a-a-b-a' Pattern in Korean Ballad Songs

What kind of music do you listen to the most? What kind of music do you like the most?

My favorites have changed a number of times throughout my life - K-pop ballad, K-pop dance songs, American pop songs, sometimes classic piano concertos, and so on. I have fallen in love with Korean ballads and American ballads back and forth with varying length of time. These days, I only listen to Korean ballads, and from listening to various and numerous songs, I have found out that there is a certain pattern that Korean ballads follow: a-a-b-a’.

This is lyrics from a song titled ‘청혼하는 거예요’ by 포맨

오늘을 위해서 나 한참을 기다렸죠 
그대 내꺼 되길 또 소망하고 바랬죠
정식으로 프러포즈를 할까 아님 생일날 깜짝 파티를 할까
나 두근두근 설레던 그날이 오늘이죠 

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요
그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요 

------------------------------------------------------------------a

예쁜 카페를 빌려볼까 아님 시청 앞 많은 사람들 앞에서 
꽃을 줄까 반지를 내밀까 고민하던 나였죠

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요
그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요

-------------------------------------------------------------------a

살다 지쳐 힘들어도 또 내가 지긋지긋해 진다고해도 그대가 안아줘요
미안하고 또 고마워요 그대 내 옆에서 이렇게 손잡아줘서 날 위로 해줘서 

-------------------------------------------------------------------b

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
그대는 나의 영원한 나만의 천사 나를 받아줄래요

그대는 나의 lovely girl 그대는 나의 pretty girl
내 눈을 봐요 대답할 수 있나요 그대 나 청혼하는 거예요 
나 청혼하는 거예요

-------------------------------------------------------------------a’

And a link to a youtube music video page of the song

If you listen to the song keeping in mind the a-a-b-a’ pattern, you will be able to easily point out which part is a, which part is b, and which part is a’.

Korean ballads start with part a, consisting of introduction part and one chorus. Then, another part a follows, the only difference present in lyrics. The two a parts are then followed with a new melody – part b. Part b is usually used to connect the two a parts to another part a, which I refer to as part a’. The reason I differentiated the two as a’ and a is because a’ is not completely same as part a. a’ part is usually variations of part a, such as change of chords, or repetition of chorus in different lyrics. K-pop group, 포맨, the singer of the song ‘청혼하는 거예요’, uses this pattern of a-a-b-a’ in many of their ballad songs.

Childhood in the Middle Ages

"This is a presentation I did in Mr. Ganse's class. We were each given different topics regarding the Middle Ages, and mine was 'Childhood in the Middle Ages'. After the presentation, which consists of a 10~15 minute brief summary of what you have found through research on the topic, we are to write a long, over 20 page paper, which will probably suck my life out. But, for the presentation, I actually got a comment from Mr. Ganse that my presentation was pretty good, so enjoy!"

Childhood in the Middle Ages

131136 Woo-Hyun Cho

   

1.    Definition

<from dictionary.com> : the state or period of being a child, a person between birth and full growth.

<what I am going to talk about> : the state or period of being a person from birth to age 14, or until they reach adolescence, or until they leave home.

2.    Wrong held beliefs about children in the Middle Ages.

There are two wrong held beliefs

A.   Some people say that there was no recognition of childhood as a distinct category of development in the middle ages. – this idea comes from some medieval artwork of children dressed in adult clothing (if children wore like adults, they must have acted like adults, too)

The idea that children were treated like miniature adults as soon as they could walk and talk is a common one.

NOT TRUE – some medieval laws protected the rights of orphans and medieval medicine had different treatment standards for adults and children. à Children were recognized as vulnerable, and in need of special protection, just like the present modern days.

B.    Another wrong belief held by some people is one that says children were not valued as much as they are in the modern days by their families in the Middle Ages. – This idea comes from rarely mentioned childhood details in biographies and literature works. Childhoods of heroes are rarely mentioned, if not at all, and this also applies to the movies that we watched – they don’t depict childhood too much.

NOT TRUE – In the Middle Ages, one of the most important works for a family was farming. Thus, having more workers was always better. Therefore, children were one of the primary reasons to marry. Plus, due to high mortality rate in children also raised the value of children; it has been suggested that 25% of them may have died in their first year, half as many (12.5%) between one and four, and a quarter as many (6%) between five and nine. 

