How One Lecture Inspires a Student in Busan: Being a Cooperative Specialist

Through a lecture from a FBI agent, a member of DSKUSSS felt something touching. This feeling was brought not only from the lecturer but also from a student's questions.
Since the DSKUSSS member was confused about her dream, the FBI lecture was a good opportunity to feel various values. (Hope you guys are curious on me..!) 
Let us check out this article and see where she got a inspiration:) Gladly welcome your comments on the blog.

How One Lecture Inspires a Student in Busan: Being a Cooperative Specialist

Pusan National University

Department of Global Studies

Hyunji Yoo

 

On August 4th, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agents came to Busan Civil Library to give students in Busan a special lecture. The lecturer is a Korean-American, who is now engaged in US embassy in Seoul. At first moment, I was pretty surprised when he speaks Korean since I had thought that FBI or CIA agents should be native Americans. As a Korean, he inspired many Korean students gathering at the forum to seek the related dreaming jobs in their future. It was a special forum not only because the spectrum of audiences was broad from Global Studies, nursing and maritime major, but also because one student’s questions made me acknowledge the value of being a specialist.

 

A student who is majoring in Nursing at Dong-seo University was especially interesting to me. She has been finding a way to be a nurse in America for a long time. Her original plan was to accumulate years of experiences in a major Korean hospital. Later she would apply for a nurse in America. While she was listening to the lecture, she got an inspiration. She asked questions to the agent about whether FBI recruits specialists in nursing. The question itself gave me a different insight to find my individual vision and the concept on “specialists.”

 

I, who is considering a career in law, realized that I can try to achieve my life goal through finding a distinctive and efficient way like the Nursing-major student thought. I thought further considering the hierarchy of FBI spreads various and FBI needs numbers of specialists, one specialist cannot achieve the very mission of a team. Through cooperating with other specialists like medical and legal staffs, FBI becomes perfect existence.

 

American Desserts Recall Grandmother

What do you have in mind when you recall your grand mother? DSKUSSS' member recalled the word, grand mother, when she has a dessert. Do you want to hear why she thinks in that way? Check out this article and let us know what you think through comments!

American Desserts Recall Grandmother

 

Sunju Lee

Dpt. of Political Science and Diplomacy

Kyung-pook National University

 

Imagine you are waiting for dessert after meal. What do you have in your mind? Warm brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, a piece of fresh cheese cake, a creamy cheese frosted red velvet cupcake or incredibly fudgy chocolate pie? The next step is “just pick up randomly a country.” If you think of France, unfortunately you are exposed to Paris Baguette and Tous les Jours, famous enterprise bakeries in Korea, too much.

 

(top) Brownie with ice cream http:// www.flickr.com, Philadelphian cheesecake http://en.wikipedia.org
         (down) Red velvet cupcake and Mississippi mud pie http://commons.wikimedia.org

 

Some people might not have thought about that in the U.S. exist dessert recipes. This is because most Koreans have the unchangeable stereotype of dessert-dessert has developed its recipe originally from France-. In addition, the Korean professional confectioners’ exertion, combining bakery with French style, also influenced this kind of reaction among Koreans.

(left) Eclair and

(right)Macaron from Laduree, Paris http://common,wikimedia.com

French style desserts, such as Macaron and Éclair, require well-trained patisserie techniques. On the other hand, American style sweets look rougher and simpler and even have easier recipes. Since some cake and pie recipes do not need professional skills, it is not a big matter for grandmothers to grab flour, egg, milk and butter from her shelves, mix and bake them at home. When their grandchildren arrive, they can just serve warm and soft “grandma-made” cake. It might be the reason why many Americans are accustomed with apple pie or carrot cake and why these sweets usually represent nostalgic desserts among Americans. When they were young, their old grandmothers cooked sweet cakes or pies with enormous affection.

What Does The Nation Mean To You?

Friends! DSKUSSS is back with an writing on the function of the state. All of you maybe think about it after the series of some accidents in Korea. Check out this writing and let us know your opinions through comments.

What Does The Nation Mean To You?

Yunzee Kim

Graduated From Dongseo University

Broadcasting and Media Studies

Creatures have a tendency to maintain their homeostasis for their survival. When they face changes, they have two options. One is refusing the changes for the homeostasis and the other is adapting to them despite the break of the principal of constancy. In this case, the creature who chooses the latter would be evaluated as more advanced one for its adaptability and willing for its life. A nation is like a living creature. All changes and difficulties come to the state and it needs to decide on how to react them. Usually, it does not welcome the changes for its stability. However, if the nation faces them and changes itself to adapt, the state can improve than before.

