Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Social worker meets challenges head-on

Choi Hyun-ho, manager at the Korea Association of Social WorkersBy Choi Kyong-ae Choi Hyun-ho, 34, decided not to leave his job as a social worker even when he found out he had thyroid cancer three years ago. Now the manager of the Korea Association of Social Workers is deciding whether to take a rest.Before he got the diagnosis, he used to work for 10 to 11 hours a day taking care of other people ― even though he also has a disability, the result of damaged discs in his spine.“When I took three months off for cancer surgery, I gave serious consideration to whether to continue my job,” Choi told The Korea Times in a recent telephone interview. “I decided to go back to work because I thought I might regret leaving social work.”Choi began his career in November 2003, even before he graduated from Daegu University, located 302 kilometers south of Seoul. He had already been helping people as a volunteer for years.“During my high school years, I participated in an event to help a teenager diagnosed with leukemia in my hometown of Masan,” he sa

Sep 25, 2014

Female soldiers shine in military

Army 6th Infantry Division sergeant first class Yoo Eun-mi, instructs a fellow soldier on how to handle a K-4 machine gun on Sept. 17. / YonhapSecond lieutenant Hong Ji-hye camouflages her face before ordering the 76th ArtilleryBattalion to fire during an exercise Sept. 17. / YonhapBy Jun Ji-hye Hong Ji-hye, a second lieutenant, is the first-ever female officer assigned to the Army’s artillery branch.Commissioned in March, the 25-year-old is currently carrying out her duties at the 76th Artillery Battalion. Her primary task is to calculate firing data and order troops to shoot.She could become the first female officer specialized in artillery missions after the Army opened its artillery, armored and air defense divisions to female soldiers this year.“I want to explore a new way at the artillery unit, a pivot of counter-fire warfare,” said Hong. “I feel a huge responsibility with the title of the first female officer of the artillery branch. I am also well aware of the public attention on myself. I will spare no effort to improve as an artil

Sep 24, 2014By Jun Ji-hye

Pope Francis in Albania

Pope Francis reaches for a poster of Mother Teresa as he is driven through the crowd in Tirana, Sunday. Pope Francis arrived in Albania on his first European trip, designed to highlight the Balkan nation’s path from a brutal communist state where religion was banned to a model of Christian-Muslimcoexistence for a world witnessing conflict in God’s name./ AP-Yonhap

Sep 22, 2014

Actor-turned professor

Actor Lee Deok-hwa, right, poses with Kim Hee-ok, president of Dongguk University, after being appointed as a visiting professor at its campus in Seoul, Monday. Lee will teach in the Department of Theater and the Graduate School of Culture and Arts. / Courtesy of Dongguk University

Sep 22, 2014

Bentley designer stress global tastes

Lee Sang-yup, Bentley Motors’ head of exterior and advanced designBy Park Jin-haiLee Sang-yup, Bentley Motors’ head of exterior and advanced design, says a designer is like a good chef.“A great chef, before he cooks, figures out all the ingredients and their characteristics as well as the tastes of the diners,” he said during an interview held Thursday on the sidelines of the British luxury brand’s launch event for the Flying Spur V8 at the Banyan Tree Club and Spa in central Seoul. “A good designer, too, should study the market for every kind of car that he is designing.”For instance, the Continental GT’s sales are strong across the globe, he says. This means it is necessary to reflect global tastes as well as tradition.“So its body is lower and wider than a conventional Bentley’s,” he explains. “Bentley’s flagship sedan Mulsanne, however, is stricter on British style.”       Lee, better known as the man who designed the yellow Autobot Bumblebee ― a Chevrolet C

Sep 22, 2014By Park Jin-hai

'Conference will help raise biodiversity awareness'

Kim Sang-hoon, director of the CBD Organizing CommitteeBy Kim Se-jeong Kim Sang-hoon, director of the organizing committee of an upcoming international meeting on biodiversity, hopes that the gathering will help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity, especially among young people.Biodiversity is the various forms of life, different species, ecosystems and or genetic variations within a given area.He said the committee is working to make the meeting as environmentally friendly as possible.The Convention of Biological Diversity’s (CBD) 12th conference will be held in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 17. The first meeting took place in 1994 in Nassau, the Bahamas. The goal of CBD is to maintain biodiversity on earth, and its participants are encouraged to discuss and create plans with the aims of preserving this.  Kim said he is most excited about the meeting’s carbon offsetting program. He added that the committee is trying to help people, in particular youngsters, to realize why biodiversity is important in their daily lives.&ldquo

