The Islander // Issue 06 by North London Collegiate School Jeju

issue 06 // autumn term 2013

Balanced

ISLANDER TEAM

WRITERS

Yejin Choi, Y10, Mulchat

Jennifer Park, Halla

Hannah Cho, Y10, Jeoji

Louis Son, Halla

Esther Song, Y10, Jeoji

Jillian Chun, Halla

Winnie Lee, Y10, Jeoji

Diane Jung, Halla

Laura Moon, Y10, Geomun

Selene Lee, Halla

Chelsea Park, Y9, Mulchat

Jiwon Moon, Y11, Geomun

Mina Chae, Y9, Mulchat

Jiho Choi, Y11, Mulchat

Alicia Cho, Y8, Jeoji

Gabbie Yu, Y11, Jeoji

Claire Oh, Y8, Sarah

Charlie Park, Y11, Mulchat

Gabriella Kim, Y8, Mulchat

Josh Lee, Y11, Sarah

Hannah Seo, Y8, Jeoji

Mr Taylor

Eva Choi, Y11, Jeoji

Cion Choi, Y8, Geomun

Jiwon Moon, Y11, Geomun

Lindsey Lee, Y10, Geomun

Kay Nam, Y8, Jeoji

Jiho Choi, Y11, Mulchat

Elly Jung, Y10, Geomun

Sein Lee, Y8, Geomun

Brian Lee, Halla

Ashley Park, Y10, Geomun

Shigatomi Shunto, Y8, Noro

Lina Kim, Y10, Mulchat

Juneyong Park, Y8, Sarah

June Song, Y10, Mulchat

Julia Kim, Y8, Geomun

Mrs CCT

Jinn Park, Y10, Sarah

Sally Ban, Y8, Noro

Mr Long

Celene Tae, Y10, Sarah

Eunice Lee, Y8, Noro

Ms Rowsell

Diane Lee, Y10, Sarah

Nancy Kwon, Y8, Mulchat

Mrs Taylor

Joanna Song, Y10, Noro

Rachel Cho, Y8, Mulchat

EDITORIAL Mrs Monaghan Ms Holt Ms Burden Zi Won Kim, Halla Terry Kwon, Halla Chanwoo Bang, Halla (cameo)

DESIGN

CONTRIBUTORS

by Islander Design Team We spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas for the cover of this termâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s magazine. What are the first things that pop into your head when you think of balance? We came up with many ideas but the one we all liked most was juggling - to be a balanced individual you have to be able to juggle many elements of your life. We chose Ahyoung as our juggler because she is a role model who manages many parts of her life successfully. We decided on a photomontage using props to represent her life.

Props 6 // she is on the Big6 Clock // time management Hitler & chello // balance between academic and creative subjects Pillow // getting enough sleep Training shoe // fitness

Welcome Mr BROMHAM, Vice Principal, DIRECTOR OF STUDIES, welcomes you to Issue 06 of the Islander.

s Christmas approaches, our thoughts turn to our own family but also to those less fortunate than us around the world. I was heartened this term by the commitment our students have shown to two different enterprises. The Project Somosomo students worked tirelessly for many months, raising money to make a difference to young people in Fiji. We all enjoyed their bake sales and staff auctions but personally, it was the photos of the group’s visit to Somosomo, showing our students making a real difference to people’s lives, that brought the biggest smile to my face. I was also impressed with our students’ support of Amnesty International, a truly worthy organisation. I urge you all to find out more from the Amnesty Society about how you can help them make a difference. However, while donating money and spending time helping out charities is commendable, it is the personal investment in forming a relationship with the person next to you that is often more challenging. Reaching out to someone who is not one of your usual friends, can take a strength of character that few can muster. Too frequently, I am saddened by the sight of one of our students alone at break times or lunch. In a school such as ours, this should not occur. Take time over Christmas to think about what difference you can make to the lives of others. Most importantly, think about what you can do for those individuals around you. Make a commitment to look out for those vulnerable students in your class or house, talk to them, include them, make a new friend. It might surprise you how good it makes you feel and how much you can gain from having a friend who is different to you. So enjoy Christmas and enjoy being in the warm and safe embrace of your families but on your return, be strong and reach out to those whom you can help, both across the world and right here in NLCS Jeju.

Welcome

Assembly Mrs Chandler-Thompson gave an inspirational assembly about what the IB expects of a balanced student

here is no doubt that, in year three of our brand new school, that we are trying to excel in every area - academic, co-curricular, boarding - every possible way. But I have decided that it is, in fact, just not possible to be perfectly balanced.

In fact, the more I thought about it, I realised it is just downright impossible to be balanced, and if we all fulfilled the ideal of being “balanced” we would be exhausted by the end of week one of term. It would be irresponsible of me to suggest that you all became rounded and balanced individuals, suggesting you took up the violin and began a new sport in your spare 20 minutes of the day. So, if we are not suggesting that you all become perfect and balanced, what is this elusive ‘balance’ that I am talking about? I am sure that if you ask any Year 13 student if balance is possible, they would most likely respond with a wry laugh, or quite possibly incredulity. In the midst of CAS, EE, TOK, IAs, not to mention lessons, university applications, societies and charity events packed into virtually everyday of the week, there is certainly very little time left for anything like sleep. They will have tried themselves out in many areas, and have a balance of subject, co-curricular and lots of things to talk about at university interviews, but can they achieve this perfectly or all the time? NO, of course they cannot. Sometimes it all just feels like too much and the last thing you would want to hear is that perhaps, like the 16th C Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci, you should take up a new instrument or design a new type of mechanism to help humans be able to fly in your spare time. Let’s get this into perspective. When the IB thought up the characteristic of “balanced”- were they anticipating that we could all transform ourselves into Renaissance men and women? No, clearly they did not. I might add that Leonardo was not operating in the same world that you do. He certainly was not filling in his CAS reflections each week after casting his 24 foot bronze sculptures. Leonardo, in many ways, had a lot less fixed demands on his time than you do. And he certainly wasn’t worrying about ACT, SAT, IA and all those other soul destroying acronyms - he was pondering the flight of birds and drawing figures with facial deformity, because it interested him. Being genuinely balanced is not about achieving some kind of superhuman perfection at all possible activities. There’s not a point in life when suddenly balance has been achieved. It’s not like an exam that can be passed, or some kind of mental or physical perfection that can be measured or graded. Truly balanced people are not perfect. They might be people who have excelled, they might have good results academically, and they will perhaps play instruments and enjoy swimming or rugby. But more importantly I think they will also be the ones who smile, who are happy with the adventure and possess a willingness help other people. It is these business people, leaders, parents, teachers and students that have understood the importance not of being balanced but of the benefits to themselves of trying. If you only focus on the result, end, destination or grade at the end of the term you are doomed to fail. The destination may disappoint you if it rains, the grade may not be the one you want or the university may not want you (even if you really want to go there). What is more important is trying and experiencing a wide range of physical, intellectual and emotional experiences and in doing that you will learn valuable lessons and skills that better equip you for the challenges of life. Then you will probably also waste less energy worrying about the result and achieve more than you ever knew possible. There will be IB Year 13 pupils this year, who will be accepted to universities they never dreamt of applying to 3 years ago. They will achieve not because they are perfectly balanced and have a balance certificate but because they have attempted it, and developed as people, and thus have persuaded the universities and teachers that they have lots and lots to offer beyond just a grade or number. So strive to be balanced – but don’t pursue perfection. Sometimes failing is as valuable as succeeding - you can learn a lot more from it - and you’ll be a much more interesting person, and most likely a happier person as a result.

Diet

Balanced Diet NEUROPLASTICITY

Julia Kim, Year 8, Geomun, Hannah Seo, Year 8, Jeoji, Gabriella Kim, Year 8, Mulchat ask “Is it possible to have a balanced diet without being stressed-out?”

Diet

eenagers try hard to lose weight during the time when they actually need to grow and be balanced with their diet. One way they do this is by skipping meals. But teenage years are an important time for them to eat healthily and take in lots of nutrition. As all of you know, skipping meals is extremely easy but it can cause a lot suffering. Most people who carry out diets normally do not have much patience; they want to lose weight as quickly as they can in the shortest amount of time. These are people who usually have a complex with their appearance - they think they are too fat, too ugly and need to go on a diet in order to become pretty. Then they skip meals and have an unbalanced diet, which is indeed very bad for their health. According to a survey conducted by our team, most of the pupils around the school still believe that avoiding meals or carrying out a one-food diet is an effective and healthy option. 7 out of every 10 students have the old perception of skipping meals as an effective way to lose weight. But they are COMPLETELY wrong! A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the traditional three meals a day to 17 small meals a day, which is called a ‘nibbling diet’; they both provided an equivalent calorie rate. Seven men ate using both ways for two weeks, and the researchers found out that cholesterol and insulin levels decreased significantly with the ‘nibbling diet’. At last the experts concluded that people who had lower body weights ate more food and more often than the people who were heavier than them. The reason is because that those people who are lighter sustain a proper and consistent diet. In conclusion, a balanced diet definitely helps you and supports your health. Skipping meals never ever helps your diet; it is harmful for you indeed.

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ChELSEA PARK AND MINA CHAE, BOTH YEAR 9, BOTH MULCHAT, OFFER SUPURB ADVICE ABOUT HOW AN NLCS JEJU SUDENT CAN LIVE A BALANCED LIFE. Being balanced means being able to handle the variety of elements in your life. This could be spiritual, financial, physical, mental, and social. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about not feeling that your heart or mind is being pulled unevenly in any direction. You should feel calm, grounded, clear-headed, and motivated. In order to live a balanced life, we must look at our lives in 8 ways.

Acknowledge You should take some time to step back and look at your life, your state of mind, and how you are feeling. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t neglect the areas of your life that you are not satisfied with.

Set goals Decide the ways in which you will balance your life out and make a list of what you are going to have to do.

Examine See if there are areas in your life that you would like to balance better.

Plan tasks Make a list of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you will have to do in order to achieve the goals that you set. What have you tried before? Did it work? If not, what can you do? Connect Is there a person or tactic that can stimulate you and keep you focused and on track? If there is, share your inner process with those who can celebrate your small successes and support you when you are having a difficult time.

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To get an idea of what students in NLCS Jeju think about having a balanced life, we asked them for their advice:

Prepare Can you specify the things that lead you off track when you are working? Make a list and try to overcome them.

Reflect Ask yourself questions. What have you done today? How have you evened out study and play? How could you improve?

Empower Don’t be too hard on yourself; it will be much more pleasant. Do not set goals that you know you cannot reach.

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I think a balanced life involves trying new things and trying our best to be talented in lots of areas. We should challenge ourselves in various kinds of activities and push ourselves to succeed. YEAR 10

Make use of your time wisely by using your planner. Plan your day out and make a schedule. Follow it step by step. YEAR 8

I think having a balanced life is very important. We have to be nice to all of our friends, and we have to study hard. YEAR 3

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First of all, I think time is precious. We should use our time wisely. Also, we need to share our love and kindness. The feeling of sharing your love such as counseling friends will improve your selfesteem. YEAR 12

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Creative writing

The 3 Princes

A fable by Yejin Choi, Year 10, Mulchat nce upon a time, in the great kingdom of Oscealia, lived a king, a queen and the three princes. The first prince was very brave and strong. The second, was handsome and fit, was followed by the third, he was clever and intelligent. To begin with they were popular, loved and admired by everyone.

However, over the course of time, strange rumours crept through the kingdom stretching their way through walls and over the hills, past the lakes and into the ears of the people. “Not one of the three is wise enough to rule the kingdom,” they whispered. Only to add fear to the concern, the words were hissed by the wind and rumbled through the ground, “the kingdom will not survive”. The land buzzed with nameless, indefinable perturbation and a restless uneasiness was felt by everyone but uttered by none. The words eventually made it through the enormous pair of doors into the palace where the King was becoming sick with worry. His frown made the grey air hang heavily from the ceiling, clouding the room.

