Salman Khan who is the innovator of education

Salman Khan who is the innovator of education

  Students can study with videos which are about school subjects in the 21st century if they can use internet. Online lectures which are similar as a distance learning is used by a lot of middle school and high school students in South Korea. They learn Korean, mathematics, English, social studies, and science from videos. In addition, students from South Korea can study free of charge by internet lectures of EBSi which provides videos at no cost. Teachers of online lectures are actually working in middle schools and high schools and some of them are famous for teaching students well in the education field. Students who are intelligent but don't have an ability to afford private education expenses which are more than 200,000 won study the college entrance exam and school tests by EBSi videos and finally enter a school which they wanted to go. There are some online lectures such as Etoos, Megastudy, and Skyedu in South Korea which have to be paid but they are cheaper than a private educational institute. Moreover, teachers of these videos are very popular. Therefore, many teenagers register for paid internet lectures because of good teachers and the benefit that they can watch lectures whenever they want. In South Korea, EBSi, Etoos, and Megastudy are well-known online lectures but all around the world, Khan Academy is the most popular non-governmental organization which provides online lectures for free. Salman Khan who founded this NGO is the teacher of the whole world and the innovator of education and gives hope to the students who could not receive expensive private education.

  Salman Khan who was born in U.S. had worked as a hedge fund analyst in Boston. And then one day in late 2003, he was asked to teach math to his nephew Nadia. Khan uploaded his math teaching videos in youtube because it was inconvient to come and go to her house. The name of youtube channel was Khan Academy and Nadia shared his videos with her friends and relatives. His videos was being popular to the students who had a hard time to understand math in their school. Moreover, Khan's online lecture would not disappear until he removes it, so students could watch the videos repeatedly and any time they want and have a choice to see the part of the lecture which they want. Therefore, his teaching helped them understand math which could be a difficult subject to some students. After getting famous throughout the United States, a lot of students and teachers asked questions and gave feedbacks to him and he made decisions to upload more online lectures to everyone. In 2009, Khan quit his job and focused on developing Khan Academy. In addition, he was chosen as the world's 100 most influential people in 2012.

  By founding Khan Academy, he brought the innvoation in the eductaional field and led new education. His contribution in education gave chances through online lectures to poor countries' children who wanted to study. Khan's videos are especially used to educate rural areas in South Africa and Southeast Asia. Because of his internet lectures, many children can get chances to study and they could have the dream for the future. Khan became a teacher of all over the world. Even though his original purpose was not teaching students all around the world, he gave hope to them. In addition, Khan Academy is sponsored by google, CEO of Netflix, and Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation. From their support, he provides a good educational online lectures to every student. The number of subcribers are over 30 million and teachers who use his videos are more than one million. Videos are translated by 36 languages which include Korean and the translation are contributed as talent donation by people around the world. Online lectures are mostly about math, science, and biology but nowadays Khan Academy provides videos which include history, music, humane studies, and economics. Moreover, Khan uses game in his videos to motivate students who don't have interest in studying. If students watch many online lectures, they can get scores as many as they see them. Starting with one math video, his contributions to the educational field spreaded out in the world.

  From Khan's videos, students who need more additional learning can study. Even though his online lectures are free of charge, the quality of viedos are great and students can get opportunities to study more and have chances to be interested in. Furthermore, students who could not understand school classes and are shy about giving questions can get helps from Khan's videos. Although school studying is not difficult, some students have hard times to understand it. Khan's online lectures make students be interested in learning because online lecture time is about 10 ~ 15 minutes for teenagers who cannot concentrate well in 40 minutes class and the atmosphere of video is not formal. His
internet lectures have change the way students are taught.

  Khan's contributions in the educational field can be the innovation in the 21st century and they can be a hope to children who wants to study. It could be nothing to some children who are taking private lessons. However, it could give help to students who are willing to study more but cannot afford private education expenses. Moreover, Khan provides his videos which also provide with joy to students who are not interested in learning school classes and let them know that studying is not boring. The innovation of education which Khan made is one of the great achievements in the world.

To solve the fine dust problem for a sustainable future

To solve the fine dust problem for a sustainable future

  People have to make a sustainable future because they have duties to protect the environment which they are living now. The government and individuals' much effort would be needed for this. Someone could think that there are no apparent results, even though they make an effort which is related to the environment. However, the impact of what they have worked to solve the environmental issues would spread over the world. In recent years, one of the big problems that is associated with nature in the Northeast Asia is fine dust and this issue is going to be addressed in detail. Additionally, fine dust which causes bad influences on environment and human can be solved by the government and people's endeavor.

