Special Report

We Have No Wings, So We Run


· Written by Jegal Hyun-yeol, Kim Do-yun
· Genre: self-improvement
· Published in September 2012
· 279 pages


Recently, Kim Do-yun and Jegal Hyun-yeol who are graduates of Keimyung University published the book We Have No Wings, So We Run. They achieved their dreams with only their effort and without an academic clique or ability in English. These two men had high grades and received awards in various contests, in particular the Outstanding Person Award of Korea, but they were not hired by any big companies.

In Korea achieving your dream without an academic clique is not easy, so many young people are angry that academic cliques are more important than abilities. Academic clique is a group of students in a particular major. If students aren’t in a clique, they concentrate on improving their resumes by getting good grades, high TOEIC scores and various certificates, such as in computer skills. In this book the authors introduce know-how and skills for us to survive in this society with only our effort and abilities instead of an academic clique and ability in English.

After fierce competition, with only their dreams and will, one was hired by a large advertising agency and the other by a multinational company. Like famous celebrities and mentors, they don’t console readers with false consolation, but instead give realistic advice. If you are young and don’t know what to do for your future, this book provides concrete ways to overcome the problems caused by academic cliques. Jegal Hyun-yeol talks about being discriminated against because he was a graduate of a local school when we applied to an ad agency. He also suggests solutions to overcoming academic cliques, such as studying hard and never giving up. Kim Do-yun suggests ways that students can become confident in themselves like conducting a survey about themselves and making a list of their dreams.

In this book, they explain ways that students can concretely achieve their dreams and can overcome a problem caused by an academic clique. Although they were graduates of a local university and didn’t have high English grades, they proudly achieved their dreams and entered the companies that they wanted to enter. Since they received the Outstanding Person Award of Korea, they were obviously very talented. At the same time they say, “We wanted to change the atmosphere that an academic clique is the most important thing in getting a job.” Therefore, if the young people of our society want to achieve their dreams, they should not complain, but work hard and don’t depend too heavily on English ability or an academic clique. Rather they should have various experiences and certificates of skills to achieve dreams. Even if we fail, we should stand up and try again.