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Address | 40 Kangnamro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do Kangnam University Newspaper The Kangnam Hakbo English Edition No. 99 Publisher : Shin-il Yoon • Executive Editor : Yu-jung Kang • Editor-in-chief : Lonnie Coleman • Managing Editor: Su Bin Jung June 07, 2023 No. 382 Mokyang Festival The Mokyang Festival, a school festival, was held for three days from May 16th to 18th. This year was definitely diverse and active as it was the first festival since the government has declared the corona pandemic officially over in South Korea. Many clubs held experience booths, and active participation revitalized the festival. For the Mokyang Festival, our hakbo ran a quiz booth homaging "You Quiz on the Block" under the name of "Hak Quiz on the Block." We had a quiz to answer the questions of 16 countries, including the United States, Spain, and Vietnam, for each country. There was also an event where some of the people who participated in the quiz and posted it on SNS were selected and given prizes. Through these activities, we were able to promote Kangnam hakbo to other students. There were a variety of booths other than “Hak quiz on the block”, a photo studio, a maid cafe, and fishing. In addition, this year we were able to enjoy a pub opened by each major. On the last day, there were more significant elements to enjoy, including fireworks on stage. We hope you enjoyed all the great talent, food and events that this festival had to offer until the next one! YUNSEO KIM yunseolindakim@gmail.com Korea’s Birthrate Decline A total birth rate of 0.87 in 2022 is currently the reality of the Republic of Korea. South Korea has had the lowest birth rate in the world for 10 years, according to data from the National Statistical Office. One pregnant woman does not give birth to one child in her lifetime. Even though it is without any special crisis such as economic crisis or war. Low fertility measures and problems According to the National Statistics Office, the budget for measures to combat low fertility has doubled over the five years from 2017 to 2022. About 280 trillion won has been invested into solving low fertility over the past 16 years, but the birth rate is declining. Currently, the low fertility countermeasure budget includes “green smart school subsidies,” “future-oriented digital field training for practical workers,” and “introduction of advanced weapons.” Are the budgets for these areas really necessary for measures against low fertility? A foundation must be provided to enable the young people to choose to undertake lifelong courses. We need to properly introduce budgets for youth, not superfluous, general budgets. Conclusively, it's not all about just emphasizing budgets and focusing on numbers, but rather a deeper understanding of what it means to be an adolescent or younger person in today’s society is needed. As well as a need for stronger, practical support that could better serve growing and prospective families. SUBIN JUNG popnew234@naver.com

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2 Kangnam University Newspaper June 07, 2023 No. 382 The Kangnam Hakbo Growth of Waste Plastic industry The ideal is a business that people ignore and look nauseous at-Peter Lynch One of the most commonly used materials in everyday life is just plastic. Unlike in the past, the current trend of increasing the price of waste plastic is changing the way the industry sees it. The price of PE, which stood at 545 won per kilogram in March 2020, rose to 744 won in March this year, up about 36 percent over the past three years. Over the same period, PP rose by about 24% from 494 won to 614 won. PE is a plastic material that is resistant to heat and harmless to the human body, and is mainly used to make kitchen utensils. PP is a plastic material that is highly transparent and easy to mold, and is used in various fields such as carpets, upholstery, and artificial fibers for industrial ropes. The value of waste plastic is expected to continue to increase in the future with the emergence of ”chemical recycling” technology that maintains strong physical properties and has no limit on the number of times it can be recycled. As a general example, transparent PET bottles are becoming more and more expensive to purchase raw materials, and cannot be recycled easily to create high added value. On the other hand, garbage that has been burned or buried in the ground, such as waste plastic, waste fishing nets, PET bottles with foreign objects, and old sports clothes, is a valuable recycling material. Garbage, which had been difficult to recycle and had to be incinerated or landfilled, was literally transforming into resources and raw materials. SK Innovation's subsidiary, SK Geocentric, is building Ulsan ARC, the world's first comprehensive plastic recycling complex. Once the high-purity polypropylene(PP) extraction technology, depolymerization technology, and thermal decomposition technology are gathered in Ulsan, it will be possible to process about 250,000 tons of waste plastic annually. They are collaborating with PCT, a US plastic recycling company, to introduce technology that extracts high-purity polypropylene by dissolving waste plastic in a solvent. In addition, the Ministry of Environment announced on April 23 that it plans to formulate a thermal cracking policy to expand high-value- added recycled