Timed Writing_Hwanhee Rhee_9.a.m.

I live alone since when I was 18 years old. Many of my friends live alone, too. For me, and for my friends, it's simply because our schools are in Seoul, the capital and the largest city in the nation. Over one-third of whole people in South Korea live in Seoul, or near Seoul. There's a old proverb in Korea saying "Send your horses to Jeju Island, and send your kids to Seoul". Like this, Koreans like living in the capital city. So they keep coming. They come and live alone. And they become isolated. That's what the modern families look like. There are some more reasons of these situations. It's not simply because of an old proverb.

Divorced couples and people who prefer living single are keep on increasing. Traditionally, the concept Korean society and culture were had been collectivism. But, as globalization, which is in fact Westernization, individualism is becoming the mainstream of the culture. Young people, who had not liked the collectivism, is becoming more personal and individual, and sometimes selfish. They don't want to be involved into some group without their own will.

Another reason is that it getting harder and harder to live in Seoul because the economy in Korea is crushing. 40 years ago, there was a tremendous economical improvement in Korea so called "the miracle of Han River". But, as it was too fast and people were not prepared, side effects of it are always following us. Nowadays, it is impossible to buy a house, have a car, and raise at least two kids without dept if you are just a normal salary man. It is so natural that the number of family members are decreasing, even to one, under these circumstances.

Final reason is related with the proverb mentioned above. There are too many people in Seoul. They are here because they study here, or work here. Because of that, there are so many small apartments near universities and workplaces one person can live in. Then, some people who are not  even related with Seoul want to live here, because others do. Seriously, there are many people in Seoul without specific reason, just because they want to and others do.

I don't know why these things happens in other countries, but in Korea, that's what it is. There is a old song called "Hail to Seoul", and its final line of lyrics is this. "In this beautiful Seoul, I want to live in Seoul." But nowadays, Seoul is becoming a sad city having many kind of stories of lonely people.

Joung Hwan Park / The Concept of family / Tue 9am

Has the dream of having a family become a thing of the past? It is so evident in today's society that people tend to move away from the traditional concept of family towards the concept of a smaller family or even a life of independence.

We cannot deny the fact that industrial and economic development has taken place in Korea over the past few decades. Hence, I believe these factors have played a big role in terms of the transition in family structure in Korea. The concept of a small family would consist of single child families or even families without children. The reason behind this change in family structure is mainly the economical development within the country, which has led to more parents working; thus, further leading to a situation where those parents do not want to be occupied so much time-wise and money-wise by the job of raising children.

Women have become a more predominant force in today's business world and this has played a big part in terms of the independence of women. In the past, it was not easy for women to even receive the same quality of education as men did; hence, this meant that men were the ones with decent jobs and breadwinners of the house, where women had no choice but to stick to being just housewives. However, women have gained more power in the business world compared to the past, and this resulted in the gaining of financial freedom and independence from men. At the time where men were more financially predominant it was not easy for women to get a divorce, but now the situation has changed and more women prefer to divorce their partners if they feel it's best for their children and themselves. Thus, this has led to more single-parent families or people who choose the life of independence.

          With the introduction of new values and ideas following the process Westernization and economic development, the change in people's concept of a traditional family or even having a family at all is inevitable. However, it has been found that Korea had become an aged-society with a lack of young people who are able to work. Therefore, I personally think, not just for the sake of changing the society but for a more enjoyable life, people should think again when deciding on getting a divorce or just staying single for the rest of their lives.

Minju Yeo/ Timed writing/ Tue9am

There are many nuclear family or many people live alone these days. This phenomenon is due to many reasons. In general, it's because the world is becoming modernized and changing from traditional to modern lifestyles. There are some reasons why more and more people live alone or with much smaller families.

First, what I consider as the main reason is money. Unlike the old days, it takes a lot of money for people to raise a child. All the costs are very higher, and especially in modern days educating children is money consuming. I heard that It takes half a billion dollars to raise a child these days. Therefore, it's natural that people give up raising a child to save money. There are also some people who don't have choice but to keep a small family because they don't have money.

Second, a means of living has changed. In old days, people usually did farm work to live. Therefore, they always needed many people to keep on their means of living. However, these days people do other things such as working at a company or teaching, etc. to make their money. Therefore, these days' people have tendency of living alone.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why more and more people live alone or with much smaller families. Money, and living style changing.

Ju Hye Choi / Timed Writing / Tues 9AM

   Many nations have tremendously changed economically and socially in the past decades. This change has influenced many nations from traditional society to modern society and it has also made people want to work less and stress less. This change as a result however led to an increasing number of singletons or with much smaller families.

   In the past, more children meant more work. Unlike today, there were not many tools or machines that could substitute the physical labor that the workers had to go through. Therefore, many people especially farmers in the past gave birth to many children hoping to have more people work for them. However, today, as technology is progressively developing more and more new devices are being invented that substitutes all the work, therefore, the importance of having a big family is not as important as it used to be.  

   Another cause is economic distress. As nations are facing many challenges in a down economy, supporting a child is no child's play. In other words, more children mean more work and money. Therefore, many people do not consider the idea of giving birth to many children unlike the past because they do not want to go through financial pressure.

 

   Finally, people are not as selfless as they used to be. These days more and more people are getting busier trying to get into a college, a job, or to a place and are aware that if they give birth to a child it will hinder them from achieving these goals and many people are not willing to give up or sacrifice themselves for the sake of it. Therefore, today we see more singles and a growing number of smaller families.

   The change from traditional society to modern society has truly changed people's values and the way they think. Now, people are not as selfless and productive as they used to be and this change is influencing birth rates and social values. If we do not want to see change influence more people, there must be change made to prevent it from leading humanity on.        

 

Se Jong Lee/ Timed Writing/ Tues 9~11 am

Is there any families around you that have more than 5 or more family members in the family? Probably it is not easy to find. Then how about ask the same question of your parent or grand parent. You will hear a bit different answer from that you hear before. At the 30 years ago, the family style is mostly composed of big family. But after that thhe world has been changing rapidly and also the life style does too. As the modern life styles change, the traditional big family also changes.

