Touching The Real NY Culture(Anecdotal Essay 1)

     To me, traveling is to meet other cultures and interact with different features rather than sitting on the bus and just watching the scenery through the window. In that meaning, the accidents that occurred in the Time Square was real "traveling."

     It was the time when I went on the vision trip to the United States in May. After visiting few famous universities, my friends and I went on a New York tour. We watched a musical on Broadway, and walked through the streets. Free time was given for about thirty minutes in Time Square, so my friend Hyung and I moved together. We looked at the big screen, which displayed LG and Hyundai without Samsung. We also went to a few stores and bought some American products, such as Yankees hats for the game in Baltimore. We also saw one crazy man only wearing his underwear playing a guitar. Until then, Hyung and I thought that this street tour would end happily.

     However, there was one silly episode and one dangerous situation on the way back. As we had no time, we decided to go back to the big Hershey's building, which was our destination. At that time, a Chinese performance was taking place. the word "Farun Dafu" was on the big plan cards. As I was curious about it, I asked a volunteer what it was about. Surprisingly, she could not speak English.

     Suddenly, a pretty young Chinese lady came to me and asked, "Ni shi Zhongguoren ma?", which means "Are you Chinese?" in Chinese. I was frightened and just said "No..." But I recovered my patience and said "Wo shi Hanguoren.", which means "I am Korean." in Chinese. The silence existed longer than the previous one. The Chinese lady was surprised more than I was, but she also found her patience and said "Oh, you are from South Korea!" She explained about the protest kindly to me. The Chinese government depressed a particular religion and in some cases used inhumane methods, so the protesters were informing this to the world and asked the Western countries for help. This was the funniest episode in that trip.

     As I almost arrived the Hershey's, there were two lack males standing and yelling. Beside them, there was a case with money. I tried to avoid them, but the tall males with clumsy clothes asked for a hand with their big hands like Michael Jordan and said "Ahn-nyung ha sae yo! yo!" They were both above 190 centimeters. One guy took charge of me and one guy was in charge of Hyung. The guy said "Yo, this is for charity! Please give one dollar!" I responded "As I am a student, I have no money." and gave them one dollar. The male with Hyung said to Hyung "If you ain't got one dollar, five dollar is OK! No? You ain't got Korean money? Chun-won up-seo-yo?" Hyung also gave them some money and escaped from them. I guess they live in the slums and were looking for some money for bars. At last, one guy said "Go-map sup ni da!" but the other guy claimed the guy who said Korean did not speak right. The guy who expressed thank in Korean said "What nigga? You know more than me about Korean?" We were nervous, so I said his Korean was right and rapidly escaped from there.

     The NY tour had some funny stuffs but also some scary situations. I felt the real NY culture, diversity and complexity. I hope can go through the untraveled road like this experience, not just traveling the recommended course.

Monthly TOEFL Essay #1 : "Jeong" is the power

Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.

           In the modern industrialized society, personal space and virtual relationships via online is considered more important than the sense of belonging together and real relationships through offline meeting. While East Asian countries have developed community-based culture, individualism is spread on other countries, especially western countries. However, the driving force of any community is cooperation than personal activities. Thus, I’d like other countries to adopt the custom of Korea, “Jeong”, which is a feeling of attachment made by having intersections. I recommend this because it grows connectedness among members of a community and it makes people to get along with others.

           First, “Jeong” could help people to feel strong tie among them. As mentioned, “Jeong” is to have ties by sharing. In Korea, as friendly the people are, the more shared by them. People supply their privacies to really close friends or family and the opposite side also provide theirs. As components of a community have intersections, these intersections become strong glue and this glue is stronger when the intersection is bigger. For instance, boys may share stories such as their lovers if they are close, and by sharing those stories they become closer. This custom can be expanded to a bigger community such as country. In the 2002 World Cup, Koreans supported Korean soccer team passionately with one reason: they are Koreans. Not only sharing personal things, but also just having a simple similarity can from “Jeong.” If foreign countries adopt the custom of “Jeong”, it is certain that cooperation among people is easier. Especially for countries with individualism, “Jeong” can make a synergy effect by integrating individuals by a particular sharing, which can lead to a smooth procedure to the goal of a community.

           Moreover, “Jeong” makes people to be friendly with others. This is not limited to the community a person is belonged to. Even though the object has no special intersection with the person, the custom of “Jeong” allows sharing things with the object. For instance, when a Korean person goes to America, that person becomes very close to other Koreans just because that person is Korean. Although for people who have no similarities, people try to share things. For example, a newcomer gives out rice cakes to neighbors in Korea, which is a part of the “Jeong” culture. The newcomer has no relationship with the neighbors, but in this case the newcomer is trying to make an intersection. By this characteristic of “Jeong”, people can get along with not only the people in the same community but also people with no intersections. In the modern society, it is hard to have relationship with people, but the “Jeong” culture allows having relationships with others easily. As a result, the bond between members is stronger by “Jeong”. The bonds between members lead to an easier cooperation, which strengthens the unity and by this unity power of the community become stronger than before.

           In conclusion, I’d like to spread the custom of “Jeong” due to its advantage of communities’ unity and harmony with other people with no intersections. In fact, the main factor Korea has conserved its properties and developed rapidly is the power of unity based on “Jeong.” It is true that individual is important than community in other countries. If other countries mix “Jeong” culture with individualism, there will be a significant effect.