Boston Celtics championship 2007-08

 

Part 1 of Boston Celtics Championship 2008 from Youtube

 
  I felt terrible because I ruined my test that I've really worked hard on. So what I did was to release my stress by watching a documentary called "Boston Celtics Championship 2008". Basically, it's about basketball team called Boston Celtics winning its championship. Not only that, but Boston Celtics became a team that completed the largest turnaround in the league history. (24-58 record turned into 66-16 record in the following year) I watched this video because I thought this documentary will make myself feel better.

  Boston Celtics used to be one of the most successful franchise in sports history. They won 16 championships until 1986, and until then, people called 1960s, 1970s, 1980s the Boston Dynasty of NBA. However, after big 3 Robert Parish, Kevin Mchale, and Larry Bird left the Celtics as they retired or was traded, Boston Celtics became one of the worst teams in the league.

Although they had a superstar Paul Pierce, they couldn't advance to second round of the playoff. In 2006-07 season, Boston Celtics had the worst regular season record in their franchise history, which was 24 wins and 58 loss. Leader Paul Pierce and general manager Danny Ainge (former Boston Celtics) became frustrated about their results.

 GM Danny Ainge had three on one trade to get Ray Allen (currently leading in three point shot made) and rookie Glen Davis from Seattle Supersonics, and five on one trade for former MVP Kevin Garnett of Minnesota Timberwolves. So basically Boston Celtics had eight players leaving their team and three players coming in. Everyone thought that this trade was never going to happen. However, it was possible because both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were eagering to win a championship. I thought that General Manager Danny Ainge's action was decisive. He was not afraid that he would fail, but he was courage enough to make this unbelievable trade happen.
 

 There were not much impact on regular season except that all the players and fans seemed happy compared to the previous season. However, the playoff was dramatic.
Nobody doubted that Boston Celtics will cruise to the NBA Finals.

In the first round, Boston Celtics won two games in their home, but people were surprised as they lost two games in away. Boston won game 5 in their home, but lost game 6 in Atlanta. Boston won game 7 by using home court advantage.

In the second round, Boston and Cleveland went back and forth, eventually Boston barely beating Cleveland in game 7.

In Conference finals against Detroit, they went back and forth again, but this time, they won in the away court first time in the playoff.

NBA Finals was special. Boston and Los Angeles was playing, and it was their 10th time to meet in the NBA Finals. (Last met in 1987) A lot of people were excited to see the traditional rivalry in 20 years.  The series was quite tight. They Boston and Los Angeles were tied until the game 4, but Boston Celtics won the NBA championship as they won two games in a row including 131-92 victory.

I was touched during I was watching the video. Boston Celtics seemed like they would never stand up again. However, wide vision of general manager allowed the Celtics to stand up again. During the playoffs, the Celtics faced difficult and unexpected challenges. They played 26 games in the playoff, which is NBA record. Although they struggled to get up to the finals, they eventually won the championship. It was quite thrilling to watch Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce who was enjoying the moment they have dreamed for entire career.
I'd like to end up with the quote that I liked the most from the video.

"The dream started when frustration turned into hope"

I thought that this is the quote that I should always remember.
When I get frustrated, I should not end up being frustrated. I believe that my moments in KMLA is part of learning how to change frustration into hope, so that I could achieve my dream or goal.

"Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....."

  "Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....." 

  Minjok is a term that we can hear a lot in Korea. We say minjok is important, and nobody doubt it. However, when we are told to define 'Minjok', lots of people have difficulties telling it. Then what is minjok? Why is it important to us? Defining the term 'Minjok' is one of the most vague questions to answer, but lot of people take minjok positively as they believe that it's a word that make Koreans into one.


  In definition, minjok is usually translated into ethnic group. Definition of ethnic group is group of people whose members are identified through a common trait. This can, but does not have to, include an idea of common heritage, a common culture, a shared language or dialect. These two words seem almost the same except that one is Korean and the other one is English. However, term minjok, which is also called korean ethnic nationalism, is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, or an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture. 