  First in the nuclear family, the each of the family members is more democratic. The relations of both husband and wife and parents and chlidren are composed of democratic relationship differ from extended family that the older and the mand get the more power in the family. This democratic relationship decrease family violence and increase equality of family members and ultimately human equality.

  But the possibility of juvenile behavior problems are easy to increase. As there are little time with parents and children, childrens are easily fell into wrongdoing and therefore being deviant. Also because most of them don't have brothers or sisters, so they lack of responsibility and become selfish.

  In addition, problems of the aged will rise too. In nuclear family family members are not much. For this reason, to support erderly is a financially burden. As a result of the elderly are feeling a sense of alienation, their value of life is easily forgotten in the society. So therefore sometimes they just dead without notice of other family.

  So these three features of nuclear family. As family members become more democratic there are also risks of juvenile problems and the aged problem. All these are happening because the change of family relationship from the past. Family that put importance on tradtional and  ethical worth are changing into more functioning and methodical way. These are the lifestyle of modern trend. 

 

Jieun Choi/Smaller family/Tues 9:00

            In family reunion, I sometimes get very embarrassed, especially when I can't figure out how to call my relatives. The reason is simple: it's all small family now and I barely meet my relatives. Until my parent's generation, almost every family was a big family, so it was ordinary for them to live and meet with so many relatives. However, different from them, my generation doesn't even have a lot of chances to meet close relatives other than their own family. Then why a smaller family is preferred nowadays? It's because of the industrialization, and higher expenditure on a child.

            Long time ago, Korea was an agricultural society. Almost everybody made living by farming which required an enormous amount of labor. Therefore, it was necessary for people to have a big family, especially with many men in the family, to maintain a workforce without hiring somebody outside their family. However, since 1970s and 80s, Korea went through an industrialization based on incredible speed, and the demand for the farming sharply decreased. Consequently, the need for a bigger family disappeared, and it became normal to have one or two kids.

            Moreover, recently the higher cost for raising children is another reason for the preference on small family. Most of Korean parents put a large emphasis on higher educations, and regard graduation of university as the bottom line of one's educational background. Due to these kinds of social climate, parents spend a lot of money on their children's education. According to some studies, the cost to raise a child in Korea, assuming they go to university, goes up to 400 million won. 400 million won is definitely a huge amount of money, which becomes an enormous burden to parents. As a result, people tend to raise a few children and have smaller family.

            In personal opinion, I think the shift to a smaller family enabled to make sticky bond between each family members. Since there are less family members to take care, people can concentrate even more on each family member than they usually do. For instance, they can have much deeper conversation about certain topics and spend much more quality time then they used to do. It offers people a great chance to get closer to each other when it comes to smaller family.

            To sum up, there are few causes that shifted Korea's family structure from bigger family to smaller family. The shift is resulted from the industrialization in late 1900's and higher expenditure on child raising. The smaller family, however, brought a chance to make affiliation between family members. 

JiWon Kim/Timed Writing/Tue 9 A.M

Do you know how many people live alone in Korea? More than 20 percent of Koreans live separated from their family. According to a survey, this phenomenon becomes general, not only in Korea but also in other countries. Also it gets faster and faster and it changes our lifestyle. Why does it happen?

Most of all, the structure of the traditional family unit is disintegrating.

Before, family consists of father, mother and children and they live together in one house. However, today, people choose a residence depend on their school or company. So they don't think they should live together anymore. And the young people marry late or they don't marry. As a result, the birthrate drops and the family gets smaller. Also, as the life expectancy is extended, the number of seniors who live alone is increased.

Thus the growth in single households seriously affects society.

When we go to the supermarket, it is easy to find products target for them, from rice pot or refrigerator to a small size food for a single person. And also people spend fewer hours with their family and relatives, therefore, the family bond is more weaker than before.

Like this, in modern society, we have experienced many changes in family organization and there are positive points and negative ones. But the most important thing for us is realizing that although we live alone, we should try to keep close ties with family and friends carefully. Because they are our real supports in life. 

Park Ye Jee/Time keeping writing / TUE 9 AM

<Living alone or with smaller family>   One day I saw news happening in Japan. The news was about "lonely death". Specifically, many people were dying and not being discovered for a long time. The reason was that as they were living alone, they began to have fewer social contacts. I think this phenomenon is a dark side of modern society in which there are many people who are living alone or with smaller members of family. As the society change from traditional to modern lifestyles, more people choose to live alone or with much smaller families. Then, what are the causes of these trends? I think 2 main causes: Industrialization and extension of women's rights.   First, industrialization can be one of the causes. In the past, most people lived in an agriculture community. To cultivate fields or farms, many people had to work together by which, a large numbers of family developed and they lived closely to help the work each other. However, as the economic structure began to change from agriculture to other industries, more and more people moved to cities from country to get a new job. As a result, people didn't need to live together any more. The job was mostly done individually. It caused people to live separately or with smaller members.   Second, the extension of women's rights can be another factor. As the value or belief of the society changes, the chance for women to get education has also increased. It results in higher participation of women in the industry. It means that women considered marriage and birth as an option, not as necessary things. It has accelerated for the society to have much more nuclear families.   Due to these causes, the society is changing. Is it good or bad? I think this situation is like mixed blessing. It has both advantage and disadvantage. As an advantage, the nuclear family structure is well matched to fast-paced world. So living alone or with smaller family can help to adapt to the world. On the other hand, the social problems like egoism or an extreme individualism can be disadvantages.   I think this trend will continue. What we have to do is to try keep this structure in good way and to take care of people around us.

Chanil Kim/Unit 3 Timed Writing/9am Tue

The individual island of a modern society

People have been isolating themselves from the rest of the society. They just live their life only for their own families which have become even smaller and smaller. Amazingly, they even do not know who is living next door. Then, the question is why they separate themselves from others.

First, the development of every kind of technology has enabled people to live alone without others' help. They are able to find every solution to every problem they would face with various methods such as smartphones and table PCs. The more convenient our life gets, the less we rely on one another.

Second, we do not want to be involved with others since there're a whole lot of things to quarrel about. Whenever two different groups or just people come to meet, they probably seek to maximize their own benefits. This definitely leads to conflicts between them due to the lack of resources which they can take advantage of. Thus, they just tend to avoid contacting with others as little as they can.

