Calvin Bun Lee / First Draft / Thur. 1-3 PM

"Smile, Calvin! Don't Cry!" My teacher said.

I was standing up on the chair, all the students and their parents were looking at me. I was so embarrassed because I knew that it's not fair to put me up on the chair.

It was an "unforgettable" Christmas in my life. It sounds very strange but it did happen to me.

 

The graduation day from the kindergarten, to most of the children, should be a memorable day to them. It seemed that it started so well to me also. I remembered the weather of the day was so good! Sun Shine and soft white clouds hanging on the sky, nothing seemed to be strange as well. I was brought by my mother as usual and I got into the classroom, I greeted my lovely fellows and every warm and cheerful smile made me feel wonderful at the beginning of the day.

 

           It was a simple graduation day. In Hong Kong, especially in my age, people are so familiar with using budget. You cannot expect the kindergarten will serve you a nice ceremony or giving you a big present in the graduation day. And it was a public kindergarten and my family just paid a small amount of money to them, so we had a say in Hong Kong, "Enjoy (by) Yourself (only) Tonight!" Anyway, children were easily to be satisfied! It's very true. I got a pack of candies and a boiled egg. It made me happy as well because it's free. During the class, the teacher gave us some encouragements. We all smiled, no tears, or we still didn't know what is called "tear". I just felt that the moment was great and I didn't remember that the day was a Christmas day. For a very ordinary worker family in Hong Kong at 80s ages, struggling with money and life, the child of them should not remain his parents what is so called a "Christmas day".

 

           "Calvin, come here! I have something to do with you." My teacher said.

           It was the turning point to the nightmare. I did smell something strange from her eyesight, but I could reject her "invitation" because she was the most respectable person in my life, or I have to say all the teachers must be automatically be "respectable" without reason to all Hong Kong students.

           "Dress it up!"

"Is it a command, madam?" In fact, I should response her like this but I didn't.

           She gave me a set of clothes. It looked like a costume, a red sweater and pair of red trousers, also with an ugly red hat. I am so dopey to dress it well and she did kindly assist me to dress nice. At that moment, I felt that she was trying to turn me to a Santa Claus.

 

           "Miss Tong, I don't want to be a Santa Claus." I raised up my dissatisfaction with a weak voice.

           "No, Calvin. You are a good boy. You are fat and smart! You look like a Santa Claus in our class. Hey, good boy! Let's serve your classmates.

 

Honestly, I didn't see any logics in her sentences. Could you tell me the relationships between the words fat, smart and good boy? But it seemed that I could not ignore her again, as a disciplinary Hong Kong student should definitely do so.

 

I was put on the chair. I was asked to wave hands to act as a good "Santa Claus" to my fellows and their parents. Suddenly, I saw my mum. She was also smiling at me and I could not control my tears "running" down from my eyes. I was standing there for almost an hour and my mother also. She was busy because she only got 1 hour for her lunch hour. She had to pick to up from the kindergarten and I always stayed with her in the afternoon in her factory.

 

"You are my good boy, my good son!" My Mother said.

 

This was the real sentence which comforted me a lot!

Hyelin Hwang / First Draft /Thursday 1-3 p.m.

 

Standing alone on the Stage

 

 

When I was senior at high school, after the CSAT, My homeroom teacher suddenly called me.

I thought he will give a talk on a results of CSAT. So I stepped to teacher's room in a state of tension. But, he said,

 

"There will be a talent show competition between classes."

"Ah really? When is it, teacher?"

"This Friday."

 

At school, I was noted as a leader of the school dance club. Every year I planned the performances in school events. So, in that sense, I promoted to captain of class performance. In three days, I had to hit the stage.

I was in panic when I heard the date of the competition. According to my experience, at least it must needs three weeks to have quality of work. But, the D-Day is just the day after tomorrow! What can I do? How can I make it? First, I went back to the class. I opened the sliding door, and let them pay attention on me. I stood on the platform and told them a whole story.

After all the classmates realized how serious the situation is, I asked them who wants to join the project. Some of them responded and we started to discuss about how we will construct the stage. We looked lots of songs and choreographies. After a long talk, we concluded that dividing the stage in half. In the first half, I make the stage alone. And secondly, all of the member come on the stage then performance together.