Dangun, who's known as a founder
of Gojoseon

  Not much people in the world know how long the Korean history is. Korean students were taught that Korean history have lasted for 5,000 years, starting from Gojoseon. Gojoseon have lasted over 2,000 years as united country. Although there were Three Kingdoms of Korea for 700 years, every Korean kingdom remained as an united country until 1910. So we could say that Korea stayed as an united country for nearly 4,000 years. Therefore, Koreans thought united country as a natural thing, and so is their purity. Koreans were able to keep their ethnic purity because Korean kingdoms didn't expanded their land for nearly a thousand of years. Therefore, when the term minjok was first used, minjok could be used as another word of Korean.




  Minjok is a term that was first used in the early 1900s. Before the colonial period in Korea,  Japanese tried to persuade Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock. To resist from Japanese persuasion, Korean intellectuals like used the term minjok to tell Koreans that they are different from Japanese. Minjok is a term that was formed by  few people recently. Somehow lots of people started using it, but definition of minjok was not clear when people began using it. In other words, there's no exact meaning of minjok. 

Minjok was used for various purposes. In 2002 for example, during 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea, South Korean soccer team became one of the best underdog upset in soccer history. People say that it was possible for South Korean to advance to semi-finals because there were millions of South Korean supporters who cheered for South Korea. How was this possible? Why did all these people supported South Korea as a united group? Reasons may vary. People could have come out to the street and cheered because it's rare to have their country host World Cup again and advance to the semi-finals in their first tournament appearance. However, it's still hard to understand why a million (literally million) of crowds came out to street to cheer. I believe that the answer is in minjok. At that time, there were lot of public commercials or sayings that encouraged people to cheer South Korea as they are a same minjok. Thus, a lot of people say that they felt unity when they went out to the street and cheered for their team, South Korea.

nearly 10 million people volunteered
 to clean the oil in Taean.

Another example that shows the positive function of minjok is Taean oil spill in 2007, which is recognized as one of the worst oil spill in Korean history. Oil spill was so serious that experts expected that it will take at least four to five years to clean the oil spill completely. However, it only took about an year to clean the oil spill thanks to ten million people who volunteered to clean the oil. It was possible because lots of people claimed that as Koreans(not minjok, but used as same meaning), they should help the other Koreans. There were no specific reasons for people to help Taean clean up the oil. It's about the unity as Korean(in terms of ethnic group). Because lot of people began to volunteered to clean the oil, other Koreans felt that they  should go help Taean, too. 

Immigrants in Korea is increasing

  By viewing the two examples that shows when term minjok is used, people mentioned minjok when they needed to be united to overcome difficulties or to make an advancement. In last 100 years, people and government also used the term minjok when they needed to unite and overcome difficulties. Considering how the term minjok was used, I believe that minjok is more than just an ethnic group. Lots of people tend to think that minjok is equal to Koreans (as an ethnic group), which may also mean that half-blooded people are not part of the Korean minjok. However, people immigrating to Korea is rapidly increasing. South Korea is not composed of 100% pure Koreans any more. Proportion of pure Koreans will decrease as the time pass. Thus, minjok, which is also defined as pure Koreans by many people will constantly decrease. If there's lots of Korean who tends to exclude immigrants or other ethnic group in Korea in defining minjok, it will be difficult for Korea to survive in globalized world. Because word minjok is a word that is not formed naturally by lot of people, but was made for a certain purpose by few people, it's likely to find an errors in the word itself. Thus, concept may change as the time pass.

                                              Lot of foreigners live in Itaewon

Random Post #6 Jimmer Fredette

 

Jimmer Fredette is one of my favorite basketball players who plays in the NBA. Although he is struggling in the league now, I always watch his play after the game. When I find that Jimmer didn't played the game, I become disappointed and go to the another page instead of watching the recap.


  First time I knew Jimmer Fredette is during the March Madness in 2011. (March Madness refers to NCAA men's basketball tournament. Because 64 colleges in U.S participate, its very large in size and lots of people cheer for college they like.) I think he was at his peak at that time. He was spotlighted for his amazing scoring skills, especially in 3-point shooting.