Those isolated individuals in our society seem to pose a serious threat to our community. When people stop interacting with others, they are very likely to lose a sense of pride for their community. The problem of this is that they might be unwilling to cooperate with each other to achieve some common goals for the whole community, which means it would probably hamper the sound and persistent development of our community.

Kim Doyeon/Timekeeping writing/Tue 9am class

Today, more and more people either live alone or have a smaller family than ever. It is because they do not need to have a big family any more. I think there could be some causes of this and effects as well.

 

Main causes of this are industrialization and urbanization. People used to have bigger families in agricultural society as a lot of physical labor was necessary to maintain the farming life. However, since the society became industrialized, they no longer have any initiatives to hold an extended families. Besides, as the industrialization accelerated, more and more population has gathered to the urban areas. As we all know, it is far more hectic and busy living in cities. So they have rather chosen to live alone or have smaller families considering all the benefits of living in a compact size.

 

There could be some positive and negative effects of this phenomenon. Comparing to the time when most families were bigger, it has become easier to guarantee the privacy of individuals. Individualism is already prevalent in the society. Conversely, that also illustrates now people appreciate family value less than ever. It is often seen the unity as a family has faded a lot. Moreover, children do not have as many chances as before to learn how to care about people around them. It leads people to become more self-centered or even selfish.  

 

As a result of industrialization and urbanization, people live in a smaller family or even live by themselves. It could be good in terms of protecting the privacy but it also weakens the value of family and  robs the chances to take care of people around them.  

ChanLan Hong / Timed Essay / Tuesday / 9 a.m

Being a daughter brought up in a family of Confucius teachings, I have been constantly told that nothing is more important than my family. I grew up looking at this saying "If your members of the family are at peace, anything you do will lead you to success" daily, the moment I woke up and before going to bed. As of  today, take a morning coffee sip and look into the newspaper. Headlines such as "Son Bashed Father" or "Sexual Harassment" are some prevalent issues in our society. The reason why society is changing for the worst is due to the lack of traditional value teachings, influence of the media as well as dependency on electronic gadgets.

           One predominant cause to the society's downfall is the lack of traditional values teachings to the children. Traditional values such as honesty, forgiveness and being filial are values that a child learns from home. However, parents now are working all day and night in order to make ends meet and hardly ever spend time with their children. Due to the absence of these traditional values, children are unable to tell what is right and wrong and this is one of the factors that contributed to the crime rates.

          To many of us all, TV is an important asset and we spend most of the time watching the television. Little did we know about the contents of the program and children as young as 3 years old might be exposed to images where parents are sent to old folks home by children. Besides that, advertisement too plays a very important role. Most of the time, successful men are shown with a grand car, a beautiful woman and money, but nothing related to parents. These innocent children will grow up believing that, that is how a successful man should be and parents are very likely to be neglected by children in the future.

          Last but not least, the high dependency on electronic gadgets also bring a negative effect to the society. Electronic gadgets such as ipad/mp3, Smartphone, tablets etc are creating barriers between parents and children. A family might plan for a day to have dinner together, however, instead of communicating to one another, children are much more indulged into text messaging their friends or playing games on their gadgets. Not only does it cause a growing distance between family members but also, the intimacy between parents and children are also disappearing.

This harsh realism about how our society is changing for the worst is indeed saddening. The aforementioned causes has resulted in smaller household where parents are left to live by themselves during old age, also, broken relationships between parents and children. If we impose more of traditional values teachings at home, more of educational TV programs, and using electronic gadgets wisely, I believe this can bridge us closer to the gap between the ideal society and the contemporary society.  

Jong Beom Cho_Timed Essay_Tue 9AM

             A fairly new concept called 'alone death' became an issue last year. It refers to those people who die alone unnoticed and are found long after they are deceased. As seen from 'alone deaths', Korean society is being divided into smaller and smaller groups instead of big families. There are many ways to look at why Korean families are getting smaller and more people are living by themselves. In addition, there are issues derived from the ongoing phenomenon.

 

             The members of a household are decreasing rapidly because of the rapid changes in social structure. Korean society has switched from agricultural society into industrial society within 50 years. It is the speed that is unprecedented around the world. In the agricultural society people were the asset and the parent's retirement plan. The more people in the family meant more productivity and more food. However, things have changed in the industrial society. Humans were no longer valuable resource like they were in the agrarian society. Instead, machines took over the job and humans were there to supervise and remain in the office. Thus, less people were needed and more people meant more money to be spent. In other words, people have become liabilities. Therefore, many families reshaped accordingly into a small family, even to the extent of single households. To sum, social restructuring was the main cause of the downsizing of Korean families.

 

             There are various outcomes from the changes in the family size in Korea. Most distinctive one is that bond between people and family members have become weaker. In other words, people have stronger tendency to be an individualists. In the past, agriculture required teamwork and unity. Everyone had to do his or her part and everything had to be done in relatively strict manner. Otherwise, the farming would be ruined and everyone would have to starve. Therefore, working closely within the family and to some extent with the neighbors was crucial. However, in the industrialized society, individual ability is highly valued compared to the agrarian societies. As a result, people focus more on their work and their small group's work. They are already too busy doing their own work and have little time to take care of the others. Consequently, the restructuring of Korean families have led more and more Koreans to become individualists.

 

             Koreans have rapidly changed from the people who survived on the family farming from making cars and office people. This has greatly influenced the shape of our families and now we are living in a society with smaller families than the past. The small families eventually changed Koreans from collectivists to individualists because the value of man power has decreased significantly. Although it may seem these changes are negative, it is because the change is still new to many Koreans. So Koreans should leave behind what is negative from the past and embrace the bright sides of the newly formed society.

Yujin Song/ Timed Writing/ Tue 9am

Do you have any brothers or sisters? Probably most of you have one or two, and some of you are an only child. Now, think about your parents. They usually have at least four or five siblings. Families became smaller and smaller. Also, we even find one-person households very often. In the past, only widows or orphans lives alone, so living alone was considered as a pity. What happened during the past generation? Changes in the form of families are related to changes in society.