Creative writing It was after the countless sleepless nights that came and went, while the sun and the moon rose and sank as nonchalantly as ever, that the king and the queen, whose bloodshot eyes were soaked with concern, whose bodies hung limply onto their frames, whose cheeks were hollow with sorrow, heard, with a rising stir of hope in their desperate hearts, from a source not to be spoken of, that the answer to the lacking wisdom could be hidden in the east, in a deep forest yet to be entered by anyone ever known. The three princes, coming to the decision that there was no other way out of this, set off to find the secret the forest beheld, determined to confront any beasts in the way. Armed with swords and arrows and spears, followed by soldiers and horses, packed with food and drink, behind the thick layer of plush clothes, they marched towards the great hidden forest. The journey was harsh and the wind blew stronger, as if it was God’s will and was set by heaven to make it hard for the three fortunate young men. The soldiers got ill and had to return to the palace; the horses were lost in the labyrinth of trees; drinks dried out in the desert on the way; little food was left and the clothes were all torn and worn out.

the beast, deciding, without a single word spoken, as if promised, to fight to their death, as opposed to being eaten alive without ever trying. The brave first prince took out his sword and ran towards the beast, shouting as loud as he could, in an attempt to threaten the gigantic creature before him. The second prince, with his muscular arms, tried to hold back the beast as the third prince tricked the monster and led him to a cliff. At the edge of the cliff, with their lives at stake, all three princes pushed, with all their force, the beast off the last bit of land, into the dark pit where he could no longer be seen. It was their strength, all combined, that had given them the power to fight the beast and save their lives. The power and flame in each of the brothers burned more intensely and brightly when combined with the other two. The princes came back, with nothing in their hands, yet no one missed the change. Even the birds seemed to sing more happily, as grass glowed in the golden sun and smiles returned to people’s faces, and laughter filled the kingdom with joy.

The brothers were left on their own. Still, nothing stopped them from going on. Cold wind blew from the north, snow piled on, rain fell, but still, the brothers went on and on, desperate and bound by the need to find the answer and bring peace to the land of Oscealia.

The first prince was no longer only strong and brave but was intelligent; the second was not only handsome but was kind and warm-hearted, and the third wasn’t only knowledgeable but was friendly and cooperative. They were newly born, as different people and as better people.

One night, a particularly cold and dark night, deep in the forest, the world was silent, an extremely tensed silence stretching out its hands grabbing every tree, every leaf of grass, every pint of shapeless air within its reach. Even the insects stood on tiptoes, as if a single sound would break into pieces. Just as the princes’ feet landed onto this anxious ground, it was as if the deafening silence found a mouth to all spill out. A roar shook the entire forest, as it thundered through the trees, calling out its presence. The beast was awoken.

People cheered for the princes as they stood up to become the future kings. All knew now that the brothers were all wise enough to bring to reality the kingdom’s brightest future.

The brothers were overtaken by a wave of fear and terror as the beast, as big as a mountain, came, step after step. With each step a new terror mounting on top of another, the thick dust rose from the quaking, trembling ground.

No one knows what the princes did in the forest, what great temple they stepped into or what wise man they ran into that brought to the land of Oscealia the peace and glory it is glowing in. But there is a story, told by people, handed down from generations to generations, old and worn, like a book cover’s colours having long left, that it was nothing in the forest; that the princes ran in to no one, stayed in no temple; that it was nothing but a small stone with a hardly legible, almost completely faded away inscription; just one small word that changed the colour of the sky forever.

‘No hope of living,’ they all thought.

“balance”

As hopeless as they were, the princes started towards

Be balanced, and you’ll reach the best of you.

The Lost Art of Kimchi Selene Lee, Halla, wonders what the effects of the seemingly relentless march of western culture is having on her korean heritage. Is it possible to balance the two?

The Lost Art of Kimchi

eturning from the summer holidays, Jillian chun and I chatted how we spent our summer break. Jillian told me a fascinating story that back in her great grandparents’ time, their lifestyle was completely different from that of ours. It made me curious about what my ancestors’ lives were like. In the half term break, I had a chance to ask them. Their stories were captivating and I never knew that such traditions existed. I learned that my great grandparents had a special Kimchi recipe, which has been handed down for generations. However, now the recipe is hardly being used. Firstly, my mum and her sister do not cook because they work. Secondly, why bother to make kimchi at home for hours when we could go to the store and buy the cooked version? Korea has changed noticeably, which could have resulted from rapid development but also from Westernisation. Cultures, language, and traditions are vanishing rapidly and different ethnic groups are therefore struggling to preserve their culture. But why are they disappearing? Ever since foreign cultures, especially Western, came across to the East, authentic cultures were thrust into the background and began to fade out. Language is suffering the most from globalisation, and what affects language, affects wisdom, culture, and the essence of that culture that the group of people held only through language. Currently, there are many enduring voices around the world. However, according to National Geographic magazine, HALF of the world’s languages are endangered. Even though this reality seems irrelevant because languages we use are not yet endangered, we should be aware and endeavour to preserve them. In fact, the Jeju language is on the list of the world’s most endangered languages. It’s our task, especially for the new generations to hold on to our culture. But sometimes, just like the kimchi recipe, we tend to disregard these tasks and refuse to learn them. Sometimes, it’s not our choice. Families encumber their children from learning their culture and obligate them to learn different cultural backgrounds for the sake of their future and education.

The Lost Art of Kimchi

In our small society, Korean cultures are already beginning to disappear. Especially language.

NLCS Jeju is an international school and we have adapted to the foreign environment. In our small society, Korean cultures are already beginning to disappear. Especially language. Most of the time, we use English and use Korean less frequently. Our Korean identity is slowly vanishing away. It doesn’t mean that we should speak Korean during school hours but we should balance the weight of western and Korean culture and embrace both cultures. To help our school do this, the Koreanology society recently had their society week and I had a chance to interview Victoria Lee (Y12) from the society about her views on cultural differences and how we could balance both cultures. I asked her what she had discovered about how Western cultures in our school community were affecting the students. She said that through the experiments that the Koreanology society carried out, she noticed that our school’s western culture has affected students’ perspectives. It was surprising to see how we were embracing Western cultures and made me realise the importance of embracing Western culture, while holding on to ours. If we insist on only Western culture, we won’t be able to pass on the wisdom extended in our cultures. Adhering only to our Korean culture, means we won’t be able to understand the world and broaden our perspectives. However, we could conserve our own culture and constantly embrace Western culture to be culturally balanced. What about asking your family about any special traditions this winter break?

Balancing your IB life Jennifer Park and Louis Son, Halla

How to balance your IB life? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very important to balance your life between your academic work and leisure activities. How should you manage your IB academic time? While it is very important to concentrate on your final exams in May, there are other academic tasks that all IB students should consider during their course.

IB Life IB SUBJECTS During the two-year course, you will be preparing for your final exam in May. As the final exam contains all the topics that you have covered during the course, you should not procrastinate until the last moment. It is important to carry on learning and revising throughout the course. The best way to do this is to use your prep time wisely. It would be ideal to set a certain part of the prep time as revision time, so that you can revise what have you learned on the day. As important as the final exam, Internal Assessments (IAs) are completed throughout the course. Every single IB subject has internal assessments. These are different from the final exam, you are given a longer time to complete these. If you choose a day or two days in a week for the preparation of the IA, you will find it much easier to complete it and meet your deadlines. For example, at the start of the course, Mr. Hardee’s Economics class chose Friday as ‘IA day’. Every Friday, the students prepared news articles and practiced analyzing them in order to prepare for their IA.

THE EXTENDED ESSAY (EE) & THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE (TOK) This is what most current

year 13s have been finding hard this term. What we have learnt is that the earlier you start, the less stressed you get. It’s never too early to start thinking about the subject that you want to write about for your EE, as time flies once you enter the IB. Once you’ve chosen your subject, think about the topic that you want to investigate. It is important to complete the work ‘independently’, which means that you have to write your EE in your own time. As the EE is not one of your six subjects, you should know how to allocate your spare time it and not disturb your normal class time. It’s also vital to work on EE consistently. Year 13s are given a lot of Saturday morning time for EE and TOK, but it is still important to work on it a little at a time, all the time! TOK requires you to work consistently throughout the course. Differently from your EE, Year 13s have TOK lessons two or three times a week. Therefore, the best way to manage your TOK preparation time is to use the TOK lesson time wisely.

UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS & TOEFL OR IELTS As the most of the deadlines for University

or College applications are closed before the end of the first term of year 13, you should start thinking about your application and preparing it when you are in year 12.

You should think about the college course that you want to study, reasons for your choice, and the extra activities that you might do in order to get into the course. Before the end of the year 12, you might want to have at least a basic idea of those things. The best time that you can get your thoughts together is during the Christmas Holiday and the Summer holiday, before you start year 13. During the Christmas holiday, it’s good for you to take the tests that you need, such as SAT, Toefl, and Ielts, as you might have to take the test more than once. If you have more spare time during the holiday, you might think about doing work experience. You should also start drafting your personal statement.

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During the Christmas holiday, it’s good for you to take the tests that you need.

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The strongest feature of CAS is the fact that the students can enjoy non-academic activities as part of their IB course.

SOCIAL LIFE Socializing is an important aspect

for IB students – after all – we are all teenagers. ‘Socializing’ not only refers to communication between students in the same year group but also includes communication and co-operation between students of different ages. By doing various activities to complete CAS, the students can work with different students and people. As well as all the time students spend on Facebook and hanging out with their friends, they can also socialize as a part of their school life by participating in different societies. The aim for such societies is to gather students in different year groups, who have the same interests, and give them the opportunities to discuss topics that they are concerned about. By taking responsibility for and participating in such societies, the IB students can communicate with the younger students and share different ideas with them.

IB Life CAS Because of such a lot of academic work, many

students will be concerned about their leisure time and social life. It is true that the IB students would face difficulties when they’re trying to balance their academic and social life. The best way to balance them is to be devoted to ‘CAS’, which is a part of the IB course. CAS, an abbreviation of Creativity, Action and Service, was planned to provide a counterbalance for IB students with their academic life during the IB course. CAS offers students great opportunities to gain new experiences as well as enjoyment. Although some students find completing CAS difficult as they have to consistently do different activities and write reflections on them, if we change perspective, CAS gives students a certain amount of time that is free from their academic life and reasonable time for entertainment. You can do whichever activity that you are interested in and that you can actually enjoy, and fill out the reflections. The strongest feature of CAS is the fact that the students can enjoy nonacademic activities as part of their IB course. There are many ways to do CAS, for example, the students can participate in various co-curricular activities, Bryant activities, voluntary work and school societies.

GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT The balance between the academic and non-academic life of an IB student, including valuable experiences and resting, is a difficult, but important task. If your life is only concentrated on your IB subjects, you might become exhausted. This actually reduces your academic efficiency. And, if you spend time only on leisure and enjoyment, you might find that you are not producing your best in terms of academic success. The best way to balance these two different aspects of your life is to fit your enjoyment into your school life. If you think of CAS and school societies in different ways, they are the parts of your school life that provide you the time to relax and to have some enjoyment.

G Junior Glass CastleTrip

allery

Science Fair

Year 10 Art Trip

Unplugged

GCSE Dance Mock Exam

Arts Festival Pictures from some of our school events since the last issue

Junior Glass Castle Trip

Science Fair

Unplugged Photos by Hojun Lee, Year 10, Geomun

Year 10 Aquarium Trip

GCSE Dance Mock Exam

Arts Festival

Money V Happiness Alicia Cho, Year 8, Jeoji and claire oh, Year 8, Sarah tackle one of life’s biggest questions. Does money equally happiness? What do you think is the most important thing in your life? What do you think about happiness and money? What would you choose? Money Or Happiness?

