E-Journal #4 : The most significant innovation that contributes to our society

The most significant innovation that contributes to our society

            Crowd of people are roaming through the streets, gazing in the small windows in which various images and texts flutter. The four side edged flat cube firmly gripped in the hands may be deemed as minor utility, but it is the most powerful weapon for the human species today. Cliché might it sound, but the most significant innovation that contributes to the society is the smart phone. Smart phone by its definition has a stark difference from 90’s mobile phones by aspects of its application. The era of mobile phone that is used for only calling or texting is an old story now. Smart phones contributes significantly in our modern day society by reducing the need to buy various utilities, helping the people constantly updated to the current information, and enabling direct communication between people in faraway distance.
            Innovation of smart phone enabled people to reduce amount of utilities in need. A simple slide on the screen can open up the categories of applications that one might had to buy all individually. Take for instance, people had to buy the mp3, a camera, an alarm, and other utilities for the entertainment. Everything was added up to the smart phone application, however , simplifying and making one’s life convenient. If anyone wants to listen to music, one can dig into the pocket for the smart phone, plug in the earphone, and tap the play button. Conglomeration of utilities in one gadget surely reduced a number of things needed and eradicated the past cumbersome methods. Therefore, smart phone is the most contributing innovation.
            The smart phone constantly opened the current information to the people every time, and everywhere. In the past, people had to wait for a day to read the newspaper in order to understand daily changes. Now, information can change every minute, and people can view the adjusted data in any moment. Whenever political or economic scandals emerged, people were eligible to contact to respond to the situation. This enabled the society to become more active and reactionary to the changes so that one can adjust the problems within the glimpse of time. For instance, the news alerted all the notice to the citizens about the investigations of the recently reported issue of South Korea’s puppet administration, providing specific details for the audience to rightly understand in any moment. The quick notice through the convenient smart gadget unified the people to gather as one, and carry out a peaceful protest against the injustice.  To conclude, smart phones became the most impressive innovation to do good in the society.
            The invention of smart phone contributed to the human history by enabling the people to communicate, no matter how far the distance was. The past mobile phones surely had connected the people within the range of nation, and never so for the international range as did the smart phone in these days. Now, so many applications in smart phone erased the boundary between nations by the usage of application. No longer does the people have to pay extra money for international calls, but rather voice talk through smart phone applications. Skype or Kakaotalk became great examples for this. People in distance can call one another directly by voice or video call, which in a way eliminate the barrier of distance. Furthermore, in the situations of emergency, smart phone can be very useful. The quick call menu on the screen allowed the people in need of help to call for help instantly. As long as the person is in the distance with call available, one can be rescued from the emergency. Therefore, smart phones attributed to connect people in distance, bringing a huge attribution.
            It is safe to conclude that smart phones contributed impressively in our modern day society by reducing the need to buy various utilities, helping the people constantly updated to the current information, and enabling direct communication between people in faraway distance. It is hard to imagine a street full of people who does not hold a smart phone. Now smart phone is within the frame of the 21st century’s norm of daily routine. As much as it became the essential to the world, it can be deemed as the innovation that attributed the most to our society.

E-Journal #3 : Most important things that people need to do in order to ensure a sustainable future

Most important things that people need to do in order to ensure a sustainable future

            “Reduce, reuse, and recycle to save the earth!” This is a very familiar campaign which roamed through the 21^st century. The slogan was chattered as if the whole environmental problem can be removed, but still the ominous signs of collapsing natural balance alerted the approaching catastrophe. Take for instance, the dramatic increase of temperature in summer, 2016. Due to the unusual weather, the Meteorological Administration failed to accurately forecast the heat, resulting 17 casualties of heat stroke this year in Korea (JoongAng, 2016). Three R was an effective idea, but must be refurbished to ameliorate the obsolete method of the past. Sustainable environment acquires a cooperation, which means a method that is simple yet powerful must be adopted into our daily activity, like dining. The idea is relatively simple; the individual family can set a weekly nutrient balanced eating schedule, which contains what the family will eat from Monday to Sunday, avoiding as much meat consumption, buying less fast-foods, and choosing sustainable industry for cooking ingredients. The project can be called, “the Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth,” and this will lessen the pollution of water, decrease the amount of waste produced from fast-food industry, and promote sustainable agriculture.

