2015 Summer School
Contents The Worst Babysitter – Jaehee Cho ................................................................................................................ 2 Anti‐ smoking Campaign –Jaehee Cho ........................................................................................................... 4 Dangers of Smoking ‐ Matthew Song............................................................................................................. 5 Athletes are being paid adequate amounts? ‐ Simon Kim .............................................................................. 6 Grimy, Gross Grelda – Brian Son .................................................................................................................... 9 Babysitter from Hell – Ahyoung Seo ............................................................................................................. 13 Anti‐smoking – Ahyoung Seo ....................................................................................................................... 15 Footballers are earning too much money – Ahyoung Seo ............................................................................ 16 Footballers are rich for a reason – Nicholas Kim ............................................................................................ 17 Little Lauren – Nicholas Kim ........................................................................................................................ 20 Anti‐smoking – John Cho ............................................................................................................................. 22 Soccer players earn $120 000 per week – John Cho ...................................................................................... 23 Anti‐ smoking poster ‐ Luke Kim .................................................................................................................. 25 Anti ‐smoking poster – Phoebe Kim ............................................................................................................. 26 Anti‐ smoking ‐ Shunsuke Kobayashi ........................................................................................................... 27 Nurses, teachers and soldiers should be paid more ‐Shinsuke Kobayashi ..................................................... 28 Anti‐smoking Poster – Xaver Gross .............................................................................................................. 30
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The Worst Babysitter – Jaehee Cho
From the moment I saw Michael’s malevolent, maniacal, false smile, I knew I was in for an unforgettable predicament. My hard-working parents were given the opportunity of a lifetime: they had won a week-long Hawaiian cruise through a company-wide sweepstakes event. As a witness to their constant toil, I felt it was my duty to agree to a babysitter in order to give them the privacy they so desired. Unbeknownst to my parents, however, the babysitter they had in mind was infamous for his behavior towards children, with a criminal record of child abuse in his resume to prove it. Michael’s demeanor was, at first glance, horrifying. His uneven face was littered with horrible rashes, looking as if he fell victim to extreme food poisoning. His body had absolutely no resemblance to the picture he mailed us prior to arriving. With a balloon-like roundness to his chubby stature, he was a human Baymax, from the movie, “Big Hero 6”. I began to suspect that he had furiously worked on changing his appearance digitally, with the intent to impress. With a surprisingly low voice, he mumbled, “Hello.” I caught a whiff of his putrid breath and realized that he was, in fact, drunk. The strong scent of alcohol made my eyes water. I realized that I had to do something about this man. He was not in a state to babysit, much less stand up straight. Before I could reach the phone, he snapped, “Don’t you dare call the police! I’ll take a nap, and I’ll be fine after that.” Reluctantly, I scurried to my room and shut the door, locking it tight with a loud, “Click!” Michael’s unflinching attitude towards discipline was an early indication that something was not right about his mental state. The next day, I crept out of my room while heading to the bathroom, hoping to avoid Michael in any way possible. The entire house was littered with food wrappers; an obvious indication that he had cleared the pantry of anything edible. The air smelled of instant noodles and, again, alcohol. Michael was sprawled on the couch, snoring loudly, with the television blaring the news beside him. My stomach growled like a lion, pleading me to feed it. I had gone to bed without dinner the previous night. In hopes of finding a decent meal, I opened the refrigerator. To my dismay, the only foods I could find were raw vegetables and milk. Inside was a note with a sentence roughly scrawled onto it: “If you want any food this week, you will obey my every command.”
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Throughout the week, Michael was a fearful presence around the house. His promise to not drink alcohol was broken too often for me to care anymore. For the first few days, I reluctantly did whatever he told me. I was forced to clean up the trash he had accumulated around the house and cook for him while he played video games on my computer. He forced me to eat nasty instant noodles while he ate delicious home-cooked meals. As for phoning the police, he had taken the batteries out of every phone in the house and he even locked the doors and windows in an effort to keep me isolated. I desperately longed for the smell of fresh air and the sight of other humans. All I would hear that week was him laughing to comedy shows on the television or him yelling at me to hurry up whenever I lagged while doing chores. “Hurry up, will you! If you don’t, I’ll beat you up!” He demanded. Finally, with a sincere hatred for the monster that ruined my life, I decided I had enough. I locked myself in my room until my parents arrived. Throughout their vacation, my parents found that they could not contact their me in any way. They called the police, suspecting that something had gone terribly wrong. Inside the house, they found a clean shaven babysitter, immaculately clean home, and me, a delirious child. My own parents, worried, sent me to therapy and eventually had enough of my constant “rambling” about Michael. They decided to admit me into an asylum for the mentally ill. As for Michael, he disappeared along with every trace of evidence that he existed.
