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Konglish?
'Konglish' is a combination of Korean and English. When I was five years old, my parents and I moved to America. When I attended kindergarten in America, Korean became obsolete. English was very difficult for my parents and I. Oftentimes, I would mix in Korean words with my English. The first English word I learned was popsicle, which I learned from a classmate as we ate them for a snack. -
Go Dog. Go!
In first grade, I was put into the English as a Second Language class (ESL). This class consisted of a small group of five students. I was first introduced to P.D. Eastman, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss. My teacher read the book, Go Dog. Go!, aloud and we would follow along. Thanks to Dr. Seuss, we learned to decode. -
Squiggly lines
It was in third grade where I learned to write cursive. There was a worksheet with cursive letters and words, as well as pictures. As an eight year old, I saw these as nothing more than squiggly lines. Before beginning the actual writing activity, I spent the longest time perfecting my name in cursive. -
You have died of dysentery.
In fourth grade, my homeroom teacher had laptops set up on one side of the room. He allowed us to play games on them. Oregon Trail was the name of the game. The objective, as the name suggests, is to survive the brutally long overland trail from Independence, Missouri to Willamete Valley, Oregon. I used critical thinking skills to determine what supplies I would need for the journey and read trade deals with random travelers. Of course, dysentery was the common cause of death. -
Scholastic Book Fair
In the fifth grade, I went to my first scholastic book fair. My parents gave me money to buy any book that I wanted. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone caught my eye. Only then did I truly fall in love with fiction books. -
Chocolate chip cookies, anyone?
When I was in sixth grade, my favorite class was home economics. It was only at school did I experience cook or baking for the first time. My parents were always weary of me being in the kitchen. On this particular day, we made chocolate chip cookies. I had never heard of vanilla extract until I read the ingredients. I could only imagine that it's something that tasted like vanilla ice cream. -
Hola, como estas?
In my sophomore year of high school, I decided to take Spanish. My native language, Korean, shares formal and informal terms with this language. The vowels were difficult to pronounce. Unfortunately, I stopped learning Spanish. One of these days I may return to learning it. -
End scene!
It was during my senior year of high school, that I wrote a script for an assignment. The assignment was to create a short story and record it. My classmate and I brainstormed for days. Our mission for the story was to find a lost diary using clues. It was imperative that no one took a look at something so private. It was very enjoyable to create our own lines. -
Into the workforce
Embarrassing to admit, I learned to write a resume when I was 19 years old. I made sure to list out references, education, achievements, work experience, and contact information. I thought writing the resume was the hardest part, but interviewing was the most difficult. -
Blogging
I took an English course over the summer semester. Instead of writing essays, our professor made us write blog posts. It was very fun and unique. It was my first time owning a blog. We searched peer-reviewed publications and provided APA citations. Thanks to this class, I have rekindled my passion for writing.