper part of the body through the feeling of volume by putting a pad in the shoulder and with a shirring decoration. So it is a point to wear with tight pants like skinny jeans or leggings.

◈ Stain patterns and slim legs, No.2 Stone-washing Skinny Jeans
By the popularity of the power shoulder, the skinny jeans wave which dealt the first half of this year seems to continue. The latter half of this year, it will be hit ‘Stone-washing skinny jeans’ which emphasizing washing.
‘Stone-washing skinny jeans’ is a characteristic which is patterns scattered freely like sprinkling paint. It becomes still darker at blue and black ton under the influence of the restoration fashion, and it emphasizes the clear color contrast and became much more daring.

◈ Hair accessory is splendorous, No.3 A Feather Hair-band
The palm size of the green, beige hair accessories displayed with a brown color feather come into the limelight as the new style which was not seen.

◈ Various colorful nails and hair, No.4 Self-nail & Self-dyed
Self-beauty products have been chosen one of the hit items. ‘Self nail-care packages’ and ‘Self hair-dyed products’ is gaining in popularity.

◈ The evolution of the gladiator shoes, No.5 Booties
If it is a characteristic that ‘gladiator shoes’ wrapped a foot with several big straps which caused popularity in the summer, it is a characteristic that ‘booties’ wrapped the whole the instep of a foot.
Except showing the tip of the toes a little as a open-toe-style, it covers up the whole foot impregnably and increased heaviness.

Jaebum leaves 2PM amid controversy

The Hankyoreh reports Korean idol group 2PM’s leader, Jaebum leaves 2PM because of his negative comments about Korea. But, Korean netizens are now putting up his more recent MySpace comments such as “I want to live in Korea a year longer. I want to be in my motherland as a Korean, not just a JYP trainee.”(Here’s a related article.) They are also saying that it is unfortunate this newer side of him. I am not a big fan of 2PM but I think it’s hypocritical. What if netizens found these comments earlier than other negative comments? Do you think people could forgive him and let him stay in Korea?

Popular idol group 2PM’s leader, Jaebum who has caused an outrage as captures of his negative comments on his personal website about Korea announced his resignation.

Jaebum posted a message on 2PM’s official fan cafe on 8th September, with the title to the post “This is Jaebum.” informing fans about his leaving of the group. He expressed his feeling out “I think it will be difficult for me to see you on stage because I am so sorry. I will be leaving 2PM as of today. I am so sorry because I have been a leader hyung who not only did not give vigor but became a burden.”

It was later discovered that Jaebum, a U.S. citizenship, posted Korean-offending messages on American networking website ‘MySpace’ between 2005 and 2007 while he was a trainee at JYP Entertainment. After that, it has caused an outrage. He wrote derogatory comments with curse words such as, “I hate Koreans. I wanna come back,” “Everyone thinks I’m like the illest rapper when I suck nuts at rapping.” Even if he posted a statement of apology immediately and left all TV programs where he was a regular member of the panel, netizens are still blaming him.

There are two different opinions among netizens. One is that “it is a natural result” and another is that “he is pitiful.” Jaebum left Korea on a flight at 6:30PM to be with his parents in U.S. for the time being.

*Here is a related article about Jaebum.

7th dead person by a new variety influenza occurrence

During one day, two old person passed away by being infected with a new variety influenza [A(H1N1)]. It shows that new variety influenza spread very fast.

A measure headquarters of influenza in the Ministry of Health and Welfare announces that 78 years old man who lived in Young-Nam region passed away by being infected with influenza. It seems that he usually had alcoholism, hardening of the liver, high blood pressure.

The ministry of health and welfare said that he showed having fever symptoms, so he was taken to emergency room. Nevertheless he was prescribed Tamiflu, his health became worse, and he passed away.

At the same time, another old man who lived in the national capital region was passed away by influenza.

With this, internal people passed away by influenza increase to seven. Especially, it was first time that during a day, the dead of plural number occur.

A measure headquarters asked that “The aged over 65 years old, a maturing late patient, pregnant women and children under 5 years old must come to a medical institution to be prescribed antiviral medicine, when a cough and having a fever appear. And, please do not trip abroad, hospital meeting and crowd gathering.”

Current Trend "취집"

"I'll get married because it's very difficult to get a job"

New trend "취집" has emerged (취 stands for 취업:getting a job, 집 stands for 시집: getting married).

Recently, the recession in Korea has changed a trend of marriage culture. Instead of struggling to find a job wasting time, a lot of women are looking for a husband who has good conditions when they are relatively young. The number of young women who try so-called "취집" has been increasing.