Can money really buy happiness? Money cannot actually buy happiness because happiness is not an object, and being happy is your own feeling; you can express it when you want to and if you want to. You might be happy if you are rich, but if you have enough money to be rich, you might be always be worrying about your money because you need to think of how to spend it or about losing it. You might become a bit lazy if you get adjusted to the lifestyle you are living. It is easy for rich people to be lazy if they feel comfortable, because they don’t need to work as hard as other people who need money to survive.

Can you be really happy when you are poor? In real life, it is most likely that if you are poor, you might not be happy, because you will be too busy trying to earn money to survive. However, if you are positive, you will work harder and you might feel happy afterwards.

What makes people happy? Lots of things can make people happy: money, food, clean water, developed technology, safety, strong and well-built houses and good relationships with other people. These kinds of things make people happy because it makes them feel like they don’t need to do anything more, and it’s kind of a satisfaction that all humans feel when they achieve something.

Money V Happiness

What do we mean by rich? In third world countries, rich means going to school and having more than one meal a day. But for us, rich means getting everything you need in your life, such as sleeping well in your strong, developed house; to eat every three healthy meals a day; to get a chance to be educated by a good teacher and to have access to clean water. Being rich makes people be happy, and the feel like they have everything they feel that is necessary.

What do NLCS Jeju students think? We talked to lots of other students about their decisions between money and happiness and most of the students said they would rather be poor and happy rather than being rich and unhappy. The reasons why they chose to be poor and happy was mostly because they thought that happiness is more important than money. They thought that since happiness is not something that they can buy, feeling happy is more worth living for, even though they are poor. However, a few thought differently. They said that they would be rich and unhappy rather than being poor and happy, and the reasons why they wanted to be rich and unhappy was mostly because they could buy lots of different things such as clothing, food, and things we feel necessary to survive.

Well, what do you think?

Perspective Jillian Chun, Halla, Volunteered at a School for North korean children in seoul. She learnt just as much as she taught.

hen my dad was a boy, he would get together with his friends after school, hunting for ‘propaganda balloons’. These would be stuck in tree branches or slumped over rocks. Inside, they would find bright red fliers promising food and a warm welcome, for a price. Cross the border into North Korea, and wealth and fame would be yours. When my dad and his friends found such posters - ‘pira’ they were called he would gather stacks of them to hand over to the police. The boys would get glossy notebooks or colored pencils each, along with encouraging pats on the shoulder. Trudging back home, the boys would clutch their precious rewards, their hearts swelling with young patriots’ pride, perhaps wondering at the good life promised by the evil ‘Reds’, perhaps glimpsing at the imperious mountains of the far north. Three decades have passed since, and the piras have long since vanished. The North has long since given up on any serious efforts to persuade South Koreans to cross the border; the economic gap has widened to a point where all streams of migration have become painfully one-sided. Out of North and into the South. Statistically speaking, around 1,000 people every year defect from North to South. The number is increasing by the year as the chronic famine drives people to radical choices; it is estimated that around 24,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the Korean War. What is odd is that this number never quite materializes - we as Koreans simply

do not feel their presence. Where are those 24,000 people? Well, some of them are in my neighborhood. Over the summer, I worked in a small school for North Korean children. There were children ranging from five to eighteen years old, all with a different story to tell. Most of them had come here through illegal trafficking, from North Korea to China and from China to here. Most had a single parent, either because one was left behind or because they were born between a North Korean woman and a Chinese man who ‘bought’ her as a bride from the trafficking gangs. Either way, most mothers had problems settling in to a drastically different lifestyle in South Korea, with only around 6,000 to 8,000 dollars to start a new life. As anyone living in Seoul can easily testify, that is not enough money to rent a decent home. What they received, after years of struggle to escape North Korea and then China, was not a warm welcome at all. Many did not have a choice but to put their children here, where they receive basic care and education free of charge and are also protected from possible agitation or discrimination they might otherwise receive from regular schools. I was put in charge of three children who were deemed to be too much of a disruption to remain in class. All three were boys under the age of ten, and I was responsible for teaching them for six hours, two days a week for eight weeks. But I learned much more than anything I could have possibly taught the kids.

Volunteering Sometimes we need to seek balance by looking at different ways of life, different ways of accepting the same things, and simply, different standards.

I learned, first and foremost, what it was like to step into a classroom and have dozens of children talk in a language I did not understand, something I believe teachers at NLCS Jeju go through quite often. I learned to communicate with a child who could not speak a word of Korean, through drawing and gestures and even numbers, and learned that a potential of a child given consistent attention and encouragement is enormous when that same child could express himself in clear Korean by the end of the summer. I learned to watch out for sharp edges or cars approaching around street corners, learned to see through their lies and learned to pretend to believe them, learned to stop fights and calm a crying child, but most of all I learned numerous things that I could not do. I could not stay composed and mature all the time, I could not tell them no when I should have, I was sometimes not strict enough and other times not tender enough. They were always hungry, for food and for toys and for love and for attention, for acceptance and for mom and dad. I learned to look at them and know that I would not be able to do all those things. I learned to live one day at a time, trying to make each day better for the kids, and I learned to hope that my best would be enough. And there were the adults as well. The people who faced national problems on their own two feet, who dedicated their lives to maintain the minimum balance in a fundamentally unfair society. The school currently does not receive any aid from the government, and every day of their life was a battle to make ends meet. With them I climbed five flights of stairs to the office building to save the elevator

electricity fee, and with them I put rulers under photocopiers so that we could save ink that smears on the edge of the papers. We washed spinach for hours squatting in the kitchen to get the meal ready for lunchtime. In the midst of that, I understood that altruism is not an elegant job - it is about putting quiet sweaty hours piled one after the other for a cause that everybody else does not care to do. I saw them working, underappreciated and always busy, but with a smile clenched between their teeth and always pushing through till the end. Everything requires some balance; balance of time, balance of energy. But it is easier to ignore when that balance is between me and other people, when it is only a number and not yet translated into seconds of real life. There are so many statistics that it benumbs us sometimes, and money feels invisible until you see it turned into a towering pile of spinach or hear it trickle away with each humming of the photocopier. I feel that what is important is to stay tuned. We live surrounded by a certain group of people in a certain kind of neighborhood, we eat and hang out in places where we usually eat and hang out in, we sometimes live a lifestyle rather than a life, and everything on a newspaper or a TV feels safely distant. Sometimes we need to seek balance by looking at different ways of life, different ways of accepting the same things, and simply, different standards. Sometimes we have to look at that bigger picture and realize that we are a part of that bigger and wider balance - of money, of kindness, of gender and religion and race - and wonder at the lives unfolding two bus stations away.

Environment

COUNTING terry kwon, halla, looks at one of the biggest issues facing the world right now. Balancing the insatiable drive for growth with sustaining our environment. Just imagine it. A world where everything around us is completely destroyed. No water, no plants, no animals. Just nothing. How would you feel? At first glance, this may seem like a far-fetched scenario that is highly unlikely to occur. But, to tell you the truth, it is actually quite possible. Take a step back and give yourself a moment to reflect upon the countless things that we have done to our planet: BPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010; Ongoing deforestation and desertification in Africa; The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011; tonnes of electronic products, containing heavy metal and toxic chemicals, being dumped without any processing or strict guidelines. These are only some of the examples of environmental degradation that made the entire global community feel worried about an uncertain, bleak future. The main cause of this problem has to do with the broken balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability. This happens when people put their focus primarily on gaining economic profits as a priority rather than caring about the natural environment. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was such a scenario. Originally the oilrig was supposed to have more than 20 pipelines, but one of the project managers refused the idea, saying that the items were too expensive. His argument was that purchasing them would make the costs outweigh the benefits. In the end, only 6 pipelines were installed. On the night of April 20th, 2010, highly pressurised methane gas soared up through the pipeline and reached the drilling rig. Then, it ignited and exploded out of the pipelines and sparked a huge conflagration. Some people lost their lives in the explosion, and oil started pumping into the Gulf of Mexico.

Environment

THE COST The results were devastating. A total of 4.9 million barrels of oil had been leaked, and the spill directly impacted 68,000 square miles of ocean. The biggest impact was on marine species: the Gulf of Mexico hosted over 8,300 species, including more than 1,200 fish, 200 birds, 1,400 mollusks, 4 sea turtles and 29 marine mammals. An oil dispersant called Corexit was repeatedly sprayed over the site of the disaster as well as on surrounding areas, but this measure was far from successful. According to one study, the dispersant actually had increased the toxicity of the oil by up to 52 times. From this example, it is quite clar that even one environmental disaster has such extreme consequences. British Petroleum, the corporation that owned Deepwater Horizon, was severely criticised both domestically and internationally, for its lack of sufficient response after the crisis broke out as well as attempts to cover up or scale down the magnitude of the problem. The Obama administration also came amiss in the eyes of millions of Americans, since they gave the impression that President Obama was being overly aggressive in his criticism towards BP to try and deflect negative reviews for him. However, there are still some ways to balance these two seemingly contrasting fields of interest. Understanding how the ideal model works is not all that difficult. Companies could rethink their business schemes in terms of manufacturing goods and services in order to consider the environmental agenda as well. They should also be aware that economic growth is not the only important thing, and also consider environmental sustainability. The government can enforce regulations to make corporations become more environmentally aware, and if a humaninduced environmental disaster does take place, deal with the matter in a serious way. The public can also play a part in this process, by purchasing goods and services from environmentally conscious companies and applying pressure in order to make the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;greenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; movement persist.

The Mysteries of the Human Body Cion Choi, YEAR 8, GEOMUN IS AMAZED BY THE SUPERHUMAN BALANCING SKILLS OF ACROBATS.

Imagine trying to balance yourself 40 feet above the ground on a thin piece of rope. Undoubtedly, anyone would feel very nervous. Tightrope walking is considered very dangerous and challenging for even the most experienced acrobats. Most of them donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dare risking their lives for such an extraordinary feat.

However, tightrope walking has become a very popular entertainment show because of the excitement, cautiousness, and the raised heartbeats of the acrobat, as well as the audience. Some acrobats, like Charles Blondin, are even good enough to cook and eat an omelet while crossing the Niagara Waterfalls on a rope. Tightrope walking is a phenomenal deed and a mystery for most ordinary human beings, whomping our minds by reaching the edge of what our bodies can do. So how do acrobats balance so well?

Tightrope walking is possible because the point or the axis of gravity pulling the acrobatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body towards the earth is in line with the point of gravity pulling the place where the acrobat is stepping on the rope. To match the points of gravity, we need to focus on balancing out our weight equally to both sides of the rope. There is a part in human brains towards the back where it sends commands and signals to the spinal cords (a long cord inside our spines to help us move / control our bodies) to organise our body into a well-balanced position.

Acrobats train their brains and bodies to more easily and accurately balance their body. The reason why some acrobats hold long poles or umbrellas when they do tightrope walking is also to make the distributing weights (balancing) easier. When the acrobats hold the middle of a long pole, the weight of the pole is equally distributed to both sides to create a strong gravity force (axis), which helps the acrobat regain balance when he/she is about to fall. Also, the tightrope-walkers typically perform in very thin and flexible, leather-soled shoes to prevent slipping or bruising while still allowing the foot to move and curve around the rope. Amazing science within our bodies and the universe is involved in tightrope walking, although, of course, it is impossible to work if the acrobats donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t practice.