 

So, unexpectedly, I assigned 2 minutes of the time, as a class representative. Even though I had lots of the performances, it was for the first time to prepare the choreography alone. I wasn't sure about fully capturing the audience by myself. But, it was after a year of absence from the stage to study CSAT. I was eager to dance. I was greed for applause. I got rid of those unhelpful ideas and recalled my motto. Just do the best, do it joyfully, as I did every time. During three-days I almost lived at practice room. Also, I practiced and simulated anytime and anywhere, while having a lunch, waiting for the bus at the bus stop and even at the bed time.

 

Finally, the day has come. The show has begun and I enjoyed another participant's performances. My turn was seventh between ten participants. As my turn comes closer, a nervous floated into my mind. My heart was beating faster and faster.

"The next team is from class 3!"

I walked up to the stage. The whole auditorium spread out before my eyes. Almost 400 people were looking at me. I kept eye contact with them. Some of them were stranger and some of them were familiar. My friends and teachers! They cheered and shouted for me. I calmed down dramatically. The only two words came up in my mind. Let's PLAY. Standing on the center of the stage and waiting for the music, I only felt tremendous excitement and thrill, not any fear.

 

 

As a result, my team placed second and won a gift voucher. Either, even though I made a little bit of mistake, I did my best with joy. Nevertheless I direct lots of dance performances still today, this is the most impressive stage I've made. Nervous, thrill, and the first cheering just for me. It will never be forgotten and never be experienced again.

Re: Subin Lee / First Draft / Thursday 1-3pm

2016-09-27 10:22 GMT+09:00 이수빈 <lsbin615@gmail.com>:

Do you have an experience of finding out that something is very different from your expectations? For me and my family, we had such experience when we went travelling to Italy.

 

My family and I went to Italy in the summer of ___. We had travelled to many different countries, but Italy was my mother's favorite place of all time. She was eagerly anticipating for another trip to Italy. The rest of the family was also looking forward to it as well; we had spent a great time in our last trip to Rome and Venice.

 

Finally our vacation started, and we got ready for the trip to Italy. My parents rented a car so that we could drive around the country, and prepared money to use. I was also extremely delighted as I packed my stuff – at this point I never knew what would happen in our trip.

 

My family started off our trip joyously. We were awed by the old architectures around us, from which we could imagine the prosperity the country had enjoyed. It was hard to believe the picturesque scenery that we were facing. The first few days in Italy seemed perfect. And just like always, pick pocketing seemed like a word that didn't matter to us at all.

 

After spending a wonderful time in ___, our family decided to go to Firenze. It was in the evening when we arrived in the rural part of the city and started looking for accommodations. It was especially difficult to find one that day. Finally my dad found some signposts saying that there is a hotel, and we followed it. But where it led us was an ordinary house that didn't quite seem like a hotel. The fences were closed, and there were no other cars or travelers around. We started to wonder why. Because the 'hotel' felt different and strange, the rest of the family suggested looking for other accommodations; my dad got off the car to ask an inquiry. He rang the doorbell, but no answer came from it. Dad explained that we followed the hotel sign, and asked if we could stay here. Still no answer came from the house. The rest of us in the car were muttering, saying how it probably isn't a hotel and how it would be much better to go look for some other place instead of asking this odd accommodation. It was just then; three dogs suddenly ran out of the house and charged towards dad.

Jaeyoung Choi/ First draft/ Thursday 1-3pm

It happened during twilight. It is a family tradition to eat dinner together, we usually gather when both my parents arrived from work. We would sit and talk about what had happened in our day. I was around two-years old and my brother four. It was the day before we left South Korea to Guatemala. My father was lying on the pink flower patterned blankets on the floor watching television. He had already have dinner with his colleagues since it was his last day in the country.

 

"Honey, your eyes will get bad, don't watch the television from to near" my mother said.

"Only three more spoons and you can go play," said to my brother.

 

I was sitting on her lap. My brother ate all the food and went to play with this Lego toys. She was almost finished giving me food, when suddenly abruptly she threw me into the ground. I started crying and she ran towards my father. He was having a heart attack.

 

"Honey! Honey! Wake up!" she would shout.

 

I kept on crying, and my brother was watching from behind. My mother rushed and called the ambulance. It took them only five minutes to get to our house. Once they arrived, my mother was so alternated she begged the two men from to take my father to the hospital.

 

"Sorry, we can not take dead bodies to the hospital."

 

My mother crashed started to burst into tears. She was shocked.

