Will the concept of fashion street work in Singapore?

Shinchon Fashion Street in South Korea is a street surrounded by 3 universities, one of which is Hungik University. Undergraduate studying there would usually shop after school. Due to this, stall holders would sell items like accessories, clothing and electronic devices that attract these youth. As Korea is a country with four seasons, it is an advantage for stall holders as they have more variety of items to sell during the different in seasons like winter wear and summer wear. The stall holders are mostly young adults who will understand the needs of these university students and would make the price of the items they sell affordable with discounts that made it even more attractive for the students. We have observed that the number of stalls selling ladies items is more than the number of stalls that sell men items and we believe this is because Korean ladies are more concerned about their appearance as compared to the males.

Unlike Korea, Singapore is smaller in size as we have limited land space. Thus, this would restraint Singaporean from setting up more stalls. Since Singapore does not have 4 seasons like Korea, the variety of goods sold are lesser. In addition, Singapore usually gets their goods from other countries which cause the price of the goods to increase. Hence, all these factors may affect the sustainability of the fashion street in Singapore.

On the other hand, Singaporeans are more spend thrift. Majority of the Singaporeans would buy an item regardless of how costly it is. This would boost its economy and hence enables sustainability of the fashion street in Singapore. In addition, the presence of the fashion street would also increase the rate of employment and attract more tourists.

Moreover, due to the Korean wave, Singaporeans are following their trends and has become more fashionable. This allows the stall owners to sell more varieties of items in the street. Usually, the richer entrepreneurs in Singapore are risk-takers and would improve themselves by taking courses related to business. Hence, they would have sufficient knowledge to be successful in their businesses.

Majority of Singaporeans are not risk takers (Youth) as they do not have sufficient fund to start off their businesses. Instead of setting up stalls, they would rather start off with setting up an online blog shop which is less risky. Blog shops can also be used as a form of survey to examine the needs of the market. For example, in Far East Plaza, most of the stall holders started their businesses with the use of blog shop and the sales people are mostly foreigners. Thus, this shows that young adults in Singapore are less willing to set up their own stalls as they are afraid that their business will fail and most of them would rather spend their time on their studies.  

To enhance the number of entrepreneurs in Singapore, we can adapt some of the Korean methods of sustaining the fashion street.  For example, Singapore Management University (SMU) might be one of the suitable venues as it is very spacious. Singapore government is also encouraging Singaporeans to venture out and start up their own small business. Hence, a street can be set up within or around the SMU so that it can attract the students just like how the Korean’s concepts work. SMU is also located in the town and hence it can attract more people from town so that they could sustain their business. This would give the entrepreneurs a strong sense of security as they know that there will be business for them. Secondly, there are many underground MRT stations that have the space which are suitable for people to set up their own stalls. These MRT station is a suitable location as there is a large volume of people taking MRT (especially during peak hours.

In conclusion, Singapore will be able to work out the concept like what the Korean did for its fashion streets. Since Singapore government is trying to encourage more entrepreneurs, this would encourage more people to take up the challenge of setting up a street full of stalls surrounding the university! This will attract the students from the university to buy and at the same time people from the town. In addition, stalls can also be set up in underground MRT station to attract the crowds. With all this, we believe that Singapore would be able to work out the concept of the fashion street.

Below are some example of the Korean fashion street.

THANKS! Done by : Shirley, Crystal, Michelle, Joey, Audrina and Santhya!

What is the role of the English village in ensuring Korea’s economic competitiveness?

English Village is used to provide a more conducive environment for the Korean students to study English. The purpose of setting up the English village is to raise the standard of English among the younger generation. The English village runs camps in order to motivate the Korean children to learn English. The Koreans learn English by having fun through the singing of nursery rhymes and storytelling. The children are taught western cultures, such as Halloween in order to understand the western countries more.

English is very important as it is a global language used widely for commercial purposes. In order to ensure more Koreans are able to communicate with foreigners, the government has invested a lot of money on setting up English village in other parts of South Korea as it is accessible to as many children as possible. Koreans benchmark Singapore in terms of our level of proficiency in English by 2025. This is to ensure the survival of the country as the government will have to depend on them to ensure the future work force is strong and competitive, thus they learn basic English.