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Anti‐ smoking Campaign –Jaehee Cho
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Dangers of Smoking ‐ Matthew Song
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Athletes are being paid adequate amounts? ‐ Simon Kim
There are many reports of sports stars getting paid ludicrous, excessive, unreasonable amounts of money. Many think that this is unfair to the rest of the people who claim to do more important work. However, what the athletes do is important because they entertain people, fund the government, and fund advertising companies. Truth is that many people don’t realise the impact that these athletes have in the world. This is what the legendary woman’s figure skater Kim Yuna expressed during the talk concert “Play the Challenge” She started off by saying, “During my 17 years as an athlete, I think there were more bad than good memories.” “There were too many injuries and slumps. Though I was very frustrated when I was young and cried a lot, now I just pull through [a slump] with time,” she said. “When I was in middle school, I was frequently injured and my boots no longer fit because of my changing body. To top it all off, I had to take a month off because I hurt my hip muscles. My worst slump was after I won the gold medal for the 2015 Vancouver Olympics because I felt like I had achieved all my goals and dreams. That’s why I was not motivated for the World Figure Skating Championships.” Meanwhile, when she was praised for setting 11 world records, she said, “I don’t think world records are that important for an athlete. I just found out that I set the world record 11 times, too. During a game, it’s the ranking that’s truly important. I will say, though, that it’s good to have a world record in your pocket.” This is what athletes have to endure in order to be the best. Think about it- do athletes deserve what they get considering that the hardships are unbearable? Yes, I understand the fact that the ‘top-notch’ athletes get paid nearly $190,000 per week which is actually well above the yearly salary of a normal American man. In fact, the average American earns only about $20,000 per year which is 9.5 times less than that of what star athletes earn per week. With $190,000 per week it equates to roughly 9.88 million per year which is close to 10 million. So now, the difference between the yearly wage of the average american and the salary of the athlete differs by an enormous 500 percent. You might think that this is a ridiculous sum of money considering that an average week of a footballer includes taking part in a training session, an appointment with the physiotherapist, a press conference, and a 90 minute match. However, I beg to differ. The fact is that finding a person with exceptional skill is very difficult to find. According to the business insider, a trusted site, only 1 percent of college players play professionally while 0.04 percent of high schoolers do which means that it is next to impossible to find a talented soccer player. What makes finding talented players even difficult is that even the best don’t make it to the professional leagues. While they may debut in a professional team, they may drop into the minor leagues. So, the rarity of these sought for athletes is one of the key reasons for why they should get paid high amounts of money. Think about it, doctors get paid a high amount of money for their skill- so do lawyers, politicians, and more. The only difference is is that these athletes are more rare to find thus, I believe that the more rare something or someone is, the more it or they should get paid. It is just like the difference between copper and gold. Gold is more rare therefore, it is paid more per ounce compared to copper. This applies to people as well. So think about it, does more skill equal more pay? 6 | P a g e
The main reason why athletes get paid such high amounts is because of endorsements with advertising companies. Notable companies are Under Armour, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Jordan, etc. These companies pay sometimes millions to have the right to use athletes in their commercials in order to make people to think “Wow! Since that athlete has a pair of Nikes, I should have them as well.” In fact the reason why these companies pay so much is because it works so effectively. It works effectively by making consumers think that the company has a good image because of the athlete. Also, it boosts overall sales which is the reason why Nike is such a big company- because of the athlete endorsements. Perhaps, one of the greatest endorsements between a company and an athlete is between Michael Jordan and the Jordan company. Because Michael Jordan endorsed Jordan products, the parent company, Nike has seen major growth since the contract that he signed back in 1984. By the end of 1985, the Air Jordan franchise yielded more than 100 million dollars in revenue. That is an insane amount of money considering that 100 million back in 1985 equates to $221,008,364.31 in today's money. The thing is that that sum of money was made in just after a year the Jordan brand launch. This is just one example of a very successful endorsement. The reason why I am explaining the success of endorsements is because it is one of the main sources of wealth for the athletes. For the people thinking that athletes get paid too much, listen to this, players also get money from endorsements which is the reason why they get such excessive amounts of money. But think about, it is it the players fault for a contract to endorse for a company? Maybe it is the company’s fault for even asking the player then. If so, does that mean that the company should just not even think about asking athletes for an endorsement? That will mean that the companies will face a severe shortage of sales because athlete endorsements are one of the main reasons for why consumers buy from these brands. If the companies suffer, so will the government because it collects taxes from these ‘brand names’. If these brands do bad so will the government because they will collect less tax money which will be used towards public services, roads, etc. Not every athlete is successful. We are blinded by the fact that all athletes are rich and talented. However, that may not be the case because many athletes do fail and end up in