First of all, the education cost increased significantly. Many private institutions, or hakwon, have popped up since 1990's. Parents wanted their children to join one of them. As the demand for hakwon rose, the education cost went up as well. The increased education cost became a heavy burden for parents, so they didn't want to have many children. As a result, a fewer children were born, which formed smaller families.

In addition, people are getting married in older ages than those in the past. It was common to get married in the mid-20's a generation ago, but it is unusual nowadays. They are working or attending for colleges and graduate schools so that they do not have time to think about their marriage. Women in these days are more educated and more eager to be socially successful. As women participated in the job field, they did not hope to get married because marital status sometimes became obstacles to succeed in their careers.

Furthermore, more and more people live alone. Those who are in 20's or 30's usually leave their parents' house when they get jobs. It is quite usual to live separately, even though they are not married. Also, a number of the elderly live alone. Their children all got married and formed their own families. My family lives separately with my grandmother as well. She prefers to live alone in rural areas. As a result, the number of one-person households increases.

Families in these days are much smaller than those in the 1960's or even those in the 1990's. This is partly because the rise of education cost. The high cost became a burden for parents, which made parents have a fewer children. Other reasons are the older age of those getting married and the increases number of one-person households. It is helpful to consider the relationship between changes in society to study social trends.

Minah Lee/Timed Writing/Tue 9 A.M.

What I am looking forward to doing these days is to visit my home and spend time with my family after the midterm. Since my brother and I live away from my parents, it became an unusual occasion to gather and have a meal together. Likewise, there are many people who live alone or small families in modern society. Change of the notion of family has some impact on the current situation and development of transportation and telecommunication has been attributed to this trend as well.              Most of all, the concept of family changed significantly compared to the past. Parents don't want many children on average, they prefer one or two. It costs so much to raise one kid and since mothers tend to work rather than stay at home raising their kids, it became hard to take care of many children. Moreover, today's couples prefer living separated from their parents              Next, development of transportation and telecommunication has led to the trend of living alone or having small families. Even if members of a family are apart, they are still able to keep in touch easily and it takes less time and efforts to meet. If we lived in a traditional society, staying away from families would take up a heavy burden.              As these trends of single or small families continue, buying pattern is also changing. There are more products targeted for those who live alone and the volume of commodities becomes smaller according to these trends. Furthermore, people may have more interpersonal problems. Not having a sibling or living away from grandparents takes chances from learning how to treat others or elderly people from time to time.              Family system has changed based on development of technology and notion of family. This could have advantages and disadvantages, however, I hope that one could still take care of their families and friends and frequently contact with them, letting them know that one is still there for them.

Hyein Shim/ timed writing/ tue 9am

Long time ago, in Korea, it was common to live with many families. Parents, grandparents, and 6-7 children lived together in a house. But in these days, it is difficult to find this kind of families. Because more and more countries are changing from traditional to modern life style.

             Firstly, there are many people who prefer public life to marriage. They just want to enjoy their lives by themselves. Because these kinds of people have their own job, have much money, they can fully enjoy with doing what they really want to do.

             Also, it takes too much money to feel children, so people who married tend to have just one or two kids. To educate and feed well one child, the parents need a lot of money.

             Because of these two reasons, the society is changing. Many countries and companies make shops and products for people who live alone or small families. For example, there is a fridge sized for one person. This kind of thing shows how the society changes.

             Nowadays, many nations around the world are changing to the modern life style, and many changes appear. Although living alone or with smaller families is good, people should remember the traditional life style also.

Lo Yun Seo(노윤서)/freewriting about "cause and effect"/tuesday_9-11am

   Do you think that the woman who is over 35, but doesn’t get marry is not acceptable to your thinking? If you do, you are not a person who lives in modern time. As our nation and around the world change our life style, furthermore a lot of people live alone or with small family. Why these things happen? The reasons are people are more independent gradually, modern people are selfish, and family’s importance decreases in every person’s life.

 First, recently people are more concentrated in their self. We don’t want to lean another person because we think we can do a lot of things without any other helps. For example, in these days some people especially women don’t want to get marry because they don’t need to receive advices or helps. So they want to leave a cool single.

 Second, people are more selfish than ever. People recently don’t care of other people and we just only think about ourselves. We don’t want to know other’s feelings and even if we have known other people’s suffering, we rarely share our mind. Therefore, people don’t want to love other even their parents and people want to leave alone gradually.

 Third, nowadays the portion of our family significance decreases in our life. In the past most of all people always discuss the problems that they are faced with in their daily life with their parents. Furthermore even when we decide to marry, we always share the issue with our family. But in these days, we often share them with other people such as friends. Even when we think about our marriage, some people don’t care family’s thinking. So former example in our living, family’s importance is dimmished, people live alone or with small family.

And then, as we gradually live alone or with small family, what happen in our society? First of all, the birth rate in our world is dimmished. As people who what to love cool single increase, the birth rate decrease. As time goes by, the children who get admission to elementary school are decrease. It this situation just keep on going, we can have a lot of problem.

The most significant problem is that we may increase a lot of burdens because of financial problem for older people. As the people who live alone increase, the proportion of older is much bigger. So society has to support them using money through pension. Then we have lot of burden about that because we pay them together.

Ahn Sang-wook/timed writing/tue 9am.

The world is more and more divided into a smaller group than before. This means that on the contrary to the past, a growing number of people are living alone or living as a small family where the number of the family members usually is up to four. Then, what is the cause and effect of this trend we faced these days?

 

The society is gradually respecting one's distinctive personality and character. We can call this Individualism. With this trend, people want to be who they are regardless of what circumstances they are under. However if they are included in a larger group like extended family, they relatively feel uncomfortable compared with when they are alone. They hardly express their inner or real emotion. Therefore, they start to escape from their home and they are determined to live alone with freedom. But it sometimes brings negative effects. One of them is that they have a high possibility of suffering from mental diseases. They are caused by the loneliness of being home alone without interaction with people. The issue is especially serious in Japan where the individualism is highly spread throughout Japanese society. The problem is dubbed as "Hikikomori"

 

Obviously, the direction of the world is good for someone who wants to live with freedom and not to be disturbed from others. Because individualism thoroughly respects an individual unless someone does not act something harmful for the outer world. On the other hand, it also brings side-effect in the society. Therefore, we must be care of the possibility of its negative sides and be ready to take a counterplan against them.

