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TOPIC 1: LOTTO!!! Lotto Fever Sweeps the Nation A year has past since Lotto 6/45, the nation’s first lottery to allow players to pick their own numbers, made its debut on Dec. 7. 2002. Enthusiasm for the lottery continued to build as the total amount of the first-place winning snowballed to more than 83.5 billion won in the lottery’s 10th draw on April 8. There had been no first-prize winner for the previous three weeks and the money kept rolling over to the following weeks until, finally, a total of 13 lucky winners emerged on the fourth week to share the winning. Each took home 6.4 billion won. The largest lottery winning in the nation’s history also came from Lotto 6/45. During its 19th draw April 12, a single winner beat out the competition to rake in more than 40.7 billion won ($33.9 million). Such large winnings and other factors, some psychological, contributed to the sudden boost in the nation’s lottery business, according to experts and Kookmin Bank officials who are running the lottery. ``This is mainly because the lottery gives people an illusion that the ability to choose their own numbers raises their chances of winning,’’ Kim Jung-woon, psychologist and professor of the Leisure Studies and Information Department at Myongji University in Seoul, said in an interview with The Korea Times. …... Anyway People continued to press their luck against odds of 1 in 8 million, which means there are more than 8 million possible combinations of winning numbers, and some even tried to, almost literally, buy all 8 million possible combinations, often resulting in tens of millions of won in losses. Still, others argued the lottery brought more gambling into the society and the government must come up with a way to limit speculation. 1. Have you ever tried the lotto? Have you ever won it or how many times you lost it? 2. Wow!! Congratulations!! You just win the lotto!! Prizes are 1.8 billion won.(Based on a British survey this \1.8 billion amount of money makes you most happy) So how you are gonna spend it? (you should spend it by this year!!) Make lists and tell your partners. 3. So that 1,800,000,000 Won made you happy or you need more? 4. Do you believe if you have this money, you will be happier.? (Because most of people who won the lottery became unhappier than before) 5. Now imagine you have only 10,000 Won. How can you be happy with this money? I will give you 10,000 Won who suggest us the wonderful and special way to spend it.(Please postit on the Board,“Lets try in English" ) Anyway you can talk about it now!!. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOPIC 2:English Camp for High School Students ``Be confident in your English!’’ In the heavy snow just after Christmas, 10 buses loaded with 300 students left our school for Jirisan Family Hotel for a three day English camp. Just before our departure, the students held a brief rehearsal at the school gymnasium for the four major events they would be experiencing during the camp: a pop song contest, an English Golden Bell quiz, a Flea market, and a skit performance. Students then shouted from inside the bus while looking out outside the window at the falling snowflakes: ``We are leaving at last!’’ During every winter and summer vacation, a variety of English camps are organized as well as conducted by commercial and academic institutes or agents specializing in providing students studying abroad guidance which are advertised in all kinds of mess media such as TV, the Internet, and newspapers. Most of these camps are only scheduled to open as temporarily either domestically or abroad, and they are also often too expensive for the purpose of having students exposed to English-speaking environment. How can we provide for our students an ideal English-speaking environment like an English camp? How can we make it possible for students to be exposed to authentic English so they can apply what they have learned in the classroom during the school year? Korean students are typically trained to be exam machines for the sole purpose of achieving good marks in their English classes, particularly on tests, regardless of the authenticity of their English acquisition. But let's try to get students out of this cage of robotic, test-taking classroom instruction. Let's throw students into the ocean of the authentic English world. Let's work to cause our students to proclaim, by experiencing a more authentic English-speaking environment: ``Im confident in my English.’’ Students were supposed to participate in at least two main events; all the students of each class had to join in the pop song contest and also choose one of the other three main events (flea market, English Golden Bell Quiz, or skit performance). In addition, students were scheduled to write a diary in English before going to bed at night with the help of one native speaker and one Korean English teacher in their rooms. The pairs of native speakers and Korean English teachers were supposed to give feedback about their diaries and return them to students the next day. Students were given an opportunity not only to write a letter to friends, parents, and teachers in English on the last day just before finishing the English camp but also to introduce themselves to others in English. This English camp succeeded in providing students, who are used to being exhausted in the cage of exam hell, a golden opportunity to fly out away from their classrooms high into the sky of the authentic English world. Students have now had such a wonderful chance to go through two authentic English worlds for improving their spoken English _ the ``English Only Zone,’’ a special place for only speaking in English, set up at the beginning of this year inside the school building in association with a store, and now the English camp. Plus!! 'English Village' to Make Debut in Seoul in October A facility for visitors to learn English in a simulated English-speaking environment will open in October in Pungnap-dong, Songpa-gu, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Thursday. The city plans to build the Seoul English Experiencing Village by renovating some former dormitories of the Korean Exchange Bank. The village has a capacity for 400 people, with lodgings, laboratories, lecture rooms and various culture and art facilities in four buildings. Visitors and students can develop their English skills by speaking only English in an environment that looks like a real English-speaking community. In the village, for instance, people will get English names and use currency resembling the U.S. dollar in purchasing goods. Hotels, post offices and other facilities will also be operated in a similar way to those in English-speaking countries so that visitors can learn not only the language but the culture context as well. Participants can stay at the village for a maximum eight weeks, while some facilities such as convenience stores and souvenir shops will be open to the public. Questions 1. Well, Would you like to join this kind of English training camp to improve your English skill? 2. Would you like to live “English Village for a while”? 3. Do you think what is the best way to improve one’s English?(example, going abroad in the young age or learn Crazy English of Lee Yang^^) 4. Why do you think most of Korean people are crazy about learning English? 5. Is English really important to your job or your dream? 6. How will you teach English to your kids? 7. Do you think we can conquer English Completely?!! HOW?? Tell me?? The articles are from Koreatimes and edited by Michael. Copyright is reserved to Koreatimes.Hope you enjoy reading it. Thanks for reading anyway!!.^^ 주제는 직딩스터디...에서 퍼왔습니다. 이번주도 활기차게 참석해주세요 부탁드리며 내일 뵜겠습니다.