Intro

After an airplane landed on the State College Airport, complicated feelings that consist of thrill and tension came over me. Step by step, I walked into the new world and felt similar feelings that might be the ones which pioneers who first came here in this land felt. From that day, my life of Penn State began. Back to fall 2011, everything was new to me in Penn State. I did not know many things about college life in the U.S. because not only it is the first time studying in abroad in my life but also it is the first time studying in the university. Though it was not easy to leave all of the familiarities behind in my motherland, there was no hesitation to leave home because I had a clear purpose that I want to achieve in the U.S.: To know how the U.S. became one of the greatest powers in the world and the way the U.S. maintaining its status.

As a student who has a history of the colonial era by Japanese, I want to know why it did happen. I found the reason from history; it was the wrong politicians and policies which could not overview the trends of that age. From this thought, I decided to study about how to manage or make the better future for my country to avoid the heartbroken past but my goal that was focused on my nation had been changed over time to the one that focuses on changing the world for the better place. That was the origin of my goal, to know how I can make the better future for my nation and the world by studying about the U.S., leading country in the world, in its lands and curricular. I was in great hopes studying about the U.S. and its power leading the world.

From this point, as spending almost a year in Penn State, it is surprising how I had been changed over time and what I learned in the U.S. within a year. Except common college life’s aspects, I learned many things about what roles we have in our society and how we view the world and act to successfully role as citizens who lead our nation. By investigating several issues or rhetorical materials, I come to a conclusion that if I want to be the one who can change the society and the world, I should be the one who stays awake about real meanings that leading powers want to deliver and know how those powers address their messages to people. Moreover, I realize that I should know about the rhetorical strategies that are used by leaders to clarify their messages and also to use those strategies to address my messages to people. Therefore, from this point, I would like to share several works and reflections that I worked during semesters.

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Run

            Wealth, power, honor, love… What is your purpose of life? Where are you heading now? Why Do You Live? As living in a contemporary society which is rapidly changing day by day, sometimes, we ‘just’ live our lives. In other words, without any specific purposes or values, we leave ourselves in the flow of the society and meet the social requirements. We have to know where we do go. Without clear purpose, it is easy to being eroded by the power of society.

Today, I’m going to introduce a sermon that was preached in first Sunday after the 9.11. Though there are not many rhetoric strategies that I can cover, I really want to cover this film for me and us who is living in a contemporary society. The sermon’s message is simple: “Run for your lives”. The reverend Carter kept saying run from all of the evil things, something that obsessed you. Because this is a sermon by Christians most of its message seems to focus on the God. However, this sermon can be adapted for all of us without having a status as a religious people. It alerts us to the purpose of our lives. Sometimes, we overlook worthy values such as love, duty because it is hard to glance over those ‘true’ values to catch up with social flows and needs that society forces us to do. In other words, we live our lives not because of ourselves but for the society itself. This is why we sometimes forget the true human values. In the sermon, the reverend commented about the fire fighters and the police officers who devoted themselves for their duty and for others. Why did they give their lives? Why did they run to the disasters not run away from? They are not dumb who do not know worthy of their lives and other social values. The reason why they did that is simple; they did know what they should do and what they sacrificed for ‘the true human values’.

It can be uncomfortable for some people who do not familiar with the church sermon but from this article, I do not say about the God’s message rather, I want to look back ourselves what direction we had gone so far. Didn’t we live our lives well without ignoring the true human values? Where are we going now to wealth, honor, and other social values? Or the true values of our lives? Run away from the society and values which forces us to do something for it. Run to yourselves and values of worth. Do not let yourselves to be catch up with and eroded by social factors Run and find true values.

We Can Be Anything

             From the past to present days, many states and people try to come up with solutions to reduce the gap between the haves and the have nots. Many methods have been invented through those considerations. Almost every method focuses on providing equal opportunity and starting point whether some people are born in wealth or poor family. To achieve this main goal to provide equal chance, many people usually think that the education is one of the easiest opportunities that can be provided equally. By providing public education to children, states want to motivate younger generation to achieve better future regardless of their born and reduce rich-poor gap. It means education is a way to escape from birth and method that breaks out of a vicious circle of poverty.