That is why NLCS Jeju as gymnastic squads training talented and motivated future gymnasts to maintain and improve their skills in terms of gymnastics. Using various pieces of equipment such as safety mats, weight balls and balancing stools, squad members can train their skills and improve their strength, flexibility, and balance. In addition, by trying hard and new techniques, the students are able to become more confident and brave towards taking risks. As they put a performance together, they can also improve cooperation skills and communications skills, which is a very handy thing to learn to live an easy-going, meaningful life.

Thank you to all the acrobats around the world for providing us with great enjoyment, despite the danger. Also, a big shout of encouragement to the NLCS Jeju gymnastics squad â&#x20AC;&#x201C; keep trying hard and improving your balance!

Project SOMOSOMO The Service Trip to Fiji during Autumn half term marks the end of the Project Somosomo for 2013. 18 students and 3 teachers visited Taveuni island to teach and learn about Somosomo District School. This was the first year of the trip so we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what to expect. What we found was amazingly happy people in an amazing place. We spent 4 days in the school, and 3 days exploring Taveuni Island.

Jenny Kim, Halla

C H A L L E Karen Yoo

Bumsue Jun

Ji Hyun Bang

There were numerous challenges we all encountered while teaching the students. As it was our first time teaching a class by ourselves and being in the position of a teacher instead of a student, all of us struggled to control the students on our first few days at the school.

In Somosomo, I taught physics to year 4, 5 and 6. I wanted to teach some complicated ideas such as surface tension and air resistance. However, it was obvious that the students would find lots of difficulties in understanding what I was going to teach since they have very limited knowledge about the subject. So, I designed some practical experiments that could help students to learn about those concepts. Fortunately, students seemed to enjoy the classes and learned well.

I was to teach was history, specifically, ancient civilization. The lesson was divided into two parts, the first part was delivering some information about the number of fundamental features for a civilization to arise, and as a brief homework, to think about their own village to present for the second lesson. The kids were engaging, interested, no doubt about that. But on the second day, none of the classes I was in charge of had done their 5-minutes of thinking work. For a brief period of time it made me and our group think about importance of completing homework.

We were shocked at the different level of learning and knowledge between the students. Some students were not capable of writing their names, while others were almost fluent. The gap between the stronger students and the weaker students in just one class was so large that I wouldn’t have been able to survive with helps from my friends. In Fiji, with very limited resources, including no internet, computers, proper furniture and writing tools, such as pens and pencils, we had to carry out all of our lessons in a very simple or perhaps “old-fashioned” way, which none of us were used to. We also had to carry thousands of printouts- up and down the hills- and had to hand write or hand draw instructions we didn’t include in the printouts. However, despite all these challenges and obstacles, we all overcame the challenges by learning from each others’ lessons, spending more time with the students both inside and outside of school, and getting advice from the teachers.

N G E S Jillan Chun

Genevieve Lee

YouJoung Yi

Many of the students did not have basic stationary like pencils, erasers, papers or pens. It was common for us to see an entire table sharing a single pencil. They had a very small library, about the size of our stage in the auditorium and only about a shelf full, so less than 10 books, and that made me very sad.

When I first planned my lessons for Fiji, I knew I would have to be teaching young kids, years 1 and 2. Maybe even reception. So I planned creative lessons, in which students would be encouraged to express their thoughts - make up stories - describe their artwork... I had solid plans that I knew would be both educational and enjoyable.

Also, they were not used to taking paper for granted, so when they were asked to draw something or write something that should have filled the entire page, many of them would draw very tiny things in a corner to save up space. Many of the kids have never seen paint in their lives, so when we brought in paint or even colored pencils, there was a lot of excitement. And it was nice with little kids how although they didn’t speak English, we could simply see their happiness and wonder at all these new things.

I walked into the first lesson and realised in the first 5 minutes that my perfect plans would have to be modified on the spot, for the students’ grasp of the English language was really shaky, their vocabulary limited to few of the simplest words. My lessons depended on the children expressing their ideas in English, which was obviously beyond their capability. Luckily, most of the lesson I planned for my first day was artistic, time to improvise!

Teaching students was a big challenge, but a lot more enjoyable than we expected. I got to teach English, GP and Geography toyear 7s and 8s with Sally and Mary; it was very hard to prepare for the lessons because we had no idea about the academic level of the Fijian students, so we just prepared them based on the level of year 7s in our school.

My second day teaching material was not so simple to adapt - it depended on their language capacities. My whole lesson had to be replanned to accommodate for the fact that none of them could speak decent English. No language-based lesson, and I did not have the resources for anything else. Ms Campbell in particular may remember the state I was in that evening - positively at my wit’s end. In the end I picked up a book that came with a song I used to sing with my little brother when he was learning English, and dragged the song out of my memory. I sang it with the children. I don’t know how much of it they understood, but I felt it was a success in that we - the children and I - managed to have fun, as well as giving them some vocabulary. All in all, the trip and the teaching was a difficult, but rewarding experience.

For English, we brought a short play without an ending and made the students finish the story and perform it in front of the whole class. Most of the year 7 and 8 students were surprisingly good at English and some were not, but their academic passion to learn new things were equally admirable. They loved the active lessons we planned since their usual classes are heavily textbook-based; watching the year 8s performing their plays was absolutely marvellous - they seemed like they were all born to be actors and actresses!

The Volcano experiment for my geography lesson also went well, and I was quite shocked that they did not know that Fiji is a volcanic Island! After a few days in the school, I was so proud to see the students having more interactions; they were very shy to say something in class on the first day, but as we went on, they started to ask further questions and give unique ideas that surprised me.

T H E

C U

Rachael Thorsen

Mary Lee

Aidan Cha

Believe it or not, some of us are not big fans of speaking in public, and that was something we had to overcome, especially because we had to stand up in front of these kids and teach them. I think the fact that I had the younger years (years 1, 2 and 3) made it easier because I was not afraid of them being able to challenge what I was saying. But it also helped in the older years that we were mostly teaching them new things.

One thing we were worried about most before we arrived in Fiji was food. What if we didn’t like the taste? What if we have an allergic reaction to the food? What if the Fiji people don’t give us enough to eat?? But, when we arrived in Fiji, it wasn’t long before we realized that our worries were in vain.

My biggest challenge was: FLYING in Airplanes. We spent about 24 hours in airplanes. Big airplanes were fine - we had nice comfortable seats, and had fun watching Sherlock Holmes for 10 hours. That was good. The problem was the small airplane. It was a really, really small airplane and I have acrophobia. The weather was really bad when we were on the flight, so I had a very bad time. In the the photo of me after landing, I look so happy. I think it was the most challenging thing I did during the trip, and if someone asked me whether I overcame acrophobia or not, I would say ‘no’ to be honest. But, I think I feel better than before because now I know a small airplane does not mean death.

However it was not just the fears in the classroom we faced, in was also out of it. For example, getting on a 10 seater plane or jumping off the waterfall. Climbing up to where you jump off the waterfall was not scary. And even standing on the edge was not that bad, as you feel safe when you are standing on rock. However the first time when you jumped off that ledge - hat was terrifying. Only then did you realize how high you were. And then after that, all you wanted to do is get back on the ledge, but of course by then it was too late, and you were flying through the air towards the clear blue water below. So the first time I jumped off, I tried to hold my nose, so no water would get in my nose. Logical right? See I thought it was too until I hit the water and the force of going under tore my fingers from nose, and I ended up with water in my nose anyway. So, the next time I learned from that and didn’t even try to hold my nose, and the jump was less terrifying and more enjoyable, so I went again, and again, and again.

The Somosomo people seemed to LOVE feeding us. They fed us at every possible moment, filling us with various dishes and cakes and papayas, after a luxurious breakfast with curry and other exotic dishes, only to be give various sandwiches cakes and more papayas at lunch. And no one could stop us. Every dish they gave us suited us so well that we often needed to rest and lie down inside the building in order to digest the generous portions. Not to mention the delicious tropical juice that we soon became addicted too. Unfortunately, we did have a few patients, including me, who suffered from stomach problems from the water in the juice, as well as some people who a reaction to the strong herbs and butter they used. But that did not stop us from eating; in fact, we ate so much that we were half serious about leaving one or two behind to fit into the small plane.

L T U R E Jeeho Kim

Cindy Kim

Sally Park

The most shocking thing about the Fijian culture is that everyone was wearing a skirt, everyone from the bell boy to a policeman. For the police force, they would wear a police hat, police uniform top, gloves, chains and skirts that zigzagged. And everyone was cool with that. Later, I learned that they were wearing sarongs and were not cross dressers.

The first thing we did before teaching the students was to tell them about Korea. When we told them about our traditional games such like gong-gi, shil-tte-gee, we were quite surprised that they had similar games to ours. As every kid does, they liked to learn about different games and eventually they got better than us. It was a bit surprising that some of our best players lost against the Fijian kids. But by teaching and playing games together, we were able to get to know them better and became best friends. I think games started the communication between us.

We were all captivated by the amazing nature, for example, giant trees and a big river flowing right in the heart of the village. However, I was particularly amazed by the welcoming and friendly atmosphere of the village. The moment we entered the village; men and women, children and the elderly all waved to us with big smiles, saying Bula, which means hello.

The school uniform is finished with sarongs. The students have a white formal button-up short sleeved shirt and a blue sarong. Sarongs that the school boys and the people in authority wear have pockets, which I envied so much. Sarongs are used to not show your knees, so girls with a short school skirt, shame on you, you guys are not modest in Fijian culture!

On the first day, I was deeply moved just by the fact that these people, who have attitudes of being grateful all the time, exist. Some live in very small houses with many family members, and electricity is very scarce. However, they appreciate what they have. Because children climb a mountain to go to school, dance everyday, and swim in a river everyday, many seemed so fit and healthy. Someone always prayed before meals, and people just seemed so bright, confident, and energetic. They were also very musical, and had real faith. Dancing and singing was part of their lives. Students all sang hymns together before the first class began in school.

Ashley Kim New perspective on Home Before I spent time in Fiji, I wasn’t always grateful that my country and NLCS Jeju was such a welldeveloped, high-tech place. I took elevators / clean water / wifi / electronics just for granted. I realised that NLCS Jeju had spectacular facilities but had a tendency to forget the benefits of these as time went by. Spending a week in Fiji, I became really thankful that I live in Korea and study somewhere the facilities are wonderful and I am so grateful that it is always easy to quickly gain information on the internet. This was because in Somosomo, the teachers have to feed in every bit of information to the students with no Internet, no phones, no iPads… Yet, although the students are in a poor environment, all of them were interested in learning which is quite different from our school. In addition, as the students do not use any electronics, I felt the Somosomo students were physically and mentally healthier because they play sports or chat off-line instead of playing for hours, checking their Facebook or surfing the Internet.

Jenny Kim Final Thoughs As a leader of Project Somosomo, I was very honoured to get to turn on the generator for the first time. It was fantastic experience to feel the accomplishment of all the hard work that we’ve put into this project. Apart from experiences of teaching in the school, snorkeling, jumping off the waterfall and visiting the International Date Line, most importantly, we formed relationships amongst ourselves and with the people there. I exchanged my email address with the year 5 teacher and she sometimes emails me about our school life and Somosomo students’ life. I am very excited to see the progress in our relationship with Somosomo District School in Fiji and the improvements that we will make. My role in project Somosomo as the Chair is over, but I can’t wait to see what amazing changes and progress that the new project Somosomo committee will make. Our new target for Project Somosomo is to donate furniture, such as bookshelves, desks, and chairs. I hope this great journey continues to build an amazing relationship with such a happy Somosomo District school, and thank you so much for all of your help with our project.

Welcome

The

Br in An introduction to the most mysterious part of the human body

Design by Jiwon Moon, Year 11, Geomun

JIHO CHOI, YEAR 11, MULCHAT, INVESTIGATES THE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE BRAINS OF THE TWO SEXES.

