Languages

Korea should have more than one official language

 

  Being able to speak more than one language has become more important in this global world. Even though Korea has their own official language Hangeul, we should designate another official language such as English or Mandarine. This is because Korea depends a lot on exporting where it is important in being able to communicate with various people worldwide. Also, we use lots of words and languages that are in English in scientific area. Furthermore, since traveling and meeting people from different countries has become easy and common, it will be useful when communicating with people.

 

  First, since Korea's economy depends a lot on exporting to many different countries, it is important for people to be able use second language. For example, there might be a case where you have to work with companies in different countries. In that time, to prevent mistakes or misunderstandings, workers should be able to communicate directly with each other without translator when discussing or making a contract.

 

  Another reason is that Korea uses words that are English in scientific area. It is said that more than 90% of literature in some scientific fields is already published in English. Science is very important in our life and in order to have more development in scientific area, we need to be able to easily understand and use the words that are in different language. Furthermore, if English becomes another official language, general public will be capable of understanding science more than before since it does not require translation for each words.

 

  Traveling to different countries and meeting people from another culture has become more common compare to the past. When traveling to another country, it is important to use languages that other people might also use in case of emergency or to share different culture. Having English as another official language will let people in Korea able to speak without difficulty and communicate with different people learning about their culture.

 

  There are various benefits in having another official language such as communicating freely with global companies, understanding scientific field and speaking with people from other countries without difficulty. Another official language will let people learn and access the second language easily which, will bring advantages. For these reasons, Korea should have more than one official language.

Essay 1 - Rewrites

Seoyoung Lee

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

11 November 2015

Unsuitable Scholastic Ability Test in Korea

 

             The Suneung exam is a scholastic ability test that is conducted in Korea. It is the most important exam that a high school student has to take. Getting a high score on the Suneung is important to get into the top universities, where students believe that it will enable them to get a good job. However, many people think the Suneung is unsuitable for evaluating students’ ability these days. Therefore, if Suneung is not used for college admission, it will develop students’ creativity, help individual development, and solve social problems like teenage depression.

             First, if the Suneung is not used for scholastic ability test, students will be able to develop creativity. The Suneung is a single test that is held once a year to evaluate what student has been studying for their whole school life. A lot of what is learned is done by rote learning and this lowers students’ creativity. Students need to use time to solve the problems from various angles and think about the solving process itself, not by indoctrination. This will develop thinking skills, comprehensive ability, creativity and critical thinking power. However, stereotyped Suneung emphasizes ‘memorizing’ rather than serious consideration which causes abnormal intellectual development. So, for example, there are essay type exams which is already held in many colleges which evaluates creativity and logical thinking skills. If Suneung is not used, these kinds of exams should be used more widely. It will help students to develop creativity.

             Exams like Suneung not only lower creativity, but also hinder individual development. Getting into a good college is thought to be more important than what students want to major in. So it is common to see students selecting majors they didn’t wish for. Also, students tend to select majors that will benefit them more for the future jobs. This leaves no choice for students but to focus on Suneung. Even for students doing art, music and physical education require better scores to get into top colleges which makes them hard to good on both things. So by not having to study for Suneung, students will be able to study or develop their talent depending on their interest more freely. Also, colleges will be able to evaluate students not only by Suneung but try to truly see what student is able to do. For example, there is an admission officer system which does not, or only reflects little bit of Suneung scores and it has been successful. The admission officer system assesses students beyond their test scores and grades them on outside or inside school activities, awards, and more which shows self-improvement. This kind of system better enables colleges to recruit creative and talented students and at the same time, allows students to invest their time in self-development. So by not using Suneung, it will help student’s individual development.

              Last, since lots of students get stressed about Suneung, this can lead to social problems. Since Suneung is a test held only once a year, it gives lots of pressure to students. It is possible for the students to feels nervous and makes a mistake even if the student is very prepared. The result of the tension and errors are too harsh for students, since it is considered to decide their entire future. Most students get stressed by studying and just by thinking of Suneung. It’s not only Suneung they have to care for. They also have to get good scores on school exams. Last year for example, questions in the examination were considerably easy and this made students cry for even a small mistake they made. This stressful life leads to social problems like teenage depression and even worse, teenage suicide. It is known that the rate of teenager suicide in Korea has increased among OECD nations, where the total rate in OECD has lowered by 15% over the last decade. Most of the reason is due to pressure from studying Suneung. This shows the need for changes in exam and the problems will reduce if Suneung, the main cause of depression, disappears.

             Suneung has been taken for many years raising lots of issues. The problems like low student’s creativity, being poor at individual development and lots of social problems will somewhat disappear if college starts not to use Suneung and come up with better evaluating system. It will be impossible for colleges to change Suneung immediately however, it should try to implement different ways to evaluate students by increasing the importance of admission officer system or essay type exams. 

Medical Innovation : PCSK9 Inhibitors

PCSK9 Inhibitors for Cholesterol Reduction

 

 

  Heart diseases, strokes, and arteriosclerosis are some of the severe illnesses developed due to high cholesterol level. Although cholesterol serve many important functions in the body, too much cholesterol in the blood can ultimately be very dangerous. 'Statin' has been used for patients with heart disease for almost 30 years effectively however, there are some people who can't tolerate with Statin and have side effects. So, recently, Canadian researchers have come up with PCSK9 (Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin type 9) which not only helps to lower cholesterol level but also covers the problems that Statin had. PCSK9 can dramatically reduce the cholesterol and can be used for people who didn't respond to Statin.

 

  PCSK9 invention is important because it lowers the cholesterol level dramatically. There has been Statin that have been and still being used however, PCSK9 is found to be more effective in reducing cholesterols. It reduces the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol circulating in the bloodstream. LDL is known as bad cholesterol which promotes a lethal disease called arteriosclerosis, making America's number one killer, heart disease. So lower rate of LDL makes healthier arteries and reduces the chance of getting heart attacks, strokes, and other problems related to high level of cholesterol.

 

  Another reason that this PCSK9 invention is significant is that it can be used for people who can't benefit from Statin. Although more than 200 million prescriptions are written annually for Statin, in about one in five people, Statin doesn’t lower cholesterol enough.Also, some have side effects like digestive problems and muscle pains. So for those with problems using Statin, PCSK9 inhibitors can be an alternative treatment. In another way, combining a Statin and PCSK9 inhibitor may be a good option for people at especially high risk for diseases.

 

                                              Video clip about PCSK9

 

 More and more people suffer from diseases these days affected by high cholesterol level and PCSK9 will be medicine for those who can’t control their cholesterol through diet and exercise. It is important to reduce cholesterol rates and PCSK9 will effectively lower the cholesterol level and also be an important alternative for people having trouble with taking Statin therapy.