“The Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth” can effectively ensure the sustainable future because it reduce the pollution of water by avoiding meat consumption. The core of this schedule is to find alternate nutrient source (like bean) to replace the meat for protein. There are various ways to substitute the protein. By reducing consumption of meat, water pollution can be reduced. Namely, the process of raising livestock consumes massive amount of water. According to the Guardians, about 5,000 to 20,000 liters of water is needed to create 1kg of meat, while only 500 to 4,000 liters needed for wheat. As much as the amount of fresh water is becoming scarcer, it is mandatory to save it while it is available. Eating meat propels the substantial loss of water as much as creating pollution by animal waste. Reducing the consumption of meat by using the alternate nutrient source through using the food schedule will help sustain our future.

            Also the project of scheduling food can bring sustainable future by reducing waste from fast-food industry. By excluding as much fast-food from the dining list, it can lessen the amount of waste from the industry. According to the One Green Planet, Styrofoam, which is often used to package the fast-food, consists more than 40% of the total waste. It is a common sense (tragically) to throw away all the matters used for coating fast-food, and there is often no second use. What shocks even more is that Styrofoam takes over 900 years to decompose back to the nature. When these fast-foods are delivered, the problem enlarges, because it significantly adds the air pollution onto the strove of environmental waste. However, when the project is promoted, such production will be reduced as much as the consumer’s demand plunges. Furthermore, lack of planning is usually the reason for eating fast-food which offers quick and easy selections to the hungry people. The careful planning of dining schedule will reduce such reckless choices, and therefore help decrease fast-food consumption rate and contribute to sustainable future.

            Lastly, the project can ensure the sustainable future by supporting the sustainable agriculture system. The unfamiliar term sustainable agriculture means, “ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just and humane (Aiken 1983, Dahlberg 1986, Keeny 1990, O'Connell 1991),” according to the Agnet.org. As human entered the era of industrialization, various techniques developed, including the methods of farming. As National Geographic Learning’s Pathways 3 page 143 suggested, “five times more irrigated land... one-quarter of the planet’s fertile soil has been damaged by intensive farming...” growth of economy fueled the faster destruction of land. Violently used pesticides and chemical fertilizers did help produce more, but such practice not only damaged the fertile land, but also affected people. Sustainable agriculture hinders actions that harms the land, and instead looks for ways to preserve the land’s quality. For instance, farmers did not excessively farm on specific portion of land because it will lead the land depleted with certain type of nutrition. They also decided to use naturally made pesticide like a pyrethrum flower spray. Organic food is produced from sustainable agriculture, so buying the ingredients for dining here can support creating healthy farming system in the country. Therefore, by creating a schedule for dining with organic ingredients will help ensure the sustainable future by hindering any land damage.   

            To conclude, the project which can be called, “the Dining Schedule to Save the Dying Earth,” can ensure the sustainable future by lessening the pollution of water, decreasing the amount of waste produced from fast-food industry, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Though the project itself may not seem so much effective, but if most of the people in the world performs this, it will bring a huge impact. As much as dining being one of the most important process in human survival, a small change in continuous process will be very effective. The first step is to start without assuming that others will do the portion of work for oneself. This project can only succeed if everyone tries cooperate, and take the affair seriously. Reciting old ideas over and over will not bring a better future. Only if the people try to figure out why the last generation’s plan did not work out, can the people discover the key to sustainable future. Eradication of ignorant behavior is, therefore, compulsory.

