Love that comes from trifles

뉴뮤직과
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Hi! My name is Ji-yeon Lee from English class, section 143. Have you ever felt close to someone
who lives next door? It must be rare. In today's busy modern society, even if you live next door,
there are not many exchanges, and the bond and intimacy between neighbors are often not that
strong. So am I. Even though we live in the same neighborhood and live next door to the same
apartment, we have few experiences doing something together, laughing and talking together while
looking at our neighbors' faces. The Republic of Korea has formed a mutual-aid culture since ancient
times. Mutual aid is living by relying on each other and helping each other. Looking at the old
society where we shared our affection by planting rice and farming, I wondered if it would be right
for the cultures with our neighbors to disappear gradually. And in a modern society where the
intimacy between neighbors has decreased, I thought about how to create a mutually compatible
society that coexists together and is good to live in. So, I’m just going take a second to introduce
what can we do to make a better neighborhood.

The first thing I thought of was to say hello first. To say hello first, I've been learning since I
was young, and I think it's so trivial that I might feel strange to choose a way to coexist with my
neighbors. However, we thought it was important to practice small things first and try to change
them rather than grandiose measures that we couldn't practice ourselves, so we suggested the
first way to say hello first, which is the most basic. Greeting first was also used as a campaign
phrase in the January 2019 issue of Samter's Monthly Samter. Goethe said, "There is courtesy in
1
the heart. It's like affection, so pure courtesy like that flows out and appears in action." Wouldn't
greeting, the first thing you do when it comes to connecting people, become pure courtesy, as
Goethe said, and someday lead to affection for your neighbors? I know very well that it is not
easy to say hello even if you meet your neighbors. At first, I also lived in an apartment and turned
away from the neighbors I encountered in the elevator, and when someone else got in the
elevator, I looked at my cell phone or did something else. However, as I had neighbors who
greeted me one by one, I gradually greeted them first, and I had a small but private conversation
with them. I thought I could achieve a big thing with a small thing through greetings, and I want
you to feel this as well as myself.

Following the greeting, I thought hard about what I could do from the small things. I thought
communicating through non-face-to-face communication applications like bands was another way
to get close to neighbors. Not by meeting in person, but by forming a community online to

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Samter, 「내가 먼저 인사하기」, Monthly Samter, 2019, p39.
exchange information and promote friendship. Following the greeting, I thought hard about what
I could do from the small things. I thought communicating through non-face-to-face
communication applications like bands was another way to get close to neighbors. Not by
meeting in person, but by forming a community online to exchange information and promote
friendship. Since 2019, due to COVID-19, there have been more things in our lives that are not
like that than facing someone. The word Un-tact is a newly coined word that combines contact,
and un-, which means denial. Even in 'un-tact' situations, we are communicating clearly with the
other person, more specifically. 2
Many advantages and disadvantages have been poured out, but
because of my own experiences and feelings, I first thought of the advantages of having a wider
range of access than face-to-face communication and disappearing a wall to reach someone. For
people like me, who are difficult to approach first after face-to-face, wouldn't non-face-to-face
communication be a way to break down the difficult wall between neighbors and consider the
social background of COVID-19?

As such, both plans I suggested are not grand and fancy. Rather, you might think that it has a
marginal effect to call it a plan. But we've been through a lot, and we've learned the power of
trivial things. In addition, I learned that for everyone to coexist in the neighboring society, not
only certain people can do it, but everyone must work little by little by little. The world's
population is 7953952577. One person got together and became several people, and they created
this big number. The same will be true of minor efforts. Right now, I hope that we will not
postpone it because it is difficult, but if we all work hard from small things, we will form an ideal
mutual society and live well in a world where everyone can live well. I'm sure it's possible to
create an intimate world in which, as we started with the little things, we all have a bond around
the world in our small neighborhood. I hope we can all feel the great affection that small actions
can create. Wouldn't communication with neighbors be an oasis in a stark modern society? Once
again, when asked if they have had an intimate conversation with their neighbors, I hope that a
society where everyone answers positively will be formed . Thank you for reading my comments
so far!

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Lee Jae-hyun, Changes in Communication in the Non-face-to-face Era and Direction of basic
Liberal Arts Education such as Communication, GENERAL EDUCATIONAND CITIZEN , 숙명여자대학
교 교양교육연구소, 2022, p96-97.
참고문헌

1. 샘터사, 「내가 먼저 인사하기」, 『월간 샘터』587, 2019.

2. 이재현, 「비대면 시대 의사소통의 변화와 의사소통 관련 기초 교양교육의
방향」, 『교양교육과 시민』5, 숙명여자대학교 교양교육연구소, 2022.