Do you think sports should have the same prestige as the arts?

Korean government usually cut funding for sports facilities and athletic teams at school and is often in favor of increased funding for school arts programs. However, I think that sports have much more advantages than the arts. Sports can offer students academic and social skills as well as physical benefits. More importantly, the benefits from sports are the same whether of not the students are good at the sports. Also, by playing sports, students can relieve stress and reduce depression from their hectic schedule. Furthermore, sports can teach the importance of teamwork and leadership skills, learning that they have to cooperate as a team to win the game.

Yoojin

Yes to equal value of sports and arts!

Today I was confronted with an interesting question of which the answer is evident to me: Should sports have the same prestige as the arts? YES! To my mind neither of them should be considered better or worse than the other. Therefore, sports undoubtedly deserves to be recognized at least as much as the arts is. For decades, sports contributes so much to our society. Let us prove this by the topic "world championship in soccer". It provides an excellent opportunity for people to meet each other and to spur their teams. The result is that sports gets a cultural meaning because it motivates people to come together and to create and strengthen their team spirit. In other words, sports is a reason for arousing enthusiasm which connects people not only in a figurative but also in a literal sense.
The latter underscores and simultaneously explains precisely why sports should have the same prestige as the arts: It connects people. It gives them something they can be proud of and something which they can share with others. Isn't this exactly what the arts does?

Sports should have the same prestige as the arts?

As some arts are performed using physical actions, some sports have the beauty of arts and people are impressed by both of them. I think there are gradations between sport and art as two extremes. For example, ballet is considered an art but it needs to use your body with endurance and muscular and it is usually very sportive. Figure-skating is an Olympic sport but it is played with beautiful music and it is as expressive as dancing. Therefore, it falls right in between sport and art. Like this example, some sports are not just tough but also sophisticated enough to have the same prestige and appreciation as the arts.

Do you think sports should have the same prestige as the arts? (Thomas)

Nowadays, sport people and artists (musicians, singers, movie directers...) are the people living of a kind of leisure who earn the most money. Therefore, I think that on an economic point of view, sports and arts enjoy the same prestige.
As far as culture is concerned, in ancient Greece, the olympic games were an in event as much important than the development of the arts, maybe more.
So sports are able to have the same prestige as the arts, it's just a question of culture, it depends on each country to say if sports "should" have the same prestige as the arts.

Clones for food?

Scientists have been cloning animals to make an exact duplicate for research and even for food. Even though the Food and Drug Administration has approved cloned beef and other foods for consumption, many people, including me, do not approve. Many people disagree for ethical or religious reasons claiming that life should not be created in a lab. Like me, health conscious people just prefer their food to be as organic as possible. For farmers and consumers, cloning can be dangerous. Since all of the animals or plants in a field share the same genes and weaknesses, one disease can affect them all at the same time, destroying everything. Genetic variation is needed for healthy stable farms.

GM foods

I do not like genetically modified food because I think they can be dangerous for human consumption. Even though all of our foods contain genes, they are naturally produced and we are used to them already. However, when the genes are genetically modified, our bodies might not be able to digest them the same way. Therefore, consuming genetically modified food might be harmful to our health.

Cloning (Yoojin)

Cloning is a huge subject that keeps polarizing society after Dolly,which was the first cloned animal, was born. The major pro of cloning is that if it is possible to clone the vital organs of the human body, people can use them as backup system when they get sick. People who have a problem with their organs do not need to wait for suitable organ donors. However, there are disadvantages to cloning. the most controversial issue about advantages and disadvantages of cloning is the ethical problem,. For me,it seems to unethical to act like God by making a embryo that becomes a human being eventually.

About cloning (Thomas)

I think (and not feenk) that cloning is too bad known nowadays to be used no matter how. When a scientific progress is made, it's better to define first the moral border of the discovery, and then the law can act to define the legal border.
It's not a question of religion, life is too important to play with.
Let's find out every opportunities that cloning can afford, and then let there be legalized in the legitimate sectors.

International adoption

I still think that international adoption is a great option for either the country where the kid is from, the biological family and of course the kid. I didn't like the fact that Faith got 'americanized' since she was a girl with a strong personality now all she does is follow the american culture and she even forgot how to speak mandarin and cantonese (at least it looks like it). Maybe this is just part of the documental drama but thats the only thing i disagree with in international adoption.

After Watching The Video...

At the beginning of Faith's new life in America, She had a difficult time due to a language barrier and missing her biological family. An eight-year-old girl facing a totally different environment was confused about her situation. When children of her age are adopted, they already got used to their mother language and culture and express their thoughts and feelings. That's why Faith was being stubborn against her foster mother and wanted to go back to China. As time passes, she has been losing her Chinese. Generally, a child who was adopted to the U.S. americanizes themselves to survive in the reality. I could see her struggles for her identity on the video but having this time is inevitable for any adopted child, and they live in an affluent circumstance as a reward.