Yujin Park/ Timed writing/ TUE 9am.

Have you heard about nuclear family? Actually, a few decades ago, we didn't use this word. We just used the word 'family'. However, Nowadays, the word family is divided into two words. Traditional family and nuclear family. Why did these things happen? Today's society has been much changed than before so it made many changes in our life from our work place to family members. So, one of the issues and problems of today is Individualism. Then what are the causes of Individualism and how do they affect to our society?

The first cause of individualism is the development of technology and increasing internet penetration.
Unlike before using the internet, we can do everything we want with the internet, even we can work at home. So, we can usually work or do something much faster than doing with people. In addition, we cannot live without the Internet. Therefore, we have less opportunity to meet people or to do something together. Even, we can find another severe problem caused by increased internet using from children.
For example, the addiction to computer games. Nowadays, children tend to like doing computer games rather than playing on the ground. From time to time, social members is losing their sence of community which was very important thing before.

Second factor is that the number of working couples is increased. Because of the urbanization, many family live in the city away from their grandparents and relatives and live in busy life. This is why the word 'the nuclear family' was made. It's not easy for working couples to visit their relatives so often. At least, they can visit once or twice a year during holidays.
This can be said the cause of individualism and the change of familiy menbers in our society.

By increasing the individualism because of above factors, the influence to our society is not small.
People tend to be ignorant to others. Even, many people don't know who is living in the next door. This thinking makes us be evaluated by the results only(outcomes). People give importance on the outcomes rather than the process. As a result, it can make the conflict betweent the regions like Nimby.

People made much more advanced society than before and this helps us to live more convenient life.
However, it gave us also negative effect like individualism and egoism. It should be considered quickly and we should find the solutions.
The most important thing that we should know is communication. Even though we live the most convenient life with thousands of internet wires and phones, we will realize that living alone is the saddest thing.

Sunmin Lee/Timed writing/Tuesday 9

Nahollojok is getting common in Korean society. The term means 'a group of people who prefer to be or live by themselves.' Now, it is not just a case of Korea, but of many other modernized countries in the world. With the change from tradition to modernity, the number of people living alone or in small family has increased a lot. This phenomenon could be explained with many different dimensions in our society but here, I would like to talk about three; womens education, aging population and development of technology.

One of the main causes is an increase in the number of educated women. In the past, it wasn't common or even not allowed for females to study and go to university and get their own jobs. In Korea, many of middle-aged females got married in their early twenties and become housewives. In these days, however, more and more young ladies are becoming professional. They refuse to become housewives but to go to college, get degrees and have their own careers. As a result, they tend to get married after getting a job, later in their lives, or even not to get married because they can now afford their living. Therefore, this caused an increase in the number of female population living by themselves.

Another cause is the aging population. With the development of medical science and expanded welfare and health care services, people are living longer. According to reports, the average life span of Koreans is longer than 80 years and this is a huge increase compared to the generation of our grandmothers and grandfathers'. And usually the old people, after their children get married and have thier children, live alone or only with their husband or wife in rural areas. So, the elderly could be another reason for the increase of population living alone or within small family.

Lastly, the development of technology including phones and internet is also a major cause for the phenomenon. These days, most of us use internet or smartphones every day. So we can easily contact with our friends or families. Also recently, 'social network services' have made it much easier to communicate with others wherever we are and whenever we want to. With this development in modern times, now people feel less lonely about being or living alone in real life. Therefore, this makes people feel less necessity to live with others but prefer to live the single life.

In conclusion, it is not a surprise that more and more people are living alone or in small families these days. They don't feel alone with their phones and internet, working women are enjoying their single lives, and people are having longer life than before. Thus, it is not something that can be judged whether it's good or bad, but a change which is natural in the modern society.

Seonyoung Hwang_Timed Essay_Tue 9 a.m.

     When people hear the word 'family' I can confidently say that many people would imagine four family members- father, mother, a boy, and a girl. Surprisingly, in especially Asian countries, it is considered to be a 'typical family' even though it's been only hundreds years ago when third generation often lived in a same household. As society becomes urbanized and Western ideas influence, many Asian people see nuclear family becoming more common nowadays. These trends consequently lead to communication technology development as well as wide spread of individualism.

     Urbanization is attributable to one of reasons of smaller family trends. Due to the development of cities, people began immigrating into cities for a better working opportunity as well as better quality of life. This caused the separation between older generation and younger generation and therefore, the trends of smaller families have been brought about. Accordingly, communication between the families became pivotal and this eventually contributed a society to the development of communication technology.

     Influence of Western ideas can also be one of the causes of the trends. Thanks to the globalization, people from the other side of the world may obtain not only mere information but also cultural aspects. Asian countries welcomed the Western cultures which give priority on individualism and independency. Thus, the idea of being independent when people are mature enough has been permeated and consequently, led a society to become a nuclear family society.

     These days, in accordance with the world becoming modernized, the family system has been changed. These trends have been produced as a result of urbanization which affected a society to develop its communication technology and the introduction of Western ideas which wielded influences on changing many country citizens' way of thinking. Indeed, it shows that the modernity and globalization are closely connected to a change of society.

Kayeong Kim / Timed Writing / Tue 9 a.m.

 Guess how is the average number of family members these days? Well, it seems most of people regard it as three or four. I can easily find that almost every family restaurant provide meals that suitable for three or four people. And even friends around me, they only have one sibling or they are an only child. I would like to state my own opinion in this situation.

 Before the Industry revolution, number of family members is very important since they were actual workers at home. Agriculture was common way for living and only few people made materials for their small town. However, modern industry has developed as manufacturing and servicing area. So people quickly gathered into town, making big city and became part of factories and stores. With this growth, technology developed a lot together including medical sectors, so that people could live longer than before. Family members were being apart, but also they get much time to live.

