shredmaster
Jul 14, 2011
Undergraduate / "to contribute to the reunification of two Koreas" - Common App Essay [2]
It is a rough draft that is longer than what is required.. but i just want to get some basic info of how the overall theme feels like.
It was that particular day in the middle of July when the smothering heat just tries to drench all of the water out of your body. However, when I looked up the sky, there was not a single cloud above and everything just seemed so calm. (fix) Listening to the radio on a bumpy ride bus, the winding road was long and unfamiliar. The radio informed me that it had just marked 2 pm, which meant it had taken me about four hours since I left home. All of these efforts were necessary in order to reach the small town that was seemingly deserted except for the particular school building I was headed to. As I got off the bus, the exotic aroma told me that I arrived at the right place. I now stood at the northenest point in South Korea. Today would mark exactly three weeks since I had first met my student, Young Soo.
"Gosh, B and P look awfully familiar. Why are South Koreans so good at English? Ji Yong taecher, could you teach me how to write my name in English?"
"Well..."
Young Soo is an inquisitive, late blooming 21 year old middle school student. He is not some kid who lives in a distant and remote island that we never heard of, nor he is uncivilized. He is a refugee from North Korea who came to the South about two years ago with his younger sister. He looked just like any typical "Korean" guy and I couldn't tell any difference between him and me until I got to know him better.
He lost both of his parents at a young age when his family attempted to escape from North Korea. After his parents' death, he was soon abandoned with his little sister and had to make a living on his own by delivering newspapers and working in factories. When he turned nineteen, he decided to escape to South because he wanted her sister to go to school and learn. He later confessed that adjusting to "South Korean culture" didn't work out very well for him at first. He said it was like living in a completely different country when he was actually in the same peninsula. When I first saw him, he looked at me with this unforgettable stare that seemed to have all the adversities he had dealt with throughout his life. However, as I became closer to him, he began to open his mind and started talking to me more often. It only took me few weeks until I found out he was really talkative and funny.
Young Soo once told me that he wanted to become a diplomat, just like myself. He said he wanted to contribute to world peace so that there wouldn't any more refugee like him, and no more fighting and war between countries. He desperately wanted to contribute something in the reunification of two Koreas. In order to achieve this, he said he needed to learn English more since he can't understand or communicate in the world without knowing English. When every subject was as equally as important to English to him, he just didn't let go of his English textbook. Even though reading a single page had to take him 30 minutes, he was always happy when he was learning new vocabulary or writing new sentences. Just watching him improving his English day by day and his eagerness for learning gave me a strong impression of how I felt so proud of teaching him and also realizing what a gifted child I was studying at a boarding school in the U.S. The devotion and time spent on my academic studying while I was in school just seemed so little when I was watching Young Soo studying. Three months was just too short for me and him to say goodbye for a while, but when the last day arrived before the start of school, I decided to give him a present that was a collection of all the notes that I've used when I studied English such as all the grammar rules, dictions, expressions, vocabulary, and my essays. I also wanted to give him a pamphlet that contained all the information of the United Nations and a biography of current UN secretary Ban Ki Moon. When he saw all of the gifts I brought him the day, his eyes became wet and he gave me a big hug. Before the whole "melodramatic" scene was about to end, he came up to me and gave me an envelope. It contained his "first in class" award from English class, and his letter written in English to me.
"Ji Yong, thank you for being a good teacher and a friend. You are the first South Korean friend that I've made and I hope you become successful in every field of your life. Good Luck in U.S. and don't forget to come and visit me."
Learning is not the most difficult thing to do, since it is mostly passive and you just have to listen and nod a few times while the teacher is speaking. On the other hand, I learned something more about teaching.
I used to be a student who was ordinary just like any other student and wasn't sure what to do in my life. I wanted to be a superhero when I was young and become a rockstar in my teenage. After relatively a short period of time of teaching Young Soo, an epiphany struck me that would set my future career. I was always concerned about the fact despite I know English fairly well and is familiar with U.S. history, I placed little importance and was ignorant in learning about my own country. i'm not saying I want to changed the world by myself when I still have a lot more to learn, but if there is one thing I could do in my lifetime, i wanted to contribute to the reunification of two Koreas. Germany never achieved its reunification so easily in a few years, but it took a massive effort as well. As the Berlin wall collapsed, the invisible walls between two Koreas must break down. The wall might be very tough due to its endurance for 50 years, but it is a wall that we had made and only we know how to destroy it. One small step of mine to reunification might be little now, but who knows if i go to Pyongyang one day and see the Baekdu mountain with Young Soo?
