<목욜정모> December 18th, 2008 Thursday meeting's Topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy ! Englisholic members!

It's freezing out there !~ Take care yourself not to catch a cold.

This week we're gonna talk about one of our communication method, namely, "Cyworld".

I have no doubt that Everyone in our club had experienced this online system already.

Now some said that doing this is one of the time consuming and useless task.

Others took it as a useful method to expand and manage social relationship.

I think you have a lot to talk about this.

Plz prepare your own opinion on this matter.

And I have a notice for you on our biannual ceremony "Wine Party".

Every single members of Englisholic member will get together in one place.

And we will share our venturous and challenging lives in the real life.

It's one of our important ceremony !~ Plz Join us !~ I'll inform you of the details soon !

Then have fun Guys !~

Scarlett

Why Do You Do ‘Cyworld’?
  
In Korean society, whether you do 'cy'(be a member of "cyworld") or not are beyond your choice. Now 'Cy' is an inevitable choice to be a member of the Korean society. Even though you don't have a digital camera or don't like to do web-surfing, you have to do Cyworld because so many parts of our daily life are connected with Cyworld. In some classes, professors run Cyworld club as a place for discussion. When you work on some projects with your partners, you also have to do Cyworld to upload and download files. And if you want to share the IGS's precious memories, you have to be a member of Cyworld. This means that to be a member of any society, first you have to be a member of "Cyworld.”

To analyze the reason of this Cyworld syndrome, first we have to find out what makes Cyworld so special. Cyworld is a blog where you can upload photos or write a diary to share your personal daily life with your friends. It is basically based on a real-name system, so reckless insult is much less than any other websites. So the motto of Cyworld can be a 'close relationships between good people'. The most distinctive characteristic of Cyworld is the special relationship system, which is called "il-chon" (Korean traditional word which means close kin). Because only il-chon, who is admitted by the owner of mini homepage, can access to core materials, the owner can be frank and does his or her best to show his or her true-self to il-chon. This process minimizes the gap between a real world and a virtual world. So when you visit friends' mini homepages, you almost feel like entering friends' own room in the real world.

But nowadays, negative opinions toward Cyworld are increasing radically. Some say it is nothing but business means. The statistics shows that the increasing rate of the amount of selling digital cameras and the number of Cyworld members is closely related. And as people log-in Cyworld for considerable time everyday, the companies actively advertise their products on Cyworld. So the people who criticize Cyworld say that even though the first intention-close relationship between good people-was good, it is turning bad now. Besides these commercial aspects, many people quit Cyworld because they think it is time-wasting, meaningless work. Actually if you visit some of your friends' mini homepages and upload some photos on your mini homepage, it takes more than one or two hours. And wherever they go or whatever they do, they are obsessed with the idea of taking pictures to upload on their Cyworld homepages so they can't concentrate on real world(Dwen-jang Nyeo can be one example). As I mentioned before, because people regard their mini homepages as their symbol, they often get too nervous about the number of visitors. Some say that it is silly to get annoyed by just the number of how many people visit your homepage. But to them, it is not 'just' a number. If the number is high, they feel

proud that they are famous. There are even bug programs to increase the number of visitors.

So to summarize, because of its practical and distinctive system, Cyworld became a part of our daily lives. If you can utilize this system wisely, you can make better relationship among friends and acquaintances. But if you are too obsessed, you can lose your control over your real life. So I think the firm principle is the key. If you feel annoyed, then quit it at once. But if you feel Cyworld helps you to make more flourish life, then do it, but wisely.

Raised Questions===================================================
1. Do you do 'cy' or not?
2. If you do, why? and if you not, why?
3. What benefits can we get from doing cy, and what are the losses?
4. ‘Dwen-jang Nyeo ' shows a bad effect of Cyworld. What do you think about it?
5. How can we "wisely" do cy?

Insensibility of Etiquette

The unconscious behaviors you make in your class may be seen very impolite to your teachers or other students. Not every student is so, however most student's behavior shows ill-mannered and rudeness which makes others frown. I see this problem very seriously, even more that students are becoming insensible on this matter. Here are some behaviors ignored unconsciously in our actual life.

< The beginning of lecture>
The ill-mannered students start their class being late. Here I don’t mean that the case of students who are late due to the traffic jam or bad condition. The intentional lateness is the main problem: they spend their time drinking a cup of coffee while chatting with their friends and feel never sorry becoming late for class. Then they entered class with a big noise, especially the female latecomer make the most terrible sounds with their heels.

Students often move in and out from their class. Why can't they remain seated? Maybe, the first reason would be toilet. Since it is a physiological matter, it is hard to blame them if they do so. However the problem is when one student goes out, others also start to move and follow the former students. Some professors obstruct leaving the class to protect the atmosphere steady but still the victims who carry great passion on studying would feel bothered.

The worse problem is cell phone. It is very easy to find students sending text messages during the whole lecture and even talk over the phone by whispering. The sound of vibration goes here and there of the class room. Also, there are students who are absorbed in taking pictures during the class in spite of crack sounds.

The people who see a movie or drama with their PMP and surf the Internet with their laptop, even more make up their face and glaze manicure, eat food or snacks, sleep on their stomach and so on……
At this moment, let’s look up the other countries’ case to correspond to these situations. First, it’s case of Japan which have well-organized system, the class hour is fixed as a one and half hours. Therefore, students may know the time well and they are able to keep on the class time as well. In Germany, they strictly keep away student from eating food even drinking during the class, and some classes are equipped with an electric wave breaker. So the students can’t use the cell phone in the class. In case of USA, where atmosphere of freedom is provided to the students also has a strong aptitude on the matter of cell phone. For instance, they permit eating some food and using a cell phone, however, if the bell rings, the owner of that phone should be stand in front of other students and make an apology to their friends which would be certainly shameful.

Now, what do you think about our aptitude in class? I want to talk about this and make a solution if you think this problem forwards to seriousness. I am sure of that every student including myself wants to study in a good atmosphere. To do this, what would be an outstanding solution to make it better and not act as we were in the past.

Raised Questions===================================================
1. Do you think today’s students are impolite or insensible to etiquette?

    Is there any other case you can share?
2. How about your behavior during the class? Tell us about your insensible impolite attitude.
3. Do you think what kind of behaviors should be banned and what could be allowed?
   [e.g using a cell phone, eating food, sleeping intentionally, make up one’s face, etc]
4. For the matter of cell phone, do you think it’s a good idea like Germany or US which intercepts the sound wave in the class?
5. Have you ever had a special promise to make much better environment with your instructor?

[뺑끼]

gOOD JOb~ ^^

[신선영]

Thank you very much~^^