Currently, the growing number of young women tends to get married like they get a job. This current fashion is called “취집” ( It’s a newly made acronym by two words getting a job and marriage). It seems that it is because of the recession in Korea. These days so many people couldn’t find a job and it is getting harder and harder especially for women to get a job. So some women think it is better to get married instead of making an endeavor to find a job. For that reason, they try to find a husband as early as they can because they would not want to waste their time with doing nothing. They are eager to find a husband who is in a good state. It would not be a matter how old he is.

Some recent surveys support this vogue. Duo, which is one of the biggest marriage consultant company in Korea, says that the percentage of the women who are under 27 joined this year is 5.9%; in 2006 it was 0.9%. It is six times as high as 2006.


Sunwoo, which is a marriage consultant company, shows that the percentage of female members under 26 has been increasing from 2.31% to 5.86% since 2006. Moreover the number of women under 26 who joined this year is three times more than that of last year.

While many women are more likely to get married instead of getting a job, there are some negative opinions about this trend. Experts say "It is a waste of human ability for well educated women not to work but get married. In addition, considering only conditions of a husband could casue a bad result to themselves.

The job information portal site, Scout, researched in some new words related to recruitment.

1. Which word represents our real life the most? "취집" is ranked in eighth position.

2. What do you think you belong to? "취집" is ranked in eleventh.

3. What is the most pitiful word? "취집" is ranked in sixth position.

4. Which word do you think is going to disappear in the future? "취집" is ranked in second position.

some related articles


http://news.kukinews.com/article/view.asp?page=1&gCode=kmi&arcid=0921403830&cp=nv


http://h21.hani.co.kr/arti/cover/cover_general/25495.html


http://economy.hankooki.com/lpage/economy/200907/e2009070817422870060.htm


http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20090624011002

Increasing 30% Applicant 'TOPIK (Test of preficiency in Korea, 한국어능력시험)

The KICE (Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation) expect that the applicants of 'TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean)’ increase more 30 percent than last year, because after at the beginning, the rate of applicants have continuously increased every year. It is reasons that the first, overseas expansions of business and Korean Wave have led to raise Korea’s status, and second, when we draw foreigner to Korea, they reinforced the examination of ability of using Korean language, and so on. Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Financial News reports the KICE (Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation, 한국교육과정평가원) that manage TOPIK expect that the applicants of ‘TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean)’ increase more 30 percent than last year.

Today, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST, 교육과학기술부) published that the sixteenth TOPIK will be conducted on September 12-13, 2009. It is for 93,173 people in 97 parts of 20 nations including the inside and outside of the country.

TOPIK is for non-native speakers of Korean, overseas Koreans and overseas residential Koreans who want to measure and evaluate the ability to use of Korean performance. Since the first test was conducted on 1997, a number of the test times was extended from one to two times every year and this year, for the first time, TOPIK is going to be conducted in Belarus where is located between Poland in Eastern Europe and Russia.

The test is divided into two parts. One is Standard Test (S-TOPIK) that measures necessary ability of using Korean language to understand Korean culture and study in Korea and so on. The other is for Business called Business TOPIK or B-TOPIK; it is to evaluate necessary ability of communication for daily life and employment.

S-TOPIK is conducted three types of tests such as beginner, intermediate and advanced, and evaluated 1 to 6 grades. Evaluating parts are vocabulary, grammar, writing, listening and reading. A score of each part is 100 points; therefore 400 points are full marks.

This year, the MEST presume applicant will rise about 30 percent that it means those who are 190,000 people increased than 142,816 last year.

The MEST said that these increasing reasons are various. First, overseas expansions of business and Korean Wave have led to raise Korea’s status, and second, when we draw foreigner to Korea, they reinforced the examination of ability of using Korean language. Also, to support overseas elementary and middle school that can select Korean language as second or foreign language and to develop and spread specific Korean text books caused to pull up the rate of TOPIK’s applicant.

TOPIK’s applicants have continuously been increasing year by year, such as 30,270 in 2006, 72,292 in 2007, and 142,816 in 2008.

Lee Eun-woo, a member of the MEST and the chief of KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency, 한국국제협력단), said, “Continuous increase of TOPIK’s applicants contributes to extend to draw superior foreign students to Korea and to encourage overseas local people who want to learn Korean language to become heated.

- Reference of a News video -
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LPOD&mid=tvh&oid=001&aid=0002615907
A news movie about TOPIK was conducted in Egypt at the first time.

