1st Session

(Small Talk)

1. Introduce yourself.

2. What are your earliest memories of snow?

3. Do you ever really hope that it snows?

4. Would your prefer to live in a snowy place or a desert?

'Wearable Prayer Blanket' Promises Good Luck on Exams

Students studying in Japan can now wear good luck for their exams! All they have to do is order a go-kito kiru mofu ― which is Japanese for "wearable prayer blanket."

The "wearable blanket" was created for online clothing shop Belle Maison to help keep students warm while studying for exams in winter. However, while it's called a "blanket," this is really more of a long, warm bathrobe. But it has several things that make it perfect for students studying for entrance exams!

The ends of the sleeves have thumb holes in the sides, which let students keep their hands nice and warm inside the sleeves while still being able to use their fingers and thumbs to turn a page or hold a pencil. There are also smooth patches along the outsides of the sleeves to stop eraser shavings from sticking to them as students make notes and study.

And there's even a pentagon-shaped pocket for good luck ― because the Japanese for "pentagon," gokaku, sounds a lot like the Japanese for "pass an exam," or goukaku. But the extra special thing about this item of clothing is the blessing it comes with. Before being sent to customers, each wearable blanket is blessed at Takinomiya Tenmangu, a Shinto shrine in the town of Ayagawa, Kagawa prefecture. The shrine honors Sugawara no Michizane, a ninth-century politician who is now worshipped as a god of learning. Students often visit the shrine to pray for good exam results.

So for students who can't visit the shrine to pray in person, the wearable blanket is the perfect way to get good luck for their exams!

Discussion

-What is the biggest test you’ve had recently?

-Is there any your own rule or action before doing important exam?

-Were you a good student at school? What was your best subject?

-What were the hardest tests or assignments you did as a student?

-Do you usually stick to a study plan for exams or cram at the last minute?

2nd Session

(Small Talk)

1. Please introduce yourself to members.

2. Is it better to pursue wealth or happiness?

3. If you could live someone else’s life, whose would it be and why?

South Korea faces deepfake porn 'emergency’ (by BBC)

South Korea’s president has urged authorities to do more to “eradicate” the country’s digital sex crime epidemic, amid a flood of deepfake pornography targeting young women. Authorities, journalists and social media users recently identified a large number of chat groups where members were creating and sharing sexually explicit "deepfake" images ? including some of underage girls. Deepfakes are generated using artificial intelligence, and often combine the face of a real person with a fake body. South Korea’s media regulator is holding an emergency meeting in the wake of the discoveries.

Underage victims

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday instructed authorities to "thoroughly investigate and address these digital sex crimes to eradicate them". "Recently, deepfake videos targeting an unspecified number of people have been circulating rapidly on social media," President Yoon said at a cabinet meeting.

"The victims are often minors and the perpetrators are mostly teenagers."

The spate of chat groups, linked to individual schools and universities across the country, were discovered on the social media app Telegram over the past week.

Users, mainly teenage students, would upload photos of people they knew ? both classmates and teachers ? and other users would then turn them into sexually explicit deepfake images.

The discoveries follow the arrest of the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, on Saturday, after it was alleged that child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud were taking place on the encrypted messaging app.

'National emergency'

South Korea has a dark history of digital sex crimes. In 2019, it emerged that men were using a Telegram chatroom to blackmail dozens of young women into performing sexual acts, in a scandal known as nth-room. The group’s ring-leader, Cho Ju-bin, was sentenced to 42 years in jail.

Online deepfake sex crimes have surged, according to South Korean police. A total of 297 cases were reported in the first seven months of this year, up from 180 in the whole of last year and 160 in 2021. Teenagers were responsible for more than two-thirds of the offences over the past three years.

The Korean Teachers Union, meanwhile, believes more than 200 schools have been affected in this latest string of incidents. The number of deepfakes targeting teachers has surged in the past couple of years, according to the Ministry of Education.

Park Ji-hyun, a women’s rights activist and former interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said the government needed to declare a "national emergency" in response to South Korea's deepfake porn problem.

"Deepfake sexual abuse materials can be created in just one minute, and anyone can enter the chatroom without any verification process," Ms Park wrote on X. "Such incidents are occurring in middle schools, high schools, and universities across the country."

Discussion Question

1. Have you ever encountered or heard about Deepfake issue?

2. Should governments have the authority to censor or remove deepfake content from internet, or would this infringe on freedon of expression?

3. Is the development of deepfake technology inherently harmful, or can it be harnessed for positive uses like film production or virtual reality?