  Before discussing about the things that people have to do for a sustainable future, an explanation of fine dust would be needed. Fine dust which is a major environmental issue in Northeast Asia comes in spring, fall, and winter in South Korea. Two-thirds of it is flowed by China's coal-burning power plants and nuclear power plants and one-third is caused by exhaust gas of the old cars. Also South Korea is suffering by China's yellow dust until now. The inflow of fine dust was started in 2014 after most of the plants were moved to Shandong that is located in eastern China and is close to South Korea. In addition, the problem of it is getting worse for years. It is similar as yellow dust but it is classified as a Category 1carcinogen which can cause lung cancer and could not be prevented general masks. Currently, the damage from fine dust problem is not obvious but the number of people who have diseases related with lung will increase for a few years because it contains heavy metals.

  Fine dust problem can be solved slowly by the effort of the government. The government should find the causes which destruct the environment and regulate these things for a sustainable future. There are many ways to protect the atmospheric environment and two examples which are proceeding in China to prevent the environmental damage in future. The Ministry of Environment in China found that the average concentration of fine dust in its country is more than 100. If it gets worse than any other day, it will go up over 800. Additionally, if it is in that figure, authorities would have to issue a fine dust warning. The average concentration of fine dust in South Korea is about 40 to 50 and the number goes up about 200 to 800 if yellow dust comes with fine dust. First example that China is doing for solving the problem is rainmaking plan which induces to rain artificially and wash fine dust in the air off. That way was started since 2008 and known as the best way to fix the issue. However, that plan would result disproportion of nature because it could cause the drought after the artificial rain. Another example is to set a large sprinkler on tall building which is located in big city. This way is similar as rainmaking but a sprinkler can be operated and clean dust whenever the concentration of fine dust is high. However, it is difficult to manage and keep it because each building needs big water tank and septic tank. There could be many difficulties to solve the fine dust issue by government but those examples can give good influence to South Korea and get better results someday.

  There are also two ways that individuals can do to solve the fine dust issue. The first way is to buy an electric car if it is supplied commonly in future. As mentioned earlier, exhaust gas from car gives bad impact to the environment. However, an electric car is charged with electric power and does not emit exhaust gas. Additionally, there is a good campaign in South Korea which gives a government subsidy to people who scrap an old car early. The purpose of it is to reduce an decrepit car and the cause of fine dust. Another way is tree planting. Even though trees cannot directly remove fine dust, the forest which is planted with a lot of trees could block it whenever it tries to pass. Therefore, this place become a purified space. Individuals can go to a mountain and plant trees with friends or families in Arbor Day. This way could not bring result quickly but it is important to do it for a sustainable future. 

  A lot of effort by the government and individuals for a sustainable future can bring a apparent outcome in someday. Because solving the environmental issue is urgent, people have to try more for future generations and their days. Moreover, they have to throw off indifferent attitudes. In these days, there are few countries which is suffering by fine dust but it is uncertain in the future that which nation would be attacked by fine dust. Therefore, everyone has to look for ways to solve and practice them. 

 

Time Loop on Groundhog Day

The film Groundhog Day(사랑의 블랙홀)

Time loop on Groundhog Day

  Have you ever imagined to be trapped in a time loop at one place? Most people might think about going back to the past sometimes because some of their days were not perfect in their mind. However, what would happen if someone repeats his day for uncountable years in one area? Phil Connors who is the main character in the film spend his interminable Groundhog day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The one spot, Punxsutawney, is the most important element in the movie because it shows that how a man's life is being changed.

  Even though there are few events in Punxsutawney in the beginning of the film, they directly shows what kind of personality does phil originally have. Phil Connors is an arrogant and selfish weatherman and also thinks that he is a talented person. After arriving at the village, Punxsutawney, he meets the man who was one of his classmates in high school, but Phil is not exactly pleased to see him because he is not a important person to him. Moreover, Phil ignores a homeless who need help and does not respect his colleagues. All of these events can only happen in Punxsutawney because if  Phil did not go to the town, he could not meet his classmate and beggar.

  In the middle of the film, Phil is aware of the repetition of his day and does whatever he wants to do because his day is only repeated on February 2 in limited area, Punxsutawney. Phil steals bank money and buys a expensive car, drives drunk, experiences the police chase and seduces several women. These events could not occur in his normal life and also he might never think about doing such things in real life. However, if it is a kind of situation that the date has not changed, but the place is not limited, Phil could not do easily something he wants to do. The reason is that he can know everything such as what could happen in the town because he is in the limited area.

  However, if the day is repeated so many times and everything becomes boring, it is easy to sink into a deeper depression. This situation happens to Phil and he tries to break the time loop, but he fails all the time. For example, he commits suicide in various ways such as letting a truck hit him on the road, electrocuting himself and jumping from a tall building. Moreover, he fails to get her love consistently. In this process, he realizes the importance of being together with other people and tries to start his endless day differently. Phil learns about several skills such as how to sculpt ice, speak French, play piano and memorizes the whole events in town to help people. Even though he lose his vitality to do the things, he find his precious moments with townspeople and become a new person in Punxsutawney.