 Because there were much time to live, people got much education than before which provided much opportunities to achieve self-realization. People got interested in themselves, their ego – It changed the definition of success in life. People began to value personal stuffs like achieving goals of their life. More people regarded parenting as irritating work to get their individual purpose. Having a baby become an optional choice comparing with past when many babies regarded as a good sign of family.

 Moreover, as technology developed, we don't need to take much effort to work for basic things – mass production provided people to have spare time. Our desire went high to reach high quality of life. For living nicely, we need lots of things to afford to. It means that it is much effective way when we have smaller group compared with large group. We distribute much more to each person when we have small members. For the consequences, parents want few children to use the money in effective way. It makes our quality of life higher than before, but also makes us think only ourselves.

 Number of family members doesn't only mean its size. It affects our way of life – individualism. As our desire for self realization and good quality of life are growing, we are trying to catch things as much as we can. Sometimes we cannot see others due to these desires. Individualism is the biggest product of smaller family society.

Simmy/ The Causes of Happiness/ Tue 9am

The Causes of Happiness
How can we gain happiness? Nowadays most of the people consider
happiness is built up by money, however, people actually can't feel
warm from money. Real happiness is that when you're down, lost or feel
it hard to carry on in life, you can be hugged, supported and
encouraged. So I think family, love and friendship are the causes of
happiness.
The harmony of family causes happiness. When you're tired or feel
lonely outside, home is always the warmest place to cure your
loneliness and comfort you. You are happy and content when you are
with your family. Parents love you and ask for no repayment. They are
happy just simply because you are happy.
The sweet love causes happiness. We all expect that someone special
will appear in our life to love us heartily. That special one is like
the other part of us and we will never be afraid of being abandoned.
They let us know the definition of sweetness and happiness. Even when
our youth and beautiful appearance fade away, we are still able to
take hand with the other part of us, walking on the path, looking back
upon our life with smiles on our shrivelled faces.
Friendship also causes happiness. You can always pour out your
unhappiness to your dear friends. And they can always cheer you up and
make you happy by comforting you. When you need help, they are always
on your side and face the difficulties with you together.
In conclusion, happiness is caused by family, love and friendship.
Many people are busy pursuing money by ignoring family members, the
beloved ones and friends. Actually deeper in there heart, they're not
happy. So, why not treasuring the moment with people that you love?
Money is only material, it has no temperature. However, you can feel
warm by the hug of all your beloved ones and gain real happiness.

Hwanhee Rhee_Tue 9 a.m._Happiness(Cause and Effect)

Three years ago, Ms.Yoon-hee Choi, known as "the Pastor of Happiness" killed herself with her husband. She left the suiside note saying that she had struggled because of illness. It gave a huge shock to entire country because she was a quite famous lectruer telling people the importance and way of living happy life. The suicide of happiness pastor gave us a lot of thinks about happiness, because many people in Korea thought that she was the happiest woman in the world. She always mentioned the importance of laughing, and many people say that people are not laughing because of happiness, but they are happy because of laughing. But, we should think about what make people laugh "REALLY", since we know the happiest woman in the nation, we suppose, killed herself.

 

First, we have to realize that life doesn't always go as we want, and acknowledge it. There are so many books on happiness, success, meaning of life, and so on, but life isn't just like the book. Sometimes we may think that if we live just the way as the good book suggests, we can live happily, but as everybody knows, that's not at all. We need to admit that life is full of variables and not everyone around us is not good people. If not, we are easy to be hurt from anything is not on the fairy tales.

 

And then, we should be optimistic about things around us even though these were not in the book. As mentioned above, there are so much variables and many bad things can happen in our lives. We know that world is getting worse to live. But we should keep our mind optimistically, and have hopes for better world. Even though our lives are too tough to live, there still are so many good things around us. We have our family, friends, some foods which are really delicious, or movies seem so funny. After admitting the toughness of the life, we should accept good things still remaing around us.

 

Above all, the most important thing to be happy is finding the meaning of our lives. If we don't have the meaning in our lives, we cannot be happy at all no matter what we have. we should live for something each of us think that is worthing spending whole life in it. That can be a job, health, relationship, charity, religion, or so many things. It is not important what somebody else think about your own value. We should consider only ourselves when thinking about the meaning of the life, to be a really happy person.

 

Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to tell somebody "I am happy". That's why so many people want to earn money a lot, to buy things to make other people think that he/she is happy. But that's not the way of happiness. We should admit the truth of life, be optimistic against all odds, and find the meaning of life. That's the way to be happy.

JiWon Kim/cause and effect essay/Tue 9 a.m.

Happiness, it is not difficult

 

People want to be happy. So they read books about happiness, hear the lecture or have a religion. Despite these efforts, they don't feel happy with their live and even they say they are unfortunate. How can we be happy? There are many ways to be happy but, I think, everyone can be happy with these three things: job, family and friends and hobbies

 

First, all people need the job. When we achieve good results in the workplace or get good grades in school as a result of our hard work, we feel a sense of accomplishment. This feeling is very important because it is a motive power of our life. Lives are full of failures, ordeal and obstacles. So sometimes we become frustrated and we want to quit everything. Nevertheless, we keep trying to attain the goal. Through this process, we feel the meaning of life and come to maturity.

 

When we return home from work, we are so tired physically and emotionally. So we want to take a rest. At a time like this, mom's warm soups, kids' smile or a puppy running to greet us are the greatest strengths. So we feel safe and comfortable and we can recharge for tomorrow. And also friends are important as well as our family. With them, we spend hours chatting and pour out all the troubles. Whereby we relieve the stress and we can be understood.

 

It is also good to have a hobby to do in the leisure time. It can be anything you like. For example, I know a woman that watches the stars in the sky through a telescope and shares it with people. Each time I meet her, she always looks energetic because this hobby acts as a buffer against stress. Consequently, it makes the daily routine bearable.

 

These three thing are not hard to seek and inexpensive. Happiness is in the daily life. If you have them, it is enough to be happy.

