8월 8일 토픽입니다.

[Eric Son]

늦어서 죄송합니다. 오실분들은 리플 달고 남겨주세요~ !!

1.Wide awake on hazardous overdose of energy .

(Why don’t we introduce ourselves first?)

At around 7:15 a.m. every school day, Kim Kyu-dong, a 17-year-old high school senior at Gyeonggi Province, drops by a convenience store to buy two tins of Hot 6, an energy drink with high amounts of caffeine and taurine. Kim drinks one of them right before the first class starts in order not to doze off. At 12:45 p.m. after having lunch, Kim drinks the second tin. This keeps him from feeling drowsy after eating, and helps him concentrate during afternoon classes. As he can’t buy energy drinks at the school cafeteria, he buys them before school.

At 11:00 p.m. after school, Kim heads to a private study close to his home. He usually stays up until 1:00 a.m. studying before going home. It is hard to stay awake, so he gets another Hot 6 from the vending machine in the reading room’s lounge.

The strength of caffeine gets much higher, when midterm or final exams. He cooks a mixed drink, better known here as a “Boong-boong drink.” It is a cocktail mixed with one or two tins of energy drinks and sports drinks, and a little amount of powdered vitamin C. The cocktail energy drink has been popular among mid and high school students who want to stay up all night mainly for securing enough time for studying in the days before exams.

“Many of my friends drink these kinds of energy drinks as we need to be awake so as not to miss any classes and time for study.” Kim says. Ahn Min-sub, a high school student living in Seoul, is among those who show signs of addiction to energy drinks.

“Sometimes I fell asleep during class or when studying. As soon as I wake up, I can see other classmates are concentrating on studying, and it really makes me feel anxious. I feel like being left behind while others are doing well,” Ahn said. “That is the main reason I drink energy drinks on a daily basis. My friends are not much different.”

Questions

1. Have you ever tried energy drinks(or Boong Boong drink) before?

2. How did it affect you during your studies? Did you get a good grade on that test?

3. Do you think energy drinks work? Why or why not?

2. Cash or card?

(20:20 ~ 21:05)

(Why don’t we introduce ourselves first?)

A few days ago, Kim Yoon-mi, a 25-year-old freelance translator, had an unpleasant moment at a small restaurant near her office in central Seoul.

She wanted to grab a quick bite before rushing to meet a client. Kim ordered two rolls of “gimbap” (rice rolled with dried sea weed and other ingredients) for 5,000 won and pulled out her credit card to pay, but the owner frowned at the sight of the card and simply said, “No.” He said they only take cash, so Kim ended up leaving without anything to eat.

Park Soo-jung, a 29-year-old college lecturer, also had an embarrassing experience a week ago. She went shopping to buy a dress for her sister’s birthday at a clothing store in the neighborhood.

She found a pretty black miniskirt with a price tag of 200,000 won. When she handed over her credit card, the clerk said the price of the skirt was 10 percent more if she wanted to use her card and demanded 220,000 won.

Taken aback, Park asked why she had to pay extra. The clerk said it is their policy as a way to offset the fee charged by credit card firms.

Park didn’t have that much cash, neither did she want to pay more than the actual price on the tag. “It was ridiculous. It felt like I was being ripped off,” she said.

In the end, she left the shop empty-handed. She couldn’t understand why she had to shoulder extra costs to pay by credit card.

Many mom-and-pop shops are reluctant to take plastic as the processing fees charged by card firms eat into their profits.

But the reluctance to accept cards inconveniences customers who nowadays don’t carry much cash.

Plus, credit card companies offer mileage and other benefits to customers to entice them into using their plastic more often to begin with.

On the other hand, merchants and shop owners know that refusing to take cards is illegal but some can ill-afford to pay card fees, especially while business is sluggish.

Questions:

1. Which way do prefer to pay more cash or card?

2. What do you think of the additional fees when using card?

3. If you were an owner, would having additional fees be a burden to you?

4. In what way can this matter be solved?

3.Does efficiency equal mediocrity?

