My Worries
MY WORRIES
Practice English with your teacher
Warm-up
Talk about these questions with your teacher.
선생님과 이야기해 보세요.
- The author identifies four major worries: exams, money, dating, and appearance. If you had to rank these for your own life right now, what order would you put them in?
- Do you think the pressures young people face today are fundamentally different from those of previous generations, or are they essentially the same worries in a new context?
Vocabulary
Listen and repeat after your teacher.
선생님을 따라 읽어보세요.
Reading
Read the passage with your teacher.
선생님과 함께 지문을 읽어보세요.
The world today revolves around my troubles. Chief among them are The Big Four: EXAMS, POCKET MONEY, DATES, and DIETING.Test-taking is a way of life. It seems that all I do is study for some exam, take it, study for another one, take, study… Is this all there is? I guess I do okay on my exams, but I cram for them for weeks at a time, and a day later I seem to forget everything, so I wonder what I really learn. But meanwhile, the pressure! I wish there were some way to end this.Though I have too many exams, I never have enough money. I don’t get a very large allowance to begin with, and the little I have doesn’t last very long. I try to budget myself, but by the end of the week I’m always short. What can I do to improve this situation?Another problem is dating. Part of the difficulty is deciding where to go on a date. What can I do that my date would also like? But an even bigger problem is that my friends seem to have a lot more dates than I do, so I wonder what I’m doing wrong. What can I do to be more popular than I am?The last thing on my list is my weight and my appearance. My whole body seems to be changing all at once: my voice, my face, my size, my shape---- everything! I try to eat healthy meals and to watch my calories, and I try to get lots of exercise, but nothing seems to help a lot more dates than I do, so I wonder what I’m doing wrong. What can I do to be more popular than I am?The last thing on my list is my weight and my appearance. My whole body seems to be changing all at once: my voice, my face, my size, my shape?everything! I try to eat healthy meals and to watch my calories, and I try to get lots of exercise, but nothing seems to help.
Dialogue Practice
Practice the dialogue with your teacher.
선생님과 대화를 연습해 보세요.
1.How many worries does this writer have?
2.What does he seem to spend most of his time doing?
3.Does he think studying hard teaches him anything?
4.Does he think his spending money is adequate to his needs? Why or why not?
5.Does he seem to have high self-esteem about his looks and his popularity?
6.How is he changing?
Korean Trap! / 한국인 실수 교정
Common mistakes Korean speakers make.
한국인이 자주 하는 실수를 알아봅시다.
한국어 '걱정이 있다'를 직역하여 'have a worry'라고 하면 부자연스럽습니다. 영어에서는 'be worried about' 또는 'I’m concerned about'이 자연스럽습니다.
Discussion
Share your thoughts with your teacher.
선생님과 의견을 나눠보세요.
- The author says, "I cram for weeks at a time, and a day later I seem to forget everything." Does this suggest a fundamental flaw in how education systems evaluate learning?
- The passage presents money worries alongside exam stress as equal concerns. To what extent does financial pressure affect academic performance, and should schools address this?
- The author compares their dating life to their friends’. How does social comparison contribute to anxiety, and is it possible to stop measuring yourself against others?
- Body image concerns are listed as the "last thing," yet they seem deeply distressing. Why do people often minimize appearance-related anxiety while privately suffering from it?
- If you could give this author one piece of advice to address all four worries simultaneously, what would it be and why?
Extra Practice
1.What happens if your grades fall short of your expectations? Are you disappointed, or don’t you worry much about it? What about your parents?
2.What do you do when your exams are over?
3.How much pocket money do you get? What obligations do you have to get it?
4.How do you spend it?
5.Do you think money makes people happy?
6.How much money do you expect to make in the future
Lesson Summary / 수업 요약
Today's Topic: MY WORRIES
Level: Low Advanced (L.A)
Review this lesson before your next class! / 다음 수업 전에 복습하세요!