Minah Lee/Happiness/Tue9AM

I cannot say that I'm not happy now, but I have some moments that I was truly happy several times in my life. They have some aspects in common and those are something special, free from worries and related to people.              Looking back my life and reminding of some happy moments, I usually bring up some special events, such as when I was traveling abroad or getting accepted from university. I find happiness from things that are rarely happening, however, going home and meeting my parents make me so pleased since I cannot do those often as well.              I can't think of happiness if I have any concerns with me. If my grandmother is sick or there are difficult assignments that are due sooner or later, I couldn't be able to concentrate on anything. In a state of peaceful and calm, I should be absolutely free from concerns so that I can truly enjoy things ahead of me.              My happiness lies on relationships. I tend to feel happy more when I'm with my family and friends. Most of the time, just hanging out with them, not doing anything special relieves stress and gives me energy. With people I love, I become brave and the feeling that I'm loved raises my self-esteem and confidence.              Happiness is contagious and addictive. Being happy is not a hard thing to do if we try to see things in a positive way. To meet a true happiness, try to make everyday special with no concerns and have a good time with nice people.

Chanil Kim/Happiness/Tue 9AM

Material happiness, Not the Answer

People pursuit happiness with different ways. One thing in common is that everyone might feel that only material things cannot make somebody happy. That is because we are supposed to satisfy ourselves with spiritual things in order to be happy. In this sense, people feel happy by being with something familiar, expressing their own thinking and not thinking of how to be happier.

First, spending time with familiar things leads to people's happiness. Familiar things range from invisible to visible things, which also can be any person. For instances, some people feel happy by getting knowledge about new subjects; other people consider it happy to challenge themselves to try something new; others find happiness in meeting and becoming friends with those who are not close to them. All these people seem to turn unfamiliar things into familiar things, so that they can stay with them and feel comfortable. People definitely feel happy with comfortable things.

Next, people can also be happy by expressing their own thoughts. And people do so through a variety methods. For examples, people write something whether it is a part of literature or not, make every genre of movies and paint something mainly to fulfill their desire to share their own idea with others.  People who appreciate those works are likely to empathize with those who create them. Consequently, those works presenting somebody's own message makes people who both enjoy and make them satisfied and happy.

Finally and most importantly, we can be really happy only by not thinking too much about how to be happier than now. It is certain that every human being instinctively seeks to live happy life, constantly worrying over what will make us happier in the near future than in the present days. It is the thinking of how we can be happier that ever that makes us unhappy; that kind of thought are very probable to just force someone not to satisfied with his present life. Always feeling concerned about what will bring happiness to us and when, we cannot appreciate present blessings that we have now.

If people spend much time with something or someone they feel attached to, displaying their own feelings through many various ways and stop considering what really bring us happiness, they will find the greatest happiness in their lives. It is good for us to give up the greed for material things, and then we come to feel grateful for everything that belongs to us now; that is exactly how we take a shortcut to happiness.  

Park Hyunbae / Happiness / Tue 9 a.m.

How Can We Get Happy?

 

200801424 Park Hyunbae    

 

People want to be happy. Nobody wants not to be happy. There're so many people, so the standards of happiness are. But there's a kind of consensus of how to be happy; it is "Do what you want to do." It's related with self-fulfillment.

 

First of all, the concept of happiness is abstract and mental. In order to be happy, we do follow the most beneficial. Then how could we measure it? The size of the impression could tell. When we get impressed, something inside of us makes us react to it. How much we react to it can be the size of the impression, so maybe we can say that the bigger the size is, the more happy we are. And self-realization makes the size of impression most big.

 

Then, why do we feel happy when we fulfill something? It's connected with achievement. Let's suppose that we're back in our childhood, and we are playing with some puzzle game. If we are just looking it by other children finishing the puzzle, we may just feel "Hmm… they've done it well. Not bad." But if we finish it, maybe we may jump around yelling "Yeah! I've done it! I did it!" Just like this, all has the same story. 'I' accomplish something, 'I' get fulfillment, and 'I' feel happy. Nobody can bring my happiness.

 

Lastly, we should know how to complete something. When we get started on something, first we may have felt some interests and pleasant expectation about it. But as time goes by, sometimes it feels so boring, tiring, or hard that we even get to want to give it up. If so, it's the time to think again why we started it, that is it really what we wanted, and how satisfied we can get with it completed. If we choose to go on, then never give up. Make a new trail. The important thing is to concentrate on the goal, chase it, and approach in various ways to solve difficulties. In the end, sweet will come after all bitter.

 

Now everything is clear. Happiness isn't far. But there're not only sweet, easy ways, and there's also what we didn't know till we get devoted. However, it doesn't really matter that much, if the goal and the process leading to it are quite determined and well-planned. So let's get happy as "a doer."

Ju Hye Choi / Happiness / Tues 9 AM

Many people chase after beauty, money, status and fame thinking it will bring them happiness. But in time we learn that it is not really the answer to true happiness because it is like chasing after something that does not really matter or last. It is why some say happiness is doing what you want to do. Some say it is treasuring the moments with your friends and family. Some say it is laying on the grass on a sunny day listening to music. Some say it is watching a movie with someone special. However although these things do make us happy I have learned that what makes one really happy are the intangible things, the ones that people cannot take away from you.

           Spending time with friends and family can be very fun and exciting but you cannot be truly happy when there is no love. Imagine you are having fun with your friends right now and one of your friends is being very negative and narrow-minded. If you do not have love for your friend, you are most likely to ignore him or her, act like you are listening or become negative yourself. And that is not going to make you truly happy.

           Another thing is to be humble. No matter how beautiful, intelligent and talented you are, if you are self-satisfied it is going to make you less caring and inconsiderate which is going to make you unhappy. The reason is that you will begin losing friends even those who mean a lot to you because people do not like to be with those who are inconsiderate but loving, caring and down to earth. Therefore even though you have all the things that make you happy such as money, beauty, intelligence or a hobby, without humility you cannot achieve true happiness.  

Finally is being yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson has once said, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Many people today try to be someone else they are not because they want to fit in the crowd or they think it will make their life happier. However, if we try to change ourselves because we lack confidence in who we are, we slowly loose our identity later finding ourselves becoming slaves to what we see and hear. If we truly want to be happy we must have confidence in being who we are because you cannot be happy by being someone else you are not.