  Phil's co-workers do not easily understand Phil's changes such as his characteristic and how he acts because they do no know how many of Phil's days had passed. If Phil did not come to Punxsutawney on Groundhog day, he could not be changed. However, time loop gave him a lot of chances to live over and over again. Will Phil ever look around his life truly when he does not come to Punxsutawney?

Geotourism in Damyang

Geotourism in Damyang

  Damyang which is located in South Jeolla Province is one of the areas where people can feel that they are gettng rest. Furthermore, tourists can enjoy its beautiful scenery because the number of buildings is quite few. The Metasequoia road where a lot of trees are standing along the both sides and Jungnonwon Bamboo Garden which is green all year-around are typical tourist attractions in Damyang that shows wonderful landscapes. For that reason, the number of foreign tourists is increasting recently and Damyang is trying to make its place a global city from new tourism business. Being a famous area in Korea can bring positive effect to Damyang such as helping local community that could make money of tour and local products. However, Damyang's effort to make itself popular could bring two side effects to the area such as the destruction and losing its identity. Therefore, Damyang has to keep its present geotourism business.
 
  One side effect of tourism that Damyang is trying to work on these days is that "the destruction of nature" such as trees. One of the reasons that tourists are visiting Damyang is they can feel relaxed while they are traveling the area. However, Damyang is recently putting LED lights to the Metasequoia road's trees because of The World Bamboo Exhibition. LED lights could make the way more beautiful and more tourists can come and enjoy to see the view, but these lights could harm the trees. One of the officials from the environmental movement organization mentioned that it is the antinatural act because LED lights could casue too much stress to trees. If trees get much stress from artificial stuffs, they will lose their greenish color someday. Moreover, Damyang could not make money from this attraction any longer because the Metasequoia road would have no value to visit. Therefore, if Damyang wants more tourists from its tourism, it has to keep the road as it is and stay with its geotourism business.

  Another side effect of tourism is "losing its identity" from tourism. The best feature in Damyang is that the area is nature friendly. However, after many foreign tourists started to visit Damyang, it made a plan to build Meta Provence which is the village of European style in 2007 and was finished in 2013. Most signs in Meta Provence are wrote in English because of foreign tourists. Moreover, some people felt as if they were in abroad. This means that Damyang is losing identity because of tourism. It can make more money, but tourists lose attraction to tour Damyang in someday if the area has no own style. Therefore, Damyang should care about the places such as Jungnogwon and Gwanbangjerim Forest where people can enjoy their geotourism in the area.

  If Damyang keeps their tourism business in those ways which was mentioned for side effects, its area will lose tourists who want to feel its original atmosphere. Furthermore, tourists will not visit Damyang, if it does not have any attraction to enjoy. However, if Damyang is trying to work on geotourism, local community and people who sell local products which are made by bamboo and traditional foods can benefit from it. Moreover, Damyang could be a area that could be called the best nature friendly place and more tourists take it attractive than before and any other place.

  The destruction of nature and losing own identity are two side effects of tourism. However, if Damyang makes its mind to work on geotourism more, those side effects will be solved. Geotourism in Damyang needs more development of its area and if it is improved than before, it can bring better results to local community and people who live in Damyang.

Self-Introduction - Eunbin

Hi everyone, I'm really excited to see all of you.

My name is Eunbin Kim and I'm 21 years old. My major is English language & literature and I'm in second grade. And I'm also double majoring business management! I really like my major and study English in Sungshin Woman's University. Especially I'm interested in learning about literature such as 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'The angel over the right shoulder'. I'm living in a share house near by SSWU because my hometown is Gwangju which is in Jeollanam-do Province. Whenever I feel lonely, I call or send text messages to my families. Watching movie, reading books in Kyobo bookstore which is located in Gwanghwamun Square, and meeting friends are another ways to overcome loneliness during living alone. I'm currently missing my last summer vacation in Gwangju, but I'm looking forward to going back to my hometown on Chuseok at the same time!

I really love to listening to music, watching movies, and volunteering with some new people. I especially like new age piano music because it makes me relaxed. I also like to watch all genres of movies except science fiction films. I recently watched the film 'The Secret Life of Pets' twice at a movie theater. It was really great and I hope you see it until showing. Lastly, volunteering with someone I don't know is one of my goals while I'm in university. I taught how to use smart phone to the elder last year and about coding to elementary school students this year. From these activities, I met many new people and experienced things I've never done! 

Thank you for reading my self introduction and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys next Tuesday :)