Hello, New York:)

Hello, Everyone.

I have a piece of news.

I moved in New York City!

I got a part-time job in Korea Consulate, New York.

There is a campaign, and I joined that from 1st Dec.

There are two elections, Congress and President,

and overseas korean who has a visa can vote in America.

However, almost Korean doesn't know it.

That's why I work to advertise campaingn.

Its not easy...

It looks like.. um.. home-visiting sales....

I don't go home, but I try to talk Korean on the street, in the institute.

I was busy because of the work.

I hope that I write something new in New York City.

See you later:)

I miss Harrisburg!!!!

How old are you?

Oct. 7. It was my birthday.

I invited some friends and had the mexican dinner with them.

At that time, I got a lot of questions to ask my age.

I answered "25 In America, but Im still 26 in Korea."

If you are American or European, you are confused this sentence.

If you are Chinese or Japanes, you can understand exactily what I told.

Yeah, It's different to calculate age between them.

In America and Europe, a baby is 0-year-old when he is born.

And he is 1-year-old after 12 months past.

In Korea, Japan and China, a baby is 1-year-old when he is born.

And he is 2-year-old after 12 months past.

I celebrate my birthday, but my age isn't changed on that day.

Every 1 on Jan, everyone get 1-year-old together.

People of 3 countries thinks it is a human being even he isn't come out yet from the belly of mother.

So they add 1-year-old when he is born.

One more thing, I have 2 birthday in one year.

One is 1986.Oct.7 followed by sun calendar,

the other is 1986.Sep.4 follewed by moon calendar.

Long times ago and utill now, Korea has moon calendar.

It's not public calendar, but we our holiday(new years day and Chu-seok)

has to calculate on the moon calendar.

I hope its enough to explain how to calculate age in Korea.

......

......

and I prefer American's way..

I want to be young!! ;_;



Burqa and the rights of Muslim women

On Oct. 8, we have a Teacher workshop on Muslims. I learned many things about Islam and Muslims. Among them, I got more interested in Burka. So I will talk about Burka and the controversial issues on that in this post.

Burqa means an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. Usually, people who don’t know the name call it just a veil. There are several kinds of veil that Muslim women wear and they are called as other names depending on the level of body exposure. Burqa is the kind of veil that covers the most part of body among them.

It became as a symbol of repression to women because of Taliban in Afghanistan. They forced women to wear Burqa as one of their extreme policies. Still now, in many Islamic countries, Women are reinforced to wear Burqa by husbands and government. They have to live behind the veil. They cannot make friends on their communities because the purpose of Burqa is to hide women from people. Only her family who are presented by her husband can see her own appearance. Yes. Burqa means the subordination to men for Muslim women. The biggest problem is they cannot choose to wear this Burqa or other clothes.

So, do you think we have to get rid of Burqa because of it is a bad thing? Many non-Muslim has that kind of opinions, especially in Europe. Many countries in Europe want to take it over from Muslim women because they are afraid of Muslims who live in their own territories. It makes even the word ‘Islamophobia’.

Last year, France banned Burqa. They had many ridiculous reasons such as the violation of rights to equality. They said women who wear Burqa violated the rights to equality because they could see other’s face but hid their face. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like if I am naked, you have to be naked because it is fair to do so. Even ban on Burqa is the contradiction itself. People blame forcing Muslim women to wear Burqa. The prohibition of Burqa also compels them not to wear Burqa.

I think their movement against Burqa is not to protect Muslim women’s right but to oppress Muslims by using the symbol of their religion. In reality, Muslim women have protested against Government who prohibit their own garment.

 "This is an attack on my freedom of conscience, my freedom of religion, my freedom simply of being a woman, so this is a really big attack on my own life”.

This is said by one female of protesters. Burqa can be suppression to Muslim women but at the same time, it can be the most valuable thing to them.

Commercial Breaks

This monday, Gossip Girl that is my favorite drama started its season 5. Because of it, I watched TV for the first time in USA. I was really excited and concerntarted on TV. However, My Gossip Girl was often interrupted by commercials. I already knew that there are some commercials in one show in USA but it was too much! I didn't know which one was longer, the drama? or commercials? The commercial breaks came around 4 times during watching the drama. I could watch the drama for 4 minutes and had to watch commercials for 3 minutes.

