SALB

My self-access learning blog.
I am glad that I have my own blog which I can design and use freely.
I think having this blog is a good opportunity to practice English skills.
I hope my English speaking, writing, and reading skills would improve by using this blog.

I am not good at designing, especially this blog seems somewhat complicated to design for me who is not so good at computers. So instead of making the blog a pretty environment for people to visit and say "wow~", I plan to make a full use at writing. I am going to try writing diaries once every now and then and also write journals and put up articles that I am interested in.

Purpose:
The purpose of developing my SALB is to design my own blog and write daily diaries and journals and put articles that I am interested in- including health, English Immersion Program, Mr.Roh's death, etc. My goal is to use this blog often and practice my English skills in various areas, and also research in English the topics I am interested in.

List of Links:
Meaning of this word
Top 5 movies at the box office
EnglishNet
BBCLearningenglish.com
Search Engine
Weather
Storynory-stories for kids
A new day, a new start! (introduction of myself)
blog archive
About Me (my profile with a picture of my sister and me)

Planning (how to use it)
I am going to make this blog my own personal blog where I can write freely and visit whenever I want. I do not have to care so much about how others would judge when reading my journals because they are my personal thoughts. I can also overpraise myself, put things that I care, complain about homework. Also, I am going to put a special effort on vocabulary. I plan to memorize vocabulary but I do not seem to have much time, but I am going to try working on improving my vocabulary skills since it is the key to good writing and speaking. I think vocabulary and pronunciation are the basic of good English speaker, so I am going to pursue working on both.

Cyworld

Most teenagers and college students in Korea enjoy expressing their life and feelings in cyworld, a popular blog website. Cyworld is pretty, we can buy the cyworld background color and we can add music, but we should buy the coin in order to make it pretty.
There is a comment board on the main site where people can write whatever they feel like about the person and a visitor's board where people can even post secret messages about the person.
I like the picture board where I can even modify pictures and post them, and if I like the picture posted on someone else's cyworld, I can copy them and put on mine.
Also, cyworld has lots of clubs where I can visit, and it's fun to visit them.

Study goal for this year

I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little kid due to my mother's impact (she was a kindergarten teacher) and the three great teachers who have influenced me. I had several experiences to tutor English to young kids and I was pretty sure I had skills in teaching.

However, as I spent one month in Chung-Ang University, I realized that there are many areas that I can go to after graduating English Department. There was of course English teacher, but also professor, translator, and reporter for English newspapers. I like teaching, so right now I am thinking about both a middle/highschool teacher and a professors. I love the way the professors in my department teaches and I'd like to be one of them in the future. I know that being a professor is not easy to be and it requires lots of harder work and time, but I am beginning to feel that I want to teach college students about how to become English teachers.

As a freshman in Chung-Ang University, I want to focus on what I can do only in the first grade in college, get to know many people from many departments, playing with my friends, and get to make the school feel like my school. My study goal for this year would be taking TOEIC exam, focus on school studies, and ask lots of questions about the course. I take Korean writing in cultural studies and I wondered why should an English department student learn about Korean writing, but I know that all the courses in college will give me benefits in the future. I will use spare time (such as when I am on bus) to memorize English vocabulary since I forgot many that I memorized earlier. I will use the classes as much as possible and gain lots of new information about what I can do with my life.

English teacher's pronunciation

Before, students began to learn English as a subject from Freshmen in Middle school. However, this trend changed in 1988 when students began learning English from third grade in Elementary school.
As we gradually entered the global age, Koreans began to focus more on outside of Korea and in learning English.
Today, as the MB government stated clearly that he wants to follow the Western style of teaching method and especially in ENGLISH, Korean students were put into much more stress than before.
Not only students, but teachers are having hard times as well because students these days tend to really care their English teacher's pronounciation.
We cannot blame both sides.
Before, there was no need in practicing speaking because the teachers focused on exams and just the textbooks. However, today Korean parents want their children's speaking to be improved as well because the formal method did not work when meeting a foreigner.
There are many Koreans (especially in Seoul) who have studied abroad and lots of whom have learned from foreign teachers.
These days, students do not welcome English teachers who's English pronounciation is worse than whom they have learned before.
It is not wrong to believe that English teachers should be experts in English and that their English pronounciation skills should be just as well as foreigners.
These days, since the Exam to be an English teacher is so hard and includes speaking Exam, the English teachers today are such experts in English that there is no need for students to worry about their pronounciation.
The students should not just want foreign teachers just because of pronounciation because Korean teachers have other advantages.

what type of learner are you?

My test result shows that I have extravert, intuitive, feeling, and judgement in me.
I took MBTI test few years ago, and I was very intraverted, which was true since I did not like to join in groups to play but rather liked to be alone.
However, since I firmly decided to become a teacher, many people gave me suggestions on the virtues of a good teacher, one of being an extraverted person.

Many say there are few turning points in your life, one being a freshman in college where no one knows how you've been in the past.
I thought this would be a great time to change my personality and become more involved in a group and be socialized.
I tried to talk first to the other freshmen in Orientation where we knew no one in the group, I tried to participate in activities and be part of the group.

I truly think my personality had changed. I am now much more active and extraverted, and I feel involved in the freshmen class now.

I was worried that the MBTI test would show similar result from before, but I was glad when the result showed E(extraverted) instead of I (introverted).

My idealistic teacher

I had three teachers who have influenced me in my life.

The second grade teacher in elementary school was tough, harsh, and difficult to deal with.
One time, my friends and I were in the playground and forgot to be on time for the next class.
When we went in late, the teacher was mad and told us to go straight to the kindergarten classroom which was next door, saying we are acting like small kids.
We waited outside the two rooms for about 15 minutes when the teacher called us.
She told us that she does not hate us, but simply want us to learn to be diligent and to act older.
And she hugged us.
I still contact her, because I want to be a teacher who are harsh and warm-hearted at the same time.

No one really liked my sixth grader teacher at first because she was harsh and gave us lots of homework. She taught us almost every subject, so she had all the time she needs with us. She gave us quizzes, tests, and projects often and we could not understand why we had to suffer this much. However I realized later how much English I have improved over the past year. I also learned to study by myself and also with groups.
I truly respect her, because I want to be a teacher who could truly teach the students to do the work by themselves.

The third teacher I want to introduce is my science teacher at high school. There was no one who did not like him for he was always smiling, nice, gentle, and had knowledge about almost every area. His courses were hard because I was not interested in science that much, but there are a few of my friends who decided to major in science due to this teacher's impact. He respected his students and encouraged us for what we have done.
The idealistic figure of teacher is someone who truly respects his students and give them all the knowledge he has.