3.    From Birth to Grown-up

A.    Birth

i.         Due to the reasons I mentioned just now, childbirth was usually a joyful thing, but there were many possibilities where the birth could go wrong. Birth defects, breech births, and many other complications could cause both mother and the child to die.

ii.         In the room where a mother would give birth to a child, there were only women. Midwives would assist the giving of birth, and female relatives or friends would be also present to wish the mother good luck.

iii.         If everything goes well, the baby is swaddled in a way so to help the baby’s arms and legs grow straight.

B.     Children before teenage (~12)

i.         Children at ages near seven ‘played’ most of the time. However, children at this age group also had increased responsibilities to do house chores, especially if they were peasant children.

ii.         As children grew up, parents taught their sons and daughters manners, personal hygiene, and other skills to get along with other people. This applied especially to nobles, where polite manners were considered very important. Later in the Middle Ages, instruction manual books came out, which included many different things that are needed in daily lives.

C.     Children from age 12 ~ 14, to adolescence

i.         Children at the age 12 sometimes left their houses. There were various reasons to it, and here are some of them. For children of noble birth were sometimes sent to live with family that they were engaged to marry. Sons of knights started training in the castles, and they could start the training as early as seven, to as late as eighteen. Children of poor births sometimes went out to earn money by working as servants for high-status families. Lastly, apprenticeship also started from age thirteen, and some children left their homes to follow their masters and teachers. Those who did not leave their home stayed in their households to do serious work, assisting in agriculture and crafts.

4.    References

A.    Orme, Nicholas. "Historical Essays: Childhood in Medieval England." Historical Essays: Childhood in Medieval England. Nicholas Orme, n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/medieval_child.htm>.

B.     Snell, Melissa. "The Medieval Child." About.com Medieval History. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://historymedren.about.com/od/medievalchildren/a/child_toc.htm>.

C.     Hanawalt, Barbara. Growing up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

D.    Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.

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     Here is a documentary from BBC four, titled "Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages". This will really help your understanding of medieval children, as much as it did to mine! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jtg6k

However, it says 'media selection request failed'... 

So, I googled it, and here is the link to the actual video that you can watch! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/47174103

A Visit to Wellington College

Result of writing bits and bits from time to time after the Vision Trip...

A Visit to Wellington College

          Beautiful green plain stretching to meet the end of the clear blue sky, sheep and cows here and there, merrily enjoying themselves, and a group of birds flying as if to boast their freedom was what England showed me on the way to Wellington College, on the second day of the vision trip. We went to Wellington College after a pleasant tour around Oxford, and we were expecting the tour of Wellington to be as much joyful. However, the tour to Wellington gave me more of a lingering feeling of anxiety, instead of a cheerful surprise.

Although I knew that Wellington College was one of the most prestigious high schools in England, I, and probably most of my friends, were sincerely awed by the size and quality of Wellington. However, there was one more thing that awed me, that left me in sheer admiration; the students there were all handsome and pretty in so much mature way. Boys, tall boys, almost 190cm tall, with beards and an adult-like look in their faces, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, tall nose. Girls, also tall girls, with a womanly shaped body, and the same thing like the boys for their face shapes. – Well, every one of them were very close to our, Koreans’, standard of ideal beauty. When I looked at me, and my friends, and our teachers after seeing these ‘attractive’ ‘western’ students, I felt - ‘ashamed’. I was ashamed of myself and my friends because, well, we looked so childish compared to the mature-looking western students. All the time during the tour, I could not help myself staring at those western kids, and it got to the extent where it felt like those kids were condescending when talking to us, and I felt inferior towards them. And all the while, I was envious of their attractive appearances, hating Korea’s extreme lookism at the same time. It got worse when I realized that I had to compete with them in foreign universities; I felt miserable.

But suddenly, I stopped. Then I wondered, ‘Why am I -?’ Why was I comparing these things with them? What am I doing? I realized how stupid I was – feeling miserable because somebody else looked handsome? Then, I could think straight. Those white, big-nosed hairy big boys are what western people look like. Us, the proud Asians look like the way I look. It’s just a difference of how fast your body grows up. No need to care. Done. Well, this time, I felt ashamed for a totally different reason.

