volume 2 Issue 2

CheongShim International Academy

Life is a RollerCoaster

Nobody can ever imagine how great Kim Gook-jin was, how he overcame the hardships, and how he stood up again. Comparing his life to the roller coaster, he has the largest variety of a falling and rising curve. His life was completely full of ups and downs. Nevertheless, he was never in the depth of despair.

When he was on a rising curve, he was in an unspeakably high place. He was voted as the greatest celebrity in the past fifty years since the Korean Independence as well as one of the four people, including CEOs of KBS, MBC, and SBS, managing the Korean broadcasting industries. Besides, the commercial that he roughly filmed prevails throughout the all regions in Korea; “Gook-Jin’s bread”, he advertised, was sold about 700,000 a day -- it saved the company from the bankruptcy. What’s even more amazing is that, according to the statistics, he had the most buzzwords in record and almost swept the prizes for the last five years.

He failed everything that he handled when the falling curve came. All the businesses he started were ruined. To add insult to injury, he not only continued to fail the golf pro testing fifteen times, but also got divorced with her wife Lee Yoon-Seong. For five years running, he lived a sad and hard life. How do people feel if they were on the roller coaster which runs the downhill without a break? They will be depressed and some will

finally try to suicide. When he first disembosomed himself of his life with many vicissitudes on the TV program “Men’s Qualification”, the audiences were deeply moved.

Life is a roller coaster. They both have ups and downs. In addition, pleasure follows pain just as the roller coaster accelerates to go higher after passing the steep track. We are now walking well and freely. To take a step, however, we fell down, picked ourselves up, and dusted ourselves off a thousand times. We will fall over the work, the people, the love again. However, we will right ourselves over again. More than all, there is a safety belt and the roller coaster doesn’t run unless all the safety devices are assured. That is why we do not have to worry to live a life, but enjoy as we do not care that we will fall off while riding the roller coaster.

Acceleration does determine whether the roller coaster goes up or down. What acted as the acceleration for him was a positive thinking which was a great comfort than any other cheering or consolation. When we think positively and open our minds, it sometimes make the impossible possible, so called a miracle. More to the point, happiness do not make laughing, but laughing make us happy. So always smile!

-Tae-Jun, Lee

Colonel Young Oak Kim Former Army Colonel

Birth - Death1919– 29/12/05

ExperienceBachelor’s degree in University of CaliforniaWorld War II & Korean War veteran

Awards2 Silver Stars, 3 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars, Croix de guerre, Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, French Légiond’honneur, Distinguished Service Cross, etc.

Colonel Young-Oak Kim was a Korean-American veteran who fought in WWII and Korean War and was awarded 19 medals. During the wartimes, Colonel Kim had shown true courage. Before he became a Colonel, he and his battalion were deployed to Italy to help out the war in Europe. He voluntarily requested to a transfer to the front line, something that people normally would not do. Using his map reading skills and determination, Kim carried out some “impossible missions”. May 16, 1944, he and his PFC crawled into a nearby German territory and captured two Nazi German soldiers alive. The intel extracted from the prisoners, which contained positions of tanks, had eventually

led to the liberation of Rome. After the end of WWII, he started a self-laundry business which was quite successful; however, right after the outbreak of Korean War he abandoned it and reenlisted in the army.Because he wanted to be in the front line of combats, he pretended to not know Korean; otherwise he would have been a translator. When he and his unit were assigned to defend a bridge to earn evacuation time, he stood alone against five tanks because his entire unit ran away. His courage to fight in the front line and withstanding the enemy alone, saved many lives, and he should be admired for these reasons. -Jae Min Shin

For people who are passionate about debating topics of the day while making friends from different countries at the same time, the Asian Schools Debate Championship is something to consider.This year’s championship was hosted in Seoul and 250 students, teachers and parents from 10 countries gathered to watch young debaters from ages 13 to 19 show off their speaking chops onstage.The ASDC is now in its third year and this year’s session from July 22 to 28 was the first hosted in Korea. Despite the torrential rains that drenched the city all week, the participants kept up positive attitudes until the very end of the championship.The ASDC was founded by the La Salle Debate Society of the De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. The first championship was held in that country in 2009 and again in 2010. -Jae Sung Park

Seoul hosts

Asian SchoolsDebate Championship