[08/18]More young Koreans lighting up cigarette

Topic 1 More young Koreans lighting up cigarette   Government intensifying campaigns to curb smoking among young population By Lee Joo-hee A dark karaoke room illuminated by a small pulsating disco ball on the ceiling and a television screen on one side is filled with smoke. Modern Korean pop music blasts out in the background. Holding microphones in one hand and lighted cigarettes in the other, a half-dozen girls who look no more than 16 or 17 years-old belt out the words of the song scrolling on the TV screen and take a deep puff on their cigarettes at the end of each verse. "Noraebang (Korean karaoke rooms) is the best hangout place for us because we can smoke here all we want without worrying about our teachers or parents spotting us," said Shin Ji-eun, 17, currently in the first year of high school. Her name was modified at her request. Shin nonchalantly talks about how she began smoking at 13, when she entered junior high school. "Me and my friends were just hanging out one evening, when I tried a smoke for the first time because all the others were doing it," Shin said. No longer do any people gawk when they see a group of students dressed in school uniforms smoking in an alley or parks in a neighborhood, it`s a commonplace occurrence in what was once a conservative country sprouting from Confucianism where smoking pipes was considered a monopoly of elder gentlemen. The country now is notorious for its large smoking population. Latest statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development say that in 2001 over 57 percent of males aged 15 and above smoked. Stemming from this extensive smoking regimen is an increasing tendency among youths to light up cigarettes. The rate of smoking rate among youths is the second highest in the world after Austria, according to the Tobacco Epidemic, a monitoring organization. Nearly 29 percent of boys habitually smoke or have tried cigarettes. Following Korea was Japan with 26 percent, Hungary 25 percent and France 23 percent. Four out of 10 high school seniors smoke in Korea, compared to 10 percent in the United States and 22 percent in Japan. "There are a lot of factors that influence students to start smoking including curiosity, peer pressure, family problems or stress from college entrance examinations," said Mun Byeong-ho of the Commission on Youth Protection. But Mun explained smoking can also be considered a country`s characteristic. "Although Korea has one of the world`s highest smoking rates, we hardly suffer from the drug problems that are rampant in Thailand and some other countries," Mun said. A country characteristic or not, the consequence of smoking from an early age is lethal. "When a person under 18 smokes a cigarette, it creates a permanent deformation of the genes, thus carrying a sustainable risk of cancer. It is how early you started smoking rather than how much you smoke that elevates your risk at getting cancer," according to the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Heaping concerns on the high youth smoking rate in Korea is the rising number of smokers among girls, and the average age is getting younger. An annual survey by the Korean Association of Smoking and Health of 5,000 students showed 2.3 percent of the girls smoked in 2003, compared to 0.9 percent in 2002. The smoking rate among the boys dropped to 6.8 percent from 7.3 percent. "In addition to wider exposure the students now get from the media depicting smoking as cool, the rise in the number of girls smoking seems to come from a spreading delusion that smoking makes you lose weight," said Choi Jun-sook, secretary general of the smoking and health association. Choi does not expect to see any decline in the numbers when this year`s survey is issued next month. "Campaigns against smoking have been slower this year than previous years. It is not due to any specific reason but even a slight decrease in the campaign has a great impact on the smoking rate," he said. **For your tips** ￭Smoking rate: 흡연율 ￭Smoking population: 흡연자들의 수 (ex>How large is the smoking population?)   Questions 1. How well do you realize the serious problem of young smokers? 2. Why do you think the young smoke a lot these days? 3. What kind of bad effects are expected from smoking at a young age? 4. How can it be possible to reduce the smoking rate among the young?     Topic2 Kids Say Learning English Stressful   One out of five elementary school students have experienced there own dose of ``bullying'' simply because they are not as good at English as their friends, a poll revealed. The survey conducted on 471 elementary school students also showed that nearly 18 percent feel stressed because of English and often worry about their language exams. ``Parents are worried too, often pressuring their children to learn proper English and the stress seems to be transferred to their children,'' said Lee Cheol-yong, CEO of Tong Class, a private English education institute which conducted the survey. ``And the stress or the obsession seems to cause problems between peers in class.'' Forty-seven percent of the students said the main motive to start learning English was the encouragement or enforcement by their parents. Despite the stress, 66 percent said they wanted to keep learning English and 51 percent said English is necessary to survive.It seems that the obsession in learning English at early ages is largely attributed to worries by parents who do not want their children to lose a competition with their peers. ``Every parent struggles to let their kids have good English education and you can't help but joining them if you don't want to see your children lose a competition with others,'' Jang Kyung-mi, a mother of two children in Gyeonggi Province, said. Her daughter and son have taken English classes at several private institutes, paying 300,000 won a month, but Jang said she is still worried that she may need to do something more for them. Experts say English classes at elementary schools should first neutralize feelings of anxiety felt by parents and their children from being obsessed with English education. Currently, an elementary school offers one or two classes a week, which they find is insufficient. ``Poor school curriculum in English classes may be largely attributed to the worries that parents have,'' said Lee Won-key, professor of the English education department at Seoul National University of Education. ``More classes by properly trained teachers are the solution to ease the worries and stress of parents and children.''   Questions 1. When did you start to learn English? Did you like to learn English? Why? Or why not? 2. What do you think is the most import!ant factor or motivation to start learning English? 3. These days every parent struggles to let their children have good English education. What do you think about that? When you have your children, how will you educate your children? 4. What can we do to ease the worries and stress of parents and children about English?