It is a rough draft that is longer than what is required.. but i just want to get some basic info of how the overall theme feels like.
It was that particular day in the middle of July when the smothering heat just tries to drench all of the water out of your body. However, when I looked up the sky, there was not a single cloud above and everything just seemed so calm. (fix) Listening to the radio on a bumpy ride bus, the winding road was long and unfamiliar. The radio informed me that it had just marked 2 pm, which meant it had taken me about four hours since I left home. All of these efforts were necessary in order to reach the small town that was seemingly deserted except for the particular school building I was headed to. As I got off the bus, the exotic aroma told me that I arrived at the right place. I now stood at the northenest point in South Korea. Today would mark exactly three weeks since I had first met my student, Young Soo.
"Gosh, B and P look awfully familiar. Why are South Koreans so good at English? Ji Yong taecher, could you teach me how to write my name in English?"
"Well..."
Young Soo is an inquisitive, late blooming 21 year old middle school student. He is not some kid who lives in a distant and remote island that we never heard of, nor he is uncivilized. He is a refugee from North Korea who came to the South about two years ago with his younger sister. He looked just like any typical "Korean" guy and I couldn't tell any difference between him and me until I got to know him better.
He lost both of his parents at a young age when his family attempted to escape from North Korea. After his parents' death, he was soon abandoned with his little sister and had to make a living on his own by delivering newspapers and working in factories. When he turned nineteen, he decided to escape to South because he wanted her sister to go to school and learn. He later confessed that adjusting to "South Korean culture" didn't work out very well for him at first. He said it was like living in a completely different country when he was actually in the same peninsula. When I first saw him, he looked at me with this unforgettable stare that seemed to have all the adversities he had dealt with throughout his life. However, as I became closer to him, he began to open his mind and started talking to me more often. It only took me few weeks until I found out he was really talkative and funny.
Young Soo once told me that he wanted to become a diplomat, just like myself. He said he wanted to contribute to world peace so that there wouldn't any more refugee like him, and no more fighting and war between countries. He desperately wanted to contribute something in the reunification of two Koreas. In order to achieve this, he said he needed to learn English more since he can't understand or communicate in the world without knowing English. When every subject was as equally as important to English to him, he just didn't let go of his English textbook. Even though reading a single page had to take him 30 minutes, he was always happy when he was learning new vocabulary or writing new sentences. Just watching him improving his English day by day and his eagerness for learning gave me a strong impression of how I felt so proud of teaching him and also realizing what a gifted child I was studying at a boarding school in the U.S. The devotion and time spent on my academic studying while I was in school just seemed so little when I was watching Young Soo studying. Three months was just too short for me and him to say goodbye for a while, but when the last day arrived before the start of school, I decided to give him a present that was a collection of all the notes that I've used when I studied English such as all the grammar rules, dictions, expressions, vocabulary, and my essays. I also wanted to give him a pamphlet that contained all the information of the United Nations and a biography of current UN secretary Ban Ki Moon. When he saw all of the gifts I brought him the day, his eyes became wet and he gave me a big hug. Before the whole "melodramatic" scene was about to end, he came up to me and gave me an envelope. It contained his "first in class" award from English class, and his letter written in English to me.
"Ji Yong, thank you for being a good teacher and a friend. You are the first South Korean friend that I've made and I hope you become successful in every field of your life. Good Luck in U.S. and don't forget to come and visit me."
Learning is not the most difficult thing to do, since it is mostly passive and you just have to listen and nod a few times while the teacher is speaking. On the other hand, I learned something more about teaching.
I used to be a student who was ordinary just like any other student and wasn't sure what to do in my life. I wanted to be a superhero when I was young and become a rockstar in my teenage. After relatively a short period of time of teaching Young Soo, an epiphany struck me that would set my future career. I was always concerned about the fact despite I know English fairly well and is familiar with U.S. history, I placed little importance and was ignorant in learning about my own country. i'm not saying I want to changed the world by myself when I still have a lot more to learn, but if there is one thing I could do in my lifetime, i wanted to contribute to the reunification of two Koreas. Germany never achieved its reunification so easily in a few years, but it took a massive effort as well. As the Berlin wall collapsed, the invisible walls between two Koreas must break down. The wall might be very tough due to its endurance for 50 years, but it is a wall that we had made and only we know how to destroy it. One small step of mine to reunification might be little now, but who knows if i go to Pyongyang one day and see the Baekdu mountain with Young Soo?