the minor leagues. Not only is that a factor in which why some athletes end up unsuccessful but also, an athlete’s career is unpredictable because injuries can end a career just like that. On top of that, an athlete’s career is short anyways because the mean age of retirement for soccer players is 35 which means that most soccer players retire once they are near the age of 35. Injuries, which can be fatal in some cases occur while player sports. Of course, athletes need to accept the fact that playing sports require physical contact. Sometimes, the physical contact can become serious or even deadly at times. For instance, Duk Koo Kim, a world famous South Korean Boxer died in the middle of a boxing match against Ray Mancini, also world famous. The fight, for the W.B.A title was a grueling one which lasted for a staggering 15 rounds. The fatal punch landed in the final round and Duk Koo fainted. Ralph Wiley, a former ESPN journalist who was present at the game recalled seeing Kim’s dilated pupils. He was rushed to the Desert Springs hospital and was treated but sadly died four days later. Kim is not the only athlete who has died ingame. This is a chilling reminder that sports can be deadly at times. Also, if an athlete’s retirement age is 35, what is that athlete going to do afterwards? Since they have spent most of their life practicing to become better at sports, what will they know about working at a ‘normal job’? Unless you are a 7 | P a g e
superstar athlete, your future after retirement will be uninsured. With an uninsured future, you will be uncertain of what will take place in the future. My point is that athletes have a hard time afterwards which means that they should get paid a lot now so that they have an insured future. Think about it, most normal people work until they reach their 70s in some cases. However, that figure is different for athletes which means that they should get paid a lot when they are young so that their future can be insured just like ‘normal people’. So, in the end, what seems a lot now doesn’t become much in the future. Athletes definitely aren’t paid ludicrous sums of money because they worked hard to earn it. Also, this sum of money ends up being ‘a normal amount of money’ in the future. Unlike what the public thinks, I think differently about the payment of professional athletes. I believe that their salary is justified. Never mind the wage of ‘normal people’, I’m singling out athletes on purpose to tackle the issue of ‘overpayment’. I hope to make the public feel different about these athletes because they truly deserve the yearly payment that they receive. Also, I am very sure that if athletes get paid less, it will surely cause an outrage among athletes. Now do you think that athletes are overpaid?
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Grimy, Gross Grelda – Brian Son “Andy! Come here, now! Oh, God, why, why, why?” I heard my mother breathing frantically in her room. I ran as fast as I could, my feet pounding against the polished, wooden floor, abruptly stopping at the front of my parent’s bedroom. I shoved open the door and stood, ready to expect for the worst. Instead, I saw my mother, kneeling on the floor, shaking my...brother?
“Mom, what happened?” I was standing in the doorway, like an idiot, while my mom was shaking my sibling as if she were spasming. My mom didn’t answer, and as I got closer, I saw my brother. His face was purple and was dangerously huge. I felt faint as I stared more at him, so I looked away.
“Call 911!” My mom screamed at me. I grabbed the nearest cell phone I found and pushed the numbers frantically: 9-1-1. Finally! I hit the call button and waited for someone to pick up the phone. I tapped my foot impatiently and felt like I was hyperventilating.
“This is the police, what is your emergency?” A calm voice received the phone.
In contrast, I was panicking and stuttered,“My brother...he’s...well, I don’t know. I think he’s having an allergic reaction right now. Please ma’am, call for an ambulance to this address: 1 Mary Lane Street Avenue, MA 01254394!”
“Immediately. Thank you for your notification. We will send an ambulance immediately.” I heard the the receiver click off and I put down the phone, feeling drained. However, as I watched my brother in so much pain and agony, it seemed to give me courage and I went back to my mother.
“Did you call them? Are they here? What time will they be here? Which hospital are they?” My mother started bombarding me with questions and I said as calmly as I could,
“They’ll be here soon. For now, let’s get him out of the house, ready to go to ambulance.”
“Thanks, Andy. Now help me get him up.” I heaved him up with my mom, struggling to get him out of the door without hurting his fragile, delicate body. Soon enough, we heard the wailing sirens of the ambulance, coming closer to us. It didn’t sound like the harsh, grating sound it usually was, but now, it sounded like heaven, as I smiled in relief. They were here. He 9 | P a g e
would be safe. When it stopped in front of our house, I saw nurses come out and get out a stretcher. They nodded at us and we lay him on the stretcher. Then, they started putting an oxygen mask on him and I cried with my mother as we saw his little, helpless body put into the ambulance. We were still crying when a nurse came up to us.
“Ma’am, you’ll have to come with us to watch over your son. He may be in a severe condition right now.” My mother wiped away her tears, only to reveal red-rimmed eyes and a sniffing nose. I wiped away my tears as well as I sat there, feeling so scared and frightened at how quickly and fast everything had just happened. I watched my mom walk towards the ambulance. I followed, but she looked back and shook her head.
“I’ll call a babysitter, Andy. You just wait here and open the door for the babysitter. Be sure to be safe and ask who the person is before.”
“What about Dad, mom?” I asked, hoping he would be available.
“Dad called me before Adam got sick and told me he has an unexpected business trip and won’t be back till next week. I’m sorry, sweetie.” I started to cry again. How bad could things really get?
“I’ll call in a nanny. She’ll be with you and you guys can play and try to have some fun! Watch a movie or just read.” My mom tried acting optimistic, but failed to do so.
“Sure, mom.” I sighed and went back in the house.
