Public Speech and Debate Class

Today was the last day of my public speaking and debate class and I'm sad because it's my favorite class of the semester.  It's the only communication class I'm taking here and I really enjoy it mainly because it's the only class I'm taking where there are more Korean students than foreign students (there are only 3 foreign students).  I really get to meet Korean students here and they've been so nice to me and always telling me new things.  Plus, it's a communication class so of course I love the content!

So in this class it's split up into 2 speeches and 1 debate.  We gave an informative speech and persuasive speech in the beginning of the class.  Then the last few weeks of the semester focused on a debate tournament.  My team consists of Moo Bin and Min Kyung and our team is call This House Would (THW) Win and guess what?!  We did!  We're the champions of the class.  There was another team that also had 2 wins but we had more points!  So here's are pics of the "award ceremony"

Then Professor Peter Kipp gave an award to the best speaker which is Boram.

Then in our evaluation sheet we were able to write down 3 names of people who we think were the best participants in our class.  It depends on who were always prepared and who contributed a lot to the class discussions.  I was one of the 5 who were voted but only 3 of us were in the class today:

Then Peter explained the grading process to us and it's so sad!  Korean education system has a cap on how many students can get As, Bs, and Cs.  For Ewha, if it's an English class 40% of the students can only get As, 45% can only get Bs which means 15% will get Cs.  This means that before the semester ended, there's a possibility that you will get a C.  So in our class of 24 people, this means that only 10 people can get As if their score is between 97-92.  If there are 11 people with a score between 97-92 only 10 will get it, the computer won't allow the professor to give 11 As.  I think this is so sad and unfair.  This is why students are so stressed out and always competing with each other because you want to remain in the high percent.  Even if all the students have 100, only 10 will get an A...I think that is so unfair!  Fortunately for me, Peter said foreign students are not graded that way so we get the grade we all deserve...I got an A!!  :)

Here is a picture describing what I just said:

I'm going to miss the class so much!  I really had a lot of fun and I'm going to miss everyone!

After class today, I had dinner with Alex and Moo Bin.  Today was the first time I have to say goodbye because I won't have a chance to see them again before I leave.  It's sad but I know this is not forever, I'll definitely be back in Korea!