The efficient human may not be interesting, but they must at least appear to be.

The efficient human wakes up promptly when their alarm clock goes off and does not linger and daydream in bed. They read daily news on the Internet, or if they are more financially fortunate, or less environmentally conscious, a newspaper over breakfast. After showering to a little Chopin, jazz or pop music, the efficient human aims to arrive on time at work or school and is almost never late.

More importantly, the efficient human is defined by the sheer number of activities that fills his or her life. For example, the efficient housewife or house husband may juggle a dozen household or financial duties, but they also belong to an investment club or two, a few active alumni associations, attend a large church to strike up friendships with people who may someday be useful to know, and are friendly with the local real estate agent, stockbroker, grocer and banker - anything to give their family an advantage.

The diary of the efficient human is packed, which gives them great satisfaction as well as stress because it is evidence that life is productive and therefore meaningful.

The efficient human may not be interesting, but they must at least appear to be. They are learning or keeping up with a foreign language (or two!) and follow the latest film reviews, trending jokes and popular TV shows, not to mention the hot topics of the day in order not to be left out of conversations. They have hobbies, but only ones that offer advancement or improvement, such as skiing, wine tasting or, if possible, travel to exotic foreign countries.

The efficient human is not necessarily a multitasker, but their days are usually productive and nights are invariably active. No lying on the couch night after night reading or watching TV. The evening is time to establish connections with useful people, who find the efficient human pleasant to be around for he or she is versed in politics, history, finance and the arts.

The efficient man measures his time by the hour and the day. He likes words that make him feel slightly uneasy: efficient, productive, busy, deadlines, opportunity. Here are more of his favored words: achievement. awards. publicity. public approval. The efficient man enjoys being recognized. Too much.

When efficient humans get married, they usually end up having a good-looking and engaging wife or husband, two children and a beautiful home.

As a society, we probably need some of these efficient humans to function. But what this busy lifestyle often masks is what actually matters to a person. The efficient human’s passions, ideals, and beliefs are unreadable to the most astute around him or her, and maybe even unreadable to himself. What do they live for beyond achievement? What do they desire outside of a standardized idea of what a desirable life should look like?

For the efficient man, weekdays and weekends are frantic with obligations. People, including his children and himself, are measured by their level of achievement. These efficient humans seem to reproduce like rabbits in urban environments.

Cities create efficient societies, and efficient societies encourage the production and creation of efficiency-aspiring humans.

Much of what is valuable to creation and original thought happens in stillness and is defined by idleness. The examples of such so-called notable people (and not) are countless, and I won’t pander to the desire for lists of names. But what these people know is that you need time to think. Time to feel. Time to be still. To recover from society’s influence through a great deal of retreat.

Being an efficient human equals being a human who belongs to society. To be so heavily involved in society beyond what is already necessary entails adopting the values, lifestyles and attitudes surrounding you. Look at the Korea Coast Guard or members of the Geumsuwon sect surrounding the Sewol ferry tragedy. Look at the National Assembly. Most likely, these people didn’t start life as such myopic and self-serving individuals. We become what we immerse ourselves in, and the efficient human’s values and ideals can only be a mirror of the greater world around us that we more often disparage than praise, that disappoints more often than it delights.

The larger world is the provenance and desire of the buffoon, and the blind leading the blind. The efficient human, so diligent in activity, so mediocre in his thoughts, leads a life of constant activity dedicated to minor achievements and minor notoriety that for most will not be remembered by anyone in a decade, or five, which is a life antithetical to contemplation. I wish it weren’t that way, but history has repeatedly proven this to be true.

Only those who step out and away, or are present but are more observer than central participant, have the capacity to see and help lead us to a world of more justice and more beauty.

[STAFF♡]

준비해 놓겠습니다^^

[soyee]

저 가요!

[Robin Park]

참석~ ^^

[justin03]

참석