Reference:

1) ["The aftermath of heatstroke this summer"]. JoongAng News. 29 Aug. 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

http://news.joins.com/article/20514742

2) "How Much Water Is Needed To Produce Food And How Much Do We Waste?". the Guardian. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/10/how-much-water-food-production-waste

3) "10 Ways Fast Food Is Destroying The World". One Green Planet. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/10-ways-fast-food-is-destroying-the-world/

4) "Soil Management For Sustainable Agriculture In Korea". Agnet.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110801142816
5) Vargo, Mari and Laurie Blass. Pathways 3. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning, 2014. Print.
6) Image: http://apelasyon.com/img/userfiles/images/organic_03.jpg

E-Journal #2 : The story and its location

E-journal #2 – Letters to Juliet (2010): Place – Verona, Italy

 

‘What’ and ‘If ’ are two words as none threatening as words can be, but put them together side by side, and they have the power to haunt to for the rest of your life. “What if?”

-Letters to Juliet-

‘What if?’ It is the combination of two words, ‘what’ and ‘if,’ which amounts not much effect when they are set individually. But once they are set together, it creates the possibilities as much as the imaginations may limit. Everyone has that moment in life that makes them think of ‘what if I did so and so...’ usually out of regret, that they did not have enough courage to challenge the moment. The movie, Letters to Juliet, takes place in Verona, Italy, and it is the core element of the storytelling. The theme ‘what if’ sets in as a major theme, and the main plots are covered in relation to the location that the story takes place. Verona opens up the chance for the main character Sophie to write, untangles 50 years of mystery, and lets Sophie meet her true love.

To start, Sophie’s visit to Verona became an opening for Sophie’s writing career. Originally, Sophie was a fact checker who always wanted to become an official writer. Sophie came to Verona with her passionate fiancé Victor as a pre-honeymoon, because it was confirmed that he will be busy soon after their wedding for he would open up a new restaurant. But the tragedy was, Victor did not spare a bit of his passion to his fiancée. Because Victor busily meets his manufacturers instead of spending his time with his fiancée, Sophie gets lonely. One morning, Sophie steps into an alley without noticing how the very pace would change her destiny. The alley led her to the Juliet’s house model, where many tourists around the world came for a visit. Pinned into the wall, letter written in 1957 was found. A girl named Claire was desperately looking for an advice from Juliet, about what she should do for betraying her most beloved man, Lorenzo Bartillini. Claire and Lorenzo, the star-crossed lovers were planning a runaway, but Claire lacked courage to commit as the plan. She was sorry but she left him without notice, and went back to her country, England. Though it was a letter that was written 50 years ago, Sophie, touched by its sentiments, decides to write back to Claire. Sophie’s reply moves Claire’s heart, and Claire returns to Verona with her handsome grandson, Charlie. Claire, reflecting “what if” of her childhood love, asks if Sophie can help her find Lorenzo, the favor which Sophie openly accepts. They start their journey to find Lorenzo, and Sophie starts writing, which opens up her path for her writing career. She writes through the journey, what she felt and experienced through the journey. If Sophie did not came to Verona, she would not have encountered Claire’s letter and wrote a reply which became a starting point for writing her own story.

Furthermore, Verona became the core of the story because it was the beloved land of Lorenzo. That Sophie and Claire decided to meet Lorenzo, they were to trace back the clues to meet him. Since 50 years have passed, nothing was clear to Claire. So they decided to find Lorenzo in a painstaking way by visiting every single house which a man named Lorenzo resides. On their journey, Sophie gets to move around freely with Claire and Charlie, because her fiancé is all time busy with his business. Though every single Lorenzo seemed to be mesmerized by Claire, she did not find her one true Lorenzo. Then the whole plot moves to the peak when one of the Lorenzo turns out to be dead. Since it was unverifiable whether the Lorenzo under the grave is her lover, it brings the grave air to the journey. Charlie, Claire’s grandson, lost both of his parents in plane crash. That is why he was so close to Claire, and cherished her being. He enrages at Sophie, claiming that she is the reason that made the old lady’s heart break. But in fact, Sophie also had a similar pain. Her mother left her and her father with no reason and it was the bane in Sophie’s heart. Soon Charlie realizes what he has done, and delivers contrite apology. They start to open their hearts to each other while the journey was brought to the end. When all of them were on the verge of giving up, Claire observes a man out of the window, a man who gallops through the grape vineyard. Lorenzo never left the Verona, because he adored his land. Because it was Verona, Claire and Lorenzo were able to meet miraculously again.

