#22

           Before I came to Saipan, I used to go to big school in Korea. Our school had about 40 students in one class, and there were about 10 classes in one grade. It was pretty big, so I had many students that I don’t even know names. The school that I am going now on Saipan is very small compared to my previous school. Our class is the only class for juniors and we have about 30 people in our class. The important thing is that our class is the biggest class in our school in fact that our school is really small. I prefer small schools to big schools for several reasons.

           First of all, teachers can give more attention to students individually. In big schools, teachers cannot pay attention to every student individually because there are too many students. However, in small school, since there are much less students, teachers have more time to interact each student. It is good for students to contact teachers and be close to teachers because they will eventually feel comfortable to ask what they want to know and thus they will be intellectually developed.

           Secondly, closer friendships are created among classmates in small schools. In small school, even though the grade is changed, the class is still the same. However, big schools change the class every year. In Korea, I always hated the first day of school because I am not very good at talk first to the strangers. On the first day of school in every year, everyone in the class is strangers except when one of my friends is put into same class as I. However, I don’t feel any awkwardness or uncomfortable feelings because I already know everyone in our class. Since our classmates have known each other for at least 2 years, we are pretty close to each other. Thus, there is no bullying in our class because everyone is everyone’s friends. In big schools, a lot of bullying goes on. However, in small school, there is much less bullying than bullying in big schools.

#21

 
 

           I like to imagine myself 10 years later in marriage. I’ve always wanted to have 2 sons and 1 daughter. I even have thought about what names I would give to my sons and daughter. Also, I once have thought about things that my kids have to learn. What I want to teach my kids is manners, patience, and ability to work on their own.

           First of all, the most important thing is the manner. I don’t want my children to be like who don’t behave in front of the elders, and also, friends. Behaving to the elders is common sense that they have to have. However, many people don’t have manner when they are with friends. However, I think even between friendships, it is important to have manner such as not saying anything that would hurt friend’s feelings or thinking about on friend’s position. I want my children to get along well with people around them.

           Secondly, I believe that without patience, people cannot achieve anything good. For example, students have to study with patience. They can’t just be smart at once. It is important to know how to wait until people get something. With this lesson, I will also give lessons about “no pain, no gain” to my children. I realize “no pain, no gain,” is so true in our lives.  Everyone has to have patience in pain to gain something.

           Finally, I will teach my children ability to work on their own. It is really important to work on their own when they go to school, especially high school. It is really different between middle school and high school. In high school, the education become much harder and there is a lot of homework that they have to do it on their own. I want to train my children before they go to middle school so they will get used to work on their own. Also, I want my children care about their grades. There are lots of students who don’t even care what they are getting for their grades, and I think it’s horrible. I want my children to work hard, and be a nice students.

#20

 

           When I was in Korea, our school had uniforms. Every middle schools and high schools in Korea have uniforms, but what about Saipan? Personally, I disagree with having uniform at SIS. Of course there are many advantages of uniforms, but, there are more disadvantages than advantages of school uniforms.

           First of all, Saipan is too hot to have a proper uniform. If there would be uniforms, those uniforms have to look proper, not just t-shirt and pants. I think SIS will not make uniforms that have shirt and vest, but more comfortable one, the collar shirts. However, in Saipan, wearing a collar shirt is too hot. Collar shirt is made of relatively thick fabric than other cotton fabric. SIS might set an ordinary T-shirt as uniform, but that doesn’t have any point of having uniforms at all. Uniforms are meant to be showing uniformity and formal attitude, but T-shirt just look like a PE uniform. Thus, it is better to not have uniform than having improper uniform.

           Second reason of not having uniform is that students have the right to express themselves. Students can express themselves freely through lots of ways. Dressing is one of those ways to show who they are. This is the biggest reason why most of the students protest against having uniform. Some students might think that they can reform the uniform to their own styles, but I don’t think SIS would let us do it. We have dress code, and it can be said little conservative. I don’t think students can express freely through uniforms by reforming it because SIS would not give students the right to be free to reform it.

           Finally, personally, I think whenever private school has uniforms, it looks that the school is religious school. SIS is not a religious school. In Saipan, every private religious school has uniforms. The fact that SIS is only school that has no uniforms among the private schools in Saipan differentiate SIS from other schools. It makes SIS look more liberate school than other schools. Thus, it is better not to have uniforms at SIS.

           I believe PE uniform, not just uniforms, is necessary to have for SIS students. Since every grade has PE class, and it’s very hot out there, students might feel comfortable if they have PE uniform.

#19

           
There are people who succeeded great achievement for world such as Einstein, Aristotle, and Mozart…etc. However, most of them are dead, now, and now they only exist in history. If I can bring someone from dead and serve for dinner, I would bring Leonardo da Vinci from his tomb.

I wrote a research paper about da Vinci and read “The Da Vinci Code,” recently. I found that many of his work have hidden meanings and I think they are very interesting. I also learned about Sion community from “The Da Vinci Code” which the book says it is the organization that Leonardo da Vinci was a grand master. I am very curious that if every information about that organization in the book is true or not. Thus, I want to invite Leonardo da Vinci and ask him what I am curious about.

 Especially, I want to ask him about his great work, “Mona Lisa”. “Mona Lisa” is a very controversial picture over who the model is. Some people even claimed that the model of “Mona Lisa” is actually a male. I was very shocked when I heard that. I really want to know who the model of “Mona Lisa” is, and more importantly, about her eyebrows. The model of “Mona Lisa” is very popular because of her eyebrows. She doesn’t have eyebrows. Leonardo da Vinci is well-known perfectionist who always tried to revise his work to make it perfect. I think there is some hidden meaning in absence of her eyebrows.