Soon, I heard someone knocking on the door. I slothed downstairs and looked through the peephole. “Who is it?” I asked, hoping to hear my mother’s voice. Instead, I heard a rough growl, almost threatening. I jumped back, surprised. I gathered my courage and looked again. I gasped and rubbed my eyes. It was too horrible to be...a…..a human being! The yellow, rotten teeth, bulging, red eyes, wrinkled hands with long, crooked nails, thin hair, oily with green warts all over her body! I writhed in revolt and blinked at least 50 times before looking back. She was a living nightmare!
“Aye emm yer beby seeter, Grimy, Gross, Grelda,” a feeble voice cried out. 10 | P a g e
“Umm, then what’s my mother’s name?” I inquired, hoping dearly that she didn’t know.
“Leenda. Leenda. Tat’s yur moma’s nem.” I gulped in fright, but knew all too well my mother’s name was Linda. How could she have done this to me? I felt like crying but bravely unlocked and opened the door. She seemed even more disgusting in person! She started sniffing and snorting like a pig. Her body looked distorted with everything out of place: her twisted nose, inside out turned lips, missing and black teeth, sickly-yellow gums! Her blotched red face made her face look like it was on fire. Even more so, her body looked like a grandma who’d been swimming in a pool for 1,000,000 centuries! Her dark, blood-red eyes sank into mine as she glared, turning her eyes ever so slowly into silts so thin, you could barely see them. Her hunched back and sharp shoulders made it look as if her head had been removed from the neck area and placed where her neck was. As I stared at her, appalled, she crawled like a deformed gargoyle, to the couch. As she swayed past me, making a sound of “swish, swosh, swish swosh!” I smelled the pungent and acrid reek of vinegar, alcohol and smoke. Then, I saw her putting her wrinkled, wart-covered hands into her mouth, creating a squeaking noise, “squeak! squeak!” as she attempted to clean it.
I winced as the sofa creaked under her ancient weight. As I stared at her, examining and observing her like a newly-found species to mankind, she started back at me, with such fierceness and ferocity that I jumped back and ran up my room. At least she’ll keep the strangers and robbers away. I thought. What a creep! She’s dirty, rude, and disgusting to look at! Who glares at the people in a house that’s not even theirs? I felt so offended by her behavior that I decided to go downstairs and teach that grandma a lesson!
I stomped downstairs, fixing a glare at her withered face. She looked back, and her face seemed to become uglier each second. I still endured it and stared back at her. She got up, and slowly swayed towards me. I froze and panicked. What would she do? Would she kill me? Does she have a gun or knife? Stupidly, I stood there, frozen. She swayed towards me until she was an inch away from my ear. She whispered in her creaky, old voice, “Dan’t ster at mey.” I nearly vomited when I smelled her breath. It was equivalent to the stench of rotten eggs and overcooked onions mixed together along with sewage material. My eyes bulged and I held my breath as she waddled back to the sofa, letting out some gas by the way. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and stared after her, in amazement. Unfortunately, her gas was fast, though surprisingly thick. As I wasn’t fast enough, I was soon convulsing from the disgusting smell of her noxious gas-waste.
I had had enough. I went upstairs and decided that I HAD to get rid of her. I just had to. I lay down on my bed, thinking of a plan to get rid of her. Then, like a light bulb, I had it!! If she liked being dirty and rude, then being clean and polite would surely make her disgusted and 11 | P a g e
eventually….get out!! He knew that his mom wouldn’t be too happy about it, but if she knew what kind of babysitter she was, she would surely have been glad that I got rid of her! I rushed to the bathroom and started to make myself look clean, getting the comb, washing my face, and brushing my teeth. I then went back to my room and put on the neatest, cleanest looking clothes I had. After that, I went downstairs, ignoring the old, couch potato hog on the sofa and headed to the kitchen. I got some leftover cake we had from a party yesterday and one of the china cups my mom so dearly clung onto. I poured tea into the cup and put everything on a tray. I walked towards her then, with a smile on my face. She looked up as I stood over her.
“Ma’am, this cake is delicious. Please try some. It’s the finest and best! We are also VERY clean and polite here, in this house. So, ma’am, it would be an honor to serve you.” I snickered as I saw her wince and she shook her head frantically.
“No, no, no cake. No, get out!!” She growled and snapped once more, spitting on the tea and cake. I smiled even more now and beamed at her.
“I insist!! Ma’am, just one bite. Oh, you look so lovely in your beautiful clothing. How polite of you to dress this way just to eat our famous cuisine. Now, ma’am, if you would, please accept our finest tea and cake!” I smiled so wide my jaws hurt and the granny babysitter stared at me in horror. Then, she got up as fast as she could and waddled towards the door and got out of the house. I smiled and went out to see where she would go. She was waddling for a few feet until she turned her back and growled, “Ay’ll get you eventlly! You little brat!!” I smiled in amusement and shook my head as I watched her malevolent body waddle off, engulfed by the pitch, black night... If she came back, I would be ready to take her on. Oh, yes, I would be ready!
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Babysitter from Hell – Ahyoung Seo
My mum had to go to hospital because of my sister and my dad had to go to work so they called the babysitter and we waited then she had finally came so the first thing I sensed from her was her nasty smell it was smelly as a rotten blue cheese that was thrown out of the window and got stepped by a cat. Then she came in and I saw that her legs and arms were skinny like a brown stick that was thin as table legs!