During a program on American TV...

    

            A program 4 min.                 ->             Commercials 3 min.          ->        A program 4 min.

In korea, commercial breaks during one program show on the public broadcasting channel is prohibited. They can emit commercials only before and after the program. On cable channels, commercials are inserted in the middle of a program but the length and the number of times depending on the length of programs are limited by regulations.

Few years ago, there were vocies to introduce commercial breaks in the middle of a program for profit of advertisers. They insist the income of advertisers is getting reduced so the introduction of commerical breaks is needed for the efficiency of advertisement. The government and broadcast stations also agreed with them and they pushed ahead to do it.

However, public people didn't want to accept it. They were opposite against it because of right of wathing. They said people have a right to watch TV without interruption of commercials. So Korea can't bring commercials in the middle of a program.

In my opinion, I understand this system can promote industry of advertisement and help them to live more but commercial breaks in programs annoys me. Under korean system, viewers can control channel when commercials come out and go back to the cannel when the program that they want to see starts if they don't want to watch commercials. But in America, it is hard to change channel when commercials are on air because they don't know when the program start again. It's really inconvenient for viewers and just good for advertisers.

In most ways, I support American's free-regulation system but when it comes to commercials, I think proper regulating is not bad and needed.

Glad to meet you, Congressman Tim Holden.

It was a office of congressman, Tim Holden.

There were people to say hello each other

and they talked lively in the hall.

Someone talked about family as a greeting,

on the other hands, the other talked to discuss the hot issue in Harrisburg.

I turned my eyes to the office.

(Because I didn't know who they are..., but I said hello a lot in there, too.)

I looked around the pictures on the wall

and articles in the newspaper.

These show me who he is and what he did.

Something was so old, so I could guess he has worked so long time.

There was a football picture, so I could he like a football.

Tim Holden started to speak in front of people.

He spoke not fast, not slow.

Everyone in the hall concentrated on his speech to understand what he said.

(I also tried to focus on it, but its too difficult to understand for me.)

After his speech, people started to ask questions to him.

A guy asked what is plan for Harrisburg and he explained the answer what its going.

Congressmas needs to communicate with people, voters.

They have to speak their supporters opinion in the house and public.

In a same time, they also need to pursuade their supporters.

Even some people suggest an idea to give benefit to them,

it always can't be good,

in the view of federal gov, or in the view of state gov.

He tried to communicate with them.

So people tried to understand him.

It was good chance to remind a duty of politician.

......

(Anyway, the lunch was delicious!)



Two bison deaths at Hershey Park

    

On Sept. 7, two bisons was dead at Hershey's Zoo America because of last serious flooding. One drowned and the other was enthanized by the staff. Recently, A animal rights group PETA called for federal probe of the bison deaths. I have 3 questions on this case.

First, It is so big case for people here. When I googled this case, it showed me 506,000 results. I am surprised that deaths of two bisons can make such a big amounts of news. Last summer, South Korea had singular big flood in history but I've never heard any news of animals. I think American people think that animal is important as same as human more than Korean. I was also surprised that there is a word 'beloved bisons' in an article. It is hard to find this kind of word for anmials in the articles of newspapers in South Korea.

Second, I thought about enthanasia. Basically, I am not opposed to euthanasia. I think it's better to administer euthanasia than keeping unmeaningful life. But I am sure it has to be careful and be paid close attention. However, in this case, a staff shot a bison when he was in water. I am wondered how long the staff considered the bison's death and pain.

Finally, the biggest problem of Hershey's staffs is not to prepare evacuation. Everybody knew it was heavy rain and TV warned all day big flood. But they keeps saying they did not know the seriousness of flooding. I think it does not make sense and PETA said the zoo failed to evacuate the animals despite receiving warnings that severe flooding was imminent. In my view, they just ignored warnings and handled the flooding easefully.