 South Korea is facing a big change today. Due to recent government’s failure in controlling safety and accidents, people in South Korea have started thinking some basic questions on the nation such as what the nation is and what roles they should play for its citizens. Going through recent accidents like the Sewol ferry, the fire at the Goyang intercity Bus Terminal, and the Seoul subway crash etc, South Korea has faced the chance to change and to develop its own function. Nevertheless, the problem is that the state is reacting very passively to these accidents and the raised voices of citizens. The government or the politicians of South Korea seem not to try to find out causes of these accidents and regulate them by law.

Unlike South Korea, the U.S.A showed active reaction to some accidents like the 9/11 terror to its people. For example, when 911 occurred, in the scene of the accident, there were FBI agents, CIA agents, police officers, and firefighters etc. Since the all organizations came to the scene, there was confusion on how to control all the human resources. Due to the confusion, the America showed the clumsy disaster management system to its people. After the 9/11 accident, the U.S.A set a control tower to lead all resources and avoid confusion on the chain of command. The America advanced its national disaster management system by going through crisis.

Therefore, South Korea should react actively like the U.S.A. Although the recent accidents made us sad, the nation needs to make these the chance to reform its weakness. Then, the question on what the nation is will be solved because the nation can prove that the nation exists for citizens’ safety and it has enough ability to protect its own people. I hope South Korea prove these fact soon with specific actions.

Another Step Would Lead to a Sheer Drop: Social Commerce

We are back with the writing on social commerce. Have you ever used social commerce for purchasing goods? If you do, how did you feel about it? Was it convenient? One member of DSKUSSS wants to share his own opinion about social commerce. Please read this interesting opinion and express your opinions through comments.

Another Step Would Lead to a Sheer Drop: Social Commerce

Cha, Su-Min

Korea National University of Education

Dept. of English Education 

             Wemakeprice, Coupang, and Ticketmonster. These are representative channels of Korean social commerce which provide diverse advantages for customers, and the benefit includes discount, one-plus-one product, or at times gift certificates. The merit of social commerce is twofold; it is convenient while it contributes to frugal expenditure. In terms of convenience, you can download coupons with simple access to smartphones or the internet as the term “smartsumer (smart consumer)” suggests. Using given coupons is also a piece of cake since all you have to do is just show a mobile screen to a clerk, which would relieve your financial pressure. All this revolutionary system could have appeared thanks to commercial development, and its service spectrum is getting broader as time goes by; you can even fly to Vietnam only at a cost of KRW 99,000! There are, however, a number of problems that start to be revealed such as excessive competition between rival companies and ever worsening quality of products. Thus, there should be detailed discussion on how to let people realize the magnitude of situation after their being aware of dark sides of social commerce.

             The fast growth of social commerce industry has given birth to countless suppliers and it drove fierce competition to friction between them in the end. Even though it is strictly forbidden by commercial law to attack other companies even with reasonable grounds, companies are by and large busy diminishing other’s value. For example, Wemakeprice was issued a corrective order after conducting internet advertisements that reproached coupang. In addition, companies often cheat customers with highlighting price much lower than the actual payment amount, which is also prohibited by law. Coupang and Ticketmonster got corrective order regarding this point, and Wemakeprice was fined KRW 8,000,000 for indicating fake price in 2013. These indiscrete criticism and illegal movements originate from several factors such as product monopoly and competitive discount rate, staining desirable market formation.

             The worsening quality of products is another essential problem that should immediately be dealt with. According to the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea, business loss of Wemakeprice recorded over 30 billion won which is four times bigger than that of the previous year. Ticketmonster also lost over 70 billion won despite increased total sales figures. Unfortunately, the terrible financial structure directly affected the overall quality of products they offer. Wemakeprice got criticized for selling coupons for reserving motel rooms without adult certification while Ticketmonster was prosecuted without detention for earning 1.3 billion won by selling fake Ugg boots. As customers are eager to buy cheaper commodities and hesitate to buy things for prime cost these days, companies are utilizing customer’s consumption habits to cover their loss.

             It has not been long since social commerce appeared on a market stage, but it is fast generating serious at the same time core problems in both economic fields and daily lives. Therefore, it is not too much to say that there will be huge crisis or even total breakdown unless a proper control system is introduced in the near future. Harsh competition reminds the image of a gang fight which aims at occupying the “boss” position, and poor quality of products makes customers be doubtful about what we pick up in the market. In order to encourage the initial purpose of reducing economic burden and keep the market healthy as well, any form of discussion should be suggested. It might be an action on a governmental level, a grass-root campaign, or even small school assignment that stirs up public recognition. The gist is that people need to be aware of and interested in the situation regarding social commerce channels that they use without one-minute consideration. If it continues to go forward regardless of critical malfunction, the social commerce train will stop all of a sudden pushing passengers into great discomfort.