OK,now I was literally gonna faint of this nasty worst smell ever! After that I was taking something out of her pocket it was a perfume however the perfume’s smell was like a garbage smell it had rotten old flies around it was around her too. So I disided to stay away from as far as I can. Eventhough she started coming to me then she questioned “can you show me around please?” ”sure…”I replied.
While I was showing stuff around I saw her scratching herself and it was sooooooo annoying however I really didn’t want to show her. Also she was stomping around so it was so EAR-SPLITTING! This was literally what I was thinking the whole time ‘OH MY GOSH SHE IS THE MOST ANNOYING PERSON EVER
IN
THE
WHOLE
WIDE
WORLD
PLEASE
PLEASE
PLEASEEEEE TIME GO FAST!’
I really wanted to her to leave so badly, more than that she also had fur all over her legs and arms too she was really dirty at that point! She was a fricking woman that was a rotten fly! I was SOOO lucky that I needed to stay with her for only 3 hours although unexpectedly there was a phone call and my mum told me that the hospital has too many people so I needed stay with for fricking 8 hours and 30 mins! 30! Ok this was how it went: 5 hours for waiting
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then 1 hour for health care and 1 hour to get the medicine and 1 hour and 30 mins.
“Um… where is the bathroom?” the lady asked. “Straight to the left”I answered. “Thanks,” she replied After she came back from doing her ‘business’(get what I mean?). “Do you want eat something?” she questioned I replied, ”No thank but thank you” My mum was gonna be home in 30 mins and I was soooo glad that I nearly fainted(like literally no joke people). Nevertheless I still had to stay with her for 30 mins which sucks.
After 30 mins…
FINALLY! Then suddenly the doorbell rang! So I dashed down as quick as an aeroplane and opened the door happily. Then my mum came in so the awful, nasty, smell women had to leave and she did finally! I was soooo glad that I jumped around the whole house! Then I told her how awful she was. Then mum replied you must have a hard time. “OH YES I TOTALLY DID AND YOU MADE IT MUCH HARDER BECAUSE YOU CAME SO LATE!”I shouted “I’m sorry please calm down,” she replied.
Well… that was the last time ever she left me with a babysitter and never ever had to be with the worst babysitter ever in the world! So I would always be with my aunt, grandma or uncle never a babysitter!
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Anti‐smoking – Ahyoung Seo
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Footballers are earning too much money – Ahyoung Seo As you all know, the footballers get paid too much so I want to tell you to compare how much they get paid so footballers get paid 2,000,000 pounds a week, firemen get paid 28,766 pounds per year, nurses gets paid 21,000 pounds a year. Do you see how much difference there is? Do you now understand what I about the footballers get paid too much?! I think nurses, soldiers and teachers should get more money because they are working as hard as they can all day long and the footballers don’t. All they do is just play football once 4 years and that’s all! Also soldiers risk their lives and fight for their country however the footballers don’t all they do is just kick the ball around and play with it! Another thing is that nurses saves lots of lives and the footballers don’t! Do you know how painful it is? I mean I understand that some people love football and think that it is the right amount of money to get but actually it’s not fair! Just think about others it’s just not because they are so famous so they should get lots of money. That’s not true! In my opinion I think footballers are getting too much money and the nurses, soldiers and teachers should get more money because as you all know that teachers work their best that the kids can learn, improve and have fun although footballers don’t do that I know that people have fun watching them but still it is unfair for other people they don’t even work every single day or something they work only once 4 years! For example firemen everyone know that they saved many lives and even risk themselves to save people, Policemen they capture lots of thieves for all day long they do it for 24 hours! Also there are some drunk people or others that are crazy they just prank call and swear and all kinds of stuff! Imagine you would need to do that I mean you would have a very hard time! Also think about the poor people they even barely get any money even kids need to work these days to get money and to live. I know that some of the footballers actually do donate money however some of the others actually don’t! So what do they even do with lots of money? Well now let’s see if you can answer these questions? First what is the whole point of giving so much money to the footballers? Second why don’t they donate some of their money and make the poor kids into happy kids? Why do the firemen, nurses, teachers and policemen get such a small amount of money? What would you do if you had 2,000,000pounds? Now imagine that you are footballer and you didn’t donate any of the money you got and you get 2,000,000pounds a week you also didn’t care about policemen, teachers, nurses or firemen and how heartless and selfish will you be? Do you get it now? 16 | P a g e
Footballers are rich for a reason – Nicholas Kim
We are living in a very capitalistic society where each individual works hard in order to earn his share, and based on how difficult it is to obtain the set of skills needed in order to achieve that work successfully, he earns more money. Football is currently a very globalized sport, and in the past few decades it has started to become a huge issue economically. A fortune is spent on the football industry every year, and a fortune is made by the football industry in addition. Football now isn’t just entertainment, but economics and politics with big risks.