Faith's story (Thomas)

The documentary about the international adoption, seen through the prism of Faith's story is very interesting because it shows us a situation pretty hard to manage, and the evolution toward the construction of a new identity in another country, in another family.
We can feel the hope of all the protagonists, both the foster family and the adoptive family. But the case of Faith is very complex: with her coming in US, she seems like an extremely clever kid. Step by step, we can analyse her change, and it's very strange because it's as if she completely had been casted in the mold of her new family's expectations.
I've prefered the little girl very quick at repartee, than the character she became.

International Adopting 2

Adopting a child is a noble act that could also bring adaptation challenges for both the child and the family especially when the child is older. International adoption could not only bring challenges such as adapting to a new family, environment, rules, and traditions, but it could also bring the challenge of adapting to a different culture, learning a different language, and understanding different values. Even though challenges exist, they are worth it when the outcome is rewarding and fulfilled with happy moments.

International Adopting

A child’s smile really is a gift from God. Adopting a child not only provokes his/her smile, but also gives him/her a chance for a better future. This is especially true when this child comes from a sub developed country where the opportunities for health, nutrition, and education are scarce. When the new parents give this child a new home, conditions to grow and have a decent life, and above all the love he/she was missing very much, it generates smiles for now and always.

My Opinion About International Adoption

When a child is abandoned or born into poverty, they are sent to a facility which takes care of these children. While some families can't afford to raise a child, others can't have a baby or want more. I think adoption is a good program for these people.
Children need a safe place to grow up and a family. International adoption can help children to have better lives, moving from a poor environment such as an uneducated or dangerous place to a secure home. Also it could be easier than domestic adoption because the larger the range of opportunity for adoption is, the more children will find homes.

Personal impression about adopting chinese kids.

It is really really impressing how american people is interested in adopting chinese kids and how the family in the video agreed to add new members from a total diverse culture to their family.
I personally find it really good to adopt kids from China since this is a country that has a lot of overpopulation, and this helps the chinese economy and of course the lifestyle of the kids that are being adopted.

PD: The older son of the family looks like Wolowitz, one of the protagonists of "The big bang theory" :)

My opinion on international adoption (Thomas).

International adoption is not a subject I master, but the principle seems to be good. At first appearance there's no negative dimension, every protagonists can be satisfied by this process. The kid is able to grow up in better conditions, the bioligical parents may be happy to know that their kid will know opportunities of another country, and the parents can have a child.
Maybe the point is that instead of international adoption, parents may think to "national" adoption first, to help the children near them.
But whatever the way, national or international adoption is a chance.
The real negative point is on the parents who are ready to do anything, even not to respect the law. In France there was a case like this: some parents who had adopted children in Chad, and it turned out that these children were found in Ndjamena's streets but were not abandoned.
So it's a very delicate question, even if on the principle I completely agree with the idea. If someone told me "you don't agree", I would reply "I DO agree".

Do you think that Diane's advice about how to act like a man was accurate? What about it made sense base on your experience...

According to me, Diane's advice is not relevant. It could be an accurate advice to act like a drag king or like drag queen, in other words to act excessively and then not naturally.
Acting like a man means that all the men behave in the same way and according to Diane, men don't smile. When there's another known generalization which says that "boys don't cry", she says that boys don't smile. So how should a man behave?

Diane mistakes the category "men" for something else, maybe the men called "macho" very arrogant towards women, thinking that men have to control women.

This kind of mentality can be dangerous beacause it closes the people in false identities.

Question 5. How the men are in Venezuela.

There are some things that need to be known before I start this answer, and it is that some men in Venezuela are really mean with woman. But this is just a part of the men of Venezuela, the other ones are really kind and sweet to woman.
Since the listening we heard today was about arrogant men, I'm going to talk about the arrogant men in Venezuela.
If a girl went into the 'how to be a man' workshop in my home country, the first thing they would be taught is about how to drink a lot of beer and not care about anything else than how many drinks left are in the fridge. The Venezuelan men have a very strong attitude that is characterized by the 'hating' factor, which is about hating and being mean at everything that is not similar as you. Another thing you must consider to look as a Venezuelan guy is the way you walk and talk, since if you do it in a wrong and not manly way you could be considered gay, and homosexual people is really discriminated in south american countries.
As conclusion, becoming an arrogant and mean Venezuelan man can be really hard, because it's not anymore about attitude, but also hurting other people feelings, so if girls want to become like them, they have to do a really hard work and be converted into another completely different person.