We feel that the English village will not be sustainable in the long run due to many factors. The Koreans are still speaking their first language instead of using English though they have learnt basic English.  In addition, it may be difficult to sign up for the programmes organized by the English village as it is not well known to the locals. The locals have not regarded English as an important language to be used in their country. Another challenge faced by the government is the lack of volunteers to teach the children English and to run the programmes.

In our opinion, we feel that it is good to set up an English village as it raises the awareness of the importance of English to the locals. However, we think that measures could be taken into consideration in order to publicize the benefits of the English village. The government should stress the importance of English and also provide subsidies for the locals.

By Super students.

Is unification possible between North and South Korea?

River between North and South Korea

The Final Destination

Yesterday, we went to Odusan Unification Observartory where we look into the differences between South Korea and North Korea. Im-jin river separates North and South Korea. From what we see, North Korea is more rural as there were no prorper roads. On the other hand, South Korea is developed and advanced with proper transportation. 

If North Korea and South Korea unifies, North Korea will be able to improve its’ quality of life via the availability of job opportunites and education. This will help in the finanical issues of individual families and eventually, the development of South Korea will also benefit in terms of resources like land.With more land, South Korea can minimize problems of increasing population density in an area.Furthermore, with more resources, the government is able to gain more wealth and thus help to boost the economy.

Both North Korea and South Korea can benefit as the problems of aging population can be reduced. With a better lifestyle for both South Koreans and North Koreans, women can focus more on raising their children.This will boost the birthrate in Korea and with more youngsters in the country, the country can progress further to heed the needs of a competitive world.

On the other hand, if South Korea and North Korea were to unite, a lot of sacrifices will have to be made.South Korea and North Korea will not be able to unite successfully, as their governments cannnot cooperate with each other.They may not want to lose power and reputation and hence, disagreement in the governement structure and ruling procedures of the nation may occur. Due to the disareement and uneven voting rights, a war may erupt, leading to a great loss of wealth and resources which will hinder the country’s progres.

The social cohesion of the Koreans will be affected, leading to disputes and disorder.As a result, transnational corporations will lose confidence in the security of Korea and thus neglect investing Korea, which will lead to a decrease in the economic development of Korea.

In addition, if North Korea were to merge with South Korea, it would be challenging and stressful for the North Koreans to cope with the fast pace development of South Korea as they are normally used to their peaceful rural atmosphere.If South Korea were to merge with North Korea, South Korea may have to sacrifice their resources and be compromised in terms of economic benefits which will affect the power, reputation and growth of Korea as a whole.

To conclude this issue, we believe that unification of North and South Korea is indeed possible. However, a significant amount of sacrifices must be made.Such sacrifices involved making the whole of Korea a democratic nation. Despite North Korea being upsetted, it will have a long term benefits. Communism has lost much popularity among world leaders as it destroyed much nations due to its idea of isolating themselves from the rest of the world.Should a democratic system of government be adopted, other countries will be more willing to have relationships with Korea as they will not have to fear that communism will spread into their country.Hence, North Korea can become a developed nation like South Korea.If both sides benefits, why will they hesitate? South Korea,on the other hand, needs to be willing to spend much of its resources and money on a nation that had  not been seeing eye to eye for many years.North Korea is largely rural.Even proper road system could not be found in North Korea. If such basic issues, that requires low cost had to be addressed , how about more complicated issues that requires most cost? They are one family afterall. They speaks one language, have same looks,history and reaction.If all Koreans believe in this perspective they can definitely make unity possible.

Group Members:

Xaverie Sng, Jow Ming Tong, Choo Xin Yee, A. Nithyadarshiny, Pang Shi Jie, Lim Jun Yang

How does Korea use sports for nation building?

For this essay, nation building is defined  as the national bonding of the Korean. One way Korea has portrayed national bonding is through sports. For example,  sports can be classified as team events such as Soccer, Baseball and individual event such as Taekwando. Soccer and Baseball are played at an international level against countries like America and Japan. Usually team events are the ones that will bond the people together.

