My new blog

I made a new blog at Naver because I wanted to share my thoughts with my family and friends in Korea. So, please visit the new one instead of this one ;)

http://blog.naver.com/naree66

If I ain't got you - Alicia Keys

Some people live for the fortune
Some people live just for the fame
Some people live for the power, yeah
Some people live just to play the game
Some people think that the physical things
Define what's within
And I've been there before
But that life's a bore
So full of the superficial

Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If I ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, yeah

Some people search for a fountain
That promises forever young
Some people need three dozen roses
And that's the only way to prove you love them
Hand me the world on a silver platter
And what good would it be
With no one to share
With no one who truely cares for me

Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, you, you

Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, yeah

If I ain't got you with me baby
So notihng in this whole wide world don't mean a thing
If I ain't got you with me baby

***

What a beautiful song with great lyrics

The Yellow Dust

I was really surprised after looking out of the window in this morning because outside was all yellow gray. It was not the sky I saw yesterday, and it seemed very windy too. My mom called me not to go out today because the pollution from the yellow dust was too bad.

It happens annually at this time of the year for a few days. But, it hadn't been this bad so far. I haven't thought that I could see this kind of world in my lifetime not in the movie. It was the weather that it wouldn't be surprising though Harry Potter just shows up today. In the afternoon, I got a text from the government that they recommend us not to go outside often, and we should wear a mask in case of going out.

Lately, I think about the relationship between environment and human being more serious than before. It might be an annual occasion, but if it implies the worse case of the near future, it will be a scary thing related to people's life. I feel like I should do something, really. But, I'm not sure what I should do first, and what I can do.

Expensive Educational Expenses

High educational expense in Korea is not a new problem. As many people know, many of Korean parents are supporting their children as long as they can. There are lots of problems causing expensive educational expenses, but a high tuition fee for universities is becoming the major reason thesedays. Yesterday, I watched the news that one of top-ranking university students put a hand written poster on the wall at the one of her university buildings, explaining why she decided to quit attending the university. She left only one year to graduate, and she said that it was not just because of money problem. She mentioned that she wanted to blame for the social tendency which only survivers having high educational background could be recognized. And, to make students survive, their parents are working harder and harder though their kids are in their twenties.

It appealed to me so much. Because I am the one who is preparing for another higher education abroad. My parents are still working and they are gonna support me until I get a job. It is true that more and more young people are smarter than before, and it is becoming more competitive to make them to be a major social member. From students' perspective, they have to do many things to get a decent job compared to the past. They need higher education not only undergraduate degree but also higher than that. It is also not easy to keep up with studying fast changed high technology knowledge. But, anyway, they might be able to put up with everything to make themselves better. But, the problem is that they are mostly supported by their parents, and it makes them feel so sorry and bad for their parents. They might feel more pressure that they have to achieve something big enough to pay off their parents' efforts. It is good time to be independent in 20s, however, the world is making the smart young generation more dependent than ever.

It seems like it is not the problem only in Korea. I heard that students in America have been staging a demonstration parade against high tuition fee. The universities insist that they need to increase tuition rates in order to make research achievements and high quality education.
It sounds good to have such a good system in the universities, however, I think that universities have to stick to the position as an educational institution. It seems that they focus too much on research achievements and school rankings annually published by major news papers. If students cannot have a chance to study owing to financial reasons, I think it would be better to give more opportunities to more students though they cannot benefit from such a high qualified educational system than providing only some students who can afford to pay high tuition fee with educational opportunities.

Spring is too far to come.

I got an alarming message due to heavy snow overnight from the national weather service yesterday. As they anticipated, snow covered all over Seoul today, and I had to consider what would be faster between a bus and a subway. Fortunately, the traffic was not that bad like last January when we had the most snow in 42 years. However, it was not welcoming either that we had snow in the middle of March. I remember that I saw one person wearing a T-shirt on the street two weeks ago. It was pretty spring at that time. But, it seems like it's time to bring back our winter coats again.

I've seen enough snow in this winter. Now, I'd like to see some beautiful and colorful flowers. I hope winter goes away soon, and summer comes late so that I can have some time to enjoy the weather of spring.

H&M in Korea

Last Saturday afternoon, I went to Myung-Dong, the most popular area in Seoul, to go window shopping. I thought that I could visit the first H&M shop in Korea because it was exactly H&M's opening date.

I used to do shopping in the H&M when I was in Minnesota. Also, I could see many H&Ms when I traveled Norway because H&M was originally from Sweden.

So, I wasn't that excited about the first H&M shop in Korea. I was just curious about the different design of clothes because international clothing firms sometimes provide different style focused on people in different countries. For example, I wasn't a big fan of Forever 21 in America becuase clothes were too sexy for me, and size didn't fit for me well at that time. However, it became the place I should go when I went to Myung-Dong because they provided more cute and comfortable fashion than dressy and sexy clothes in Korea. Of course, I was so happy about the size which was just good for me. It was hard for me to find the appropriate size in other countries.

The H&M shop opened in the middle of Myung-Dong, and it was so crowded. Since it occupied 4 floors in a big shopping mall, I decided to take the second floor to get in. There was a guy in black in front of the second floor entrance, and he told me that I should use the first floor to use the shop. So, I went down, and there were a few guys with the same black suits too. They also told me that I could enter the shop only by going through the main entrance outside. I went outside to find the entrance, but then I realized that a long endless line around the shopping mall all waiting for being entered. So, I had no choice but to give up.

It would be hard to find another country as sensitive as Korea about fashion. In Korea, people have the ability of gathering fashion news, the patience of waiting to get in the newly open shop, and the economic plan for spending money for fashion by season. (It might depend on people though.) I guess that's why large clothing companies such as Zara, Mango, and H&M targeted Korea as a big market by increasing the number of shops and the size of the store. It doesn't seem that it would be decreased in a short while because FTA is waiting for its conclusion between EU countries and Korea in this year. Though it might be fatal for some Korean clothing companies, but I hope to see their stores in other countries soon too.

Korean Workers

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382904575059120514572794.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_SecondTopStories

I called one of my friends yesterday, sunday, to ask if she could hang out with me. She said that she was doing extra works at the PC cafe because she couldn't finish her work the last time. She'd just moved to another place, so she couldn't connect internet yet at her place. She became a new banker two weeks ago in the one of the largest banks of Korea. Bankers and teachers are considered one of the good jobs in Korea because they can have guaranteed pension, benefits, paid parental leave, and sharp closing hours. These benefits are not common for workers working in the private companies. So, it is competitive to get such jobs, so it was my friend's dream job too.

But the reality was not that similar with her dream. She had to arrive at work by 7:30 am because she was the newest and youngest one in the bank so she shouldn't be late than any other. Her leaving hour was also around 9 pm because she was demanded heavy overworks. But she said it was okay because most of them whether they are in high places or not stayed in the bank till late night. Anyway, considering her commuting hours, she had to wake up around 5 am, and she could come back to home around 11 pm. It didn't seem that she could take any rest during the week. What is worse, she was required to pass one national financial exam by this month, and two others by next month. So she had to use her weekend for studying such things to keep her position and to be ready to be promoted. It is a story about one of the dream jobs in Korea.

One of my seniors in the school club, who is working as a sucessful fund manager told his juniors including me that we should not take advantage of the vacations for the first working year. He said it was one of the tips to become a favored worker by the company, and many of new workers had done like that.

It must be a crucial reason that Korea became a powerful economic country by working as hard as possible. But, at this point, I worry that my friends and other new workers might lose their ambition and dream that they have when they start working, as they become too tired of required works to think about themselves and the meaning of work.