           Today, people are becoming more self-centered. It is why we see many people chasing after things to make them feel happy. But I believe true happiness is not something to be chased after, it is already in us. It is only a matter of whether we choose to bring it out by loving others and being confident of who we are with humility or not. Because in the end of the day, these are ones that no one can take away from us and the things that cannot be taken away from you are the ones that truly count. 

Ju Hye Choi / Happiness / Tues 9 AM

           Many people chase after beauty, money, status and fame thinking it will bring them happiness. But in time we learn that it is not really the answer to true happiness because it is like chasing after something that does not really matter or last. It is why some say happiness is doing what you want to do. Some say it is treasuring the moments with your friends and family. Some say it is laying on the grass on a sunny day listening to music. Some say it is watching a movie with someone special. However although these things do make us happy I have learned that what makes one really happy are the intangible things, the ones that people cannot take away from you.

           Spending time with friends and family can be very fun and exciting but you cannot be truly happy when there is no love. Imagine you are having fun with your friends right now and one of your friends is being very negative and narrow-minded. If you do not have love for your friend, you are most likely to ignore him or her, act like you are listening or become negative yourself. And that is not going to make you truly happy.

           Another thing is to be humble. No matter how beautiful, intelligent and talented you are, if you are self-satisfied it is going to make you less caring and inconsiderate which is going to make you unhappy. The reason is that you will begin losing friends even those who mean a lot to you because people do not like to be with those who are inconsiderate but loving, caring and down to earth. Therefore even though you have all the things that make you happy such as money, beauty, intelligence or a hobby, without humility you cannot achieve true happiness.  

Finally is being yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson has once said, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Many people today try to be someone else they are not because they want to fit in the crowd or they think it will make their life happier. However, if we try to change ourselves because we lack confidence in who we are, we slowly loose our identity later finding ourselves becoming slaves to what we see and hear. If we truly want to be happy we must have confidence in being who we are because you cannot be happy by being someone else you are not.

           Today, people are becoming more self-centered. It is why we see many people chasing after things to make them feel happy. But I believe true happiness is not something to be chased after, it is already in us. It is only a matter of whether we choose to bring it out by loving others and being confident of who we are with humility or not. Because in the end of the day, these are ones that no one can take away from us and the things that cannot be taken away from you are the ones that truly count. 

Minju Yeo/ Causes of Happiness/ Tue 1,2

 

Happiness is the ultimate goal for people's lives. Although everyone has different values on the definition on happiness, but there are no people who want to be unhappy. Basic but hard things like fulfillment, satisfaction, good relationships, etc. can bring us happiness.

First, a good relationship with people nearby is an important cause for happiness.

Second, achievement in job or school works cause happiness. Achieving work satisfaction results in feelings of contentment.

Finally, having peace on people's mind causes happiness. People are sometimes too focused on achieving goal on everything, such as

In conclusion, it is a good idea to always keep a good relationship with other people, and try hard on everything to achieve things. Also,

Jong Beom Cho_Happiness_Tue 9AM

Happiness

 

Jong Beom Cho

 

             Happiness can derive from verity of reasons. For some monetary success would make them happy. Some will feel happy when they have achieved a certain position or a goal. People sometimes just feel happy for no particular reason. The state of being happy is what everyone desires. However, many find acquiring happiness difficult and feel themselves as unhappy person. It is because most people focus on elements that make them happy when the real question is 'what is making them unhappy?'

 

             Happiness is triggered by interaction between two different levels of human mind. Human mind always and unconsciously create ideal state of oneself. The ideal state can be formed differently from a person to person depending on the culture and atmosphere they are exposed to. In relationship with the ideal state, there is reality. It is the state which a person conceives as real. Every person has these two states of mind: ideal state, and the reality. For most of time there is a gap between these two states. This gap enforces people to compare their reality to the state of ideal and make them crave for it. When the gap is not narrowed, then a person would feel unhappy. It is when the gap is narrowed or completely exterminated, people would feel happy. Therefore, the obvious solution to the happiness is either bringing down the ideal state to the reality or taking reality into the level of one's ideal state.

 

             Happiness can be achieved by lowering one's ideal. This does not mean that one should set one's goal low and lower one's expectation. It means one should remove unnecessary burden from one's ideal. Studying English, which would be the most likely event that make many students unhappy, is a good example. When students study English, they would probably set certain goals and create their own master plans. For instance, many students will plan like this: 50 words, reading 5 newspaper articles every day. It is these types of planning and executing part where they bare themselves with extra burden. By setting a numerical goal they are living a life of a prisoner and serving there sentence to the studying. Sooner or later they will find themselves in the situation where they are simply repeating the exercise forgetting the real purpose of the work. Consequently, they feel tired and unhappy from the endless routine. The ideal the student set was to improve one's English level not being best and doing the same activity for a long period of time, but because the student have set a goal that is impossible to achieve, since no one can repeat the routine for the rest of one's life, he or she is feeling unhappy. In other words, the student has made a gap that can never be narrowed down. Like the student studying English, many people put themselves in a situation where there is a gap that cannot be filled. Avoiding creating these gaps that are impossible to be filled and focusing on the core essence of filling the gap is a key to reaching the happiness.

 

             Second part of acquiring happiness is by improving one's reality. Reality is not what is actually real. It is a state which one perceives oneself to be in. For example, a person can say the glass is half full or half empty depending on how they perceive the glass. Like the glass metaphor, there are many aspects in our lives that can be improved by changing the attitude of perception. The most important things at the attitude of perception are the positive attitude. One must constantly make effort to perceive the world as positively as possible. It does not cost anything and does not take much time. One must not forget that reality is not always about what is 'real' but what our mind think is real.

 

             Searching for happiness does not start from dissecting the elements of happiness but from discovering what are making people unhappy. Unhappiness is presence because of the gap between the ideal and the reality. Therefore, the gap must be narrowed down in order for one to feel happy. The gap can be filled from both ends: from the reality's side or the ideal's side. However, there is common ground going through the two methods. It is that happiness is not something to be searched outside oneself but it is already innate emotion covered by people's mind. Finding happiness is actually soothing one's mind and changing one's view of the universe.