The last flooding might cause many damages and victims. We can call it as a natual disaster. But we have to know human can prevent many of them.  

+ Why did they fail to evacuate the bison?

According to Hershey Park, the staff put the zoo evacuation plan into effect and began to move animals in danger spots to other Hershey Entertainment & Resorts property, including the Giant Center, Hersheypark, Hersheypark Stadium and Hersheypark Arena.

The flood waters rose very quickly in ther area occupied by two bison, said Mindy Bianca, Hershey spokeswoman. The bison weigh about 2,000 pounds each and stand about six feet tall.

+ What is PETA?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and tow million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights group in ther world. Its slogan is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experimetn on, or use for entertainment."

There are critics of their ways of campaign and euthanaia. There are also opinions that their advertisement is too exterme. In 2009, they eutanized 2,301 dogs and cats. They think if there is no shelter or home for animals, they will suffer pains and giving death to them is better than that.

Flooding, Who is in charge of it?

Do you remember flooding 2 weeks ago?

It might be YES, YES, YES.

It was huge disaster.

The front street was flooded, and people moved from uptown area.

Some roads became big ponds or a stream,

trees on the island was disappeared half of it.

The news was showing it again and again,

schools were closed, shops were closed, too.

(The mayor had said to close every shops)

But there was no one angry to the government.

People prepared everything themselves,

they didn't blame the government.

You might be wondered.

Why do I blame the government because of flooding?

 In Korea, there was flooding in this summer.

It was huge as like here,

subway station was closed as like New york,

cars were sinked, roads were disappeared.

And people were angry.

They thought it is in charge of the government.

To predict, To prepare.

The government need to build and fix a waterway,

and manage it for protection of flooding.

I don't think they are wrong, American and Korean.

I agree the government is in charge of flooding,

so its required to clean and maintain,

and the government has to be reproach for its carelessness.

But people also have to know the government isn't God who knows everything.

So they need to wait and keep on eye the government.

The government is a collaborator, which work together.

Hum.... Anyway, I like rainning, with a cup of coffee:)

Happy Chu-seok, Marry Chu-seok!



Happy, Happy, Happy!

It was awesome day.

Yesterday was a holiday, Chu-seok in Korea.

It's to celebrate to begin the harvest

t(Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate to finish the harvest)

and people shares these grains, fruits with whole family.

On this day, it's happen to huge moving in Korea,

because everyone try to visit there hometown to gather their family.

So,

I made a Chu-seok party with my new family, in Harrisburg.

I and Jenna had cooked more than 6 hours.

Nurumjeok(fried with vegetable and ham), Kimbab(Sushi with seaweed), Sesami reaf fried,

 Chicken stew(hot spicy), Fistbab(rice with tuna), Dongurangddang(fried beef, tufu and vegetable)

Ddukbboki(rice cake with spicy) and Sikhye(rice punci).

I was worried a little bit.

These food are not familiar with Americans.

Of course, I couldn't be sure my cooking..

However, everyone liked these!!

They were impressed taste, and enjoyed a lot.

I was so happy that they like korean food.

(and I didn't make disappointed my cooking, hahaha)

Even my family in Korea gathered together,

but I didn't miss them.

In Harrisburg, there are new family who enjoy Chu-seok with me!

Happy Chu-seok,

Merry Chu-seok!

(Traffic jam is terrible, but people don't give up to leave)

Social Media in South Korea

I think most of you have an account of Facebook. Nowadays, Social Media Service is growing up rapidly and smart phone boost it. So it became one of the important tools for everyone in private or public sector.

There are many social media services in South Korea. Koreans use global services such as Facebook, Twitter as well as Korean services like Cyworld, Metoday and Many portal websites offer blog service. Cyworld is the most famous SNS(Social networking service), which is similar with Facebook. Metoday is a same type of social media with Twitter. We call it microblog. I will explain the most popular social media service in South Korea, Cyworld compared to Facebook.

1.   The Biggist Korean SNS that Facebook can’t win in Korea, Cyworld

Cyworld that most Koreans are using launched in 1999. It is earlier than launching time of Facebook(2004). Cyworld offer the space to communicate with friends online like Facebook. The big difference between Cyworld and Facebook is openness.

