Hyoung+Jun


 * May 12th 2014 - Hyoungjun Sim (Jun) - Reflection writing - The Mayor Race**

Students in mostly group of five or four, were instructed to carry out a campaign for a given candidate with different attributes and background. They advertised their candidates using flyers, commercial videos, press release, hit pieces, and some goodies and treats to the student body, which eventually took roles of registered voters voting for the positions of mayor. Techniques such as glittering generalities, plain folks, name calling, transfer, and etc... were used to advertise their candidates. The representatives sought to create a convincing and persuading speech incorporating aspects of logos, pathos, and ethos.

The most challenging part of the project was somewhat of vague instruction; or maybe the lack of instruction overall. Although we did have a background information, often times we were unsure of what to really do until Mrs. Whitley visited us as the candidate's spokesmen. We did committed ourselves at work most of the times, but we were often unsure which made us somewhat hesitant to take a big jump or risk on bigger projects or pieces to advertise our candidate. Well, other than the fact that we were often unsure of what we direction we were taking, it wasn't all that hard. However, I think we could've taken a riskier attempt of creating a video or a song for our candidate. I'll admit, however, that the scandal thrown at my group was more mortifying than of others.

I have earned the ability to analyze the usage of advertising techniques further into this class and on through the future english classes or next four, if not eight years. I could persuade and attract the people's attention better using this technique. Maybe these will go onto my persuasive essays that I will write in different classes. I have an interest in marketing and advertising as well as designing; thereby who knows I might work at an advertising company or something? It would always be helpful to have a technique and creativity to express and radiate your thoughts.


 * March 21st 2014 - Hyoungjun Sim (Jun) - Topic writing - Photo shopping and the Body Image**

It's quite sad watching and viewing the society's image of the perfect body although I'll admit that it is amusing to some extent Anyways, do we really have to literally "edit" people's body, even if it's virtual, to create a better body image? It's shocking to see these video revealing the true models that were edited thoroughly and the process of editing. These images created by the society causes problems such as eating disorders and people overly obsessed with exercising. Side effects from bad cosmetics, plastic surgery, people gossiping about certain celebrities' new look or appearance. I think people even want to hide their true self behind the images created by the society. I think especially nowadays, we should focus more to our inner self rather than how we are viewed to the others.


 * March 14th 2014 - Hyoungjun Sim(Jun) - Free Write**

Volunteering at a nearby Korean academy, where Korean-American children that are born in America are taught Korean, I'm helping children with their learning and doing miscellaneous jobs. Watching these ethnically mutual children, I can't help but to reflect upon my older memories. Although technologies have changed a lot between that 6~8 years span, simple kids' play have remained relatively similar. Those days where my old friends and I would play all day long in dirt and playground; the ambitious but innocent plan to reach Earth's core by digging; the restless debate on who's dad is the strongest; I call's and you call's in dividing toys; I can see myself in these children. It's often very weird watching yourself in 3rd point of view; Imagine division of your self-consciousness one doing something and other constantly judging. I constantly find myself asking, 'Did I really used to do that?' It's funny how much time can bring forth to change, and how fast time is flowing. It feels like time is exponentially going faster. Maybe it's because the portion of a year is getting shorter year after year relative to my entire life that I've lived so far. Quite frankly, I find one of my deepest fear living my life in a blink of an eye. All the things that I dared to dream about, will I be able to do all those within my life? The answer seems to be no at this point but it's definitely hard to acknowledge such thing. I don't even know how the topic escalated so quickly but I'll excuse myself here.


 * February 28th 2014 - Hyoungjun Sim (Jun) **

Heroes are often understood as people who fight for the justice and the good side; People who save people's life, people who help the weaks and in-needs, etc... These are people who are strong, courageous, patriotic, determined, manly, outspoken, generous, clever, smart, humble, tenacious, and et cetera. These characteristics are well represented and displayed in the superheroes that we like and admire in movies, novels and cartoons. More realistically, we think of fire fighters, soldiers, police and philanthropic advocates when we think of our modern heroes. They fight for the goods and justice. However, if we slightly alter the point of our views, the 'reference point' of what is truly a justice completely changes. Therefore, I feel that while heroes share their similar characteristics and values, their margin of difference with villains is very, in actuality, slim. Which is quite interesting and ironic since we consider those two opposite of another despite the typical archetype of villains.

