Enjoy Your Life

2007-01-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

An Essay about Sexuality

Sexuality has been one of the main issues among teen life. Teens are mostly interested in sexuality and their interest towards sexuality is at the peak during puberty. Not only are teens interested in sexuality, but also sexuality is the greatest issue for humans that it is ordinary to see many goods related to sexuality nowadays. Therefore, sexual education is required to be well taught in school and teens need to have right concept of sexuality.
Teens are educated about sexuality in school, but have also easy access to sexuality from some different kinds of methods, such as magazines and internet. Moreover, unacceptable or irrelevant methods related to sexuality influences improper conception of sexuality to teens. Consequently, there are so many problems related to sex including youth pregnancy, abortion, and sexual disease.
Sexuality in the United States is widely opened to teens compared to it of Japan or Korea. The United States has sexual education pretty early. Americans are not very shy to share ideas about sexuality. I assume that Americans think that they do not have to suppress their desire and American culture has been opened from the past. Japanese culture is not opened as American’s, but Japanese’s is much more opened, compared to Korean’s. A lot of sexual goods or methods are easily seen or found in Japan and people started to accept it without denial. On the other hand, Koreans are still so shy to share ideas about sexuality and pretend that they do not have much idea about sexuality. We might want to show that we are innocent and I assume that our unopened culture about sexuality has made us very shy.
People have much interest in sexuality and I do not think it is a shame thing. It is very ordinary and will be good for people to accept it properly without denial or shyness. I insist that with good understanding and concept of sexuality, the problems or crimes of sexuality will be decreased.

2006-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

An Essay about Friendship

Friendship is one of the most essential relationships for teens. I would not say becoming friends or hanging out together as friendship. I believe friendship is what you have brought up with trust and care. However, it is true that White mentioned about the best friends and group friends. Group friends are whom you habg out with in school life. You are not quite sure how intimate among people, but you follow what your group does. On the other hand, there are the best friends whom you can truly rely on and trust. Therfore, sometimes, it was hard for some people to hang out with both of them because the best friends are not in the same group. I am really lucky that my best friends are in my group that we can all enjoy ourselves with no problems from Jr. High school. Some groups are together only for showing off that they feel that it is cool to be. However, it is very ashamed to be and there must be no real friendship. I have great memories and time being in my group with the best friends and I can absolituly insist that there is a great friendship among us. I really canno stand and it is disgusting to see people insisting that the groups have great friendship although they are together only for showing off. I assume this fact applies on all over the world.
I was dumbfounded to hear about what often happens when Japanese groups when one of them has a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some Japanes groups cannot stand that a member has a boyfriend or girlfriend. As a result, the member would be bullied by the members. However, American groups support the member while the member started to date somebody. Moreover, it is not too hard to become friends again although they break up, which is not very complicated compared to Japanese groups. However, my group in Korea was a bit different. My group used to hang out with other female groups and any of the members starts going out, it was a great opportunity for the others to date as well. However, one of them breaks up, it influenced the others and the entire group started to have a bad relationship each other. It is quite interesting that the friendship is different in all over the world.

2006-11-30T04:52:00.000-08:00

An Essay about Materilaism

Materialism is one of the biggest issues which influence teenagers’ life nowadays. I have been interested in fashion and must be one of people who are influenced by materilaism.
Biggest one of materialism was mentioned as magazines by Whites. Magazines have news or information that teens are interested in; magazines involve sexuality, love and fashion that teens are most intrested in. Teens discover some hot issues or recent trends while reading them. However, I belive that Internet and communication with peers must be the most influencing material nowadays. Internet is spread out everywhere and we can discover news from all over the world. Some people are interested in entertainments from the United States or Japan and some are interested in fashion from hollywood or Europe. People have different taste or interest and I believe Internet will meet their satisfaction. Moreover, the effect from entertainers is huge that people want to challenge as they dress. Also, I used to be a big fan of Jude Law and challenged his style. In addition to Internet, communication with peers is a big part of materialism. There are teens who are talented or too interested in fashion or trends. Moreover, people share such news each other and trends spread out very quickly. In fact, my friend and I share some information about trends or fashion to make a better or more creative fashion. Speaking of communication, the development of cellur phone should not be forgotten to talk about. Celluar phones have changed the function from the past that people send the main message to others. Teens talk to their peers or friends on the phone and get recent information or hot issue, which results that cell phone technology has developed incredibly.
Materialism will continue developing with the increase of teens’ interest on trends or hot issues. It must be bad that teens cannot concentrate on studying because of materialism and I was distracted by that also. However, it is interesting how new materialism appears and affects teen life.