products that thermally crack waste plastics. It plans to investigate domestic pyrolysis technology and compare the technology levels of major countries to grasp the comparative advantage of domestic companies. SUBIN JUNG popnew234@naver.com NEW FACES AT KNU Kangnam University department of liberal arts contains regular courses for academic English. This year, two new professors came to our school to teach this subject. HJ Bae: Please introduce yourself. Where you are from and led you to join our University? Jennifer: My name is Jennifer Kim and I’m from Chicago, Illinois in the United States. My degrees in education and I have taught English at numerous levels and ages. I came to this school because I teaching at the university level aligns with my passions as an educator. Jimmy: My name is Jimmy Dunne, and I’m from Ireland. I have lived in Korea for 9 years, and I applied for this job because I wanted to work in higher education as well as move closer to the Seoul area. PHOTO: Jennifer Kim and Jimmy Dunne HJ Bae: How do you feel about coming to our school? Jennifer: At first I was a little afraid because I couldn't predict what I would be actually signing up for. Meeting new coworkers and students could lead to some nervous situations. Also, I live in Seoul, so I just wasn’t sure if it was right to commute to Yongin. However, now I believe it was the right choice to come to Kangnam University. I really enjoy being here. Jimmy: I didn’t know what to expect when I started here. At first, I was a little bit flustered or confused because there are so many things happening and so many things to learn. However, after two weeks I got used to university life. Best of all, my co-workers and students are pleasant to be around. HJ Bae: Could you please say something to the prospective students you will meet in the future? Jennifer: Hello students, especially first year students! My advice for you is to enjoy your first year of university. Take this time to get to know who you truly are, because for some of you this might be the first time you're apart from your parents. Make friends, and figure out your interests. See what doors will open during this time but don't forget to have balance and study at the same time. Jimmy: Everyone, don’t worry too much about life after university. Just focus on your university experiences in the present. Of course you should have fun, make friends, socialize, eat all the bad junk food, but study hard. HEEJUNG BAE hejung2575@naver.com

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The Kangnam Hakbo June 07, 2023 No. 382 Kangnam University Newspaper 3 The AI Era Our fathers, grandfathers and all the way back to other ancient, civilized generations had one thing in common. At some point in their lives, they had the experience of having to adapt to political, economic, cultural, and social changes caused by technology and its ever-progressing development. However, the million-dollar question is whether today’s society and humans are ready for the new and extreme changes that AI technology brings with its increasing intrusion into our everyday lives. Currently, the AI tool known as Chat GPT has taken the world by storm, but it is not the only type of AI technology in the game. Other apps (some useful, and some dangerous) have made their way in and have varying functions. Apps such as Pictory, Jasper, Murf, Lovo.ai, Flick and Anyword just to name a few. Pictory is an AI video generator that enables you to easily create and edit high-quality videos. One of the best aspects of the tool is that you do not need any experience in video editing or design. Jasper has been recognized as the best overall AI writing assistant, leading the market with its impressive features and quality. Murf and Lovo.ai have the same voice generation function and in many opinions, one of the most dangerous AI since it has already been used to commit crime. As a voice generator and its text-to-speech platform which can resemble any human voice, you can fake any voice, even the voice of a famous person. There have been some cases where scammers have cloned somebody’s voice and use them to phish their relatives to ask for money. This is one of the ongoing major ethical concerns. With the advent of AI, we could use it to improve and make our daily life convenient, but knowing the history of humanity, it seems is not going to be that way. Geoffrey Hinton (In some circles known as the godfather of AI) quit his job at Google to show his criticism and make others aware of the negative impact that AI can cause with its development. He emphasized it would be harder to know what it will be true and false since AI will be able to make fake news and could control our algorithm, persuading us and making our society more polarized than it already is. Pertaining to the economic sector, he surmised that the AI capability to learn and to get things done is way faster than humans could ever perform. Therefore, job stability has become a major economic concern. Despite some of the possible negative outcomes, Geoffrey Hinton has also stated that there could be many positives in the medical field due to AI. He specified that life expectancy would increase due to its fast-learning ability, and in some cases, would be better than a real doctor. Furthermore, from an environmental aspect, we would be able to detect earthquakes and floods much faster than we have been able to