Personal narrative
After two exhausting hours of driving, we arrived at our destination where hundreds of old ladies with mental and physical disabilities were waiting for us. Since I was 14, I went volunteering to sanitarium 2~3 times in a month with my family and neighbors. Our job was to give play psychotherapy, helping their daily life and provide some refreshment.
I still clearly remember my first visit to the place. My parents first took me to the sanitarium just to show me what they do every month. Most of the people living there couldn't speak and express their feeling by words and some of them were even deaf so alll the other volunteers used sign language to communicate, They also had physical disability so that they couldn't move freely alone, and everyone seemed to feel awkward about me, the stranger in their own shelter, It wasn't only their problem that made me feel awkward. I had the prejudice toward the handicapped people then. It was so hard to approach the people without hesitation because they seemed to be so different from me, and they seemed a little terrifying because of their physical problems. It was also the very first time for me to meet so many people who are different, and whom I cannot communicate with and it was approached as a big shock to me. Watching them getting play psychotherapy, I could feel how hard their life is, but how hopeful they are about their life and I felt so certain about joining the volunteering club with my parents.
Helping other people wasn't that easy, especially when the subject of the help is deaf. For the first two months, I learned how to let deaf people know about my feeling by Hangeul hand writing. My parents gave me big help while I was learning it. Even when I knew how to express some words with my hands, I couldn't understand deaf people's fast and inaccurate sign language so it took quite a long time and effort for me to have a short conversation with them. As time flew by, I became adopted to their life and got much more comfortable when facing them, and they seemed to be much more friendlier to me too. We spent really long time together by going to camp, swimming, hiking and many other outdoor activities and I felt them just as same people as me who has different personality and feelings without even realizing it. My prejudice and bias started to break down because of my precious experience in the sanitarium.
Three year has passed since I started to go on volunteering. I met group of people living in the sanitarium for more than a hundred times, and now I almost feel them as my family. They were much older than me but was a good friend, family, and teacher in the same time. They taught me how to help and consider about others' conditions and how to treat different people, how to accommodate amongst people who are so different from me, and how to look others without any bias. When someone asks me about the best choice I had made for the middle school years, I will definitely choose the time when I decided to participate in volunteering every month when I first visited the sanitarium.
#1 TOEFL essay
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Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.
Freeway is stuck and every road turns into parking lot. Most of the television programs are talking about the nation's biggest movement; half of the country is waiting, and the other half is struggling to meet them. Stuck roads and different vehicles are easily noticed in Korea twice a year; Sulnal(New years day) and Chuseok. Every country's custom about big holidays differs a lot, and in my motherland, all the families living apart gather and reinforce the bond between the members. This custom of my country is good at educating different areas and gives big influence to families living far apart from each other. so that I have any doubt that it will also have good effects on other countries when they adopt it.
Unlike many other countries, Korean families gather in extreme big scale at least two times a year. Historically Koreans followed confucianism and had faith in buddhism. Our ancestors placed huge emphasis on etiquette and courtesy, "예“, between friends, couples, families and many different relationships based on them. Since most of our ancestors lived in form of extended-family, manners between family members were emphasized the most, and nowadays when most people are forming nuclear family, ”예“ is still thought to be very significant. Nowadays, the size of families got much smaller and Sul-nal and Chuseok almost became the only holidays when every family gathers. When everyone including elderlies and children come together, they learn about the basic manners first. Elderlies give words of blessings to children, tell them how they should use their life wisely, and other useful informations and advices. During 4 to 5 days, everyone learns at least a small thing from other members who used to live far away. Education done during holidays turns out to be so meaningful after all the family scatters to their own place.
As mentioned before, the size of families got much smaller as time fled by, because culture changed a lot too. Koreans usually emphasize "정(Jung)", feeling love and familiarity to people around them, and less than a hundred years ago, "정“ between members of extended-families were very strong. Since family members live far away from each other now, Chuseok and Sulnal became the two biggest and only holidays when whole family can meet together. Those holidays become really huge and significant because family members hadn't met each other for a long time and only had to miss each other. During the holidays people not only educate each other but also play different kind of games like 윷놀이, 화투 and so on. Few days with family members help the family's bond get much stronger based on entertaining games, gives sense of belonging as a family, and at the same time stability generated by relief amongst them.
To sum up, one of the Korea's best custom which I want to disseminate and make other countries to adopt is a huge moving and gathering of a family on special holidays because without any hesitation I can say that family's relationship develops a lot during the holidays, and we can learn so much things from families including elderlies.
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