I want to serve modern food to da Vinci. Da Vinci is from the Renaissance, and I bet he has never tried any modern food like Coke, KFC, or Ice cream. I’m pretty sure he only has tried old food like boiled potato, or salted fish. I want to introduce him how world has changed. Besides serving modern food, I also want to show him the movie, “The Da Vinci Code”. This movie is based on the book “The Da Vinci Code,” and same as the book, the movie shows a lot of da Vinci’s great work. He would enjoy and feel new when he watch the movie of his life.

#18

     

 
 
There are people who succeeded great achievement for world such as Einstein, Aristotle, and Mozart…etc. However, most of them are dead, now, and now they only exist in history. If I can bring someone from dead and serve for dinner, I would bring Leonardo da Vinci from his tomb.

I wrote a research paper about da Vinci and read “The Da Vinci Code,” recently. I found that many of his work have hidden meanings and I think they are very interesting. I also learned about Sion community from “The Da Vinci Code” which the book says it is the organization that Leonardo da Vinci was a grand master. I am very curious that if every information about that organization in the book is true or not. Thus, I want to invite Leonardo da Vinci and ask him what I am curious about.

 Especially, I want to ask him about his great work, “Mona Lisa”. “Mona Lisa” is a very controversial picture over who the model is. Some people even claimed that the model of “Mona Lisa” is actually a male. I was very shocked when I heard that. I really want to know who the model of “Mona Lisa” is, and more importantly, about her eyebrows. The model of “Mona Lisa” is very popular because of her eyebrows. She doesn’t have eyebrows. Leonardo da Vinci is well-known perfectionist who always tried to revise his work to make it perfect. I think there is some hidden meaning in absence of her eyebrows.

I want to serve modern food to da Vinci. Da Vinci is from the Renaissance, and I bet he has never tried any modern food like Coke, KFC, or Ice cream. I’m pretty sure he only has tried old food like boiled potato, or salted fish. I want to introduce him how world has changed. Besides serving modern food, I also want to show him the movie, “The Da Vinci Code”. This movie is based on the book “The Da Vinci Code,” and same as the book, the movie shows a lot of da Vinci’s great work. He would enjoy and feel new when he watches the movie of his life.

#17

 

 

             There are several ways to define beauty. Some people demand nice appearance that interests people is beauty while some people demand that inner beauty is a true beauty. I personally think both of them have to be fulfilled in order to become a perfectly beautiful person. Even if a person is really beautiful and pretty with outer appearance, and has bad personalities and lack of common sense, that person cannot be said as a perfectly beautiful person.

             It would be depend on how other people think, but beauty of appearance is quite easy to measure. Beautiful appearance is a balanced appearance. What balanced appearance means is that a person has to have balance on his/her face, body or overall proportion. When the appearance is balanced, the other people feel comfortable with that person and get interests about the person. The beauty of outer appearance’s function is to attract people first because people get interests of pretty, handsome faces.

             However, that kind of attraction does not last long unless that person’s inner side is also beautiful. People love handsome or pretty people at first, but as time pasts, they see inner side like personalities or mind, and if his/her inner side is very bad, people would not like that person and do not think of that person as a beautiful person. Thus, Beauty does not only mean pretty or handsome, but competent mind and nice personalities, also.

             People who want to be beautiful have to know that they also have to make their inner side beautiful, not only the appearances. Recently, people are spending more money for plastic surgery just in order to make themselves prettier or more handsome. However, if they really want to be truly beautiful, they have to spend more time to improve their inner beauty because most of them do not have improved their inner beauty while they tried so hard to make their body shape perfect or to make their skin cleaner.

             It might be hard to improve the inner beauty. However, without beautiful inner side, a person can never be truly beautiful. Inner beauty is actually more important than appearance because ugly inner side will eventually make appearance ugly. Thus, definition of beauty does not only deal with the outer appearance, but inner side also.

 

#16

             I have once played “Sims-Castaway” with Nintendo DSL. It was a kind of game that I have to help a character to escape an island. What I learned from that is that three important things to have when I am stranded on an island are a nice, strong knife, a big lighter that has strong fire, and a person that I can talk to.

 
 

             First of all, I chose a strong knife for survival tool. A knife is really useful on an island. If I attach it on the edge of a long branch, it can be a spear that I can go spearfishing with. Also, knife is necessary when I get fruits from wild forest. Fruits are great resource of water. In case of that island has no drinkable water, it is important to get fruits and get water from it. Gathering fruits might be hard without knife especially the fruit is on the tree or is attached with a really strong stem. The most important thing about a knife is that I can protect myself and I can get meat from wild animals. Meat is nice source of protein for my health.

             Seocnd thing that I want to bring is a big lighter. In that game, the character made the fighter with he has on the island, the two branches. I want to have a lighter that can generate a big flame, so I can use it. I will use fire for keeping the temperature, but also, to cook. It would be impossible to cook without fire, thus fire is really important.

             Third thing, actually not a thing, is a person who I can have conversation with. I personally think that being stranded on an island alone can cause problem such as like depression because we will be so lonely on an island. I want to have a person who I can have fun time with, so I won’t feel lonely and scared on an island. Having a friend there itself will help me to survive from being stranded on an island because that person will give me some encourage to live with that person together on the island.

             With those 3 things, I think I will be able to survive. As like in the game, I will find my own way to survive as the time pasts. Sims-castaway was my one of favorite games and that game really helped me with writing this.