Post-226: [My Korean Essay] How to Maintain Your Health

Below is an essay I wrote in Korean. It was originally written on paper in about twenty minutes. I have transcribed it here and added an English translation below.

건강을 지키기 위해서는 좋은 음식을 먹어야 하고 운동을 해야 합니다
요즘 사람들의 고민 중에서 건강을 제일 중요하게 생각하기 때문에 우리가 건강을 지키는 계획을 세워야 합니다. 그럼, 어떻게 건강을 지킬 수 있습니까? 첫 번째 건강에 좋은 음식을 먹어야 합니다. 두 번째 운동을 자주 해야 합니다. 이렇게 하면 우리의 건강이 좋아질 수 있습니다.

첫 번째, 무슨 음식을 먹는지에 대해서 이야기할 겁니다. 음식이 중요하니까 건강에 좋은 음식을 항상 먹으세요. 날마다 채소를 다섯 개 이상 먹어야 합니다. 왜 이렇게 먹어야 합니까? 채소에 있는 비타민이 중요하니까 채소를 많이 먹어야 합니다. 인간의 몸에 비타민이 없으면 죽을 수 있습니다. 그리고 초코릿하고 설탕이 우리 건강에 나쁩니다. 초코릿이나 사탕을 많이 먹으면 뚱뚱하질 수있습니다. 뚱뚱한 사람들이 예쁘지 않고 병에 자주 걸립니다. 뚱뚱한 사람도 운동에 나쁩니다.

그러니까 이제 운동에 대해서 더 이야기합시다. 날씬 사람들이 운동할 수 있지만 요즘 사는 사람들이 보통 운동을 싫어서 운동을 안 합니다. 그런데 운동이 건강에 중요합니다. 날마다 우리의 다리를 이용해서 튼튼한 다리로 쉬운 생활이 지낼 수 있습니다. 그리고 좋은 몸이 있는 사람은 일찍 안 죽습니다. 우리는 매주 세 번 이상 운동을 해야 합니다. [2014.9.4 인천부평에서 쓴 글입니다]

[My Translation of this essay:]

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Q. Write an essay of two paragraphs about the following subject: “What should we do in order to maintain our health?”

In Order to Maintain Health, We Have to Eat Good Food and Exercise
These days, “health” is the most important of people’s concerns, and so we need to make a plan to keep ourselves healthy. How, then, can we maintain our health? Firstly, we need to eat healthful foods. Secondly, we need to exercise frequently. If we do these things, our health can get better and better.

First of all, I will talk about what kind of food
s we eat. Food is important for us, so we have to always eat healthful foods. We need to eat at least five servings of vegetables per day. Why should we eat like that? The vitamins in vegetables are important, so we need to eat a lot of them. Without vitamins in a human’s body, it can cause death. Also, chocolate and sugar are bad for our health.  If we eat a lot of chocolate or sugar, we can become fat. Fat people don’t look good and they often get sick. Fat people are also bad at physical activities.

Therefore, let’s now talk some more about physical activities.
Thin people can exercise, but as people living today usually dislike exercising, they don’t do it. However, exercise is important for our health. We use our legs every day, so if we have strong legs, we can have an easier time in life. Also, people with strong bodies will not die early. We should exercise at least three times a week. [End of essay] [Essay written on Sept. 4th, 2014 in Incheon]


This essay was written in an unusually-quiet coffee shop in the Bupyeong neighborhood of the usually-noisy Seoul Megalopolis. Included here are some corrections for grammar by my Korean friend, H.J., the intrepid IT entrepreneur. I was helping him with an English thing at the time. He may soon work at one of the world’s most famous companies, the one which stole an obscure mathematics term and made it world-famous. You know the one I mean.


Update, September 12th: I didn’t realize it, but it turned out this essay was due to the teacher. Here is my final submitted essay. I received an above-average grade for the class, it seems, but the teacher marked many mistakes on it, anyway.
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