 

I woke up panting.

 

What had just happened? What have I dreamed? Had it been really just a dream?

 

I go downstairs and my mother and brother are having breakfast. I sit on the table and my mother brings me rice and Kim chi soup. I tell my mother the dream. Suddenly, very surprised she answers, "How can you still remember?"

 

It had really happened. My father had past the way when watching television, while we were dining. From that moment on, every time I remember that dream, I am very thankful for my mom and all her effort.

 

She is still single and raising both of us all by herself, only because of the promise she had done to my father during her vows, she would not marry other man even if death breaks them apart.

--

재영

Something wonderful

201501098
Chyue
Something Wonderful
In the world, people get surprised things that make them wonderful or happiness or sadness. Life is full of unexpected surprises. There are many supernatural cases in our world that we may know or not. Every person has power that can lead to their life. Some people wish for something exciting to happen or they really have a strong mind to happen that even they cannot do at that moment. The real surprise is when the wish unexpectedly comes true. I never believe that something like this could never happen to me. I got a shock when I realized that kinds of opportunities or power that I have. I believe everybody has this kind of power that you have never recognized.
Throughout my childhood, I dreamed a lot when I sleep. Some dreams could not be remembered but the astonishing thing was the dream that I remembered happen in my real world later or soon. But I just ignored that by thinking it was just like simple things. The most incredible thing was it happened to me more than one time and it was obvious. I could not deny that kinds of wonderful thing. I dreamed terrible dream one night when I was 6-years old. It made me cry in my real world, too. The dream was a car accident happened to our family trip. But I just forgot the bad dream and our family were invited to countryside as a trip. We went there and we enjoyed our time until evening. But on the way back home, I really felt sad or afraid to get on the car and my father scolded me because of my stupid word. On the motorway, we really got car accidents and I was really worried about my family and my head was full of bloody and my younger was crying on the road. Our car was turned over on the motorway. Fortunately, my family members could not get injured seriously. This is my first dream that happened in my real life. I never forget it because it was really obvious for me. I dreamed very nice dream when I was 19 years old. It was about I departed from my country and did the presentation in front of the other people. I remembered that dream in detail and it made me shock again. One day, I had a letter from my aunt who is staying in Korea. She asked me to come and study in Korea. It was wondering for me. Because I did not plan to go and study abroad and just planned to graduate from University and get a job in my country. That dream came true me and gave me amazing life.
  Finally, I would like to tell about wonderful things is surrounded us. Surprises like this were, and always will be an unexpected gift for all. Everybody has wonderful power and amazing action in the world.

Seung-Hui Jeong/Essay First Draft/Thursday 1-3PM

First Encounter

7^th grade, school cafeteria. My friend and I were looking for lunch tables to sit at in middle school when we decided to join a group of kids in our year that looked friendly enough. We were part of the new Asian kids that year and school was already exotic enough without the added pressure of the need to blend in. Some greeted us with enthusiasm, some didn't, which was to be expected in most rearrangement of cliques. It was only when I sat down, hanging my backpack on the side of the chair and set my lunch plate on the table, when I started to take in the faces of everyone at the table.

She was sitting in front of me and after a brief hello, she went back to sifting her fork through the mound of pasta with a concentrated face. For the sake of convenience, I will call her P. P was neither enthusiastic nor was she discontent with the two new strangers in front of her. In fact knowing her now, she was probably wondering why the lunch ladies could never get the ratio of pesto and tomato sauce just right or why the school took out the cinnamon bun only to add in the blueberry muffins. She didn't talk throughout the entire lunch but I could tell she wasn't sulking or being moody.

It was only when we were moving to our next classes that we started talking. She was pretty much silent during the entire lunch so it came as a surprise for her to start talking first. I do not remember the first conversation we ever had. I do, however, remember everything else about her. The slouch of her shoulders and her walk. Oh, her walk. Her walk was so distinct that I could recognize her just by the sound of her step. P had feet that were large enough that made it hard for her to find decent shoes in the women's department, which had her fantasize about petite mary-janes and oxfords. It was precisely these feet that made her walk with a rather flap to the ground, resembling what it looks like to be walking in scuba diving fins. This walk came with a set of her concentrated expression on her face, a façade of her ever-so hectic mind that constantly ran at a hundred miles per second with the rest of us just happening to be part of the swiftly changing scenery.

