Last year, I went to several big universities` festivals, and there were three common features. First, it was the drinking culture. If you see the advantages of having some alcohol during the festival, it might be understandable, or even necessary, but drinking too much is a wrong behavior for the students to have, and at the same time, it impairs your ability to think and act right. Not only that, you can actually see all the garbage and littering from drinking around the campus for about two weeks, and it also smells like alcohol in the school grass. The second characteristic is having too much fun. For about a month, most of the students are too happy, having so much fun with the festivals. There are more universities these days, where they invite popular singers to their school festivals which makes it look more like an entertainment show than an ordinary school festival. Since many students focus on their enjoyment recently, there comes the last feature, which is their wrong life-style. During May, they play, eat and sleep, so it is very difficult for them to go back to their usual rhythms. It also makes it worse for them because it affects their summer vacation. Eventually, when you are finished with your first semester, you can`t think of anything other than playing.
Now is the time that we have to do more than just sit there and say `oh, let`s have a better life, guys.` So, I thought about it in three different ways that might solve these problems. First, we should give them something to see. Not like entertainment shows, but something such as exhibitions for poems, pictures, and other higher culture. Secondly, we can make more programs where students can take part in the school festival. In other words, at school there can be sports games between different departments, and outside of school would be basketball or other games with other universities like Yonsei Univ. vs. Korea Univ. In addition, competitions for PUMP or DDR will work among the students great, too. Lastly, we need to remember that we are students, who should have sound minds and act right.
Finally, we got to this point that it is we that have to be the `stars` for our culture, and we have to recognize that every time we are in a situation where we can mess up our lives, especially during the festivals. Most of all, we have to put lots of efforts into creating the right festival culture in Korea to enjoy the most from it.
Kim Soh-min
mintkiss@hanmail.net