Seeing this, certain individuals argue that footballers, indeed, are paid too much money. There have been disputes that the money spent on these pure entertainment figures can be used someplace else to save lives, helping starving families, paying soldiers and nurses who fight to save lives.
Indeed, soldiers and nurses ought to be paid more, or any other sort, such as firefighters, as they are operating laboriously every day in order to save lives. However, it is untrue that footballers are being overpaid. From a distance, it may seem as if footballers merely kick a ball around and get paid a fortune for that, living a luxurious life. Indeed they are kicking a ball around, but that is not the whole story.
Football, first of all, is a beautiful game which involves not just kicking a ball around. It involves a use of brain in tactics, great leadership, and great management skills. More importantly, football is not just entertainment; currently, it involves economics and politics.
This is both a blessing and a curse to football. The involvement of politics and a huge deal of money richened the overall industry of football, and has improved the game greatly, but it has ruined a part of the whole purpose of the game‐to have fun. The Ballon d’Or awards, given annually to the “best footballer” of the year, arguably involves politics, individuals voting for close teammates instead of truly who they believe is the greatest player.
Now that economics have been involved in football, it has to be considered before any rash final thoughts are made. As said before, our society is capitalistic, every individual having the full rights to take what he earns from his work, which means each and every one of the teams and the players in the football industry have the full right to take what he gets paid to do his work. Football is no longer just a sport, which means the people involved in it should be treated accordingly.
Soldiers, firefighters, and nurses, unlike footballers, get paid by the country’s government, which explains the reasoning behind their poor salary. Most nurses, of course, work for private organizations, and they get paid more, as they work for private hospitals. Another example are teachers who work in public schools, who are supposingly underpaid while those working for private schools are more fortunate. 17 | P a g e
The football teams that pay the footballers are obviously individual organizations, and there are teams that make a fortunate, and other teams that don’t fare too well. These teams each have their balance and riches, and the fact that footballers in teams such as Real Madrid and Manchester United get paid so much is due to the fact that the teams themselves are rich. If a team is rich, it naturally pays more to its players in order to keep its fortune, and that, unfortunately for some of us, is the nature of the society we are living in.
One huge misunderstanding is that all footballers are rich; however, that is very false. It is the players of the richer teams who get paid a fortune, and in fact, players in the lower divisions, such as the English League One and Two do not get paid so much, some less than the salary an average person receives from doing any other job.
Footballers, indeed, are receiving a fair pay, as they worked hard to get into the teams that are capable of paying them a fortune.
Footballers, also, are not just blessed human beings with a small talent in that criteria, living a lazy and spoiled life. It is true some footballers were fortunate enough to have a supportive family‐psychologically or economically, and have an innate talent that led a relatively easy road to success, but remember, this is relative to normal footballers. Footballers, indeed, are putting far more effort and courage in order to achieve their dreams than any other “underpaid” job such as soldiers and firefighters.
Of course we all respect the soldiers and firefighters who fight for their lives to protect our country from danger, but footballers are not any less respectable, due to the fact they also risked their lives in order to play this popular game.
Millions of people desire the road of success as a football player. However, less than a thousandth actually succeed in achieving the fame and money that ensures a secure position of wealth in society that they all started off desiring for. The career of professional footballer is indeed a gamble. A massive amount of time and effort has to be spent in order to train, learn the game, be scouted, and break into a reasonable team, and the results of all that work is “you might be able to succeed”. This is why footballers deserve the equal amount of respect, due to the fact that they had the courage and passion to go for this game instead of any other job that could’ve been easily secured by a few years of studying in college.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is one of the best and the most famous footballers in the world currently. He is viewed often as arrogant boastful, but in reality, he is indeed very much the opposite. His treatment of his genuine friends and fans is heartwarming, and it is shockingly different than his public imagine. He isn’t willing to aid those in need and give out his shirts to fans in middle of games to make them feel better. He isn’t afraid what the others say, as long as he is doing the right thing. This attitude was indeed a great part in his success. Since Ronaldo was young, he demanded mutual respect from his neighbors, and 18 | P a g e
his determination, passion, and strong will has allowed him to become one of the best, despite his poor family. He left school at 14 to become a soccer player, which is a huge risk, and because he wasn’t afraid to lose so much, he has been shaped into one of the best.
Doesn’t this man deserve as much respect as any other courageous soldier or firefighter who sacrifice themselves to save others? Hasn’t this man sacrificed enough in order to merely do what he believes is right, with his passion?
There are many footballers whose life stories are similar to Ronaldo’s working their way up from the bottom, knowing the slight chance of success, but fighting with determination just to do what they want to do.
Considering this, footballers are indeed, not paid too much for their jobs.
Professional football is also a very short‐term job. Most football players retire before they are 34, meaning with all the money they have earned for around a decade to two of their career, they need to survive for the rest of their lives. They can end up as a manager, coach, or a teacher teaching soccer to juniors, and earn money through that way, but it certainly won’t be enough to survive for the rest of their lives unless they have achieved a great success of money and fame in their short career.