She was the only person that I have ever met that truly enjoyed watching horror movies. I mean, she laughed and was almost brought to tears in scenes that made me shut my eyes and ears simultaneously. We sat through Saw and Paranormal Activity and Pan's Labyrinth with her snorting her popcorn throughout them all while I cringed in terror beside her.

And it was also P who shaped the core of my identity. She was acute to both her and other's emotions and believed it was important to comb through the layers and layers of vague emotions to truly pinpoint the one emotion that is the catalyst to one's actions. She believed this was a crucial process of understanding oneself and it was this that allowed me to get through some of the hardest moments of my life. Her philosophy about every aspect in life seeped slowly but surely and entwined through mine throughout the years I came to know her and became my mental axis. It didn't come as a surprise then when she decided to become a psychology major. Without her influence, I would have remained dull to subtle emotions, unable to truly connect with others on an intimate level.

All that has shaped me as who I am, in its core, can be attributed to P. This reads almost like a love letter and in some ways it is. I have never thought to put pen to paper or rather ink to word doc in writing out P's influence on my life. Writing what was visually and mentally fuzzy but vibrant and seemingly whole seems to dull down when it is declared in detail and made tangible. Tangibility, however, is what makes memories last and my first encounter with her and her influence are memories that I would feel hollow without later on.

Lee JiWon /First Draft/Thursday 1-3p.m.

Friendship or Conscience, that is the question!   'I cannot, in conscience, do such an unethical thing, but I don't want our friendship be broken up!' It was like Angels and Demons really existing and fighting each other in my mind at that moment. For me, as a little 14 year-old girl, choosing between friendship and conscience was such a tough decision… That day, as always, the wide and winding road was leading to the top of the school and the sun was slanting through the window as if it welcomes me to school. I was laying back, listening to music gently in my mother's car, trying not to feel my heart beating. I was staring at the scenery out of window consciously to think of something positive but, I couldn't stop imagining the moment that I being caught cheating. Or rather, being caught helping my dear friend to cheat off my answer. The phone rang right at the moment. It was my father. "Are you soon be there?" , said father to mother, asking to speak to me. "My palms are soaked in sweat, daddy." , I replied. My father would have thought that I'm keyed up before a midterm test, but what really got me nervous was a fear of what should I do. While my father was putting his heart into me by phone, the time came for me to get out of the car. Passing through the front gate after saying good bye to mother, although I arrived right in front of my classroom, I held back, terrified of going into the room. With all eyes upon me from lots of my classmates, I entered the room and sat on designated seat. Fortunately, my friend hasn't arrived yet and I desperately prayed that she would be absent from school. "As the world became industrialized and the world population increases, fossil fuels…", I was keeping repeating expected question and answer quietly, hoping to be relaxed. However, when suddenly my friend entered the classroom, I knew that my cheeks are getting hot in an instant again. I was so nervous that I could feel my hand trembling. "I will promise you one thing. If I am caught being cheated off yours, I wouldn't tell teacher that you showed the answers to me, rather I'd say I just cheated off alone." , said my friend, walking up to me. Even after the bell sounded for the start of the exam, I couldn't decide my mind and I hated myself so much. There was one certain belief that I should be a moral person, but I was really afraid of our 6 years of friendship be broken up if I don't "help" my friend. In the end, I didn't help her cheat off me and also totally goofed up my whole exam. There was no conversation between us after the exam. I trudged wearily into my home and spent a restless night that day. Casting back that tough day, it was the first night that I seriously thought about what is right and wrong in terms of morality. It was part of growing older to whom really cherish friendship above any other thing. Through that event, I learned that I should have my own moral compass that doesn't be easily moved and it is best to speak and act from my own convictions if I don't exactly know what to do. In hindsight, I owe it to that muggy one day to become a better person! I now, listen to my voice in my heart before deciding something.

Shin Sungjoo/First Draft/Thurs 1-3 p.m.