2006-11-07T06:07:00.000-08:00

An Essay about 'School'

School is one of the main parts of people’s life today. School is where people meet and start a new life. Not only do people go to school to be educated, but also learn life. Despite some problems of school, many students still enjoy and consider school as a fantastic place. School takes a main role for students all over the world and has some different characteristics each other; Japan and the United States have different characteristics about the Senior/Junior relationship and the preparation of University.
The Senior/Junior relationship in Japan is quite important for the students. Juniors should be polite to seniors and juniors can be bullied or have a tough school life while they do not obligate it. It is so strict that many juniors were violated by seniors quite often because the seniors did not like the attitudes of the juniors. While I was going to Jr. High in Korea, we had such a harsh environment between seniors and juniors that juniors had to treat seniors as god. Moreover, the juniors in Korea and Japan had to speak a polite language (Keigo) to the seniors. However, there is not really strict Senior/Junior relationship in the States. There are some bullies among students, but not a strong Senior/Junior relationship. There was not a polite language (Keigo) in my high school life in Canada and the students were more like friends, which did not really matter of the age or grade. It must be quite different conception and hard to understand different culture among students in Japan and the United States.
In addition, the way of preparing University in Japan and the United States is very different. Japanese students study for longer time and most of them attend cram school such as Yobiko or Juku. They do not sleep much and study hard to go to the reputed University. There is an exam for students to take and many students who scored unpleasant mark wait for another year to take the exam again for a better mark. There is a great competition to go to University and Japanese students have a tough time to be accepted by University they want. By the way, American students do not work much as Japanese students do. A few of them seem to attend after-school institution for University, but most of them do not. American students need a decent mark and are required to take S.A.T for American University. American students must be working hard to go to University, but it seems not much compared to the Japanese students.
It is unique that school systems in Japan and the United States are very different. While American students do not really care about Senior/Junior relationship, it is like a regulation for Japanese students. Furthermore, the preparation of University in Japan is so tough that the students study way too much, but it seems easier for American students to be accepted by University. Schools have different and unique peculiarity by the different regions or countries. However, the fact that schools have the same role to educate students about life does not change.

2006-10-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

First essay on family

‘Family’ has different characteristics or culture in the United States and Japan.
Family is most trustworthy members of humans. There were strong respect and love among families in old times. As time goes, different culture or background starts to change the conception or image of family among countries. Therefore, the relationship between parents and children is different in the United States and Japan nowadays. There are different conceptions about housework and ‘Fathers’ in the United States and Japan.
First and foremost, housework causes the problem by different opinions about it among families. Most American parents are out for work and a lot of housework is shared among family nowadays. Especially working mothers want their children to help housework and it seems to be great when any family member is busy for work or school. Moreover, there is no discrimination among children that gender does not matter in housework even though elder siblings have responsibility to look after their younger siblings. However, Japanese mother has a big responsibility on housework whether she has a job or not. It has become frequent that Japanese mothers begin to get a job, but they are still expected to be done with their housework as well. In addition, Japanese culture prefers elder siblings or girls to work more than boys. It seems acceptable that elder siblings have more responsibility to take care of their younger siblings, but not acceptable that girls are compelled to work while boys are not. Japanese parents, especially mother, suppose that boys will have a great responsibility on their shoulder in the future that boys should enjoy while they can. It seems unfair that children are discriminated and the family members should help out housework each other as Americans do.
Second, American and Japanese children have different image of their fathers. American children have the image of father as a generous person. American fathers seem that they love and understand daughters more. It is general to see their hugs and shown love. It often shows that mother-son and father-daughter relationship is better in the United States. However, children feel that Japanese fathers are always busy and hard to get along with. Japanese fathers want to have rest in their weekends because of their hard work during weekdays and it is like only time that the children see their fathers. However, fathers do not really want to get along with children and children feel disappointed, which makes distance between Japanese fathers and children. Therefore, the image of father from children in the United States and Japan is very different.
Relationship between parents and children in the United States and Japan has changed as it used to be in the past. Housework among family members is one of the main problems nowadays. Moreover, fathers are differently reflected in two countries. The image of family must be changed much compared to the old times. However, the fact that family is the most important people whom we can rely on is absolutely right and should not be changed. Thus, people should not forget what family means to them.

2006-10-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
My name is Kunsik Lee from Korea.
日本では皆イコンと呼んでいます。
Either name will be fine to be called.
I went to high school in Canada and was in Japan for 2 years when I was 5 years old.
I found this seminar seems to be interesting, therefore, i deicided to take it
I like exercising, watching movie, and listening to music.
It is amazing to meet you all and we will enjoy the class indeed
I would love to get to know everyone better too.
よろしくお願いします。