Males and females are the same species. They live together on the one planet. However, they are so different in terms of their emotions, behavior and thought processes. You might have heard someone mention that ‘Men are from MARS and Women are from VENUS’. Could the differences be down to the distinctions between the Male brain and the Female brain? Here are some of the differences:

Brain size

The male brain is ten percent larger than the female’s. The commonly misunderstood fact, due to this difference in size of the brain, is that men are much more intelligent. Nevertheless, the size of the brain does not alter the intelligence but simply increases the processing power. The main reason why the male brain is larger is in order to adjust to the bigger body mass and muscle that most men have.

EMOTIONS

Women are supposed to be more emotional and be better at expressing their feelings as they have a larger limbic system then men. This allows women to empathize with people but also allows them to be depressed or to despair easily.

Spatial abilities

The parietal region, the part where sensory information comes together, is thicker in the female brain. This means that it is more difficult for females to mentally rotate objects, which is called spatial ability. A male’s brain is designed to pay more attention to how their surroundings are presented, and this is why they deal better with tasks involving three dimensional shapes and angle.

LANGUAGE

Two brain areas in charge of language are larger in females. In addition, while males use a single half of the brain, females operate language in both hemispheres. Therefore, women tend to exceed men in language-based work.

RELATIONSHIPS

Is it claimed that Women have better communication skills and are more emotionally intelligent than men. Whilst women tend to figure out solutions by having a conversation about the issue, men might have trouble at understanding the emotional cues unless they’re clearly stated. There may be more differences that have not even been discovered yet. But, despite their different brain structures, men and women complement each other well. Some scientists say that men and women are more productive when they are together due to these differences. And if we all had same brain structure, life would certainly be a little dull!

Work Experience

DIANE JUNG, HALLA, finds out why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to work with people you like, as much as it is to work in a job you like.

n our first week back in September, we were given a Monday assembly on balance, and I remember it was Mr.Vernon speaking. He pointed out that balance could be done in many different ways: between cultures, between subjects, between fields of interests and between people. Then I realised that I actually already had met this balance during the summer holiday: during my time in the UK, on a work experience placement with Ace Post Production, working for the BBC Motion Gallery.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember how I thought out the idea to fly all the way to England by myself and survive for 2 weeks working in a foreign company. But I had already made my decision and I had to face the challenge in front of me. The first step was to take the airplane, which was all fine except for the moment when I had to fill in the landing card. As I did not know that it had to be filled in capital letters, I had to ask for another one and fill it out again. But thanks to the polite stewardess, I was able to fly safely into this big island called Great Britain.

Work Experience The first step I took on English soil was half-full of excitement, but also half-full of anxiety. The air felt different and awkward as I inhaled the cool moist breeze. It was chilly. And there I was, standing in Heathrow airport, facing this large journey in front of me, full of challenges, full of barriersand full of adventures. My first day in Ace Post Production was actually quite a shock; it started on my way there. Basically, I took the Southwest overground to get to Clapham junction where I would meet Mr Hancox, who I would be working for. However, in the train, I realised that everybody, was reading a newspaper or a book. This was a completely different view from what I would expect in a Korean subway, where usually everybody stares into their smartphones, playing games or watching dramas. So when I was sitting there doing nothing and simply checking on my phone, it felt very awkward and I promised myself that tomorrow I would bring a novel. From Clapham Junction where I met Mr Hancox, we went to Willesden Junction together, and walked to Ace. As soon as I entered the building, I came to another awkward realisation - I was the only one wearing a formal outfit. While I tried hard to pick out an outfit that would give a perfect first impression last night, it turned out that I was the only one in black and white and in heels. The general mood of the company was free and open, and many of the people were wearing jeans and T-shirts. Also it was a small company with only 6-7 people, which was also very different from what I expected. However, the warm family-like atmosphere welcomed me immediately and I felt comfortable right away. Then the next few 3 days went swiftly, with me trying to learn

as much as I could from this new field of media, machines and editing. Seeing all of these machines in front of me was frightening, but also thrilling they were under my control. Frequently, there were moments when I felt sorry because I made mistakes like pushing the wrong button, making us do the whole process all over again. Thankfully soon my mistakes became less frequent, and on the 4th day, I was given the opportunity to handle a video editing by myself using Final Cut Pro. When I successfully finished, it felt great to realise that I was capable of doing something outside my boundaries of interest. It challenged me, forcing me to extend my skills and knowledge. By taking a look at the other side of my interests, I was able to get a wider view and realise that there are so many diverse jobs and people in this world that are very different from me. On the weekend, a friend I met in the company, Ostin, took me on a tour of London. Travelling on double deck buses and the underground, we went to the Rose Garden in Regents Park; did some shopping in Oxford Street, had some fun in Hamleys, then chilled out in Covent Garden listening to street performances. This day was very memorable not only because I got to see London, but also mainly because I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t got to have so much fun with a friend in a long time. Back in Korea, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really get much chance to actually travel or spend a whole day doing something new with my friends, since I am a boarder and also because of the pressure to constantly study as a high school student. I also became aware of the importance of a friend, and having some fun with them rather than simply focusing on work every single day. Thanks to Ostin, when I was

back in Ace on Monday, I was feeling great and was ready to learn more. The last 3 days were the most exciting days in Ace, and one of them was being able to see the Glastonbury Music Festival official video editing. To be honest, simply being able to listen to famous songs would have been interesting enough, but also being able to learn the role of editing was new and a lot of fun. Another exciting part of my work experience in Ace was the fact that I could visit the BBC everyday, handing over the edited tapes. Entering my dream company was simply thrilling. The White City BBC complex was just enormous and people were all busy in that large building. If I were to pick out the best part of my 2 weeks of experience in the UK, it would undoubtedly be the wonderful and great people I met. Mr Hancox was a great person to work for. He was more like a kind and generous friend than a scary employer, which is why I think I enjoyed my time in Ace so much. There were also many other people in the company including Ostin who made my days in Ace happy. I was so glad that I was able to meet such great people. During the 14 days, I met many different people, went to many new places, and also experienced different balances all the way through the journey. This trip was unforgettable because I was on the other side of me, balancing my life. On the plane back to Korea, it felt very different from the moment I was on my way to England. While I was excited but also frightened 14 days previously, now I was sitting there, looking at the clouds below me, ready and confident for my new challenge, IB, as a balanced person.

The Dance Department The Dance department is an integral part of the Creative Arts faculty. Mrs Taylor, Mrs Long and Miss Phillips teach in both the Junior and Senior school. They play a major role in all of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative productions and currently offer iGCSE dance. It is their ambition to also offer dance at IB level. Ashley Park interviewed Department Head, Mrs Taylor to find out more about this interesting job.

Miss Phillips, Mrs Long & Mrs Taylor

Introducing

he IB learner profile defines ‘balanced’ students as being intellectually, physically, and emotionally harmonized in order to gain personal well-being for themselves and others around them. But at NLCS Jeju, it’s not just the students who are balanced. Teachers in NLCS Jeju are great example of producing a balanced life. It is not unusual that a Maths teacher teaches Physical Education and Music. This has a tremendous effect on students who are trying new things that they have not done before. One great example of such a teacher is Housemistress of Geomun, Mrs Taylor. An interview with Mrs. Taylor was a great pleasure as she answered questions about her being a housemistress and a dance teacher at the same time. She is certainly one of the teachers who balances her career well.

How do you maintain balance as being a housemistress and a dance teacher? At times maintaining a balance is difficult. I love taking care of all the girls in Geomun House and I also love to see people dancing and performing. It is a challenge to fit it all in to my schedule but I make it work! Sometimes people have to come to Geomun atrium for a rehearsal so that I can do both jobs at the same time. When I see students getting pleasure out of dancing it makes the challenge worthwhile.

Why do you think dance is important in a curriculum? Dance gives students an opportunity to express themselves physically, this is especially important when English is a student’s second language as they do not need to be fluent in English to understand the language of dance. Dance is important in a curriculum - it not only allows students to relieve stress but also enhances their stamina, strength and flexibility. A recent study in America proved that dancing requires several brain functions at once — kinesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional — developing your neural connectivity. In other words, dancing makes you smarter, making it an essential part of a curriculum.

What do you expect from students who are balancing arts and subjects such as Science, Maths, English etc...? My expectations about balancing Arts and other subjects are to view them as equally important. Procrastination is a big problem with my students, they put work off and hope it will be forgotten about. Of course, they realise that this is not reality and then they run out of time! I also set written work and this needs to be given the same attention to detail that students would give to any other subject.

Do you think that being balanced intellectually, physically and emotionally achieves personal well-being? Absolutely. This is utopia; if you can achieve these three things in life you will go on to have a very bright future. I am still working on it!

Apparently, being a housemistress and a dance teacher is not an easy job. Especially as a housemistress has all the responsibility for any house problems or events, requiring a massive amount of stress and work. Though, because of her well-balanced life, she has made such great progress, holding important events and concerts in school while looking after students in Geomun. It is now time for students to have a balanced life, such as playing sports, musical instruments and gaining good grades in an attempt to obtain your better future. This is what the school and our parents expect from us students. Do not be afraid of trying something new, even though it may be a tough challenge, nothing is worth more than actually trying.

r e d n u o All R TEACHER AWARDS

jinn park, celine tae, both sarah and june song, Mulchat, all year 10, unveil their picks for the most well rounded teachers.

“All-Rounder” is a word that describes a person who can do everything, and be good at it. For example, a student might be getting 6s and 7s for their grades and 1s for Attitude to Learning, while participating in the school production, competing in the National Basketball tournament and preparing for a flash mob for the dance society. All-rounder students are frequently acknowledged for their efforts, but what about allrounder teachers? They seem to never be acknowledged.

Surprisingly, almost all the teachers of NLCS Jeju are talented all-rounders, but in this article, we will discuss only a few teachers who’ve actually qualified for the hardest award of all: The All Rounder Teacher Award. Remembering how wonderful our teachers are, let’s begin reading about the exciting responses of all rounder teachers.

Do you consider yourself an ‘All-Rounder’? Be honest!

This question was met with various answers; one was from Mrs Cooke, who said, “You mean to ask if I think my body is round?” and added with a little giggle, “Absolutely not.” Comments from Miss Robinson were similar to Mrs. Cooke, as she replied with a defiant shake of her head, “I don’t really do anything creative to be an all rounder.” Still, we suggested that her survival skills in the wilds during the IA camping trip were very creative.

Miss Robinson

All rounders

Tell us how you feel about receiving the ‘All Rounder Awards”?

“I feel very honoured to be considered for the All Rounder Awards! I would like to thank my friends, my family and my cats for all the ... no, just kidding! But on a serious note, it is really lovely to be thought of for this Award and thank you for whoever suggested me!”

What do you think is a ‘balanced’ life?

It is easy for us, the students in a very busy school to think that living with so many people is really hard. However, Miss Brandon tells us something very different – relationships with the people around her are the most important of all. It’s natural for us to focus on school-related activities, but as Miss Brandon tells us, it’s important to remember not to stress, change your focus once in a while and socialise as well. The people around you can really support you when you face a dead-end. Another aspect of life Miss Brandon emphasises is physical well-being. She also says, ironically, that in order to keep a balanced life, you need to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Miss Brandon

How do you maintain balance between school and your normal life?

When we asked Mrs Cooke this question, she burst into laughter and said, “Normal life? I am a boarding house mistress! I fly home to eat cheese!!” After we all rolled on the floor laughing for sometime, she added in a more realistic note, “When that’s not an option, I read, go for a walk, watch something on the TV, or talk to Arthur the cat.” What she emphasized the most was the fact that you can’t be “work-crazed” all the time; that sometimes you just have to “stop what you are doing and do something that you know will relax your mind.”

