[7/21]Ageism (from Vincent^^;)

[Vincent(카페지기)]

Topic1

Ageism

Have you ever been on the receiving end of the term 'an old fuddy-duddy'?

Has anyone ever called you 'an old fart'? If the answers to both of these questions are 'yes', then consider yourself a witness of ageism, the tendency modern society has to make value judgements of a person based upon their age. Gray Panthers, an organisation with aims to promote social justice, defines ageism as "...a systematic discrimination based upon the chronological age, and furthermore, using age to define individuals' capabilities and roles."

Ageism does not appear to be a universal phenomenon in human culture. Attitudes towards elderly people vary across societies and the more 'westernised' the prevailing culture is, the more it tends to take a negative view of old age. In the Middle East, old age means prestige. In Japan, an elderly widow is often regarded as a powerful figure in the family.

In the 1980's in America, the longer an employee stayed with a firm, the greater the salary. However, since the beginning of 1990's, with increased international competition and the fact that the required skills do not necessarily come with the lifetime of experience, gerontocracy (rule by and for the old) has been slowly usurped by meritocracy tinged with a cult of youth. The economics alone dictate that younger workers are generally 'cheaper' to employ for the company than their senior staff.

In 1979, the policy of mandatory policies changed the age of retirement from 65 to 70 in US firms. However, the exceptions are the employees of an organisation or a company which has less than 20 on a payroll, tenured college professors, and high authorities whose pensions will exceed $27,000 a year.

In 1988 the American Society for Personnel Administration and the Commerce Clearing House sponsored a business study. The results indicated that older workers were causing problems in almost half of the nation's companies. In percentages, the older 'plateaued' workers caused a number of problems:

65% clogged promotion channels

56% lower morale among co-workers and subordinates

49% lower overall productivity of department or unit

25% damaged relationships with customers and clients

21% increased absenteeism

On the other hand, there are those who claim that older emplyees have a very positive impact on the newcomers. Perhaps retirement should be viewed again as the reward for the years of social contribution and loyalty to a workplace. After they retire, older workers have probably earnt a time for leisure and diverting activities done for their own sake.

JL, a University librarian, had a friend in her sixties who had enough years of work experience to retire. However, she decided to keep the job although "she was not doing anything she was supposed to", says JL. "If you have somebody who is about 45 years old and is looking for a job, even with some 20 years of working experience, the chances are really low for this person to get employed. Some companies insist on younger and more attractive people regardless of other person's ability to do the job properly", says JL.

Anyway, although ageism is commonly used in describing discriminating attitude and behaviour! towards older people, there are cases when the opposite happened. I know somebody whose age represents a problem in finding jobs or applying for scholarships. At the age of 21, my friend was looking for a job and ended up standing on the wrong side of many slammed doors. She used to tell me how every place she applied to for a job would require a certain number of years of previous working experinece. It seemed that there was not a single place where she would actually make her professional debut in the workplace.

"How do they expect me to have a working experience when there is nowhere interested in providing the first opportunity for beginners? One day I am going to be 50, without a job and then no-one will employ me anyway because 'I'll be too old'", she would say. This same person was decategorised from many scholarship applications because she was not old enough to apply for it. "I guess they assumed that I need to be over 30 to do my masters degree".

Any form of 'ism' discrimination can be discouraging, especially those that reflect prejudice against an aspect of your being, such as age, that cannot be changed or improved. It is hard to find the way out of it, unless we procede with the continual beauty treatments, liposuctions

and cosmetic surgery.

Worklife Solutions, Inc. have suggested a number of less drastic ways to beat ageism in order to get a job. For example, get advice from the whoever cuts your hair or sells clothes to you. At the same time, take the emphasis away from dates on your CV - in other words, highlight other import!ant facts about you without highlighting when they happened. You can learn about computers, hang around with the younger crowd (the more people you know, the more perceptive you are), or simply just go for a job which appreciates a bit of 'grey'.

Apparently, younger computer programmers are valued precisely because they are relatively guiless and malleable, whereas consultants are mostly 'seasoned' people with real expertise. Nonetheless, unlike other 'isms', ageism does not represent a social threat as for instance racism can and does, but this does not mean that ageism is justifiable.

Tip

♥ Ageism : 연령차별주의

♥ lagging behind : 뒤떨어지다. 지체하다. 침체하다. 흥미 관심등이 옅어지다.

♥ sexism : 성차별주의

♥ racism : 인종차별주의

♥ handicappism : handicap(방해,곤란, 불이익, 여기서는 사회적 불이익을 뜻하는 것 같음) + ism(~주의)

♥ the oppressed : the + oppressed(the + 형용사급 : ~ 한 사람들<복수형취급>, 여기서는 수동태이므로 ~ 당하는 사람들) 억압받는 사람들, 차별받는 사람들

♥ discrimination : 구별, 식별(력), 판별(력), 안식(眼識), 차별, 차별 대우

Questions

1. Why our society prefer younger people?

2. Do you want to be looked young? and why?

3. Ageism is more serious problem to woman, what is the reason?

4. Suppose you're age is 40. If you can down your age,

are you willing to change your age? why?