It isn’t the footballers’ wages that must change in our society. As long as we enjoy football and are willing to pay to watch professionals play in their team colors, the pays will not drop, and never drop, and the richer teams will even become even more rich. It is also clear these footballers deserve what they are receiving right now, a compensation for their hard work in the past. What really needs to change is our viewpoint. The soldiers, firefighters, paramedics; they all should be paid more than they are receiving right now. They deserve more respect. That doesn’t mean the footballers should receive smaller pay or any less respect.
We need to work harder to improve the world, not argue between ourselves of who deserves more pay and respect, as every one of us do. AFOREST Alliteration/Anecdotes Facts Opinions (Expert vs Own) Repetition/Rhetorical questions Emotive language Statistics Three (adjectives) 19 | P a g e
Little Lauren – Nicholas Kim Have you heard of Little Lauren? She works at a babysitting agency in our neighborhood. Well, she used to. After THAT night the agency itself vanished without leaving any trace from our neighborhood. Including Little Lauren. You will instantaneously recognize her once you see her; her appearance is quite… exceptional. Her skin is saggy like a dough before it is richly cooked in the oven, stringy, sticky, and floppy. She smells of disgusting yuk and urine, and the malefic aroma spreads out throughout the house, the tsunami of repugnance killing any pleasurable odor left alive in the area. When she first stepped into our doorsteps, a swarm of flies, attracted by her vile scent, flocked in, like bees attracted to honey. Speaking of when she came, I still vividly remember her visit THAT night. I could make out the slop-slop of her footsteps, as if one’s wearing a flip flop, although she was wearing pure sneakers far too miniature for her gigantic feet. Up to this time, I do not comprehend how blind my parents were, letting this monstrosity inside our residence in the first place. When she sat on one of our chairs in the dining room, the chair bent into a U-shape, an endeavor to become a ballerina, flexible and tangible in order to support the burden, but in the end, its back snapped and halved, sending Little Lauren crashing onto the floor. My heart plummeted when my parents departed our headquarters. When she advanced on me, the air turned so dense that my breath choked, which prevented me from breathing. It was me, an astronaut, who tried to survive on Venus without an air helmet.
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The environment swirled around me when she patted my head as if I was a dog. Her wrinkly, wet, soggy hands caused my hair to deteriorate, her vile hand liquid running down my forehead. I managed to dash to the bathroom as quickly as I possibly could to stop myself from disintegrating. When I exited the bathroom, my senses, at last, returned. I felt an eerie sense of fear, rising from by stomach to my forehead, when an invisible shadow marking her huge presence was felt stomping its way toward me. “Why, hellooo there leeetle kid…” she mumbled sluggishly as if only the area around her was put into a slow-motion. “Please, watch the chair!” I blurted as she tried to sit on another chair. “It’s ookayy… I will sit, I am tired...” Snap! As anticipated, the unfortunate chair chopped into two halves abruptly. “Just sit on the couch!” I burst out. The repulsive slogger slumped down on our prized family couch. Crack! A cracking sound was heard and the midpoint of our couch flopped down to the floor. “Oh my gosh,” I croaked at the thought of our parents arriving back home to find this mess. Little Lauren roamed around our compound like an elephant tramping around its habitats, splintering and drenching every object she encountered. Finally, she entered our bathroom, and that is when my brilliance took part. When she inspected our bathroom mirror in awe, I turned the shower on toward her, soaking her with scalding water. “Aguahghasgidhag!” she babbled as she performed her way out of our restroom. She left our dwelling in a hurry (not really since she was incredibly slow), and that was the last time I got to see her, pacing through our doorsteps roaring in agony, towards wherever it is she originated from. “Where is Lauren?” my parents questioned when they returned a few hours later. “Oh!” I proclaimed, “She went home early! She said she was tired.” “Oh how untimely! I was planning to meet her to apply her for any jobs she could have done for us in the future, but, well, never mind!” I sighed in delight in my mother’s disappointment, hoping to never see Little Lauren again. Never. 21 | P a g e
Anti‐smoking – John Cho
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Soccer players earn $120 000 per week – John Cho Who do you think would get paid more or get more credit: a soldier, or a soccer player? Someone who protects lives while risking their own, or someone who kicks a ball around for 90 minutes? Someone who risks their life should get paid more but unfortunately, this is not the case. Soccer players get paid nearly 30 times more than the average paramedic or firefighter. I understand that most players worked extremely hard to get to where they are. Some players have even gone from rags to riches. But is it fair that someone who puts in countless hours to save lives while risking their own is still in rags? Retired soldiers and veterans often struggle after coming home. More than half are traumatized by what they’ve seen, some have injuries that they can’t pay for. Many become homeless. Is it fair that the people who risked their lives to protect us are homeless and struggling while soccer players live in mansions? The average soccer player doesn’t have to give much effort in a week. The week might consist of a few meetings, practicing for a match or even a match itself; but this will not be more than a couple of hours’ total. In addition, even if they practice more than a firefighter or paramedic shifts, they aren’t saving lives while doing it.