Sep 19, 2014

'Conference will help raise biodiversity awareness'

Korea-China partnered in public diplomac

 Young Korean adult representative Kim Joo-wan, left, and Chinese counterpart Yang Lisha, right, pledge to write positive comments on the Internet, along with other participants at the opening ceremony of the “Korea-China Young Adults Sunfull Cyber Public Diplomacy Corps” at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap Eighty high school and university students from Korea and China took a pledge on Thursday: They promised to write only supportive comments on the Internet and encourage others to do the same. The group pledge was part of a ceremony to launch the “Young Korea-China Adults Sunfull Cyber Public Diplomatic Corps,’’ a joint project between the Chinese newspaper the People’s Daily and the Seoul-based Sunfull Movement Headquarters. The name “Sunfull” comes from a Korean word meaning “positive replies.” With the launch of the new corps, Sunfull and the government-run paper agreed to work together closely to enhance ties and encourage cultural exchanges between the two countries thr

Sep 18, 2014

Korea-China partnered in public diplomac

Korea Journal Award

Min Dong-seok, center, secretary general of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, poses with the two winners of the Korea Journal Award at the commission’s building in Seoul, Thursday. Prof. Choe Key-sook, left, from Yonsei University, was awarded for her paper “A Weeping man and the Mourning Ritual: Literati Writing and Rhetoric”; while Prof. Park Kun-young from the Catholic University of Korea won with “Sino-American Relations and the Unification of the Korean Peninsula.” Ninety papers were submitted for consideration for the award. The journal, written in English, has been published four times a year since 1961, and copies are distributed to Korean studies departments at 180 universities and research institutes around the world. Courtesy of Korean National / Commission for UNESCO

Sep 18, 2014

Sudent wins literary prize with poem on Sewol ferry disaster

Lauren ParkBy Chung Ah-youngLauren Park, a Korean-born student, was recently honored by the literary awards of Australia for a poem inspired by the Sewol ferry disaster. Her poem titled “The Lost Children of Korea” grabbed the top honor in the junior secondary poetry category at the 22nd Mosman Youth Awards in Literature.Attending Pymble Ladies’ College (PLC) in northern Sydney, the ninth-grader competed with 353 contestants.She said she was shocked when she first heard news reports in April that the ferry sank off Korea’s southwestern coast, leaving hundreds of passengers dead.Park said she decided to write the poem about the disaster because many Australians were unaware of the shipwreck, despite the fact that more than 300 people were killed, most of them high school students. Her poem vividly portrays the students’ emotions, from joy when they departed on a school trip to Jeju Island to fear and despair when they were trapped in the sinking ferry. “A scaled down TitanicBleached whitenesswith its name neatly printed?Sewol. It means ‘the pa

Sep 18, 2014

Sudent wins literary prize with poem on Sewol ferry disaster

Merkel wins Seoul Peace Prize

German Chancellor Angela Merkel The Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the 12th winner of the Seoul Peace Prize, Wednesday.Lee Chul-seung, the foundation chairman, said the decision was made in recognition of her dedication to world peace with her continuously sincere attitude toward the matter. She drew attention by apologizing for Germany’s past atrocities during World War II.“Also, the 60-year-old German chancellor proved her leadership when the global financial crisis struck Europe in 2008. She played a central role in strengthening transatlantic economic ties by signing a partnership agreement with U.S. saving bonds from the Eurozone,” Lee said via a press release.Her effort was rewarded even in Israel when Merkel visited the country March 16, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state. Merkel was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an honor guard and many of the country's political and religious leaders, including most of the Israeli Cabinet.Lee announced the decision at the

Sep 17, 2014

People & Events

People & Events

Social worker meets challenges head-on

Female soldiers shine in military

Pope Francis in Albania

Actor-turned professor

Bentley designer stress global tastes

'Conference will help raise biodiversity awareness'

Korea-China partnered in public diplomac

Korea Journal Award

Sudent wins literary prize with poem on Sewol ferry disaster

Merkel wins Seoul Peace Prize

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