This is a highlights of Jimmer Fredette in his senior year. He averaged 28.9 points/ game at that season and scored career high 52 points. Thanks to his scoring ability, BYU cruised up to elite eight, which is only three games away from winning the national championship. Due to his outstanding performance in his final year in college, he was drafted 10th picks in the NBA.



 Lots of people and NBA players were excited about Jimmer Fredette finally playing in the NBA. However, when the season started, Jimmer had difficulties playing game. Everybody was surprised, and Jimmer was out of people's attention. Some analyst even said that Jimmer will not be able to play in the NBA anymore. He'll have to move to the other league in order to continue his basketball career.


 Although people don't really pay attention on Jimmer anymore, I continued to watch his game. Sadly, he didn't have a huge impact in his rookie season.
 However, his second season (2012-2013 season) seems to be different than his previous one. At the beginning, he seemed to be struggling in the league. But recently, I found out that Jimmer Fredette seems to be getting used to the league.

Analyst from Sacramento Kings said that
"Although Jimmer is a good shooter, he needs to improve in his defense, and get used to his new role in the team. If he plays more aggressively, it will help him a lot. With his talents, I can find no reason why Jimmer Fredette will have no chance in playing in the NBA anymore. Like he did in BYU, I believe that he will improve in a few years."

It seems like Jimmer Fredette have improved a lot in the summer league. He scored a game high two weeks ago and made into plenty of game highlights. I'm happy that Jimmer seems to be improving and is getting used to the game in NBA. It's quite surprising to me that I could be a fan of somebody, regardless of his performance.

Last but not least, I believe that people who truly like or love constantly is a people who pays attention to those things (or people) regardless of people's thoughts on it.

Random post #5

 It's been almost a year since I've came into KMLA. When I try to think what I've done so far in this school, I feel that I'm lucky to be in this school. If I went to ordinary school instead of KMLA. I'm pretty sure that I would have ended up studying and preparing for 수능, and I still think it will be terrible if I spend three years just for a single test. Sometimes, I think that I would have lived a busier life if I went to ordinary school. I can feel that I am wasting a lot more time than the past. However, I believe that KMLA provided better stuffs than living a busy life. Although I became a bit lazy after I entered the school, I was able to learn how to use time EFFICIENTLY. Plus, friends here in KMLA are unique. All of them are outstanding and talented, which allows me to study harder. Also, course in KMLA is differs from 일반고, or in other words, course in KMLA is faster than 일반고. It allowed me to learn many things in such a short time. I think that amount of knowledge I gained in KMLA for a year is equal to amount of knowledge that other students gain in 일반고 for two or three years. What I love about my school is that they have an indoor gym. Most high schools in Korea don't have indoor gym, which means that it will be hard to play sports when it's too cold or hot. Thanks to the indoor gym, I can play sports whenever I want to. Although school life may seem too tough, I believe that coming into KMLA is never a wrong decision.

What should I do when I'm alive?

  A creature that seems to be bunny doll making another one and disappearing is a simple summary of the video. Before I start the essay, I would like to notice that I'll be calling this "unknown creature" from the video a bunny. Right after I finished watching, there was a thing that came up to my mind. I felt that this video can be related to our lives. Specifically, I had a feeling that the video had shown me life as a whole.
  At the very beginning, a bunny is holding a book, standing still and blinking its eyes. It could be portrayed as a baby or a child who has no idea why they were born and what they are supposed to do. Then the bunny goes to the table, and reads the book. It was similar to the youths learning about something in order to use the knowledge when they become an adult. Also, it could mean the youths who set a goal for their lives. After the bunny read a book, it started to work in order to create the other bunny. When the bunny finished its work, a doll he made didn't move. In my view, it seemed similar to failure in one's life. Eventually, a doll started moving and the original bunny was happy about it. Right after the two rabbits faced each other, the original one gave a book to the new one and disappeared. Now, the new bunny reacted almost the same as the original bunny at the beginning of the video.
  It felt awkward at the last part of the video. I was able to feel sadness, anger, and happiness at once. I felt happiness because it showed that people may achieve their ultimate goal of their lives and feel the sense of accomplishment. However, I was able to feel sadness and anger at the same time because it seemed like the video was suggesting that all you get is happiness after all the hard work and preparation through a whole life. After the work is done, people usually leave inheritance for next generation. This is what I thought when a bunny passed a book and disappeared.
  At first, the video made me think about my life deeply. I questioned myself. "Why do I have to live hard and achieve something if I'm going to die anyway?" I still couldn't find the answer of it. What people say is that we should work hard when we are alive for the NEXT GENERATION. However, the problem is that I couldn't find other good reasons for it. I believe that I'll have to deal with this question for a long time.