If you sign in the site, you can get a “Minihompy” (Abbr. mini homepage) for the personal space.

 

Cyworld Minihompy

  

It is like a virtual home of each person. So Cyworld users visit friend’s home(Minihompy) to communicate with them on Cyworld. It is the way to use Cyworld. On the other hand, in the case of Facebook, it is like that people who hold their profile communicate one another in one big place. The way of cyworld is more inconvenient and closed.

We can see comments of strangers in News Feed page

 However, because of openness of Facebook, it is hard to personal communication that people don’t show to other people happen on Facebook. If you write on the wall of someone, all who are friends of the person can see it and it is easy. But Cyworld offers the feature to lock post and it can be shown to only the owner of MInihompy.

In conclusion, Facebook is good for communication with more people simply because of its openness. Compare to it, Cyworld is convenient to be used for communication with close people and when people share secrets and deeper things online.

2.   The present situation of Social Media in South Korea

-          Steep increasing of using SNS

According to a study of a Korean consulting company, the amount of a SNS used in South Korea increase 2.9% during last one year.  This percentage is the amount of a SNS used compared to the whole media using.

-          The purpose of using SNS

Most of Koreans using SNS have a clear purpose to use it. The study says around 70% of survey respondents use SNS in order to network with more people. The following is the result of Survey.

1.   to network with more people – 69.8%

2.   to get more information – 56.6%

3.   to update my situation – 38.9%

4.   to keep and arrange information they got – 31%

There is an interesting related to a second answer. 40% of respondents answered they trusted the information from SNS. It is much higher than 12.3% that answered they did not trust it. They think information from SNS is believable because of ‘retweet’(Twitter) or ‘like’(Facebook). It means they believe it because the source is their neighbor.

I think there is no big difference between Korean and American social media users. Both want to communicate with people more convenient. The interface of the service is the only difference. In fact, people who use Korean service and global service at the same time increases in South Korea. In my case, I also use several services depends on the purpose. I hope my writing be the chance that you can know Korea is also located in the trend of social media.

Noblesse Oblige, In Hershey Park.

Noblesse Oblige.

It generally used to imply social resonsibilties to a person with wealth.

In the past, royal families had a power and money.

And they also had responsibilities to take care their territory.

Since than, some royal familes have been done their duties, so they have gotten respect, confidence.

I think Milton S. Hershey was a man who shown what it is.

Even he got wealth through 3 times failes,

he tried to share his wealth with employers in his factory.

He remembered to miss the education when he was young,

so he founded schools for orphans and poors.

He put trolley to help commute and other community,

he built amusement park for happiness of employers.

He wanted to make a community which every employers live happily.

When I found this stories, these made my heart hurt.

Because the foriegn workers riots in hershey come to my mind.

If there was a Milton S. Hershey,

What would he say about it?

How would he do for them?

I can guess what the answer about these questions.

But one thing I'm sure is that

it would be differnt result if his values were reflected in them.

......

Anyway,

It was awesome! Hershey Park!

Thouhgt about Hershey Foreign Workers

Have you heard about J1 VISA?

A J1 VISA gives a student permission to work legally in the USA.

(I also have it, so its possible to get an internship and/or a part-time job.)

There are a lot of students who have this in the USA.

In Hershey, PA there are these students, too.

And they made their vioce heard by the society.

When they applied to get their J1 VISA,

they expected to have a special experience,

for example,

To share cultural ideas, To have work experience with Americans,

To see traditional places.

They also were eager to improve their English.

They want to speak, listen and write English.

Its the big reason they choose to come to the USA.

Yeah, but "No Money No Gain" in capitalism.

So they needed to pay more than $5,000 - $7,000 to get this.

And they are spending money to live here.

This not a small amount, and it gives positive effect to USA economy.

However, the reality in the USA is not the same as they thought.

Because of the language problem, they misunderstand about culture and racism,

And they can't get experiences.

Yes it's true, it's difficult to work with a person who can't speak English very well.