             In the ad, it is composed of a child’s steps to school and studying. Apl.de.ap, who is a member of Black Eyed Peas, appears several times in the ad and narrates. He keeps saying two versions of narration: studying, working hard or doing nothing. At the end of the ad, we can see that his saying that he worked and studied hard than did nothing during his life so he could be someone that he wanted to be. The ad’s message is simple: We can be anything by education. The ad made for the campaign that tries to make classrooms in countries and regions that are suffering from poverty. People who made this film and participate in the campaign think that they can solve the gap between rich and poor (not only for gap among people but also among nations).

             Today, almost every country in the world provides public education. By enjoying the equal opportunity of education, the problem of gap between rich and poor is reduced but just for the country which is developing. In developed countries, education is no longer a method to solve the problem because in those states, though there is a public education, there are many other private educations that make the gap between poor and rich. It means that the rich can enjoy better and more opportunities than people who do not affordable for those other educations. Therefore I come up with questions that does education can be the way to reduce gap among people and states? Is it possible to solve the problem just by providing education and establishing education facilities?

The Real Beauty

What is the beauty? And who decides the standard of the beauty?

     As society is becoming wealthier, more people start to interest in their appearance: physical looks. Along with this trend, today, there are many companies which produce products that fulfill the people’s desires to beauty. We buy products and get more beautiful or handsome. However, though many of us try to become nice-looking people, we do not know what’s the real beauty is; the standard of the beauty is unclear. We just buy the beauty that is made by companies that intends to sell their products by injecting their standard of beauty among people. Therefore, companies make commercials and images to achieve the goal of making the standard of the beauty.

     Unlike the majority of commercials that try to advertise their products, the commercial that I found goes against the trend of those majorities. It shows the process of make up for a model. It seems that the ad is just one of the commercials that appeals to people how people can change and attain the beauty by using their products. However, at the end of the film, it shows the modifying step of the model; the ad shows how the model is made for an advertisement. After that, we can realize that this ad is not just for advertising some particular products but it is the ad that wants to let people know about the intended beauty and make people come up with the question; what is the real beauty?

     Dove which made the ad is also one of the cosmetics companies. In the film, they did not directly advertise some products. They just raised a criticism about the distorted beauty and their workshops for the real beauty for girls. We can come up with a question that by doing so, what advantages that Dove could get?

Intended Images

     In contemporary society, it is important what images that something has because they are used to make people to accept values that are embedded in the images. In other words, by connecting some images with values, powers which want to influence people can inject their ideologies and norms. Therefore, the strategy that tries to make good images and attach some intended values to figures, products or companies is used for many reason: political, commercial and so on.

     The video that I will cover below seems to advertise South Korea’s development and achievement. Through showing the transition images of Seoul (the capital city of South Korea) since the Korean War, the film shows how South Korea developed and overcame adversities within 50 years. Along with the music Arirang, one of the Korea’s representative traditional music, ad effectively expands its meaning in a broader range. In other words, not only do the ad show Korea’s achievements but also nation’s values: dynamic, diligent, potential and so on. At the end of the film, we can find that two main agents: Samsung and KBS (Korea Broadcasting System) who made advertisement appeared on the video. From this point, we can easily understand the hidden intends of this film. Samsung and KBS (national broadcast) want to connect their images with the values covered in the video. They want to make people think that Samsung and KBS have correlation with South Korea’s achievement and values. In other words, they want to be seen as the representatives of South Korea.

     Dominating power that wants to make people think in particular ways always seeks the way to injecting their ideologies to people. One of the best ways to achieve that goal is making some images and values that can be adapted for many people so companies, political agents and other powers sometimes try to make their images as national thing that insists they are the one who can represent your own country. Moreover, by doing so, they try to connect their images to patriotism. Therefore, it is easy to be dominated by those intended images in our daily lives so we need to ask ourselves that “Do we accept something as national and patriotic thing though it does not have acceptable reasons?”