                                  The Maker

Nacirema and People Today

   First thing that comes into my mind after I read the article is that it's quite hard to understand it. It's interesting that people in tribe called "Nacirema" tried to cure their body using magic. However, medicine person tries to keep information about the magic, which allowed myself to know that the magic was fake. Then why did people in Nacirema tried to cure other people using magic when there is no effects? According to the article, it functioned as one of the ritual activities, based on people's belief on magic. Then, next question about this article is about the purpose of this article.
   When we read the article at first, there is no way that we can find the purpose of this article. All this medicine men, ceremonies, temple called latipso, holy-mouth-man, and etc.; it may sound quite ridiculous. But once I found out that these ridiculous thing has so many similarities with the society now, it becomes serious. However, in order to think critically about this article, we should first notice a thing. As some might have noticed, Nacirema is a back-spelled letter of American. Once we get up to this idea, it gets much easier to understand the article. When we write temple called latipso backward, it is ospital, which indicates hospital today. Things done in the temple is not exactly the thing that people or doctors do today, but it's nothing more than a hospital that is described as a ceremony. Including holy-mouth-man and other many ceremonial activities, it all indicates things people do these days to keep their body clean and people who keeps other's body clean.
    However, it seems that the writer of this article is making fun of people and medical technology these days. According to the article, writer stated that people still believe in magic although the magic sometime causes a negative results. Although some people might argue that the article is one sided, I don't think that there's a problem about writer's one sided opinion. If the article is being sarcastic about every incidence, I'll also say that it's wrong. It is true that lots of disease are gone and people are living longer than the past due to scientific development and change of people's habit of keeping themselves clean. However, I believe that the article is being sarcastic about several incidence that are excessive and un-needed. As one of many people who believe that medical technology today and people's habit of keeping them clean has more benefits than without it, I think that this article is written to make people think critically.

TOEFL Workshop revision on Jiho's essay

TOEFL ESSAY WORKSHOP

10a1 김지호, 권하람, 인혜민, 장석우

1) Chosen Essay : The essay that our group chose for this workshop is Jiho Kim’s Essay

2) Why we chose this essay : The idea about changes in transportation in the near future was creative.

권하람-basketball
인혜민-disabled people
장석우-technology

3) Merits&Shortcomings

①     Merits

Inspiring ideas about changes in transportation

Organized well

Clear body paragraphs

② <!--[endif]-->Shortcomings

Some of the sentences too wordy

Little or no example of each idea

Minor grammatical mistakes

4) Revision

In order to fill up the weak spot of the essay, each of us came up with some examples to support the ideas. Since the essay is about the expectation of future technology, most of them are corresponding examples from the past or present.

Also, we tried to revise the essay according to concision. This was done by erasing some unnecessary parts or changing sentences into more concise ones.

5) Original version

              As time goes by, world is changing faster and more drastically than before. As technology develops, and as the world gets more complicated than before, changes are so fast that it’s next to impossible for people to catch up the changes. Among these changes, transportation will change drastically to be faster, more comfortable, easier, and more environmentally friendly.

             First of all, transportation of 21 century will be much faster and more comfortable than the past. As the word globali implies, it is impossible for people to live without the contact with foreigners and their cultures. Confronting such differences is much important for young people who will live in a world that is more complicated and which requires broader sight with vision and creativity. Such need will make the transportation to develop so that it can transport people faster and more comfortable since it will become a norm unlike before where only few needed to move such long distances..

