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2019 Winter Personal Essay

GGHS 2019 Winter - Team 6

This is my second time participating in an English camp and it felt different from the previous one. My dream was simply to be an elementary school teacher or a middle school teacher. If I were to be a teacher in middle and high school, I had not decided which subject I wanted to teach. However, I was interested in history and social studies in the second semester, so I wanted to be a teacher who teaches history or society.

I joined this camp because I felt that English camp is very attractive to explore the subject of interest in more depth and to combine it with English. When I participated in summer camp last time, I wanted to be just a teacher, so I went on a field trip to explore education. In this camp, I set the history as a big subject in line with my dream of becoming more specific and explored military incidents in Ganghwa area during the Joseon Dynasty.

In the group, I was assigned to investigate, summarize, and translate the case into English. Although it might have been difficult to summarize other contents, I had learned about Shin Mi-yangyo in the first semester of history class, so it was not very difficult to summarize the data I researched. Shin Mi-yangyo was an incident in 1871 in which the U.S. invaded Joseon by force to open the General Sherman case in 1866, which led to a stronger atmosphere for keeping away from foreign powers in Joseon, and led Heungseon Daewongun to build a monument that would ostracize the West throughout the country.

And I was also in charge of posting all the research on the web site. Although it was difficult and strange to use coding to upload on a computer, I felt satisfied that I learned another new thing by learning how to express my writing with the symbol of the computer.

Our team prepared for the presentation last after going through data research, modification, and translation. Our team wanted to show the personality of the historical character well. We prepared the presentation as a play because we thought that the best way to show the character's individuality was with a play. I played the role of General Yang Heon-soo and I could feel as if I had been immersed in the history of Ganghwa by memorizing the English ambassador. After finishing all the presentations, I learned it anew that Ganghwa was a place where the first modern treaty with a foreign country was signed during the Joseon Dynasty, and that it was used militarily and geographically as a strategic hub of the country.

I also felt a lot of things through my camp activities. It was good to explore the areas that I was interested in, and to translate the activities I had explored with knowledge of English grammar. The grammar that I forgot while translating was reminiscent of mine through a native English teacher. Most of all, what remained meaningful and a good memory was the splendid production of the explorations into the play.

There were many good memories during the camp, but there were some difficulties. It was time to talk to our class teacher. Since the pronunciation of the Russian teacher were unfamiliar to me, I had difficulties communicating with her because I couldn't understand. So I didn't have the courage to try again after the first conversation. However, as I tried to continue the conversation thinking that this was a new experience, I found myself naturally having everyday conversation with my teacher as my teacher's pronunciation became familiar to my ears.

Although the camp was for two nights and three days, I felt one step closer to my dream and it was time to get a lot of things. I feel proud that I had a meaningful time. If I have another chance to participate again, I want to participate again and recommend other friends who have not participated in English camp yet.

2018 Summer Personal Essay

The reason I joined this camp was because I felt that the program activity to translate history into English is attractive and wanted to take a step closer to my dream by studying a topic that fits my course.

Our team conducted a survey on the implementation of the civil service system and educational institutions in the category of 'Education of Goryeo'.

The reason why we looked into the civil service system and educational institution was because the civil service system which was implemented at that time greatly helped the maintenance of Goryeo and continued to contribute to the stability and development of the country even after Joseon. It's also because it has produced many great scholars. What I knew about the subject before was a civil service system I had heard about. It was the ninth year of Gwangjong (958 years) of Goryeo that the system was first introduced to Korea. Taking the suggestion of a naturalized Ssanggi, Kwang-jong introduced a system of recruiting new talents according to Confucian scholarship and ability. In the civil service, the system was the most suitable way to recruit that who has no power but has capacity. The most impressive thing we have ever learned was the difference between the Kukjagam, a central educational institution during the Goryeo Dynasty, and Hyanggyo, a local educational institution. Just to give you a brief introduction..

Royal Academy (Gukjagam) is a public educational institution same as national university. There are many interesting features about Royal Academy.

The same three headings are taught but the qualifications for admission were different. Local Confucian school (hyanggyo) is also a public educational institution to teach confucianism in local. Our team planned the announcement to be a short play and a presentation. I found a video underlying to write a scenario for the play that I was going to give in my presentation, and I added additional content to it. (When I wrote the scenario, I can write funny because I thought about acting actors while writing a scenario.) We also found and translated the background of Goryeo's civil service system. (I could make the method of writing English familiar by translating the contents I found.) And I worked with my teammates to decorate props for the play.

As I expected through this camp is that rare chance to speak English, so I wanted to overcome my fear of speaking English by trying a lot of conversation with native English teachers through this camp. Also, I wanted to be more familiar with English with history as well as English by doing various activities other than studying English in a conventional way, and I wanted to raise my interest in English. I wanted to keep this camp as my special experience by discussing and presenting it in English during the vacation.

The camp isn't over yet, but I enjoy the activities more than I thought, so I think, I did a good job coming like the principal told.

So I want to participate in next English camp.