- Other exam sites related of Korean language -

http://www.topik.or.kr/ KICE, the host of TOPIK
http://www.klt.or.kr/ KBS, the host of evaluating exam of using Korean language
http://exam.ybmsisa.com/kpe/ YBM Sisa.com, the host of evaluating exam of using Korean language

Part-time lecturers- ’Falling leaves’

It was researched that there are more than 1000 people who were fired as a part-time lecturer at 112 universities in Korea and the reason is attributed to the law of temporary contract workers which regulates about the changing part-time employees who have worked more than two years into full-time employees. About this situation, it is said that restoration of instructor’s status and other fundamental solutions are required.

There are much more than 1200 part-time lecturers who were dismissed this 2nd
semester. As the result was totaled by half of the whole universities, actually the real number of the dismissed would be more than twice. It was a university which did a mass-dismissal of part–time workers effectuating the temporary contract worker regulations and most of the dismissed had lectured four semesters one after another without having master’s degree so they were applied to the temporary contract worker regulations unlike master’s degree employees who are considered as an expert.

The reason of this savage mass-dismissal disaster is obvious. It’s just because of the
universities’ shallow-minded calculation related to their own profit. The behavior of universities using and then throwing away the part-time lecturers giving low salaries is not different from that of the vicious business employers so, I wonder how they call themselves as a palace of education.

In other point, the responsibility neglecting this shameless work at university authorities is not as large as that of Department of Education Science Technology(교육과학기술부). The problems toward part-time lecturers’ treatment have been issued many times. Many strokes requesting reappointment have been held for more than two years in front of the National Assembly and some bills to solve these problems have been introduced, too. Even though the warning that mass-dismissal would happen was told again and again before the enforcement of the temporary contract worker law, Department of Study(교과부) did nothing with their arm crossed.

Part-time instructor problems are closely related to the quality of Korean university’s education as well as the worker’s existence. The number of part-time professors is more than twice as many as that of full-time professors in Korean universities, which means that more than half of the university education depends on the part-time lecturers. However, the workers get only 10 percent of what the full-time lecturers earn even though they do the same education work. Moreover, Korean universities don’t ensure the four insurances for them except 10 universities. Most of the part-time instructors who are in the middle of doctor process or have the degree are the member of intellectual group so, it is impossible that we hope to develop the quality of education exploiting them like this.

Department of Study should resolve the problems of part-time lecturers’ improvement actively. They have to make them regain their teacher’s status which was deprived under dictatorship as political reasons and the department and the government have to make efforts together to give them better treatment. Ju-ho Lee, the vice-minister of Department of Study, introduced a bill related to this problem when he was a lawmaker.

The Sorrow of Twinkie Boy

Before Departure

You may have heard the departure of popular Korean idol Park Jae-bum, the leader of 2PM, because of his controversial remark toward South Korea which he published before his debut.

Many people nay even the older generation who have no interest in idol-group don't turn aside this affair as a mere scandal of the entertainment world. Because not only is he a popular star among the people, but also a Twinkie (American sweet thing, the surface is yellow but the inside is filled with white cream) -boy ('Twinkie' means here Asians in the U.S who make great efforts to assimilate the main stream American society).

In the midst of many diagnoses to this affair from each circle of society, some people pointed out the lack of understanding in Korean society toward the Korean abroad, who are second or third generations, born to a Korean family there.

People who know well about American Born Korean (ABK) said quarter of them(ABK) are Twinkie. Park, for example, grew up in Palisade, a town in New Jersey that has one of the highest concentrations of Koreans in America. The young Koreans there have a tendency to display the trait of "Twinkie". Moreover among the Korean Twinkies, there is a culture that if you don't humble Korea, you are regarded as a nerd. It seems that even though their effort to assimilate the mainstream America society they are treated distantly by the society because of their appearance so they express their identity in the way of abasement at their parent's country.

However, unnamed American Born Korean said it is wrong to conclude Twinkie as a person who has a serious identity chaos without any patriotism to their root. He said whether being Twinkie or not is private choice and normally people admit each other's choice and at last he added "Among Twinkie, there are many of them, reflecting their root while growing up"



Park Jun-kyu, who is professor in Chonnam University and who himself is a 1.5generation Korean-American told that the term Twinkie is a symbol among young Korean American who struggle with their self-identity. In addition he told the Korean society overacted to Park's remark, which he published long time ago in his hard time(the time of training to be a singer).




















This letter is written by one of Park's friend from U.S.
Lined part: "...and go to land we always made fun about, to become a star..."