Comments for you

Finally my summer school finished last week, and I got pass, so I'm really happy about that. I found it hard to follow the class mainly because of the lack of English vocabulary about the subject and different approaches of studying from biology. It was challenging, but I got through with it. Now, I'm really free from everything. it's time to enjoy my summer holidays.

It's been raining for days, and finally it's sunny today. this picture looks quite surreal, doesn't it?

Jim, I made corrections of the mistakes but these are quite tricky for me. Anyway, I did my best.

Making corrections

I think Korea is also quite famous for homogenous society along with Japan. I hardly saw foreigners wherever they were from until a few years ago. However, I can feel that Korea has become multi-ethnic society. I learned this from the class I’m taking at present. In fact, I see more foreigners and more tourists in cities than before. There must be many factors of that. I think the most interesting factor is international marriage. Intermarriage has become quite common in the countryside in Korea. These days in Korea, men in the countryside are having a trouble finding women to get married to, which make the men find women in other countries. Isn’t it interesting? Many Korean women don’t want to stay in the countryside helping their husband for farming or fishing and they want to get their own job in cities. Another reason for the lack of women can be the result of son preference. What about your countries?


1. Known as homogenous society
2. Been becoming multi-ethnic society
3. Many reasons for that
4. Have trouble
5. Making – actually I don’t know what’s wrong with “which make”
6. I haven’t a clue about the last mistake.

Jim, well, it was fun but it wasn’t really time for reliving my school days. We actually chatted about the present life rather than the life back in the days. You know, boyfriends things, prospects of getting a job after college graduation, difficulties in studying, financial problems, that sort of thing. It was two years since the last time we had high school reunion and I felt we have changed so much for 2 years. I’d say we have been realistic than ever before and all the dreams we were chasing seem to be a wishful thinking. However, that doesn’t mean we are giving up our dreams. I think we are all on the right track to be a kind of person who we want to be, but now we can see the real life and have to face some difficulties as an adult, which we didn’t have to worry about at high school. What I’ve just said sounds as if the time with my old friends had been so gloomy. In fact, we had a good time. We had great dinner with nice Korean beef grilled outside the pension. Drinking beers and talking about some hilarious stories, we were having fits of giggles. Maybe this was the last time I laughed until my stomach hurt.


Here we are for comments
I will respond to your comments you’ve made until now. I finally got round to answering you. Sorry for being late.

Alessandro
I hope the answer is not too late for you. Well, I don’t think I want to travel around just because of the small size of the country. There are so many places I’ve never been in Korea, and I’d love to visit those places as much as I want to travel abroad. Let me guess. You might think that you don’t even know about your country very well because it’s huge, so you don’t see why you should fly to other countries and travel? Well, if you would like to know other cultures and go on a trip for it, don’t hesitate, and go ahead. It’s really different to see another culture inside the country. About the relationship between North and South Korea, it’s hard to say. You might know about the political problems which I think seem to make it difficult for us to unify. When there is something happening like launching missiles or possessing a nuclear weapon, military conflict near the borders, we “civilians” become interested in what’s going to happen, but in everyday life, we don’t seem to worry about being separated. It’s been almost 60years since the Korean War, and I don’t think my generation has much interest in unification or North Korea itself, maybe because we cannot have much information on North Korea because it’s a closed society. People like me don’t know what’s really going on over there. One thing for sure, I would love to go to some places in North Korea. I heard from my grandmother that the mountains are beautiful there.

Valeria
You are a biologist. I admire researchers, especially who are studying biology. Last term I took the class “macromolecule structure biology” when I learned about the DNA, RNA studies which have been performed in S.Korea. I think quite a few of articles about this field were written in here. I’m proud of them. Well, I’m interested in public health care and predictive medicine. I think public healthcare system in Korea is organized quite well. It’s not free, but we don’t have to pay much money to see a doctor. There is the national medical insurance system. I have not much knowledge of that. Just simply explaining, you pay insurance fees every month, and when you see a doctor or when you have to get a treatment in hospital and buy medicines, NHIC(National Health Insurance Corporation)pays up to 80%. It’s like raising money for everyone’s healthcare in Korea. The money you pay is dependent on how much money you earn.

Alex
Congratulations for being a father. Well, I have never really thought about when I get married and have a child. Now, I’m just focusing on what kind of job I’m going to get, thinking about how successful I’ll be in the future. Well, in Korea these days, young people tend to marry quite late, and birth rate is also really low. I think because we want to have our own life rather than to raise a child and also young couples are busy at their work and tend to delay having a baby.