National bonding can be seen from different aspects. For example, the government can help strengthen the bonds of the people through encouraging them to support their local sportsmen or team. One example is that the government would give them a day-off for them to show their support towards the teams. The government also put aside some funds to build sports museums so as to acknowledge the sportmen’s achievements. Moreover, the presence of government officials supporting the teams would turn up to support the important and crucial games or matches so as to boost the team’s morale.

National bonding can also be seen from the people. For example, when the Korea soccer team was playing their matches with the opponent, the Korea people would support the team by buying merchedise  as a sign to support them. The fans of the soccer team would also wear the same colour t-shirts to show their support for the team. The Koreans believe that they have the same blood, so they regard themselves as one big family. Some restaturants give discounts for their food, so as to encourage the customers to come to their to restaturants to eat and to support their favourite team.

Lastly, national bonding can also be seen from the individuals. (players/sportsman). As individuals, one would feel very proud playing for their country. Moreover, they are playing against strong teams such as the Americans and Japanese. The presence of government officials also boost their morale as it was mentioned before. Since their morale were boost, hence it would increase their level of perseverance and thus believed they can do it. They are playing for the “FAMILY” and therefore they will try their best to win every game.  

In conclusion, we think that Korea is a country that allows sports to bond them together. This is because we can see them supporting each other through sports like Baseball, Soccer. We think that Singapore can improve themselves by a few methods . One of the method is through spreading of sports events from one person to another then eventually to the whole country. Another method is through sports campigns is breify about having locals able to try out different sports that Singapore participate in. This would enable Singaporeans to know national players would feel when they are representing the country.

The end (:
Group : 3

Group members :

Steffi , Thaddeus, Brandon, Amzar, Geraldine, Tricia

Commercialisation is a double-edged sword. Discuss.

Annyong haesayo ! The Kimchi Gang had visited the Hahoe Village today. When we heard that we are going to a village. At first, we though that we will would be visiting a rundown village where the toilets would be very dirty, and where the sole form of income would be agriculture. However, we were proved wrong! The place seemed very commercialised. In fact, the first thing we saw was a carpark large enough to accommodate 100 cars, and it was completely filled with tour buses and cars. This made us think that the village was commercialised.

In a case of the Hahoe village, commercialisation refers to the modification of the culture into something more attractive to the masses. For example, our first activity was to watch the traditional mask dance by the villagers. . Traditionally, farmers have very intimate relationships with the land and their way of life. The dance was supposed to be used by farmers to express the life and hardships of the farmers. However, the dance now is used solely for entertainment as hundreds of tourists gathered to watch it. It makes us feel that much of the true meaning of the dances is not lost, and most of it was used for entertainment.

The second instance where we felt that the village was commercialised was when we took a tour in the village. We were enjoying ourselves and taking photos of the houses belonging to the villagers without much though. Upon further reflection, we feel that we had actually intruded on their privacy. If we were in their shoes, we would feel very frustrated as we would need to “lend” our houses to the foreigners to take photos and explore. This really makes us wonder why the villagers would choose to do this even though it makes them feel uncomfortable.

We realized that the village could not survive without commercialization. Geographically, the village is located far away from the capital. Without opening themselves up to visitors, the villages cannot earn enough money through farming although they are near to a river and have a fertile soil. Consequentially, this would discourage the young villagers from continuing their traditional practices. This will lead to a lost in the culture of the village as the youths are no longer willing to continue the practices of their ancestors.

Therefore, there is a need for the government to pump in money to preserve the village’s traditional practices of farming, culture dances and making crafts. By transforming a primary industry into a tertiary industry, it helps the next generation of villagers to sustain the traditional practices in the village while still maintaining a quality of life.

To conclude, our group feels that it is important for traditional villages to commercialise in order to preserve its original flavor. If not, traditional Korean culture might run the risk of disappearing. In other words, it  is better to have a fraction of the culture preserved than to have nothing at all.

Hello to SKY Achievers and teachers

hello everyone,

I'm not using the tagboard because its down. Just saw the exchange of gunfire between the North and the South. Hope everything is ok. Please do update so that we know that you all are ok. Take care!

Gavin Lee

Depart for Korea from Changi Airport Terminal 2 28th October 2010