Although I was born and grew up in China, I could not speak any Chinese when I was child. It was due to my family's circumstances, both my parents are Korean and they spoke Korean. Korean was also the language that I have learned since I was a baby. My parents spoke Chinese but it was not as good as Korean and they knew how important Chinese was, especially for someone like me who lived in China. Thus, my parents were decided to send to the Chinese language school. At that time, I just finished third grade's class in Korean language primary school which class was all taught in Korean.Obviously, my Chinese level was way behind the same age Han Chinese kid. Therefore, my parents sent me to a Chinese teacher's home to study Chinese during the school break, before I transferred to Chinese language school. I left home for almost three months, it was not easy for a ten years old child. I remember the first time I stepped into Chinese teacher's home, in my mind, there was full of fear instead of any expectation. Fortunately, the Chinese teacher was a very kind lady who was around 40.My first Chinese class began at first day I moved to teacher's home. Teacher took me to a wall with an Alphabet on it.

"Can you read it?" teacher asked.

"OK... b,p,m,f,d,t,n,l." It was a piece of cake for me. However, those were weird English alphabet sequences that I have never seen before. Teacher told me I was right, but there is a different pronunciation in that kind of alphabet. I took a good look at them, and I found out there was a strange English word under the each of the alphabet. Then teacher told me those were Chinese alphabet and English words were phonetic transcription.

As being a beginner, Chinese was a totally whole new area for me. I started with alphabet. At first, I found it was really hard for me to pronounce Chinese alphabet and made me missed my English teacher as well. It took me a week to remember all of alphabet. However, that was just beginning, the true hardest part was learning Chinese word which looked like magic symbols and I had to study hundreds of them every day. However, after few days study, I noticed that one word could have a different pronunciations, it was like betrayed by someone who was already friends.It is also one of the reason that Chinese is hard to learn. In Chinese, It call the polyphone. It is the word had two or more pronunciations – like twin brother that looks exactly same, but have different name. The only way to distinguish the pronunciations is how the word combined with other words and way to remember the words is to recite them.

After three months study, I was transferred to the different primary school that taught class by Chinese. Perhaps the new teacher had a different accent, I could not understand teacher's speaking and 'What?' in Chinese was mostly the first response when someone talked to me in class. In the first two or three week of class, I found myself like a deaf people, because I could hardly followed class and that made me frustrated. I even wondered if I could finish the semester with my poor Chinese. The true hardest part was writing. When I was writing, I always stopped by the word that I did not know how to write. Luckily, teacher permitted me to use pin-yin in my writing. That was like give a pass card which I could get through all the way of writing. And after one year studying in the Chinese language school, I could literally communicate with my classmates. And when I graduated from primary school, my Chinese was as good as native.

Today, I have been using Chinese almost 15 years, thus it is very comfortable for me to speak and write Chinese. Looking back all the way, I believe that the most important part is accumulation. In fact, learning a new language is a challenge, nevertheless, it was much easier to start learn in young age. Nonetheless, from another point of view, circumstance is also considerable. As for my experience, learning in a Chinese speaking family and Chinese language school was truly helped me to improved my Chinese.

Shin Sungjoo/Memory Chain/Thurs 1-3 p.m.

The Most Unusual Wedding Ceremony

 

 In my mind, wedding ceremony should hold in church, or in Asian case, grand hotel. And normally, bride wear white dress, bridegroom wear suit. However, I was attended a wedding ceremony that I could never forget.

 Actually, It was my best friend's wedding. He was twenty-four years old and his wife was two years younger than him. The reason why they married so quick, was not the accident, such as unexpected pregnancy. The reason is that both family wanted. And unimaginably, two families are relative. So they arranged the wedding together foe them. Fortunately, bride and bridegroom does not related by blood.

 I arrived my friend's home before the wedding day. Fujian Province's winter was not cold as the north part of China. That place does not snow in winter instead of rain. I asked my friend, " What time I should get up tomorrow?"

 "Around 10 is OK." He answered.

 "10AM? Isn't it a little late for wedding?"

 "Don't worry. The wedding will start in night."

 I thought he was kidding, but next day, I found he told the truth. All his family members were peacefully doing their own things and no sign for going outing. After brunch, my friend told me, prepare for pick up the bride.

 "So, we are going to hotel?"

 "No, bro. I forgot to tell you, the wedding will hold in my house."

 " Really?!"

Though, my friend lives in a four-story house with a nice yard. I could not imagine how they would manage the ceremony. After we picked up the bride to his home. I found they got a cook crew from a local restaurant for prepare the meals for ceremony.

 I remember, at 6PM, the wedding ceremony stared. My friend wore a black western suit and bride wore a traditional red costume. What a combination! After bustling ceremony, we all had party together till the midnight. It is the most unusual wedding ceremony I have ever seen.