Topic2

Dog-eating controversy

It is strange that people who are so sensitive about reports on mad cow and even bird flu diseases, are rather indifferent to the perennial controversy over dog meat, largely related to its sanitary status as much as morality. A government measure to "sanitize and rationalize" the supply of dog meat has again generated a hot public debate on the desirability of the dog-eating culture but it would not significantly affect the consumption of "gaegogi" here.

The government step to prohibit cruel ways of slaughtering dogs and to strengthen hygienic overseeing of dog restaurants through the revision of pertinent statutes is definitely not an effort to discourage eating dog meat, as animal protection activists argue. On the contrary, it could boost the business at those restaurants by allowing people to enjoy dog soup and other canine specialties with less moral compunction and hygienic apprehension.

Dog meat is now the fourth most consumed meat in Korea after pig, cow and chicken, although it is not sold in ordinary supermarkets but is supplied to restaurants through special channels. Official statistics on dog meat circulation have not been updated since the late 1990s but available figures show that some 9,000 tons are being served at about 6,500 establishments across the country annually. This does not include the many dogs that are killed and consumed privately at dog-eating parties in the countryside and the large volume of dog meat that turns into a sort of "extract" considered as a health medicine cum food.

Defenders insist that the dogs eaten by Koreans are different from the kinds raised as pets, as different as cats are from dogs, that Koreans love pet dogs as much as any other people elsewhere in the world, proven by the numerous dog hospitals and dog cafes in cities, and that criticizing dog-eating custom here is nothing but "cultural imperialism" which tends to overlook even queerer culinary practices in Western countries, and so on. They may be right in these arguments, but we need to give some thought if it is really so desirable to keep dog soup as one of the high-priced items on restaurant menus in these times when we have already shed many old practices to live in the modern global community.

It is obvious that the younger people, who regard dogs more as their friends than as a source of food, have much less appetite for dog cuisine than the health-conscious older generation. So it can be expected that the passage of time will gradually push dog menus out of the Korean eating culture. However, more conscientious and active efforts aside from revising a few clauses in existing acts are called for at the government level to lead the people away from the culinary habit that hurts the image of Korea. That our bureaucrats and legislators include quite a few dog eaters should not deter such official endeavors.

**For your tips**

♥converse a recognition:인식을 전환하다.

♥cultural difference:문화적 차이

Questions

1. Do you enjoy dog meat?, or have you ever tried it before?

2. What do you think about those who still don't understand our dog-eating culture?

3. Do you think dog meat is Korea's traditional food?

4. How can we set and spread a naive perspective on dog meat to the world?

P.S  이열치열정신으로  영어와 T.D에 대한 뜨거운 열정으로 무더위를 이겨내는 한주보내시고 토욜에는 활기넘치는 톡!톡!톡! 해봐요ㅋㅋ 참! 제 주위에는 기침을 동반한 감기가 있는(?) 사람들이 눈에 보이네요 덥다고 방심말고 감기조심 음식조심 하세요~~~~

[Teddy~*]

래프팅하러 동강가는데 마치고 시간되면 꼭꼭꼭~ 꼭기요~ 참석하겠습니다~ ^-^

[yeong]

재밌겠당...무사히 돌아오길...테티..ㅋㅋㅋ

[히로]

이번주 감사중이라서 긴장...별일없으면 참석요~

[Alba(Manager)]

수고하셨습니다 빈센트님^^ 더운 여름이지만 민토에서 알차게 보내실분들 꼬리말 팍팍 달아주세용*^^*

[즐겁게살자]

오늘 가입했어요. 토욜에 뵈요~

[Vincent(카페지기)]

Alba님 말씀(?)따라 꼬리말 팍팍!! 참쓱~~합니다. 토욜에 뵈요^^

[Alba(Manager)]

우와~ 진짜?? 기대됩니다... ^^

[Alba(Manager)]

이제 여름휴가가 다가오죠!! 그래서 저조한가~~~ 암튼... 금욜 자정까지 달아주세용^^

[BYOUNG]

고고씽~~^^

[dolchai]

참석요 ~~

[Skylark]

참석 할께요^^

[오렌지나무]

두번째 참석인데 오늘 토픽봤어요. 주중에 바빠서...에고고 잘 할 수 있으려나??

[JJun(Manager)]

잘할 수 있습니다 ㅡㅡ!

[여량]

오늘 처음으로 참석할게요~~ 그런데 오늘 꼬리 달고 가도 되나요?? ㅠ_ㅠ 죄송해요!

[JJun(Manager)]

꼬리 달고 오시는 거는 잘하시는 거죠! ㅋㅋ

[Fred]

오늘 바로 참석해도 되는지 모르겠지만 참석할게요 ㅎㅎ늦어서 죄송ㅠ

[bloody]

이번주는 쉽니다~ 열공하셈~ ^^(이러다 언젠간 잠수 탈듯... ㅡㅡ;;)

[cobi]

저도 오늘 가입했어요. 참석해도 될까요?? 토픽만 읽고 가면 되는지 모르겠네요??

[JJun(Manager)]

다들 토픽만 읽고 오시는 데욤? ㅋㅋ

[amy~]

참석할께요!!!

[Doo ^^]

아마도.

[지구인]

참석요^^

[Dean]

신참입니다. 영어 (잘)못하는데 잘 부탁드립니다. 오늘 저녁에 뵐께요!

[JJun(Manager)]

저녁에 뵙죠~ ㅋㅋ