Although we were given Miley Cyrus's controversial case as an example to discuss about the gender characteristics but I do not want to limit the boundary of the discussion solely on Miley Cyrus. However, going back to the topic of MIley Cyrus, two opposing view points clash on the importance of individual values and values that society upholds. Both should of course be equally respected. However, I believe that as a role model especially to those who are relatively young, she holds a responsibility of moralizing values that society generally tend to promote. Selling her sex appeal seems just ridiculous while putting aside her real providential talent that she was known for before.

Men are women are different. It is a fact that is just unchangeable. Before going into arguing about the gender and gender characteristics inequalities, I think it is really important that we just admit this fact. We are different and the reason why the characteristics prized by the society of each gender is because we are literally different. And because we are different, we will never seem equal. Even though being different and equal are two separate concept, people often confuses one another. Clearly, in our history, as the his of history simple wraps it all up, men and women were unequal. Clearly, the equality is slowly reaching the equilibrium. Obviously women remaining chastity outside of marriage and tolerance of men sleeping with other women is not ethically correct. As women gain more respect in the society these values and characteristics will slowly run toward the equal point. I believe most values should be nearly equal. However, I still believe that it will not be accomplished as if we are reaching infinitely close to a limit point in calculus.


 * February 21st 2014 - by Hyoungjun Sim (Jun)**

Reading the first article, //Sexist 'Avengers' T-Shirts Tell Boys To Be Heros And Girls To Need A Hero,// it struck me how obvious sexism exist in a product that is meant for children. Typical, stereotypical idea of boys are strong/girls are weak just seem absurd and dated. In 21st century where sexual equality is strongly emphasized, it is neither appropriate to promote these types of products nor they will be chosen by the consumers. 'Anyone else sick of the idea that girls are incapable of taking care of themselves and being their own heroes?' asks the author of the article. Maybe the author is taking this idea somewhat farther than it's really needed but it does make a point about a part of society that is so oblivious and unaware of these problems. We cannot physically prevent manufacturers to stop producing these products but if we consumers do not purchase such products, they will not manufacture these products. As a boy, who was never interested in apparels, I never really cared so seriously what I wore. Honestly I cannot quite understand the second article, // A Line Between Sweet and Skimpy // from my previous experiences. However I do notice many girls wearing overly revealing clothes daily in school. They distract me quite often; I'm not going deny that I hate them, but sometimes it just becomes uncomfortable. The article further moves on the the parenting part of the these clothing issues and it really made me think about the future when I'll marry someone and have a child, maybe a daughter. This is also a fault of society. Society promotes sexuality and 'pornification' of culture is occurring. It just feels like people are getting so numb of so many things. People want things that are just overboard and 'strong'.

Two articles tell a lot about the positions and conceptions women receive in the society.One promotes the weakness and vulnerability of women in the society. The other tells about emphasis of sexuality in women. In modern days, I think that clothing holds a significance that is more significant than ever so far in the history. It isn't a mere covering of the body anymore - it tells many things about a person. Some people even believe that it may define a person from what they wear and people get judged from what they wear. Due to those reasons, I think people should be offered of more variety and options of what they can wear and society should not influence their decisions so much that it nearly forces them to.


 * February 7th 2014 - by Hyoungjun Sim (Jun)**

Good, appropriate diction in any written text is always very important. Once it was written down or typed, the fact that it was written down or typed will not change. Especially in a popular pop song, music, and form of entertainment, importance of critical diction is indescribable. Nowadays, these things spread through the medium of Internet and could spread all over around the world in matter of seconds and minutes. Pop cultures that affect people should take an extra caution in the diction.

Words have power. It is a mighty power that cannot be defeated by a physical, materialistic power. It lingers and stays imprinted and engraved. Any words spoken cannot be retrieved back quite easily, and words written down cannot be retrieved. It applies same with any songs. These songs carry powerful might that influence people. It is a lot easier for songs to spread among people than other written texts or book. An artist or musician's supporters and fans listen to the song, and they are clearly affected by the music. They will go around and affect other people with the influence they received from the song.

Rulers of ancient and even until relatively modern days, understood how powerful and influential words and texts can be. Persian rulers censored books; Stalin censored books; many other tyrants did the same. Some others tried to influence the society with certain texts and literature. Now that we acquired freedom of speech, we must be more careful despite the freedom of speech. It is a privilege that we have and unless we use it critically and carefully, it will be meaningless.

Artists, singers, rappers or ANY influential person in a society should be aware of the impact that they can leave, especially with their diction and words. Like the rapper mentioned in the article, //The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop: Where Tyler Met Frank,// a lyric written in ten years ago when he wasn't even that famous could cause a problem later on. The obligation of being aware of critical diction should be assumed by a person of heavy influence.

[|The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop]