금요일 정모주제 [2005/8/5]1.memories of school days./2.Silent Society

[willam]

Exhibit brings back memories of school days

Do you remember the good old days when life was much slower and simpler? People used to give more credit to each other even without credit cards, and understood others better without cell phones.

Things were pretty much the same at elementary schools. Although classrooms were as tightly packed as canned sardines with kids sitting on old, squeaking wooden chairs, they were always lit up with smiles.

Parents might want to have their beloved young ones savor the time, yet no one can turn the time back one second. To their joy, though, time travel is not the only solution.

"Let's Go School," an exhibition now on display at the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, is full of memory-provoking display items, which will surely serve the end.

A wooden desk, chairs and other items displayed at the "Let`s Go School" exhibition

The exhibition room has been modeled after a typical Korean elementary school of the '70s and '80s, and it has virtually everything - from a playground to a heavy iron stove - in it, as one, especially in his or her thirties and forties, remember how their schools were when they were kids. Though the school building is not a real one, thousands of items displayed here are genuine. They are from the collections of Yang Ho-yul, head of the Korean Educational History Center. Right beside the school's front gate is a stationery shop which also sells various kinds of cheap snacks that are not exactly supposed to be healthy, but delicious.

Entering the front door, a male teacher with a very unhappy look greets visitors. Roaming about the gate with a rod in his right hand, he is looking for students who break the school rules by growing hair excessively, or simply being late. In fact, the teacher is not a real teacher but a hired actor, but none of the visitors of the exhibition seemed to care.

"I'm happy to be back to my old school," said Shim Eun-sun, 40, who visited the exhibition on its opening day last Friday with her nine-year-old son.

"Back then I went to school with all the textbooks packed in a scarf, instead of a bag," Choi Boon-nyo, 65, a visitor from Sinnae-dong in Seoul, said.

Including the teacher, there are 60 actors hired to make the daily trip extremely real, but they are not the only ones acting here.

Visitors line up at the playground to a sudden announcement heard through outdated speakers. After a little setting-up exercise called "Gungmin Chejo (citizens' gymnastics)," they will be divided into two groups to compete for prizes through outdoor games.

More than 500 people visited the exhibition on its opening day alone, proving the event's popularity. Even kids who felt reluctant to follow their parents to go to the exhibition later find it as funny as any video games to play old games in the shabby classroom.

One of the hottest spots of the exhibition is a room displaying cherished belongings of celebrities, which date back to their school days.

For the event, President Roh Moo-hyun has lent his letter of appointment as the chairman of his elementary school's students' council, while Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and world renowned evangelist David Cho have displayed their elementary school yearbooks. Don't forget to peek into Gyeonggi Province Governor Sohn Hak-kyu's middle school report card.

For those from the first generation of computerization, who are in their mid-thirties, there is also a video game room, where classic arcade games such as Galaxian and Pac Man are available.

The exhibition continues until Aug. 29. Tickets are 7,000 won for children and 12,000 won for adults. For more information, call (02) 786-2892 or go www.letsgoschool.co.kr

(danlee@heraldm.co.kr)

By Lee Yong-sung

2005.08.03

1. what is your feelings when you see the picture?

2. could you tell us about your elementary school life?

3. if you could come back that time, what would you want to do? especially elementary school?

4. when was the best school life for you? high school or middle school or elemenatary school or university ? and why?

5. if you still remember a good or bad memories in your school life, please tell us...

Phones Make Korea a Silent Society The mobile phone bill of college student Oh Su-hyeon (21) for the month of July lists 648 text messages and four hours and 55 minutes of talk -- an average of 21.6 text message a day and an average nine minutes and eight seconds of conversation. "I used to spend about two hours on the phone every day, but now I send text messages. All you need to do is state your business, there's nothing superfluous and it's convenient." Oh is not alone. Housewife Hwang Jin-seon (55) only recently learned how to send SMS (short text messages) so she could keep in touch with her daughter, who lives a long way away. "I felt uncomfortable calling her at work, and I wanted to show I wasn't completely out of touch with technology,” she says. “Still, speaking is better." A man sends an SMS at a subway station in downtown Seoul. If in an age of near-ubiquitous communication people have become paradoxically quiet, it is because means of communication that replace the spoken word, like chat programs and text messengers, are cheap, convenient to use and accessible everywhere. There are people who say they could live comfortably without saying a word all day, and who send so many SMS and chat online so much that sometimes they find it awkward to talk. Yet it is the telephone that is at the heart of these changes, a device that is rooted more than anything else in the attempt to allow people to talk. As mobile phones grow more sophisticated, they are eradicating the very purpose they were designed for. In the case of telecom provider KTF, the SMS sent in June (2,000,008,616) for the first time outnumbered mobile phone calls (2,000,004,669). And the SMS culture has spread from the young generation to those in their 40s and 50s. Cell phones with GPS navigation systems have also created a world where no one needs to ask directions, and DMS systems allowing people to watch TV on their phones have replaced gossip as a way to kill time. But the changes are taking place elsewhere too. Manned subway ticket booths are being visited by much fewer people. Cho Dong-hwan, the manager of Gwanghwamun Station on subway Line 5, says of the 28,000 passengers who use Gwanghwamun Station daily, over 80 percent use transport cards. “The overwhelming majority of passengers using the ticket window are asking for senior citizen tickets.” There are concerns that the silent society could aggravate alienation and isolation. But experts say there is no need to expect the worst: it is merely that communication is changing, from face-to-face to other forms, yet the flood of communication itself has not stopped. Korea University sociologist Kim Mun-jo said changes in mode could cause a communication gap between generations and classes, but that is offset by a simultaneous “generation lap” where the older generation follows the younger, for example when older people learn to send text messages or e-mails. Yonsei University sociologist Kim Ho-gi says young-generation “cool” means a preference for writing over speech. "Speech is loaded with feeling, and because young people prefer communication styles that convey meaning simply and clearly while keeping their own emotions in check, they like communicating through text messages." (englishnews@chosun.com )

1. what is better to you? speaking or send an sms?

2. what is your opinion that why people like to send an SMS?

3. if you receive the SMS, how much time after do you response that?

4. what is the most interesting function in modern style moblie phone ? and why?

5. do you think the SMS service made our country to be a silent?

[polaris]

수고했따..

[willam]

형님 고생많수... 오프에서 봐