Having come back from the vision trip, I talked to my friends about what I felt at Wellington College, and to my surprise, he told things that I believe are notable, and very fit for what I am trying to say.

“So when we went to Wellington, these students came to talk to us, and everybody was like wow they look so handsome and pretty. But what I think is that these reactions show how much we are tainted by this way of thinking of western people as superior. If you think of it, we say someone is handsome when that person resembles people from western countries. In the same nature, even though KMLA has its own unique merits and strong points, and the same for Wellington, everybody’s like KMLA sucks and Wellington rocks. Personally, I think if Wellington students came to KMLA, they will also be impressed by our traditional buildings and stuff. And it’s real sad cause most people don’t have this pride for our traditional stuff but instead they go looking for these western culture things. Of course, it’s understandable cause the medias all show us cool things from western culture like Hollywood movies and stuff, but ……….”     - (recorded, then translated)

Monthly TOEFL Essay #2

Topic for the response: The 21st century has begun. What changes do you think this new century will bring? Use examples and details in your answer.

     “Welcome to the 21^st century!” This saying is used some times, usually to someone who is surprised at recent technology, new electronic devices, or special functions in those devices, meaning – you are in the 21^st century; what’s there to be amazed about? Just as this saying shows, yes, we are in the 21^st century, in the year 2013. Even though we are only 13 years into the 21^st century, there have been changes, and enough of them to let us be able to at least speculate on what the remaining 87 years have in store for us – which are; change of idea on ‘sex’, and increased gap between the rich and the poor.

     First of all, 21^st century will bring about a change of ideas and attitudes toward the concept of sex. These days, because of the increased accessibility to adult movies and videos, even the youngest children are becoming to have certain amount of knowledge on sex. Also, due to growing recognition on human rights and freedom, gay and lesbian marriages are slowly, but certainly, being accepted to people these days. Like such, young people are becoming more and more exposed to unfamiliar concepts of sex, and they perceive the idea open-minded. Thus, later on in the 21^st century, it is my belief that people will think of ‘sex’ as nothing to be embarrassed about, but rather as something legitimate, acceptable, and nothing out of ordinary.

     Moreover, the gap between the rich and the poor will become even bigger. This I believe will happen due to various kinds of causes, but the most primary factor depends on accessibility to information. As the world now is currently going through so-called ‘information revolution’, companies and even nations are competing to obtain high-quality/quantity information. At the same time, due to highly developed information technology and medias, there actually is more than enough information on the internet that people can use – if they can access the internet in the first place. Although numerous people are enjoying the privileges of using the internet, there are still many countries where majority of its people do not. Thus, while the rich with access to the internet can gain information, and if they want, do further, intensive research, the poor do not even have the fundamental arrangements to start.

     The changes that 21^st century will bring cannot be organized into a number of ideas. However, one can guess in what direction the 21^st century will go to, and my idea is that the changes that will be made in this era will heavily depend on media and accessibility to internet. Only when taking for granted this development of information technology, we can guess the changes, such as more openness towards ‘sex’ and intensified social polarization. 

Rhetoric Device - ANTITHESIS

Rhetoric Devices- ANTITHESIS

Antithesis

:   the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas

Examples) 

• "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
  (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
• "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours."(President Barack Obama, election night victory speech, November 7, 2012)
• “Give me liberty or give me death

Such rhetorical devices can often be seen many times in speeches, especially in those given by presidents. One of the examples is president Obama's 2nd inaugural speech, which you can see right now, right here - 

I also found a very helpful site that mentions all the rhetoric devices used in president Obama's 2nd Inaugural speech, and the link is 

http://wholebrainpresentingblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/rhetorical-devices-used-in-president-obamas-2nd-inaugural-speech/

Just to give you an example of how it is done, here is a short excerpt from the entire script: 

"We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away (TRICOLON & POLYSYNDETON) in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security (TRICOLON), these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us (ANTITHESIS). They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks (ANTITHESIS) that make this country great."