조수빈
After going through many assignments, quizzes, deadlines, vocabulary tests, and two important exams, finally Gaflians were awarded with some leisure time. For the freshmen students, it was their first summer vacation after entering the school. The newfound freedom from the dormitories as well as the rigorous classes made the students act in different ways, which directly had repercussions onto how these students spent their summer vacation. Some students said that their summer was fine – they had their plans scheduled out and lived a regulated life with an adequate amount of rest. However, most of the freshmen students said that their summers were disappointingly spent. They believed to have played too much and had not spent their time wisely. To investigate more on this topic, I decided to interview three different students in the class 1-2 about how they spent their summer vacation.
The first student replied negative when asked whether or not she had spent her vacation fruitfully. However, she reported that she was proud of attending Korea Scholar’s Conference for Youth (KSCY), where she presented a research plan on how social media affects a teenager’s self esteem. She avidly detailed the response to the presentation, saying how one professor had commented positively on her presentation.
I asked about why she was disappointed about the vacation when it seemed as though she had spent it well, and my interviewee replied, “I didn’t live a regulated life and woke up at 2 PM everyday was the thing that I regret the most.”
She went on to say that she had learned her lesson from this summer, and that in order to spend her winter vacation more meaningfully, she plans to study more Korean. “Since Korean is my weakest subject, I should have studied more during the summer vacation, but because I couldn’t, I really want to work on it during my winter vacation,” she said.
My next interviewee differed from the first in that she believed that she had spent her vacation fruitfully. She said that the Global Vision Trip (GVT) was a good experience and also included spending more time with her family as a positive factor of her vacation.
However, like the first interviewee, she also regretted not studying for Korean. “I regret myself not studying Korean during my vacation.. Korean is not a subject that can be mastered in a short time – it needs a lot of time in order to study Korean and to improve. Even though I had a lot of time during my vacation, I regret that I didn’t study Korean for those times,” she said regretfully.
“I am going to number out my plans in the scheduler every day and I will try my best to finish that day’s schedule in time,” she finished.
My last interviewee adamantly stated that the summer had not been fruitful upon questioning. Although reading, doing some school club activities, and experiencing something new during GVT were all positive factors of the vacation, the interviewee regretted not reading more during vacation. The interview ended with a strong statement. “I’m going to sign up to the individual study room. I stayed in my house during summer vacation, but it was too hot that I turned on the air-conditioner and did nothing but lying down on the floor and rest. My average studying time one day was less than 2 hours. So next time, I’m going to go to the study room and study harder.”
To conclude, students that spent their vacation fruitfully and those that did not both had events that they were proud of, and events that they regret. Of course academies and homework are important things to do over vacation, but after doing the interviews, I found out that looking over the vacation that you spent, thinking about events that you are proud of and events that you regret, and making a new plan for the next vacation is important as well.
How about you – how did you spend your summer vacation?