Taru
I haven’t really heard about “Arctic Ginseng” before. Does it look the same as Korean ginseng? I’m studying general biology so I have actually learned so many different things such as plant taxonomy (I hated it, but I could get knowledge of the wild plants in Korea.), Animal Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Cell biology, Genetics and so on. Well, studying biology just interests me, and also I think R & D (Research and Development) in this field are fundamental for the improvement of medicine, helping to find new source of energy so called biofuel, development of agriculture.

Fuligao
Korean Ginseng is expensive here too. I think because you have to make so much effort to grow them. It takes at least 4years to grow enough to sell. Well, to be honest, I don’t think I know China very well. I know quite a lot of Koreans also live in China, and actually, here in Korea there are many students from china, too. Whenever I talk to them I find that we have something in common about culture. We learn the history about Korean and China and china has affected Korea culture and politics since the establishment of the first nation in Korean peninsula, there are so many mythological stories too. Well, it’s obvious we are very close.

Atsumi
No, you cannot grow Ginseng in water. The liquid is actually alcohol. My mum just made arrangements and put it in the jar with the alcohol. So, It’s kind of decoration. Ginseng that you see is roots, so it is always hidden under the ground and you have to dig it out and normally you do every 4 to 6years after you plant the seeds. Well, you can buy raw ginseng, or red ginseng and make drinks at home, but you need a machine to do that. There is one at my home, and I know some people also make the drinks at home, too. I guess it costs less.

Benka
It sounds so familiar to me that the villages can be more multiethnic society. Well, I guess that’s not really true in Korea yet. I would like to see the pictures you have taken, and the orchards pregnant with fresh fruits sounds beautiful and peaceful.

Vladimir
I hate fast food, meaning here junk food, but I think especially children and some young people like to have this kind of food as they think it’s delicious and fast. Well, I remember reading articles about children obesity which is caused by bad eating habits. So, yes, I guess this kind of food affects our public health along with smoking. The comment about invisible surface of the glass was funny, yeah, we need to be really careful.

Leila
Keeping away from the internet is a good thing to do. Well, I don’t think Korean people can live without the internet. I think people feel like being isolated in a deserted island even though they are still in a crowed city. Have a fantastic holiday, Leila.

Hyoshil
I have heard of New Malden, but I’ve never been there. I guess it is strange to see so many Korean restaurants and supermarkets in England. I stayed in Cambridge, and there was one Korean restaurant and one Korean supermarket as far as I know. You’re right. It’s daylight robbery. It’s quite a harsh word to use. Anyway, it was too expensive for me. About running around like a headless chicken, it actually makes sense because I know the story about it. I also like to learn many phrases in English. I sometimes find similar meanings in Korean, and sometimes I never understand. I think by learning idioms and phrases you can understand their culture better.

Toni
You know? I’ve been to Sansebastian(I’m not sure this is the right spelling.) anyway, the food was so great. I loved it so much. Actually, I also have got two Spanish friends. I love Spanish life style and friendly and warm heart of you guys. I miss being in Spain even though it was just a few days. Unfortunately I haven’t been to Barcelona which was a mistake.

Ramilton
Giving citizenship to all the people living in Brazil sounds great but unrealistic. Is there any limit for the foreigners to have citizenship? I hardly knew about Brazilian culture and people. From your comments I’ve learned quite a lot. Thank you. I know you guys dance very well. I was really surprised to see the movement of the feet when Brazilian dance. I saw that when I was in England. About the writer you mentioned. I didn’t know him, so I searched for information about him. I think I will like the stories he wrote. I’ll try to read them one day.

Lucy
Hi, Lucy. Three years seem very long to keep writing letters. You might know about Korea better me. I have got two Chinese friends who I met in England. They are younger than me and started to study at university in England. Well, wherever I go, I always see Chinese people, and for me it’s quite difficult to tell the difference between Chinese and Korean. How about you? I heard going to university in China is also really difficult and needs hard-working. Actually when I heard it from my friend, it sounds awful to me. I admit Korean students also live a really stressful life. I guess people have different opinions. So, what do you think?

Rabail
I guess there are similarities in food among three countries, but also slightly different. I don’t’ know if you can find an answer for the nice skin from the food we eat. One thing I can tell you is that we eat quite a lot of different vegetables. They are not only cultivated but also wild. In Korea there are many mountains so wild flowers and plants are over the place. People used to collect them and make it food for side-dishes. These days, of course not all the people go to mountains and dig them out, instead we buy them in the market. I think we eat healthy food.


Jiae

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