before. Overall, humankind has experienced this phenomenon to some degree throughout history, however the creation and utilization of these AI technologies could prove to be a challenge for us as a society as we integrate it into our lives. CARLOS JULIO jonestradacarlosjulio@gmail.com CULTURE & ART Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London National Museum of Korea Ends October 9 The phantom of the opera Charlottetheater Ends November 17 S20 Korea 2023 SEOULLAND July 8-9 CHICAGO Bluesquare Ends August 6 UPCOMING MARATHONS GIMHAE MARATHON • SUN, JUNE 18 – 9:00 a.m. • Gimhae Stadium and Forest Road • 5K / 10K / HALF • 25,000-35,000 won • supgil.com ULLEUNGDO MARATHON • SUN, JUNE 11 – 6:00 a.m. • Ulleung Culture and Arts Experience Center • 5K / 10K / HALF / FULL • 20,000-50,000 won YOUNGNAM ILBO MARATHON • SUN, JUNE 4 – 8:00 a.m. • Daegu Stadium • 5K / 10K / HALF • 20,000-40,000 won • ynmarathon.kr YEOUIDO MARATHON • SUN, JUNE 25th – 9:00 a.m. • Yeouido Hangang Park • 5K / 10K / HALF • 30,000-40,000 won • 1004.dgt.co.kr SEOCHON LAKE NIGHT MARATHON • SAT, JUNE 10th – Anytime • Seokchon Lake or Everywhere • 5K / 10K • 25,000 won • rankingmarathon.com

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4 Kangnam University Newspaper June 07, 2023 No. 382 The Kangnam Hakbo Entertainment CostIncrease:Necessary or Harmful PHOTO: YUNSEO KIM Everything is seemingly returning to normal after COVID-19. For example, students returning to school, people flooding shopping malls, and even people in the movie theater after restrictions were lifted. However, there is one thing that hasn’t changed - movie ticket prices. People started to return to the theater to watch movies, but why isn’t the ticket price returning to where it once was? As COVID-19 began to spread, people started to stop going to the theater because of the infection concerns. The number of people started to decrease and the movie theaters started to raise their prices one by one. They said that the price hike was caused by worsening management due to COVID-19. According to a recent report by the Korea Film Industry Settlement in 2022, the average admission fee to domestic theaters exceeded 10,000 won for the first time in history last year. This can be seen as a 6.5% increase from 9,656 won in 2021. Before the pandemic, Korea’s representative movie theaters, which are CGV, Mega Box, and Lotte Cinema, increased by about one thousand won after another. The average cost of the ticket became 14,000 won, which means four thousand won increased compared to the cost before the pandemic. What about now? Movie theaters are crowded with people these days even with the expensive cost. However, raising movie prices recklessly is not the ultimate solution. There are many advantages to lowering movie prices. It would be easier to attract more people if the price of the movie is lowered. Watching movies are a part of cultural life that people do the most. In a demanding society, there are many people who relieve their tiredness by watching movies, but as movie prices are high, it has started to become burdensome to watch movies. It would be great if we could go back to the days when watching movies at a reasonable cost was normal and not burdensome. YUNSEO KIM yunseolindakim@gmail.com Introduce PHOTO: YERIM JEONG My name is Jeong Ye Rim, a sophomore from the faculty of Global Culture. First of all, I’m glad to be selected as a cub reporter of the Kangnam English Hakbo. Last year's school life was heavily focused on adjusting to university life and managing my academic grades without undertaking any additional activities. In my sophomore year, I realized that I needed a change in order to develop myself. I'm usually interested in the cultural field and current social issues, and I felt that I wanted to expand on this interest and create something meaningful. In doing so, I wish to learn how to write a formal report and enhance my English writing skills. I hope that it’s going to a special experience related to future career and the expansion of my interests. YERIM JEONG jy898119@naver.com Activate your Creativity PHOTO: HEEJUNG BAE Most of our daily tasks utilizes creative thinking in some way or another. Creativity is essential in the process of creating something out of nothing or enhancing like we make plan new events, write article, and drawing. Even in certain kinds of competitions, we have to use different thinking to come up with better ideas by creating something special and innovative than others. Therefore, creative thinking is an important element of life. Brain teasers are a wonderful way to get your brain to think outside of the box and are proven to enhance creativity. The phrase “brain teaser” refers to the action of squeezing and harassing the brain, and is a useful quiz for training the brain to solve problems in a new way, away from the basic thinking framework. Here is an example: Shown below is a picture of an apple and underneath it is written the number 3.141592. Have you guessed what the pictures and numbers mean? It means “apple pie”. The number 3.141592 refers to the mathematical term pi, so the answer to this teaser is apple pie. This example may have been easy, but there are lots of other brain teasers that you can do to test yourself. These brain teasers help boost our imagination, so solving one question every day can make you a creative king! HEEJUNG BAE hejung2575@naver.com