Finally, Verona lets Sophie find her true love. Originally, Sophie was unable to leave her fiancé despite his ignorant manner, because she was still shackled under the wound of her mother’s unreasonable leave. The continuous conversation with Charlie during the journey healed her heart, and led her to the recognition of her true love towards Charlie. However, the journey comes to an end by the dramatic reconciliation between Claire and Lorenzo. Sophie also had to return to New York with her fiancé, due to the schedules. Claire looks at her grandson and advises that he must not regret like how she did over 50 years, but instead be courageous. When Sophie returned to New York, she breaks up with Victor, because now their love has come to an end. Invitation letter has been received, the one for Claire’s marriage. With excitement and anxiety, Sophie returns to Verona. There Sophie confesses her heart to Charlie and they live happily ever after. Because Sophie came to Verona, she was able to realize that her love with Victor was not a true love, but rather a longing heart to depend on someone, since she did not have mom when she grew up.

To conclude, the location, Verona became the core of the whole plot to open up the chance for the main character Sophie to write, untangle 50 years of mystery, and let Sophie meet her true love. The main message was that one must follow one’s heart instead of letting the times go wasted in regret. Rather than thinking “what if,” it is better to commit into the present time, challenging for the one’s best. As the result of visiting Verona, Sophie gets aspired to start her writing career, and later publishes the writing herself. Also, Claire meets Lorenzo, her first love, due to the land being adored. Finally, Verona gave Sophie the chance to realize what true love is. All of what could have stayed as “what if” was brought to the reality. Matthew Donnelly once quoted that, “Life is a balance of hanging on and letting go. In the moment, shut down the mind and let intuition give you the answer. Have no regrets.” After all, life is conglomeration of different choices and perspirations. Perhaps, the best way to live a life is to leave less regrets.

E-Journal #1 : The positive effects of tourism in Jeju Island

In June 2007, United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included Jeju's dormant volcano Mount Halla, and 182 meter high coastal crater Seongsan Ilchulbong(Sunrise Reak) as World natural Heritage sites. Kim Tae-hwan, Jeju’s governor envisioned the increase in tourism, reflecting the effect the Halong Bay in Vietnam had when it was enlisted in the UNESCO just as Jeju; the number of tourists in Vietnam jumped from 236,000 to 850,000 just within two years. As expected, Jeju’s tourism rate dramatically increased and broke its mark of 1,000,000 within a year. As explained earlier, Jeju is well known for its natural sites and cultural values, and they are well preserved. Geotourism, which means to let environment coexist with tourism and further advance the area, is a well-suited term to explain the current status quo of Jeju’s tourism. Some may claim the word to be only an idealistic term in reality, but it is happening. The three main ways that tourism positively affected Jeju Island were helping Jeju sustain the culture, activating the local economy, and protecting the environment.

 Tourism in Jeju helped it to sustain the culture within the area. Anyone who visited Jeju would have been fascinated to see small antique houses located near transaction roads; those houses let tourists picture how the buildings back in years would have looked like. In 2014, Jeju Tourism Organisation set a new route from the Dragon Head coast to the Mountain Sanbang. The main goal for this site was to let tourists communicate with Jeju’s culture, so tourists were led to meet the people and watch the daily lives of the area along the paved route. In order to activate tourism, the area had to preserve the houses and residential area as the way it is. If it was not for this reason, then many of the Jeju's culture could have been damaged by the effect of ignorance. Therefore, the tourism provided an important reason for the area to sustain its cultural characteristics. 