Mrs Cooke

All rounders

Are there times when you find it hard to keep your life balanced?

Ms Phillips, being the “teacher of two subjects as well as being the Noro ABHM,” said that it was sometimes quite hard to “divide my time equally between lots of different jobs, especially when I have a lots of things to do.” She commented that she always has to be strict and tell herself off when she “gives more attention to those things I enjoy more, such as choreographing for my dance lessons, and put off the tasks that are less fun, such as marking maths exercise books.”

What motivates you to do so many things?

Asking this one question really helped us get to know Miss Brandon and where she gets all her energy to do so many things. She said that she “really enjoys mixing with many people with completely different mind-sets as it stimulates different parts of her brain.” “Just to prevent Alzheimers!” she added.

Any advice to students who wish to be an all rounder like you?

In the end, the point of being an all-rounder is ‘taking risks’ and not restricting your possibilities. Try it out before you go, “Nope. I am absolutely rubbish at this.” You’ll never know the outcome unless you actually try it out!

Miss Phillips

To end on a positive note, why don’t you try to become more balanced this week? It can be practicing your singing (make sure no one can hear it though), solving maths problems that you THINK you can’t solve or it can be literally balancing on the balance board in the PE department. An All-Rounder isn’t a ‘god’ of everything; it’s just having the courage to try things out and being able to keep them ‘balanced’!

Do you consider yourself an ‘All-Rounder’? Be honest!

Probably not. Do you think I am an all rounder because I do many things, or is it just because you never see me doing things I’m poor at. Try googleing (not navering) ‘Mr McLeod’s latest expressive art exhibition’ and see how many results you get.

Tell us how you feel about receiving the ‘All Rounder Award”?

I am amazed. I haven’t played rounders since primary school.

What do you think is a ‘balanced’ life?

Some things you do through necessity. Some things you do for others. Some things you do for yourself. Balance requires an appreciation of each without feeling guilt or resentment.

When are the times that you find hard to keep your life balanced?

Generally I struggle most from shortly after I get up until I go to bed. Unfortunately some days are less organised than this.

Mr McLeod

How do you keep a balance between school and your normal life?

I don’t think that I do. Nevertheless, in a school like this it is important to keep in mind the bigger picture. Term times can be hard, it seems there is nothing but work. However, when you look back at the year we spend a lot of time out of school. This is hard to see when you have 6 imminent assessments and three performance practices due before the next assembly / sports fixture / emotional meltdown. Look at the bigger picture.

What motivates you to do so many things?

There’s lots of things to do. To be the best you may need to be directed, focused and committed to one thing. Would it be better to settle for second place and have a great time doing two things? If you can stop comparing yourself to others you get to have a great time doing loads of things, possibly enjoying them for their own sake rather than to gain acclamation from others.

Any advice to students who wish to be an all rounder like you?

Don’t listen to bad advice from people who say ‘you can’t do that’. What they often mean is ‘I can’t do that’. And then, when things get scary, try thinking ‘what if this works?’ instead of ‘what if it all goes wrong and I end up stuck in a tree / drainage ditch / 5th circle of hell etc.’. This advice works whether you are skiing off a cliff, climbing up a mountain, performing in front of an assembly or talking in a foreign language.

WRITERS Erica Park 6N Amy Bae 5L Andrew Yang 6C Mark Li 5L Jace Kim 5L Jack Park 5L Tilly Cooke 5N Runrun Gajeepan 5L Megan Spragg 5L Elysia Bae 5L Sunny Baek 5N Sophie Yu 5N

The Junior Islander team have been working on the theme of balance. To do this, we had to think carefully about what the word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;balanceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; meant to us. We found it applies to many different areas of our lives. It is something that many of us try to achieve every day.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics Rocks! Runrun Gajeepan and Tilly Cooke, year 5, find out why balance is so important to the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics is a sport that NLCS Jeju provides for all year groups. You learn how to be flexible, how to do balances and perform routines. There are 3 squads: Group A, Group B and Junior School Group. Junior Group is for years 3-4, groups A and B are for years 5-12. It is a co-curricular activity and a club on Wednesday. Mrs Taylor and Miss Philips are the gymnastics teachers, but sometimes the gappies stay and help the classes. So if you are interested in doing Gymnastics or youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re flexible, then just ask Mrs Taylor or Miss Phillips and they are sure to let you have a try at it. Gymnastics is a fun, energetic, easy to learn sport. If you can do balances, you can do gymnastics. Balances are hard to spot sometimes. If you stand on someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoulders it is a balance; If you hop it is a balance and if you arabesque, it is also a balance. So if you look hard, almost everything is a balance! Balances come in different types, difficult, medium and easy.

This is a Mexican handstand it is very difficult.

This is a straddle half lever it is a middle move.

This is an arabesque. It is easy (well, we think so)!

Gymnastics MISS PHILLIPS How long have you been teaching gymnastics? I have been teaching gymnastics for 9 years. What is the easiest balance? The easiest balance is arabesque. What is your favorite balance? My favorite balance is a Mexican hand stand. What is your job before this job? My job before this job? I was at university. What is the hardest balance? When you are balancing as a big group of people, you need to rely on others not falling over.

MRS TAYLOR How long have you been teaching gymnastics? I have been teaching gymnastics for 8 years. What is the easiest balance? The easiest balance is arabesque. What is your favorite balance? My favorite balance is needle scale. What is your job before this job? My job before this job was a P.E teacher in North London Colligate School UK. What is the hardest balance? When ballet dancers use pointe shoes

SUNNY B, YEAR 5 How hard do you find gymnastics? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find gymnastics hard at all! What is your favorite move in gymnastics? My favorite move in gymnastics is box splits. What is the hardest move in gymnastics? I think the hardest move is headstand. What is the easiest move? The easiest move is bridge.

here are lots of balances in life. Balanced art, balanced buildings, balanced diet and lots of others. Sunny Baek and Sophie Yu, both, 5N explore balanced art and buildings.

Symmetrical art is when half of the image looks exactly like the mirror image to the other half. It is found in all sorts of different art work from around the world. There is something about it that people like.

Balanced Art Radial art is when half of the image looks exactly like mirror image of the other half when you cut it any way through the middle. It is found in nature a lot. You often find it in Indian Rangoli patterns.

These buildings are balanced because, they look like they are balanced on a long, thick stick or they are wobbly. A balanced structure not only looks good but it helps the building to stay up!

The London eye is a very famous balanced structure in London, England .

Architecture The Leaning Tower of Pisa is located in Pisa, Italy. It also is a very famous balanced building. It may not look as though it is balanced but if it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stay up!

The Empire State Building is a famous balanced building. On a windy day it can wobble 8 inches maximum. It is also symmetrical and tapers to a thin point on the top.

Co curricular

r a l u c i r r u C d e c n Ba l a

Erica Park, 6N and Amy Bae, 5L report on how to get the most out of the Junior co curricular programme

ur topic today is having a balanced co curricular Programme. Co curricular activities are very important to students because they have fun and learn things that the students might not learn in class. So it is a good idea to think carefully before we choose them. Why do we need to do co curricular activities and make them balanced? The first reason is to learn new things and become multi-talented, also a well-rounded person. The second reason is that studying is not the only field where students could progress. Also, they could help us get mental rest and physically be healthy. But what is a balanced programme? To choose a co curricular a balanced way, we should think about it carefully. For example, if you choose sports for every single day, you won’t be able to have time to extend your knowledge in other areas. So to make your co-curricular better, you could include some study based choices or some creative or musical. You may not think that some of the co curricular activities are ones that you will enjoy. However, the whole point of it is to ‘try yourself out’ and find new activities or hobbies. Who knows, you may find something new that you enjoy or are good at. Choosing co curricular activities on your own and making choices will help you make more important decisions when you grow up. Part of this is being brave and taking a risk sometimes and choosing a co curricular you’re not sure about will help you learn this. You might even surprise yourself by uncovering a talent you never knew you had! If you chose your co curricular activities without thinking last time, I think you could make a better decision this time by making a balanced choice.

A quick guide to healthy eating

Diet

Megan Spragg and Elysia Baee, both 5l discuss balanced diets. A balanced diet means that you don’t eat just the things you’d like to eat.

Don’t always eat food that has nothing good in it such as hamburgers, pizza and chips. The reason why hamburgers, pizza, and chips are bad if you eat too much of them is because they have fat, lots of salt, and they are fried with oil. You can make healthier chips yourself in the oven, however.

Fruits, vegetables, lean meat, vitamins and water will make you healthy and water is the most nutritious drink in the world! At lunch, you can make healthy choices by ensuring you choose balanced foods. For example, some carbohydrate such as rice or potato, some meat for protein and a selection of vegetables, salad or fruit. This will ensure that you are ready for the rest of the day and your brain and body is healthy.

An interview with Miss Lee, Cafeteria Nutritionist WHAT A NUTRITIONIST DOES She writes the menu and performs staff administration. WHEN A NUTRITIONIST IS SAD When people don’t eat everything. If people say the food tastes bad. If people don’t eat ‘evenly’ with a balance of vegetables. WHAT IS NUTRITION? WHY IS IT GOOD? There are 5 nutrients - protein, fats, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. It gives you a healthy life and prevents various diseases.

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One way in which we are all helped to be balanced outside of the classroom, is through societies. At NLCS London, there is a very important tradition of older students running societies in all different areas. The societies aim to broaden studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; knowledge of different subjects and to encourage us to continue our love of learning after our lessons end. We have been incredibly successful in creating our own societies at NLCS Jeju. We have everything from Dance Society to Biochemistry Society. Not only do all these fantastic societiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; give us a chance to develop our interests and love of so many different subjects, but they also give older students the chance to be responsible and to take the lead in an area that they are really interested in. Here are just four of the societies that are on offer at NLCS Jeju to help us become really balanced learners.

Drama by Esther Song “To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.” Nicolas Cage This quote spoken by Nicolas Cage, one of the most eminent Hollywood actors of all time, stresses an important skill that all competent young actors strive for: the ability to experiment with one’s limits and bring out different personas onto the stage. Luckily, this very quality runs in the group of ambitious young actors of NLCS Jeju’s Drama Society, “Thrill Us”. Having started and grown with the school itself during the last two years, “Thrill Us” has managed to establish itself as one of the most acclaimed and recognized societies in the school. It has and continues to hold various performances and projects, ranging from conventional theatrical performances, all the way to creative video projects. Some of their most praised achievements include the play ‘Phone Booth’, the Anti bullying video project, the mellow-drama ‘I’m still here’, and the exhilarating comedy ‘The Serial Daters’. A notable characteristic that all members of the drama society share is the substantial amount of confidence they possess on stage. This is a highly valued quality that the society seeks for in all its members. Likewise, the chair and director of “Thrill Us”, Dawon Jung, voiced that she looks for “confidence, clarity, and commitment” when selecting her members. Especially, commitment was pointed out to be the most crucial factor; anyone who is ready to fully commit to the society is welcome to join.

The Drama Society perform The Serial Daters

architecture by Hannah Cho

Every Tuesday, during break time, and Thursday lunchtime, there is a group of people gathered around in the art department discussing new architectural ideas. With its plans for the future and creative programs, the Architecture society is one of the most active, creative and acclaimed societies at NLCS Jeju. Last term, the society held a competition, “Just Build It”, which was an event using recycled newspaper to make the highest tower. Annie Kim (Yr10, Jeoji), one of the winners of this event, said, “The event was not just about stacking newspapers, we also had to use our creativity” and that, “It was the most thrilling competition I had experienced”. The society’s main purpose is to introduce, discover and develop varieties of knowledge and skills related to architecture and expand students’ interest in art and design. To achieve this, they are aiming to create a project each term with diverse themes and methods. For instance, last year, they created architectural structures with the theme of “Nature”, and they also held a competition related to the theme so that everyone in the school could get involved. The society’s plan is to finish their new project with the theme ‘Korea’ by the end of the 1st term of academic year 2013-2014 with finished individual architectural models. Then, in the 2nd term, they are starting a new project with the theme ‘Upside Down Cities’. Jeewoo Lee (Yr10, Jeoji), the publicity officer, is hoping to design cities in 3 dimensional forms for the next project. “The project will be original, creative and astonishing for the society members as well for the whole school”, she commented. The “Young Architects” are planning to recruit new members in the beginning of the new academic year, 2014-2015. They are hoping for many students with ingenious ideas and diligent attitudes towards architecture to participate in their future projects.

Music by Laura Moon

he Music Society or Sonitas has been holding various events since the beginning of the school year, and I interviewed Minsung Kim, Year 12, the Chair of Sonitas, to find out further information.

Minsung says that Music Society, “provides the students with chances to both perform and enjoy the pure nature of music, both leaving imprints of the musical talents possessed by each and every individual of the school”. The current committee members are Minsung Kim, Yieon Park, Matthew Kim, and Nick Oh. The Chair holds the responsibility of being in charge of organising the events held by the society. In order to perform their job, the society has been laying out a plan to increase further access to music around the school. For instance, they have “created an accompaniment band for performers who wish to have themselves accompanied, and are currently recruiting more members who are up for the idea”, said Minsung. In the first half term, they held ‘Unplugged Night’. They are planning to constantly develop the quality of music provided by NLCS Jeju through holding numerous events, as they have been doing. The most recent event was another hugely successful ‘Move The Crowd’. “We aspire to take the music of NLCS Jeju and spread it outside of the borders of the school, and make music one of the major aspects of the school”, said Minsung, in reply to the goal of the society. They plan to achieve this by constantly aiming to create the best quality music they possibly can, and use what they can create to advertise the musical ability of our school. The Music Society is planning to officially recruit members, especially for their accompaniment band, during the second half of the first term.

Minsung performs at a Sonitas Show

Philosophy by Winne Lee

o encourage each of the members to think critically and develop a logical mind, the Philosophy Society has been holding weekly meetings and inspirational events.

Every Wednesday, between 1:15 and 1:40 in GS27, the members of the society have regular meetings. They have philosophical discussions on philosophical topics or on philosophers’ ideas such as the rationality of god, behaviorism or Freud’s philosophical view. “We begin with challenging the assumptions lying behind the ideas”, said Eunjung Cho (Yr13, Halla), the chair of the society. “Then, we go on to discuss whether or not we agree with the overarching argument of the philosopher, often by bringing up our own life experiences.” So for example, if they were to discuss Seneca’s ideas on ‘anger’, they would not only talk about his idea and the Stoic idea in general, but also question his assumptions by challenging the definition of anger, and try to come up with their own definition. While weekly meetings help the members to develop logical minds through debates and discussions on philosophical topic, the whole school event held by the Philosophy society helps raise awareness of philosophy and the society. Last year, they held a composing competition to transfer our memory to the future generations of NLCS Jeju. The events range from movie nights to political philosophy lectures, making a philosophical song, celebrating the World Philosophy Day, designing and selling stickers with philosophical quotes on, and many more This year, they are planning to invite a lecturer to NLCS Jeju to deliver a talk on Eastern philosophy. Eunjung revealed her viewpoint on this matter by saying that we are a lot more exposed to Western ideas and that we will be able to get a balanced perspective of Philosophy with the lecture organized by the society. Also, the society is planning to hold a whole school event soon where students will be encouraged to write their own future epitaphs to celebrate the World Philosophy Day. Since last year, the Philosophy Society has proven itself that it is a consistently hard working team and it is clear that they are now a step closer to achieving their ultimate goal, which is to address that Philosophy is not a complicated and difficult subject to discuss, and also relate philosophical ideas to our daily lives.

Visiting Author

Nourishment

ILLUSTRATION BY JAY LEE, YEAR 11, NORO

DESIGN BY JIHO CHOI, YEAR 11, MULCHAT

Kay Nam, Year 8, Jeoji, tells us why having a balanced rading list is as important as a balanced diet.

very time my mom bought me books, she bought a whole bunch of books, a real variety: literature, science, maths, or philosophy related books. At first, I didn’t know that my mom was doing but I found out that I was constantly building up balanced knowledge. That kind of habit helped me to choose the right books in the library.

Actually, when I was young, I had many dreams that were vague and unrealistic. However, because I became more knowledgeable about the world and I formed my own interests, the beam balance of my reading tilted to one side. As a result, I became more aware of my choice of books and I put a lot of effort searching every single bookshelf in the library. This year, my goal is to balance the amount of fiction to non-fiction to 1:1.

Reading is an essential element for human beings because books are so easily approached and they contain very useful tools that help us go through life. And just like a balanced diet, and a balanced timetable, your bookshelves need balance also.

A lot of people believe that balanced eating is important. As a matter of fact, reading is quite similar with what we eat. Eating provides us with proper nutrients and energy

and these lead to a flourishing life. If people decide to take in only one kind of nutrient by eating one particular food, the other parts of the body will probably deteriorate. I’m sure that same thing applies to reading. When studying a topic of any subject, there aren’t many things that can be explained with only one concept. For example, when we are drawing people, a scientific notion of human anatomy is also very important. Also, the painting Mona Lisa is an artistically gorgeous piece. However, it contains a very peculiar golden ratio on her face. Bach’s music is absolutely dazzling but he was very mathematical. He had used cabalistic codes that changed letters into numbers. These kinds of linking can happen only when information from different areas of knowledge are installed in one’s brain - the road to success is variegated reading.

Going back to foods again, let’s take rice as an example. Eating boiled rice all the time isn’t nutritious and it will make you sick. Ricecake is quite sweet and sugary like romance books; fried rice dressed with hot sauce is spicy, just like horror books that are very thrilling but attractive. Won’t you feel more happy eating when you change your ingredients? Isn’t it the same with books? Reading only one particular genre of books is going to make you lose interest and passion towards reading. In reverse, reading will make you more delighted because you are fulfilled in every aspect of life even if you haven’t experienced any of them yet.

Turn the page for some tips and recommended reading

Nourishment Balanced reading tips

1 2 3 4 5

Always keep a book of your choice that is probably intended for fun. Try to find a really light book that is related to what you are learning in school just to get the background knowledge and be more confident to the topic. For example, when you are studying about elements and compounds in Chemistry, you could read the book ‘Elements and Compounds’ by Louise Spilsbury. It is also important to read magazines and newspapers that helps us open up insights towards the world. For example, National Geographic, Time and Sports Illustrated. Recommended books from teachers are good books to approach because those are books that they think are suitable for your age group and are essential in your life. Reading classics is a difficult challenge for anyone but it’s a good opportunity to improve your range of vocabulary and to learn lots of complex sentence structures. They are most likely to make your brain think about social issues or certain themes that are meaningful to you. You could try, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby or Romeo and Juliet.

recommended reading from departments ENGLISH // ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ Lynne Truss MATHS // ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’ Alex Bellos BIOLOGY // ‘The Magic of Reality’ Richard Dawkins PHYSICS // ‘Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality’ Lewis Carroll Epstein MANDARIN // Monkey King HISTORY // ‘Empire of the Sun’ JG Ballard GEOGRAPHY // ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ Jules Verne MUSIC // ‘Nicholas Cook’s Music: A Very Short Introduction’ Nicholas Cook KOREAN HISTORY // 이인화 선생님이들려주는

한국사 이야기’ 전집

COMPUTER SCIENCE // ‘Cryptonomicon’ Neal Stephenson

Josh Lee, Year 11, Sarah looks at the science behind the importance of getting enough sleep

A BALANCED EDUCATION

A SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT

WORDS LINA KIM MULCHAT YEAR 10 ELLY JUNG GEOMUN YEAR 10 LINDSAY LEE GEOMUN YEAR 10 DIANE Lee Sarah Year 10 EDITOR CHANWOO BANG HALLA

WHAT DOES A BALANCED EDUCATION MEAN FOR NLCS JEJU STUDENTS?

If education is a meal, being balanced is a buffet.

Lina Kim

Chanoo Bang, BIG6

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Understanding the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal wellbeing for themselves and others.

This is how the IB defines the term, ‘balanced’ as one of the IB learner profile characteristics; the IB Learner Profile suggests to us the most basic and general idea of being balanced. However, a Balanced Education can have different meanings for each individual. What do you think is the definition of ‘Balanced Education’? Junior students, including Year 6, 7, and 8, think that “Balanced Studies” are the process of getting ready for their higher level of studies such as IGCSE and IB. They believe that now is the best time to try and experience many different subjects, before they choose subjects for IGCSE and IB. Therefore, for them having balanced education means studying many different subject areas. This doesn’t only include the three major subjects: Korean, Mathematics and English that are considered to be the most important subjects in Korean schools. They seemed to think that seeing every subject as equally important is crucial.

On the other hand, Ryan Kim in Year 10, one of the IGCSE students, has a different concept of ‘Balanced Learning’. In Year 9, he chose History, Mandarin, and Geography, without including a creative arts subject for his IGCSE course. It is suggested that students choose IGCSE subjects from different areas: one each from Humanities, Languages and Creative Arts to get the right ‘balance’. However, Ryan disagrees with this idea. He said, “As a person who enjoys studying Humanities, I am truly satisfied and contented with my choices.” For Ryan, a “balanced education” doesn’t mean that students have to study different areas, just different subjects. “If education is a meal, being balanced is a buffet.” This is what Chanwoo Bang in Year 13, one of our Big 6, stated about his thoughts on “Balanced Education”. In a buffet, people look around and try various types of food instead of choosing and eating one specific meal. Just like eating different foods in a buffet, students do not choose only one subject that they like, but also learn different areas of subjects as well. “However, in a buffet,” said Chanwoo, “by the end of the meal, we tend to eat only the food that we like; similarly as we progress towards university, we tend to focus more on the subjects that we like, than other subjects in the ‘Balanced Education’ programme. It is our job to keep the balance.” Chanwoo has already decided on the one subject he wants to spend time on and so has applied to study Media and Communication at University in the UK.

Why is having a Balanced Education so important?

Lindsay Lee

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No subject is ever well understood and no art is intelligently practiced, it the light which the other studies are able to throw upon it is deliberately shut out. As the wall between the subjects is becoming thinner and almost useless, society increasingly requires wellrounded individuals. At this point, balance in learning becomes essential. This is because firstly, subjects have mutual relationships with one another, and secondly balanced learning can strengthen and further develop one’s major talents and lastly it can even develop social qualities. Within a balanced education, students can make their knowledge more in-depth and permanent. This is due to the mutual relationships between the subjects. For instance, musicians can gain a more sophisticated understanding of their subject with the study of mathematics, because the musical scales are created by the principles of mathematics. In the long run, those who have gone through a balanced education become more capable at building up concrete knowledge, learning that sticks. The majority of students, including me, are searching for their major to study at higher education. During this process, students will acknowledge the importance of balanced learning. However, some might throw this question: “Why is ‘balanced education’ necessary for those who are already sure about what they want to study in future?” The answer is that balance in education not only provides students with in-depth knowledge, but also strengthens one’s major talent.

