<목욜정모> May 29th, 2008 Thursday meeting's Topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy Englisholic Members !!!

Recently many people who need counselling is rapidly increasing around me.

Even though every one of you don't need advice, sometimes you need help from the others.

You will need even fortune teller in case there are not the proper counselor around you.  

Some people say that you will get helped by the whole procedure itself

that you are talking to others and listing your problems in order.

And I agree with the fact that sumarizing the difficulties will help you out to clarify your troublesome.

Ok !!! then we gonna talk about the experience of visiting fortuneteller !

Have fun with your team members.

Ur Scarlett

Many Koreans Feel Comfortable Seeking Advice from Fortune-tellers

By Kim Hyun and Kim Joo-young SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) --

In a brightly lit room festooned with colorful bunting and shamanic images, Choi Seon-wook, who has just entered her 30s, was keen on asking a portly soothsayer what her future will be like.

"My parents keep bugging me, asking when I am going to get married," Choi said in a pleading voice on a recent Sunday.

"There are things I can't solve myself." Having just broken up with her boyfriend, Choi was making her second visit to the fortune-teller in less than a month. She said the 20-minute visit, which cost her 30,000 won (US$26), was worth it.

The female seer told Choi to "be careful about men this year and next year, and then you'll find the right one." Fortune-teller Im Bin-chang tells a young woman how her life will be in the new year. The fortune-telling business, mainly attracting the young generation, is growing in metropolitan cities and is estimated to be worth 2 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) annually.

Choi seemed relieved when she stepped out of the fortune-teller's Korean-style home and office in northern Seoul. "I don't expect a complete answer here, but it gives me a sense of relief, just like when I get good counseling," she said with a grin. While many people dismiss fortune-telling as superstition, the time-honored art is a prosperous business in today's South Korea, and is estimated by experts to be worth 2 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) and still growing.

There are 60,000 to 70,000 self-styled fortune-tellers and a similar number of trained seers in a country of 48 million, according the private Korea Folklore Society. They work mostly in populous urban areas. More people visit fortune-tellers in difficult times or when a new year begins. Now is one of those times as many Koreans are suffering from an economic downturn.

Unemployment is rising, causing some desperate people to commit suicide. Korean fortune-tellers, commonly called shamans, used to be identified as old men or women sitting in front of Buddha statues in old houses hidden on the edges of bleak neighborhoods. Their main customers were housewives asking such mundane questions as whether their children would pass the college entrance exam, if their son or daughter should marry, whether they should buy a house in the east or the west part of the city and even whether it was OK to cut down a tree so as not to anger the tree gods.

Today, it has become a part of the daily lives of many Koreans, young and old. Fortune-teller cafes have sprouted up in the ritzy urban back streets. Ordinary people feel comfortable going there for drinks and counseling. Prof. Suh Jung-bum of Kyung Hee University in Seoul said shamanism was a close - and not necessarily bad - part of Koreans' daily lives, dating back to the 15th century. In Korea's folk history, Suh said, gods were everywhere in a house. There was a god for the gate, a separate god for the kitchen, another for the chimney, and ones for every pillar.

But as time passed, people lost touch with these gods, so they felt psychologically deprived and began to long for other mysterious things, Suh said. "Shamanism is an outward expression‎! of such longings." Seen here are a number of young people asking and being consulted about their futures on Jan. 24 at a "fortune-teller cafe" in Seoul. However, the fortune-tellers these days are young and educated, and many work in bright, expensively decorated cafes in well-to-do neighborhoods. Jung Chang-yong, 39, is in his 11th year of running a fortune-telling cafe near a women's university in western Seoul. Over 150 people come to his cafe each day, mostly young women. "For women, going to a fortune-teller is like going to a hair salon. They look for someone who can show and tell them precisely what to expect," Jung says.

Cafes like Jung's first appeared about 15 years ago. They drew college students who came for fun, giggling with friends, asking about academic and career prospects and their love life. Many fortune-tellers are online, operating 3,000 to 4,000 sites. Some of them boast daily profits of up to 20 million won ($17,000). These kind of fortune tellers are a new breed. Most of them learned the art through self-education or at institutes that teach fortune-reading techniques. They also go by books of statistics based on the pattern of lives lived by individuals according to the date, time and year of their birth. For the original fortune-tellers, the business is anything but fun and money.

For some, it is a curse. Shaman Park Jung-im's room is decorated with colorful bunting and images of her ancestors who are believed to fill her with holy spirit and foresight. Park Jung-im, 55, says she spent 14 years fighting off what is called here "the divine order" to become a fortune teller. She first "felt" the signs at 38, and when she refused to follow them, she became extremely ill and failed at everything she did, including motel and restaurant businesses.

Then she gave up and accepted her fate. Park says she was given fortune-telling powers by her ancestors. Instead of going by the books, she says she speaks to her customers as she is told to speak by her forefathers. Park has to go to a mountain on the coldest winter nights, or whenever called upon by the ancestors, to keep in touch with "the voice." "I tell myself that I should prevent my spirits from going into my descendants after I die. My spirit will keep chasing them to walk the same path as I did," Park said.

