personal narrative: Being an outcast

            I would like to make a confession. I have never told this story to anyone including my mother. I am writing this story right now because it happened 5 years ago and I feel that I got over that hardship. This story is about me being an outcast in Canada when I was in the 4^th grade.

            I went to Canada to learn English for 1 year. In Canada, I stayed at my mother’s friend’s friend’s house. Because that was a “Homestay house”, there were other students, too, and two sons of the owners. There were four other students, three girls and one boy. They seemed really nice at first, but as time went on, they made my life hell.

            The first few months were okay. I mad many friends at the new school and became familiar with the teachers. Other students who were at the house were good to me, and the owners were really kind. However, something happened that started all this mess.

            Since I was a child, I loved stickers, so I brought a bunch of them with me to Canada. I gave some to other students and played with them. However, one day, some of my stickers went missing. I did not notice that for one or two months because I had so many. After a few months, I realized one of the girls was giving out stickers to the other girls that seemed familiar. Feeling strange, I went inside the girl’s room and searched. I found the stickers in that room. I told the other girls about this, but strangely, they only blamed me for searching he girl’s room. I still cannot understand why they only blamed me.

            After that happened, I started to become an outcast. When I asked questions, they never answered. During the weekends, they left me out when they went to the playground. They started to pass messages saying bad things about me. Having been so young, I could not do anything. Even one of the sons of the owners who was younger than me joined to make me an outcast. So I was ever more afraid. Going to school became the best time of my life unlike other students. Those days were the most horrible days of my entire life.

            When I came back to Korea, everything went back to normal. However, there was a huge hole in my heart and it took me five years to fill it completely. Still, looking back, I don’t think that experience affected me in a negative way. Because I went through that hardship,  I now have the courage to face anything. Also, I learned a valuable lesson. Never ever bully other people. It really hurts. Because I learned that lesson, I tend to look out for people who are excluded from a group, and never talk about others badly behind their backs. In conclusion, although I was a foolish, naïve girl five years before, because of that one nightmare year, I became the person who I am right now.

            

Monthly TOEFL Essay #1: Enjoy & Stay Healthy

         Eating is the most basic need for humans. Looking back the history of food, different countries invented diverse ways to cook with many kinds of ingredients. So presently, every culture has their own characteristics when it comes to food. Although it is hard to discuss the merits of different food cultures, Korean food has many merits. Therefore, Korean food should be renowned to other countries.

         The ingredients of Korean food are superb. The main ingredients that they use are vegetables and rice. Compared to foreign diet that cooks meat mainly, Korean diet that use vegetables as their number one ingredient is much healthier. Korean food especially uses beans in most of their food. Tofu, cheonggukjang which is a soybean soup and bean paste soup are the most popular foods that use beans. Beans especially soybeans are known as food that contain bioactive substances and is proven through diverse researches. Soybean protein has lysine which rice lacks of. Therefore when soybean and rice is cooked together, the nutrient of soybean rice has the same amount of protein in beef. Also, researches show that ingesting soybean protein in long-term lowers the amount of cholesterol in the blood and prevent the hardening of the arteries. Not only beans but also other ingredients like wild herbs are renowned for their good influence on the human body.

         Not only being healthy, Korean food provides people with different menus each weather. There is a phrase that explains the Korean food culture, that is, “Fight fire with fire.” Eating hot food during the summer which seems very ironical is the meaning of this phrase. By eating hot foods during the summer, the temperature of the body remains normal, which is proven scientifically. The sweat a person releases when eating hot food evaporates that lowers the body temperature. One of the most popular foods during the summer is chicken soup with ginseng. During the winter, the combination of sweet potato and kimchi capture the tongues of Koreans. Because Korea has four distinct seasons, the foods that grow each weathers are different which makes the main dishes during each weathers diverse.

         Last but not least, Korean food suits the foreigners’ taste. This is the most important part of Korean food because although it is very healthy if foreigners do not like Korean food, making Korean food renowned is just a waste. Foreigners especially like bibimbap which is rice with wild herbs and vegetables. There were several ceremonies providing bibimbap to foreigners and every single one went well. They loved bibimbap and it became the first food that got famous overseas. Bibimbap is very good because it provides a very balanced nutrients and it is particularly good for the lung. Also because bibimbap has a good taste, it is the food that is getting a lot of attention. Like bibimbap, other countries should notice other Korean foods.

         Therefore, by strengthening the strength of Korean food, it should get renowned to other countries. Korean food uses many kinds of vegetables, especially beans and that is the part where it needs to be strengthened. The part that needs to be covered is where there are foods that are very salty and hot. If those parts are covered up, Korean food will become the best fusion food that would make people around the world healthy.