For example, let’s imagine that one genius scientist has made an astonishing discovery that will change the world. If he has gone through a balanced education, he will easily be able to present his ideas successfully. This is because the language subjects that he has taken in school have helped him to develop the skills needed to present his ideas fluently. On the other hand, if he hasn’t gone through this process, he would find it more difficult to communicate his thoughts. A balanced education can even develop one’s social abilities. A balance in education provides students with a wide range of background knowledge and experiences. It is easier for people who have a wide range of background knowledge to understand others than those who do not. Students not only gain valuable knowledge from balanced learning, but also learn how to deal wisely with the subjects that they do not enjoy. For instance, a student, who has studied a wide range of subjects, whose major is literature, can also learn how it feels like to work in a lab as a scientist. It is impossible to empathies with others’ feelings without having any experience or knowledge in particular areas. By empathising with other’s hardships and difficulties, those with a balanced education can naturally enhance their social qualities. I believe that this is one of the most important qualities that people can have in their lives.

A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE Elly Jung The majority of NLCS Jeju students studied at Korean schools before they applied for NLCS Jeju. Therefore, they often experience huge differences within the curriculum here, compared to their old schools. This is especially true when it comes to ‘creative subjects’. A typical Korean school does not consider creative subjects such as drama, dance, art and music, important. What is surprising is that many students actually believe that creative subjects are unnecessary for their lives, as they haven’t had enough chance to explore them before arriving here. However, there are a lot of occasions when students find their new talents and abilities and may eventually find their career in the future while being in the school. I particularly got interested in what NLCS Jeju students would think about ‘Creative Subjects’ after experiencing many different opportunities that are provided in the school.

According to the interview, there were several reasons why they liked doing creative subjects. Overall, ‘Creative Subjects help me to release my stress’, was the most common responses. Creative subjects give students the opportunity to work practically, refreshing our mind, which gives a balance within our school life. ‘Creative Subjects help us to grow skills that are required for other academic subjects’ was also another common answer. Performing Arts subjects usually require students to be actively engaged with other people. For example, many students get a chance to perform their work on stage, which eventually helps them to enhance their presentation skills, as they overcome their stage fright. They also inspire us to think outside of the box and stimulate our thoughts, which will act as a great support when we are writing an essay. On the other hand, not every student was completely fond of the creative subjects. Some NLCS students were previously in an environment where their schools did not take performing arts courses seriously. This may cause some NLCS students to have a negative perspective on creative subjects, as they have never experienced something similar.

Indeed, one student said “I do not like music because I am really bad at it, compared to people who have learnt it before.” This illustrates that someone who is not used to or has no talent, might easily lose interest. Also, many students in NLCS Jeju have a stereotype that academic subjects will benefit them more in the course of employment and business in the future, compared to creative subjects. As a matter of fact, there is a strong link between creative subjects, the importance of creativity and how employers value creative thinkers. One of the IGCSE Art students specified that creative subjects are more stressful than the academic subjects. Unlike academic subjects, where students just submit in their work without presenting it to classmates, in Art, students are likely to take a look at each other’s work. Therefore may create a competitive atmosphere to begin with, but in the end, when we get used to giving feedback to others, it elevates the quality of students’ work.

A PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE Diane Lee

This might be a generalisation, but everybody, especially the people in our school, know that “Korean mothers” are infamous for their stereotypical perceptions of creative subjects. Unless they have decided to make their children specialise in one of the creative areas from the beginning of their education, they have a tendency to think subjects like Art & Design, Music and Dance are useless and unnecessary in children’s education and the overall progress towards their future universities. There are several relatable reasons for this: the artistic subjects are usually more subjective compared to subjects such as Maths and Sciences, which consist of definite answers and nonarguable grades, or even compared to English and Humanities, which are more information and skill-based with universally set marking criteria. But creativity cannot be measured. It seems impossible to judge people on their creativity. And in a culture that values grades, creativity might have problems. The parents also believe that if their children specialise in one of those creative subjects, they might not be as successful economically. Parents would hate to see their children not earning enough to live their lives. Even if their children could make a living out of their drawings, songs, dancing, or their acting, from a mother’s point of view, it seems like an unsecured and hazy future. In order to be a real success in those areas, one needs to have expensive, exceptional skills and a large proportion of luck.

But, not all parents feel this way. All of the parents whose children attended NLCS said that they liked doing Art subjects and they liked their kids doing them as well. When they were asked if they treated art subjects the same as academic subjects, there came two types of answers: one saying that they do treat them same, and another saying that subjects like English and Maths are still more important, but because some of their children have exceptional talent in one of the creative subjects they value them as well. One of the parents said, “Artistic subjects promote not only creativity but also visualization ability as well. This helps kids think things in a spatial framework and visualize vague concepts into tangible and visible concrete ones, both of which enhance learners’ metacognitive thinking ability.” This implies that studying the artistic subjects also help children do well in other subjects by fostering creative and innovative thinking. Another mother said, ‘I believe the arts are necessary for growth. I also believe that creative development is one of the basic requirements for emotional growth and thinking.’ She added that education requires balance, which includes emotional learning and creative thinking that comes from the arts, especially at this age where the meeting of scientific minds and creative minds are encouraged in order to foster creative innovation for our future’ So, it seems that not all Korean mothers believe that the Arts are useless. Things are changing!

NETBALL A JOURNEY JINN PARK, CELINE TAE, both YEAR 10, Both Sarah and june song, year 10, mulchat take us through their adventures with the netball squad. Netball is a completely new sport to many of our students but the NLCS Jeju netball squad has done a wonderful job of learning all the complex rules and playing at a superb level during tournaments. Check out our timeline to see snippets of our most wonderful moments!

Back in June 2012, we went to China for the Dulwich College Beijing International Netball Tournament. It was our first overseas tournament, but we recorded some fantastic results - the Year 6 & 7 team won the plate, and the year 8 team qualified to challenge for the cup. Now we are all in the under 15 team - how fast the time goes.

Last year, NLCS Jeju had its first official game in South Korea in the Jeju provincials. It was our debut game, and we beat every single team in the tournament! Sadly, we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go on to the Nationals because we were only playing as an invited team.

In the second year of netball establishment, the whole squad went to Tokyo to compete in a friendly match against the Tokyo International School. We were lucky enough to home-stay with host students and experienced an amazing standard of netball throughout! The Tokyo students made us feel at home, for which we are grateful. Absolutely loved the food as well:)

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Following from last year’s fantastic performance at the provincials, this time we competed as the official team from NLCS Jeju. Since it was our first tournament that included all three teams- Elementary, Middle and High- we really formed strong bonds with each other and in between different year groups!

We competed in our first National competition in November when we traveled to Imsil to represent NLCS and Jeju Province in the National Netball Sports Club Championships. The 29 top teams from across South Korea battled it out to win the National title. See below for how each team did.

2013 2013 2013 NLCS Jeju hosted the Presidential Cup competition and, of course, NLCS Jeju came first in all divisions (High School and Middle School). There were no Elementary School games). Again, netball of a fantastic standard was played. Considering the fact that some of us had played for less than 6 months before this competition, the achievement is pretty amazing.

NLCS Jeju under 13’s were considerably smaller compared to the other teams, but they started off their first game with a victory. Though they lost their second game, they were great supporters and it was wonderful to see the little ones cheer for the under 18’s. Well done to them all and they should aim for another victory in the next year’s Nationals.

The under 15 team had a great time in Imsil. Even though the results weren’t what we hoped for, we all enjoyed ourselves while playing the games, and were pleasantly astounded to find out there was more room for improvement. We’ve got a long way to go, and we’re sure the journey will be fantastic.

The under 18 team dramatically won every single game by huge score gaps. When victory seemed obvious, it was announced that they got to the finals! We all prayed for a final victory, and it was just in our grasp, but the other team was too strong to compete with after a long day of game play. Still, our under 18 team won silver medals and a trophy.

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U 13’ S U 15 ’ s U 18’ s 86 Stay up to date with the latest NLCS Jeju Netball news at http://nlcsjejunetballsquad.tumblr.com

Sports Desk is back to bring you all our latest sporting news and achievements. PE and sport continues to help shape the school’s identity. We have enjoyed offering our students a multitude of experiences on and off Jeju Island. This term we have played representational sport for school and the Province of Jeju social sport for fun and hosted an International rugby club. Throughout the term we have played many International schools and more than 16 local Jeju clubs and schools. We are very proud of our students sporting endeavors and continued efforts to foster a strong sense of community, through sport.

This term there has been plenty of sport for our JS students, from cross-country to several football fixtures with local international schools as well as the local community clubs. We have enjoyed seeing our Junior school students develop and grow. Year 3 / 4 and 5 / 6 Boys & Girls Football Festival @ BHA NLCS Jeju entered 13 of the 20 teams with over 80 Junior school students participating. Junior Football Festival – 30th November @ NLCS Jeju Year 1, 2, 3 / 4’s Boys & Girls Football Festival @ NLCS Jeju NLCS Jeju entered 10 of the 19 teams with over 60 Junior school students participating. No scores were kept at these events and the day was about having fun and forging friendships.

All sports results can be view on http://jisac. weebly.com/jisac-competitions.html Football ES Girls Football: P 9 - W 6 - D 1 MS Girls Football: P 15 - W 6 MS Boys Football festival: P 14 - W 8 MS Boys KISAC Football Champions RUGBY HS Rugby v TCIS: P2 – W 2 MS Rugby v Bupyung MS: P 3 – W 3 U14 & HS combination team with HK Lions VOLLEYBALL HS Volleyball festival 9th Oct HS Boys Volleyball v KIS: Lost 2-1 HS Girls Volleyball v KIS: Lost 2-1 NETBALL ES Girls Netball: P 1 - W 1 MS Girls Netball: P 1 - W 1 HS Girls Netball: P 2 - W 2 ES, MS & HS Regional Championship BADMINTON We played over 5 fixtures with BHA & KiS with a mixed set of results. KISAC Cross country Well to all the students from ES to HS. Over 50 students ran and won the majority of medals.Girls had six 1st place finishers Boys had nine 1st place finishers Total of 15 records out of 22 events for NLCS Jeju students

HONK KONG LIONS TOUR VISITS NLCS JEJU We were honored that the Hong Kong Lions choose NLCS Jeju as the location for their annual rugby tour. A party of over 50 players, parents and coaches visited NLCS Jeju to have a truly unique weekend of sport and culture. The Hong Kong Lions came bearing gifts and were very appreciative of our hospitality. Students enjoyed playing rugby against and mixed teams and the social events involved many team-building activities and the sharing of cultures. A great experience for all.

There are many highlights from the Phuket football trip. Many students would say Mr Spence’s performance of Katy Perry’s hit song Hot and Cold in the karaoke was memorable although the main entertainment was on the pitch. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the senior girls being outplayed they enjoyed themselves and fought brilliantly for each other. A tropical downpour in the girls final game was reflective of the results. The team did not care however about the rain, bruises and tired legs - there were smiles all round.

JANUARY 11– Indoor World Cup Football @ DCSl Girls/DSS Boys 14 – Volley ball NLCS v BHA15 – HS Basketball @ NLCS 18 – Indoor World Cup Football @ DCSL Girls/DSS Boys 18 – HS Table tennis @ CI 21 – Volley ball NLCS v KIS 22 – HS Basketball boys @ NLCSJ & Girls 25 – Indoor World Cup Football @ DCSL Girls/DSS Boys 25 – Indoor World Cup Football @ DCSL Girls/DSS Boys FEBRUARY 4 – Volley ball KIS v NLCS 5 – HS Basketball boys @ KIS – & Girls @ NLCS

8 – KISAC swimming @ CI 8 – MS swimming @ DCSL 13 – HS Basketball Girls @ NLCSJ v BHA @ NLCS 14/15 – MS Volleyball @ BIFS 14/15 – HS Basketball @ Jeju 15 – Yr5/6 ES Table tennis @ CI 18 – Volley ball BHA v KIS 22 – ES KISAC Swimming @ DCSL – 27 – HS Basketball girls v BHA @ BHA MARCH 8 – MS Table Tennis @ CI Half term Malaysia Rugby tour