Careers are short for soccer players, and even shorter when they get severely injured. This could
mean they have to find a new job after putting in so much effort to become a pro soccer player. But soccer players get paid millions and millions of dollars a year and most have enough to last them a lifetime. In addition, finding a new job won’t be hard for retired soccer players. They have plenty of money and time on their hands so they aren’t under much pressure. Also, most are well known, so many entertainment companies might hire them for commercials, interviews, or even working for big sports companies, such as ESPN. In fact, most coaches and sports announcers used to be athletes. Would it really affect soccer players that much if we gave some of their salary to people who need money?
Soccer players are often under a lot of stress from fans and even their own country. One example
are the national teams in the World Cup. But is it as stressful as being holed up in a trench while being shot at? Soccer players also have to pay large amounts of tax because of their large salary as well. I know that players are under a lot of pressure from fans and sometimes anger them. But this can be solved by doing good deeds. Many players donate large sums of money to charities and help many organizations. This makes plenty of more people like this person and see him/her as a good role model. This can relieve them of stress and anger from the people, lessen the amount of tax they pay, and put all of that money to good use!
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In conclusion, I feel as though cutting soccer player’s salaries won’t affect them too much, but affect
people who deserve it a lot. Think about it folks, who deserves more, someone who risks their life? Or someone who risks their status?
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Anti‐ smoking poster ‐ Luke Kim
Teacher’s Tip
To improve your vocabulary why not play Free Rice? For every question you get right, you can give food to someone less fortunate than yourself.
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Anti ‐smoking poster – Phoebe Kim
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Teacher’s Tip To improve your grammar, why don’t you go to www.chompchomp.com?
Anti‐ smoking ‐ Shunsuke Kobayashi
Don’t forget to use your AFOREST techniques. DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE?
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Nurses, teachers and soldiers should be paid more ‐Shinsuke Kobayashi
One day when I was at school, I had a question to ask to my math teacher, so I went to her classroom and saw her grading all the math exams we took the day before yesterday. We had about hundred students in our grade and she was the only math teacher, so she had to grade all of the papers and post the grade online by next week. I felt really bad for her because she had tons of work to do and I noticed that she has been blue lately. I do respect the fact that footballers deserve their extremely high wage because they are skilled and talented. However, I have to say that nurses, teachers, and soldiers should be paid more than what they are currently paid because those jobs are hard-work small payment, not popular, and risks their health and even their lives.
First of all, nurses, teachers, and soldiers should be paid more because they are working hard and still earn a tiny amount of wage compared to what the professional footballers earn. As shown in the statistics, the average teacher earns about $45,000 per year while footballers earn just about the same amount of money per week. Though teachers definitely work much harder than the footballers, there are so much gap between those two jobs in wage, and I believe that this fact is totally unfair for the people who work hard at their job. Jobs like nurses, teachers, and soldiers are hard working and they should be paid more while footballers earn so much money just by training their skills and playing 90-minute games.
Second of all, nurses, teachers, and soldiers should be paid more because those jobs are not popular among young people, partly because their wages are low. People who have those jobs are not respected and treated well, even though nurses, teachers, and soldiers are crucial part of our society and without them people cannot live their ordinary life. Nurses, teachers, and soldiers are unpopular also because of their bad working condition. For example, nurses sometimes have hard time communicating with the patients and their families. Some nurses and doctors work until mid-night and they have to help other section in the hospital as a helper. Doctors don’t earn so much money unless they are really experienced and have high rank in the hospital because hospitals themselves don’t make so much money unlike football clubs. Especially people who have just joined those jobs, people have to work really hard in bad, low-payment, and long work time jobs.
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Lastly, nurses, teachers, and soldiers should be paid more because they sometimes have to work so hard that they risk their health and even their lives. Soldiers, for instance, fight for their country. Footballers do fight for their country in tournaments like World Cup, but soldiers are actually risking their lives to protect their own country. Is it fair for the soldiers that they are risking their lives and earning less than 5% of what professional footballers earn? What justifies footballers to earn so much while soldiers don’t? Even nurses and teachers often stay late at night to get their jobs done, or sometimes they don’t even sleep at all. Sacrificing their sleep time and get their job done is bad for their health. Therefore they should be paid more than the footballers who don’t really have anything to risk playing football.
Nurses, teachers, and soldiers should be paid more because they are hardworking and earn small money, they are not popular jobs, and they risk their health and even their lives to do their jobs. If the payment of nurses, teachers, and soldiers increases, there would be more young people who would want to have those jobs. Also they wouldn’t have to risk their health too much if there are more people to support those people who are working in hard condition. I hope that math teachers in the future would not have to stress too much about grading students papers risking their health. Don’t let them risk their lives working too hard.
Good argumentative writing always includes your opponent’s viewpoint. If you put their argument first and then argue against it, it makes your viewpoint seem stronger.
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Anti‐smoking Poster – Xaver Gross
That’s all for now but remember that you can email me if you have any questions.
I hope that you enjoy this little book and that it will remind you of the good times we had together.
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