"This life is just too hard." Older people still look for seers like Park because they believe they are much more precise than the statistics-laden fortune-tellers of today. Hwang Mi-ja, 62, says she always welcomes new information about those who have just received the "divine order." "They are the best. Their predictions are surprisingly right. But I make sure that they haven't lost the 'voice.' I was told that it goes away after a few years," Hwang said. Be it superstition, shamanism or whatever, Koreans today are taking fortune-telling much more lightly than previous generations. While older people expect fortune tellers to tell them how unseen hands are controlling their lives, the young generation just wants advice.

Noh Sung-woo, 46, also runs a fortune-telling cafe in southern Seoul. He looks into people's faces to read their lives - and fortune. "To be honest, we're not 100 percent right. We just want to lead our customers in a positive direction," he said. "If the facial image is strong, we tell them to become humble. If the image is weak, we pep them up, encourage them...We are counseling them."

Questions -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Have you visited to a forturn-teller or saju cafe? tell us about your experience..
2. do you believe in what forturn-teller says? And what is your first impression fortune-teller? 
3. When do you usually want to visit to a forturn-teller? some people say that go to a forturn-teller when they face a important choice and some say it just helpful to make a decision , but some say it just make things more complicated .What's your opinion on this matter?
4. what do you think of depending on forturn-teller's saying when you need to make a decision or how much are you affected by forturn tellers's saying?
5. If the fortune-teller say you shouldn’t get married with your boy or girl friend, what are you gonna do?
6. Where is the most precise result telling place to you? got Any recommendable place?
   

Afterlife  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

The afterlife, or life after death, are generic terms referring to survivalism*, a "continuation*" of existence, typically spiritual, experiential, or ghost-like, beyond this world, or after physical death (eg. near-death experience, reincarnation*). The major views in this area derive from religion, metaphysics*, and science. Also there are those with opposite views, such as the materialist-reductionists*, who state that the topic is supernatural*, therefore does not really exist or is unknowable.

* survivalism : 생존주의 * metaphysics : 형이상학
* continuation : 연속 * materialist : 유물론자
* reincarnation : 환생 * supernatural : 초자연의
* reductionism : 환원주의(생명 현상은 물리학적·화학적으로 다 설명할 수 있다고 함)

Afterlife in modern science

Modern science, in general, either describes the universe and human beings without reference to a soul or to an afterlife; or tends to remain mute on the issue. One famous study, was conducted in 1901 by physician Duncan MacDougall, who sought to measure the weight purportedly* lost by a human body when the soul departed* the body upon death. MacDougall weighed dying patients in an attempt to prove that the soul was material, tangible and thus measurable.

These experiments are widely considered to have had little if any scientific merit, and although MacDougall's results varied considerably from "21 grams," for some people this figure has become synonymous* with the measure of a soul's mass. The title of the 2003 movie 21 Grams is a reference to MacDougall's findings. Others, such as Francis Crick in 1994, have attempted a ‘scientific search for the soul’. Frank Tipler has argued that physics can explain immortality, though such arguments are not falsify* and thus do not qualify as science.

Afterlife as reward or punishment

Many religious traditions have held that the afterlife will resolve justice by assigning rewards and punishments to people according to how they lived their lives. This belief can be found throughout the ancient world, especially in Greek and Roman religion, as well as in various Asian religions. To the extent that the afterlife is a form of justice, it is usually restricted to humans, as other animals are not held responsible for their actions.

* purported : ~라고 소문이 난
* departed : 죽은
* synonymous : 동의어의
* falsify : 위조하다

Question ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Did you think about afterlife? And do you believe afterlife?
   Whatever you believe it or not why do you think like that?
2. Do you think afterlife is related to current life like above "Afterlife as reward or punishment" in last paragragh?
   Talk about the reason why you think like that.
3. If afterlife actually exists, why each afterlife is different according to each religion?
   (For example, the Christian religion and Buddhism have different belief about afterlife.)
4. what will happen to you if you die? And Where do you want to go after you die?

[그때 그놈]

회장님 수고하셨습니다.- 출력해갑니다 ^^

[Scarlet]

넵 공부 많이 해오세요.

[바쿠스 최치원]

나도 출력해서 모르는 단어 찾고 있어... 왜케 모르는 단어가 많어... 공부좀 해야겠다.. ㅎㅎㅎ

[Scarlet]

단어가 좀 난해하긴 하네요.

[데니스]

제목에 날짜가...좀..^^ 5/29일 주제 맞죠??

[Scarlet]

이런 센스쟁이 수정완료

[Samuel(Sam)]

와~일찍 올려주셨네요.^^이번 주제는 미신..!?ㅋㅋ스티비원더의 superstition이 생각나네요..ㅋㅋ 암튼! 잘 읽을께요~

[Scarlet]

응 샘샘샘 좋아좋아 고고싱

[yona.]

ㅋㅋ 오호..이번주제..심상찮은데여?ㅋㅋ 신나신나~~가는거야~ㅋ