Talk about internship programs in Korea.

## Talk about internship programs in Korea.

# The English you can speak, 25 DEC 2009

College grads are eager to make the best use of their time before they get their full-time jobs. One of the most popular ways to build experience is to get an internship. In times of high unemployment, quality internships are in high demand. There are both internships that may or may not be paid. If it's a paid position, your wages will usually be disappointingly lower than those of the regular staff. Still, interns are generally happy to learn about the real world and get some hands-on experience. If the internship is for an international company, there is the added perk of being able to brush up on your language skills. The negative aspect is that there is no guarantee you will be asked to continue on as a full-benefit employee. Whatever the conditions may be, young Koreans look at these opportunities as stepping stones to a better career.

# An internship is the position held by an intern, or the period of time when someone is an intern.

# An intern is an advanced student or a recent graduate, especially in medicine, who is being given practical training under supervision.

# Someone's wages are the amount of money that is regularly paid to them for the work that they do.

# Something that is disappointingly is not as good or as large as you hoped it would be.

# Hands-on experience or work involves actually doing a particular thing, rather than just talking about it or getting someone else to do it.
# Perks are special benefits that are given to people who have a particular job or belong to a particular group.

# Something that is a guarantee of something else makes it certain that it will happen or that it is true.

# You can describe a job or event as a stepping stone when it helps you to make progress, especially in your career.

# Extra Topics for Study Groups

1. Did you do an internship when you were in school?

2. What kind of internship programs have you heard of?

3. What are the benefits of doing an internship program?

Talk about how Koreans typically live with their parents even as adults.

## The English you can speak

In North American culture, living with parents after college is seen as a very unattractive thing to do. This kind of person has the image of being an unemployed and overly dependent individual. For Koreans, however, it is totally natural and even expected to live with parents until marriage as long as the circumstances allow you to do so. This custom is rooted in Korea's agricultural past, in which children were expected to work on family farms. Also, some young, single adults nowadays live with their parents for practical reasons. It is very expensive to move out and live by yourself, so living with your parents helps you save money. Based on time-honored traditions, a woman leaves her house upon marriage only to move in with her husband's parents. Although this has become much more uncommon today, many parents of the husband still live with their married sons.

# My opinion
It is a Koreans' tradition to live with their parents until they get married. I also want my children to live with me until marriage if my children want. For Koreans, actually, it is impossible for university students or young age to find or lend a house because it is too expensive. After I start to work, I made it a rule to save money which I earned about 70-percent every month. If I kept my saving for 10 years, I could buy a small apartment by myself. Since the parents want their sons and daughters to marry, they gave children big money to support buying a house when they get married. So it is a good excuse to live with parents to save money.

# Extra Topics for Study Groups

1. Until when did you live with your parents?

2. What are the pros and cons of living with your parents in college?

3. How many of your friends lived with their parents even after school?

Talk about how bicycles are becoming more popular in Kora.

# The English you can speak, 21 Oct 2009

Biking in Korea is enjoying something of a renaissance these days, and it's not without reason. Our parks and streets have become much more bicycle-friendly. Not do people only use their bicycles to get exercise but more and more are also using their bikes to commute. Biking provides a myriad of health benefits. After a few weeks of consistent biking, you will start to notice the benefits of it. First, cycling gives you a good cardio workout. Your endurance improves and your circulation gets better, too. Of course, the environmental benefits are not to be downplayed, either. Taking your bike to work means there's one less commuter clogging up our congested freeways. Last but not least, biking saves you money as you don't have to pay for gas or sign up at a gym.

# My opinion

I love to ride my bicycle to commute since I had wanted to lose some weight. Riding a bicycle in Korea becomes more popular and favorite than before because the government start to be focused on building a cycle route along rivers or beside road. It is very useful and safe to ride on it. So I made it a rule to commute using my bicycle in order to exercise regularly except for rainy days. It only takes about 30 minutes to go school by bicycle along a road by the river. I not only save my transportation costs but also get some exercise to keep my health. I agree that I kill two birds with one stone by riding my bicycle when I commute to school.

My hobby is also riding bicycle and a bicycle trip. In 2002 the year of the Korea-Japan World Cup, I went to all of 10 World Cup stadiums which are located all around my country by bicycle, even to Jeju stadium which is located on Jeju island. It was fantastic to catch a ferry with bicycle and watch the sunrise and sunset on it. I was able to reach the Jeju island while I were asleep in the ferry. Whenever I think about going the any stadiums, I feel very excited. If it is possible, I truly hope that I will go around all of the stadiums again.

