Teenager

I think Korean parents overprotect their children. They usually take them to school by car when they are teenagers. They take them not only to school but also everywhere their children are. In the US, they are also worried about their children who are teenagers, but they don’t overprotect them as they do in Korea. I think it is the most important thing that makes teenagers become independent. However, if we do like Korean parents, teenagers will not be able to be independent easily. So we always say that teenagers, only those who are men, have to take military service for two years. And then they change when they have finished that. It is not necessary, but if you want to learn how to survive when you have grown up you should take that. I think every Korean man needs to take military service because of that reason.

drink

When I first came here, I met a student who is American. He invited me and Giljae to his girl’s birthday party. When we joined the party there were a lot of people, who are SIUC students, in his house. From that time, we started to drink, but I wondered about one thing, which is why they just drank beers. When I drink beers it makes me feel full, and also I go to the restroom a lot. So I thought, why don’t they drink something stronger? In our country, which is South Korea, we usually drink so-ju, which includes 20% alcohol. And other different things are, if we start to drink we will drink until when we are drunk seriously. There is no exception; you should drink even if you don’t want it. The final one is when we drink in Korea, we sit on a chair while we drink. We don’t move except going to the restroom. But in Americans case, they always walk around while they drink, so it’s difficult to talk about my trouble or something I am worried about.

Drive.

I haven’t driven here, but I used to drive when I was in Korea. The most stressful thing while driving is traffic jams. There are not too many cars here, but in Korea, there are lots of cars, although it’s really a small country. So traffic jams are common in Korea. Unless there is traffic jam, a trip takes only 30 minutes, but it usually takes over an hour. From 5 o’clock to 8 or 9 o’clock is rush hour, so it takes about 2 hours. Cars never move. It must be a terrible time to me, because I feel sleepy and tired. And then, when I get home I am really stressed out and I feel I have got illness. If I were a president I would reduce the number of cars.