EED Week11 Assignment

Studying Abroad  

Korean students have a belief that studying abroad where English is a mother language is the most effective way to learn English and this is the reason why going abroad is a popular practice among them. The surveys conducted by three of English education students revealed the effect of studying abroad and the reason why students want to study abroad. According to their opinions, we cannot deny that studying abroad is a very effective way to improve English skills.

The most common thing among the three blog essays weighs the idea of whether going abroad is effective or not. 100% of respondents from Heejun Yoo’s survey want to study abroad for improving their English because they think that it will be an effective way to go (Yoo, 2014.11.18), and Jinoh Park wrote, “Many student said that studying abroad is really good way to improve English skills, but it is quite expensive. When it comes to English achievement, some students emphasized that it really depends on how hard they study in the country” and “the more they spent times in the country, the more they are satisfied with their English improvement” (Park, 2014.11.18). Also, Aejeong Jeon wrote, “8 of 10 respondents want to study abroad. In addition, they have similar reasons, which are for improving English skill, experiencing and learning the cultures of other countries and meeting various people in the world (Jeon, 2014.11.25).

In terms of the place where the students want to study, it’s also one of the very important factor in studying English. Park found a result that all the students who took his survey responded that they prefer to go to the US to study English (Park, 2014.11.18).  Jeon made it more specifically. She wrote, “5 of 8 prefer ‘USA’ where they want to visit and stay, 2 persons answer ‘Canada’ and the other wants to go to Scandinavia countries or Germany. That’s because he wants to experience unique cultures which are only in the countries” (Jeon, 2014.10.25).

In conclusion, it is noticeable that most students have positive opinions about studying abroad because this would be the effective way to improve English skills and they can learn not only language but also the cultures of other countries. Furthermore, choosing a country is also another important factor since the atmosphere would make the students study hard.

References:

You, Heejun (2014.11.18) “Studying Abroad” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from            http://yhj2780.blogspot.kr/.

Park, Jinoh (2014.11.18) “Survey: Studying abroad” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://dahhaveago.blogspot.kr/.

Jeon, Aejeong (2014.11.25) “EEE Week 10 Assignment 2011103026 전애정” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://ajjeon.blogspot.kr/.

"The Red Hat"

I would like to introduce the poem, “The Red Hat”. In this poem, the “son” had walked to school with his parent because he had needed to be guided. While l read this poem, I remembered going to a kindergarten with my grandfather. I was a very little boy and I was always sad and I cried whenever he left me in front of the door of the kindergarten. As time went by, I could go to school with my friends or by myself and this made me refuse to go there with my grandfather. I’m a quite impressed while reading this poem and that is the reason why I hope to teach this poem to high school students.

“The Red Hat” delivers the message about the growing son’s independence and the parent’s mixed emotions watching this. Not that long ago, the “son” was guided by his parent because he would “dawdle”, was “dreamy” and too “slow” to go to school alone. However, he started walking to school around Christmas time. The parent wanted to ensure his safety so they tracked him on the way. They could see that their son “striding briskly”. They felt proud and fearful at the same time. And, these feelings give this poem its atmosphere. Even though, the poet uses difficult grammatical structures and poetic diction such as ties, stride, briskly, dawdle, flimsy, eddies, etc., this does not matters. The most significant part of learning poems is not grammar or structure but feeling the mood of what the poet wants to impart and apprehending implicit words.

The poet uses a familiar situation that all of us have experienced before. We are able to look back on the past and feel the parent’s heart while reading this poem. This means we can empathize with this poem. It’s like a reminder of how our parents care for us and their sacrifice in letting go, which everyone must never take for granted. I’m sure that it’s absolutely meaningful that I can learn and teach this poem.