Furthermore, Jeju’s tourism activated the local economy. As more tourists fluctuated into the Jeju Island to view the natural sites, the finance started to fluctuate by the effects of increase in the demand, the consumption, and the relocation. The local residents were able to sell more specialty and indigenous productions like black pork, Hanrabong(Jeju's orange), and Dol hareubang (magical stone) accessories, by the increase in demand. Duty free and Shopping centers show amazing retail sales rate, which in comparison three times higher than national average 3.6 in 2016 (Chosunilbo, 2016). Also, due to the tourist’s use of vehicles, oil sales have risen by 16.9 percent recently. Its natural beauty and sight became a huge motivation to people to relocate into Jeju, amounting the continual population growth. Even major companies’ headquarters are moved into Jeju, mostly game or IT businesses like NXC or Kakao. As a result, Jeju is thriving with its productivity and wealth. If natural beauty has not been known to people, then such blessings could have been falling on other areas of the world.

Lastly, the environment in Jeju was able to be protected by the tourism. As mentioned earlier, Jeju earned its environmental renown through being listed in UNESCO. As much as this became the main factor of global visits, Jeju had to start protecting the area.  The places like Sulbong has an astonishing beauty, created by the nature. It is about 77 meters high, and it formed from ground, water, and magma’s mingling which is estimated to have happened 18,000 years ago. People who have visited the area exclaimed that they felt as if they saw the minimized version of Grand Canyon. It has been said that sunset at the Sulbong is the most beautiful site of all Jeju tour places, as the colors of the rock sentimentary rock changes by weather and time. In order to preserve the places like Sulbong, Jeju Self-Governing Province declared to strengthen the environments by tightening the environmental law. Jeju also promulgated in 2014 that they will set a fine dust monitoring and an air quality control strategy to strengthen its environmental standards. As much as Jeju is known for its natural beauty, the government body has been motivated to protect the area to sustain its value.

To conclude, the tourism advanced the area by sustaining the culture, activating the local economy, and protecting the environment. The enlistment in the UNESCO’s cultural heritage became an effective catalyst for its renown and it must be kept in such pace for the further glorious future.

Reference:
http://blog.naver.com/shindenver/220108851399

http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3739

http://www.ijto.or.kr/korean/

http://wnhcenter.jeju.go.kr/index.php/contents/unesco/geopark

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AKR/FU_EN_15.jsp?gotoPage=267&cid=290676

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2016/03/05/2016030500527.html

Self Introduction

2016 September 6th - Self Introduction

Hi there. To whomever reading my e-journal, I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Sang Un Han and I am currently majoring English Language and Literature. You can feel free to call me Sang. One thing that you may find interesting in my life is the fact that I spent entire four years of high school in Cambodian international school called CIA. All the education curriculum was in English so I struggled to adjust to the new studying environment. At first, I was the only Korean girl in class, so people naturally remembered me as "The Korean Girl," instead of my name Sang. To be honest, I really hoped that another Korean girl will move into our class so that I can share some ethnic empathy. But such miracle did not happen in my first year of high school. However, reflecting back in that time, I think that was a great opportunity for me for an enlightenment; I learned to be independent and tolerant person. The students from other countries accepted me into their community without any discrimination which I worried the most. It became a valuable experience to me as to understand that racial boundary is nothing but fear, and that it can be eliminated anytime as we tolerate and respect others' cultural differences.

My ultimate goal is still vague, because I'm still wondering in which sector I can work best. My greatest interest is to go abroad and experience various cultures around the globe. I thought communication skill is one of the essential thing for such adventure, so I chose to join the class. I hope we can all enjoy our semester and work as peers! I have a lot of anticipation for this class, especially in enhancing my English skills. Thank you for reading my rather-cliche introduction!
PS- Anyone interested in traveling Cambodia, please feel free to ask me about places. I can recommend you dozens of places I know!