It's also true, there is a risk to hire a person who doesn't understand the USA.

But, if they are perfect to speak English, they wouldn't choose J1 VISA program.

If they don't want to know USA, they would choose the other countries.

US government provided this program for their profit.

(Im sure they got money through this program.)

So its fair to give PROFIT to participants, too.

It will be able to be a Win-Win game.

US government can get profit,

participants also can get experience they thought.

......

......

As like me!

I am so happy to have internship in World Affairs Council:)



My name is Jenna!

Hello. My name is Jenna!

I made this name on the last day of March this year. At that time, I started my U.S. life with the name and I’m interning at the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg now.

My given name is Jihye in my country, South Korea. Before I came to the U.S., I was studying French and Economics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. I have been always interested in international affairs and lives overseas. I have been trying to get a chance to go out to the world and I got several chances to do so. The experience in other countries was really great for me. I was really happy when I stayed in a new country and I communicated with foreign people there. Getting to know different people and things from me and mine is very exciting to me!

Living in America was one of my dreams that I want to fulfill in my 20’s. It is derived from my visit to Seattle during high school. I spent 10 days in Seattle and some areas in Canada. At that time, I met some Korean-Americans and I realized that life in the U.S. is different from that in Korea. Big, Green and Relax. The 3 words were images of America for me. I have wanted to feel those again.

My wish that was made at that time was realized last winter. I was picked by the Korean government for the exchange program WEST. The program includes language study and internship in the U.S. I thought I could get many things from this program. I could study English at the U.S. College and I could work with Americans so I could know real American life. I was really excited to come here and I arrived in Virginia on 31^st March, 2011.

What I could see as soon as I arrived was too many Korean. The area where I would live was the biggest Korean town in the east of America, Annandale. My house was not in Annandale exactly, but very close to Annandale and my school was located in Annandale. Virginia was big, green like that I remembered as America. But there are too many Korean people and stores and I couldn’t feel that I was in real America.

During 4 month, what I love the best was the trip to nearby areas. America has great and beautiful nature. I think it is the big assess to makes American people relaxed. I could see really BIG and GIANT! It has really wide and wonderful sea, lakes and parks. I know there are more things that I have not seen yet. I hope I can see greater things.

 After living in Virginia, I moved here to Harrisburg because of my internship. Harrisburg is different from Virginia. More quiet and more peaceful. The biggest difference is that there are no Koreans in my area. I could find only a few Asians. Actually, I don’t know what life in Harrisburg is but I expect that I can get to know more about American’s life and American. I think here is real America!

I love also my office. Harrisburg is calm but the WAC of Harrisburg is lively. Actually, I was surprised that it holds a lot of events. That’s beyond my expectation and that will make me enjoyable! The fact that the events are about global issues makes me excited because I can get to know about more countries as well as the U.S.A.

I am sure living in Harrisburg and working with the WACH will be great!

Hello, U.S.A.

31 Mar 2011,

I arrived at Dulles Airport in Washington DC.

And

20 Aug 2011,

I moved to Harrisburg in the state of Pennsylvania.

It's a short term stay in U.S.A.

However, I want to start to share my stories from the first to the last.

Ah, I forgot to say about me:)

My name is Lucy.

I came from South Korea, one of the countries in East Asia.

I'm student in Yonsei University in Korea,

and my majors are Public Administration and Urban Planning.

Now Im here, World Affairs Council as a intern.

I came here, to see, to hear, to think.

About what?

You guys! United States America!

I wonder

what you think, how you live, when you eat, etc.

I wanna know you, understand you.

Everyone says we are the world.

but I don't think so we know each other.

I don't know how many childrens are dying in Africa,

I don't know what happens on the Amazon in Brazil.

Yes, there are a lot of things I don't know.

So I decided to observe what happens on the earth,

and its one of the reasons I came to see you.

Im not a person to have grown up in US.

I might be a guest, or traveler to visit.

That's why I can find new perspective.

Okay, I think its enough to say about me.

Now it's time to say to you.

Hello, USA.

Nice to meet you, USA.