# If something experiences a renaissance, it becomes popular or successful again after a time when people were not interested in it.

# "Bicycle-friendly" describes policies and practices which may help some people feel more comfortable about traveling by bicycle with other traffic.

# If you commute, you travel a long distance every day between your home and your place of work.

# A myriad or myriads of people or things is a very large number or great variety of them.

# cardio : connected with the heart, This is an aerobic exercise, which mostly burns calories and fat and makes the heart strong.

# Endurance is the ability to continue with an unpleasant or difficult situation, experience, or activity over a long period of time.

# Your circulation is the movement of blood through your body.

# If you downplay a fact or feature, you try to make people think that it is less important or serious than it really is.

# When something clogs up a place, or when it clogs up, it becomes blocked so that little or nothing can pass through.

# Extra Topics for Study Groups

1. Where do you normally go to bike?

2. Describe your bicycle in detail.

3. Tell us about when you learned how to ride a bicycle.

4. What are the benefits of bicycling?

Tell us about a business trip you took overseas.

I went on a business trip with three coworkers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore to visit three universities in January. The trip lasted for eight nights and nine days, and was mostly focused on looking at their laboratories and how they manage them in the aspect of space and human resources. I visited the University of Malaya (UM) in KL, the National University of Singapore(NUS) and Nanyang Technological University(NTU) in Singapore. I did have a few days for sightseeing though, especially the Bintan Resort which is famous for wonderful landscapes and very expensive prices.

The reasons why I visited those universities are ;

1. How does the university generally manage their laboratory?

2. How does the university maintain their space and human resources in their laboratory?

3. How does the university support the material cost for their students' projects?

4. Does a term project progress between two or three departments which are closely connected?

and so on.

The most impressive thing was that almost all the students who were in KL or Singapore spoke English very well when they explained their projects. I was surprised that they didn't hesitate to present their project to us at all. They seemed to eager to explain questions about their work to me. I felt they strove to concentrate on their studies at every university I visited, differing from our university students. And there was a lot of space where the students were able to study in chairs and desks everywhere such as hallways or around the buildings. The company wanted to hire the students who were graduating from those universities as soon as they graduated. The employment rate of those universities is amazingly over 90 percent.

After officially visiting all three universities, I started to look around tourist spots. I was anxious to see the Petronas Twin Towers in KL and Julong Bird Park in Singapore. I was astounded at how tall the Twin Towers were and how smart the birds were. Actually, I have already visited the Twin Towers in 2005 because I had a three-day stopover during a European trip.

I ended up taking over five hundred pictures while visiting those marvelous places, I also ate a lot of various foods during that trip.

Tell me about your hobbies. What kind of hobbies do you have? When and where do you do your hobbies?

===== Thanks! Samuel~!

My hobbies are riding my bicycle, taking pictures and traveling around the world. I think they go together very well. They make me happy when I am tired, bored or exhausted about my life. I've already taken trips on my bicycle, taking beautiful pictures many times.

I usually ride my bicycle to commute to work because I want to lose some weight. It only takes 30 minutes by bicycle along a road by the river. But if I take the subway, it takes over 40 minutes. The reason why is that it's very far from the subway station to the building whereI work. I kill two birds with one stone by riding my bicycle some of the time when I commute to school.

In 2002, the year of the Korea-Japan World Cup, I went to 10 World Cup stadiums which are located all around my country by bicycle, even to Jeju stadium which is located on Jeju island. Whenever I think about going the stadiums, I feel very excited. And I have also been to Europe, India and Taiwan. Last February, I rode my bicycle in Taiwan.

The thing that interests me about traveling around the world is that I really want to have good memories to carry with me forever. So I decided to learn how to take pictures well with a nice digital camera. Although my memory may fail as I get old, the pictures which I have taken willalways be with me.

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If I took the subway, it would take over 40 minutes. (but I never do)

If I take the subway, it takes over 40 minutes. (So I don't like that.)

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"Mad men"

- 1 hour each episode

- about a 1960s advertising agency in New York

- shows a lot of changes in American culture

- the English is very clear

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