           Not only this, but it will be much easier for people to move around than now. Even though transportation system has developed a lot compared to the past, the process that we are required when going from one country to another is so complicated and hard for those who are trying it for the first time. 21^st century being the century of speed and simplicity, such processes will also get much simple so that people don’t have to worry about it even if it’s their first time. It might be hard to become true for another decade or so, but it seems possible that roads and rails would be constructed between countries so that moving between countries would be just like moving from one village to another in their home country.

           Finally, more transportation will use environmentally friendly substances as their fuels instead of fossil fuel. The main reason why such change can be predicted is because the world is running out of usable fossil fuel. Humans used too much of it for past century, and it’s time for use to change different way that will allow us to keep the transportations moving. The second reason for this change is because more people are getting aware of the seriousness our environment is facing. Too much use of fossil fuel and exploitation of nature made the environment to get barren and dirty. Knowing that environment is one of the most important thing to us, it is a social trend to think more about the environment before trying anything. Such trend will also have a significant impact to change in the fuel used to run transportations, making technicians to invent cars and airplanes that can go by solar power or hydrogen.

          To sum up, transportation will take more parts of people’s life as time goes by. More people will feel the need for better transportation than before, meaning that there will be drastic changes in transportations. Predictions mentioned above might not become a reality, but it’s certain that transportations will change a lot in one way or another.

6) Revised version

          As time goes by, world is changing faster and more drastically than before. As technology develops and as the world gets more complicated than before, changes are made so fast that it’s next to impossible for people to catch up the changes. Among these changes, the change intransportation system will be drastic, changing transportations to be faster, more comfortable, easier, and more environmentally friendly.

        First of all, transportation in the 21st century will be faster and more comfortable than the past. Let’s take an example of the development of the ship. First starting out as a small raft, it developed into sailing ship, steamship, merchant ship, and even cruise ship while trying to fulfill the need of people. Especially, it is impossible for people to live without interacting with foreigners and their cultures since the world we are living in is “globalized world”.(Changed the structure of the sentence) Confronting such differences is very important for young people who will live in a world that is more complicated and which requires broader sight with vision and creativity. Such need will make the transportation to develop so that it can transport people faster and more comfortablysince it will become a norm unlike before where only few needed to move such long distances

       Not only this, but it will be much easier for people to move around in the future. Even thoughthe transportation system has developed a lot compared to the past, the current immigration policy(concision-too wordy) is so complicated and hard for those who are trying it for the first time. 21^st century being the century of speed and simplicity, such processes will also get much simpler so that people don’t have to worry about it even if it’s their first time. Such drastic change will need another decade or so to actually happen(concision), but it seems possible that roads and rails would be constructed between countries so that moving between countries would be just like moving from one village to another in their home country. Existing tunnels like Mont Blanc Tunnelhas been thought as impossible until they were actually built. Just like it was a innovation in transportation, numerous tunnels, rails, and roads will be built in the future as a way to innovate the transportation system.

Current Mont Blanc Tunnel, which is finished building

 

          Finally, more transportation will use environmentally friendly substances as their fuel instead of fossil fuel. This is easily predictable just by the fact that usable fossil fuel is running out.(concision) Humans used too much of it for past century, and it’s time for us to change different way that will allow us to keep the transportation moving. Another reason for this change to be predictable is that(changed structure in order to fit the rest of the revised sentences) more people are getting aware of the seriousness our environment is facing. Too much use of fossil fuel and exploitation of nature made the environment to get barren and dirty. Knowing that environment is one of the most important things to us, it is a social trend to think more about the environment before trying anything. Such trend will also have a significant impact to change in the fuel used to run transportation, making technicians to invent cars and airplanes that can go by solar power or hydrogen.

          To sum up, transportation will take more parts of people’s life as time goes by. More people will feel the need for better transportation than before, bringing(concision) drastic changes in transportation. Predictions mentioned above might not become a reality, but it’s certain that transportation will change a lot in one way or another.