Sound of Nation

Sound of the Nation

      All of the countries in the world have their own song that represents nation’s identity, values, history. National anthems mainly take responsibility for these functions. We can hear national anthems in every place where our nation is needed to be magnified such as sports competition against another country, conference among the world leaders. However, instead of the national anthem, there are songs (usually traditional songs) that have the life and sentiment of people. Just as a national anthem, those songs exhibit a nation’s spirit, culture, values.

Famous figure skater Yun A Kim performs 'Hommage to Korea' (Arirang as background)

      The ad simply plays music as its background and shows some phrases. It is made for advertise Korea by using a traditional song: Arirang. The reason this song can be the representative of Korea is that the basic emotion which is embedded in the song is one of the main sentiments of Korea: Han (resentment and sorrow). The song’s main theme focuses on the losing of spouse but during Japanese colonial era, Arirang usually was sung among Koreans who were in deep sorrow of losing their homeland. Throughout the colonial era, the song becomes the national folk song. Both South and North Koreans sings Arirang when they solidify the bond between divided Koreas (It is usually sung as unified Korea national anthem). Therefore, for the ad, Arirang can be a powerful source that can bring Korea’s spirit and culture within a short space of time. In addition, the phrases give special meanings to song by using some words that can represent the meaning of the song: memory, sensation, history and soul. At the end, the ad says “Arirang is the genuine music of Korea”. Combined with the image of Korea’s national flag, the ad achieves its goals to advertise Korea and characters of Korea that is embedded in the song.

The ad at the Timesquare

      Just as the ad, it is possible to send ideas or messages to the audience without a number of words. When something such as music appears with specific meanings, it can influence people by itself without any explaining if people can recognize the hidden norms. Every product has its own meaning and wants to deliver its message to people indirectly. Therefore, we need to be aware of those messages that are embedded in some products which surround our daily lives.

Guardians: Defending noble values

          Back to dawn of the June 25^th 1950, North Korea supported by Soviet Union and China invaded South Korea without the declaration of war. North Korea’s leader Kim Il Sung assured that North Korea could conquered whole region of South Korea within a month because prior to the invading South Korea, the U.S. declared the ‘Acheson line declaration’ that excludes South Korea as the line of defense against communism. Therefore, he thought West including the U.S. would not help South Korea. However, the U.N defined North Korea’s invasion as illegal and they sent troops for South Korea led by the U.S. Thanks to ally forces’ support, South Korea counterattacked invaders and they defend South Korea as a democratic nation until now.

Ameircan soldier saving children from battle

Turkish soldier holding a war orphan

           This commercial is made for honoring the veterans and their nations fought for South Korea. During the video, numbers are added continuously and come up with words: friendship, devotion and peace. Combined with those noble words, the numbers become special by sharing the meaning of words. In other words, the words meaning are embedded into the numbers. At the end of the commercial, we come to realize that the figures mean the number of veterans who came from 16 nations and fought for the freedom of South Korea. It emphasizes that they are the one who make the today’s Republic of Korea possible. The video ends with the comment “Korea will be forever grateful”.

          In the advertisement, it is successfully send its clear message by connecting the numbers with the words. If the numbers are not related to those words then it could not bring impressive and remarkable feelings to the audience. This shows the power of words that can attach special images to something that cannot have impacts if it is not related to some words. This method is used in several ways to relating such images to some products, figures and so on.

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Memorial event for the veterans of the Korean War

          I saw a documentary about the international veterans of Korean War in the past. Most of them still suffered from injuries but what the most difficult thing for them are the veterans are not well recognized and do not get enough credit for their devotions about defending democratic values. For most people, Korean War is forgotten and unrecognized comparing to WWs though it is one of the massive warfare after the WWs. In the documentary, as one of the treatments for the veterans, the film makers sent them to South Korea. When the veterans traveled Seoul, the capital City of South Korea, they shed tears to watch the development of country and what values they defend and sacrifice for. For Koreans, we will not forget your devotion and sacrifice to secure our freedom but you should not forget those veterans who sacrifice themselves not for their own country but for the justice and noble values.

“Korea and we will be forever grateful”