Subin Lee / First Draft / Thursday 1-3pm

Do you have an experience of finding out that something is very different from your expectations? For me and my family, we had such experience when we went travelling to Italy.

 

My family and I went to Italy in the summer of ___. We had travelled to many different countries, but Italy was my mother's favorite place of all time. She was eagerly anticipating for another trip to Italy. The rest of the family was also looking forward to it as well; we had spent a great time in our last trip to Rome and Venice.

 

Finally our vacation started, and we got ready for the trip to Italy. My parents rented a car so that we could drive around the country, and prepared money to use. I was also extremely delighted as I packed my stuff – at this point I never knew what would happen in our trip.

 

My family started off our trip joyously. We were awed by the old architectures around us, from which we could imagine the prosperity the country had enjoyed. It was hard to believe the picturesque scenery that we were facing. The first few days in Italy seemed perfect. And just like always, pick pocketing seemed like a word that didn't matter to us at all.

 

After spending a wonderful time in ___, our family decided to go to Firenze. It was in the evening when we arrived in the rural part of the city and started looking for accommodations. It was especially difficult to find one that day. Finally my dad found some signposts saying that there is a hotel, and we followed it. But where it led us was an ordinary house that didn't quite seem like a hotel. The fences were closed, and there were no other cars or travelers around. We started to wonder why. Because the 'hotel' felt different and strange, the rest of the family suggested looking for other accommodations; my dad got off the car to ask an inquiry. He rang the doorbell, but no answer came from it. Dad explained that we followed the hotel sign, and asked if we could stay here. Still no answer came from the house. The rest of us in the car were muttering, saying how it probably isn't a hotel and how it would be much better to go look for some other place instead of asking this odd accommodation. It was just then; three dogs suddenly ran out of the house and charged towards dad.

Lee SooKyung/First Draft/Thursday 1-3 p.m.

< HUFS, the fruits of my efforts >

'Hoping for all of you to enter HUFS', the banner put on a main gate welcomed me. A great many students from high schools of all over the country were walking into campus. Their facial expressions were various enough to catch my eyes. Some students had an obvious nervous look and some students had an exciting look. Having feeling of not only tension but also excitement, I was walking into HUFS with my parents. Also, just the thought of interview made my heart flutter.

 My parents were encouraging me by smiling. Because I had been preparing for expected questions from an admission officer and professor all the night before, shadow of exhaustion had casted over my face. I was supposed to meet interviewers in the afternoon. My courage began to wear thin as the time to meet interviewers drew near.

When I was waiting for my turn to interview in the classroom, I recalled the moments that I had practiced in high school with my teacher. Most of students in same class with me practiced and memorized their own letter of self-introduction. After a long wait, finally my name was called by professor. I followed him and knocked three times before entering the room for interview. The room was similar with classroom of my high school. Room size was smaller than I thought. There were three interviewers and they tried to make me relaxed. First question was about the reason why I applied for EICC. Because I had thought the curriculum of EICC help me to become a diplomat, which is my future dream, I spoke of my aspiration about it. Then, interviewers asked me to tell some experiences related to grammar. This question was unexpected one. An embarrassment might flash across my face. However, I was proficient at repartee. I had recalled the experience when I studied for midterm exam of high school quickly and told difficulties to use a participial construction.

"Lastly, is there anything else you would like to add before we wrap things up?" an admission officer sat on the middle of seat asked to me.

"Like the slogan of Hankuk University of Foreign Languages, 'Come to HUFS, Meet the World', if I entered the HUFS, you could meet the future of EICC." I answered with all my heart to show my passion to apply for EICC. Now, I am taking the class as a sophomore of EICC in HUFS.

 Looking backward, certificate of acceptance was the present of my hard work, but this experience makes me realize the importance of my family. My parents searched everything about entrance of university all night long and attended a prayer meeting every weekend just for their daughter. It taught me the value of showing appreciation as well. If there's no encouragement or support by my family, I couldn't take a firm stand. Thus, I became to express my loving heart for my parents frequently. 

Hong Chae-ryoung/p.50 Essay Assignment First Draft/Thursday 1-3pm

The Odd and Unusual Snowboarding Lessons

 

I first learned how to snowboard in the middle of the desert. It definitely seems ironic since snow and desert cannot exist in the same place, in a common sense. I used to live in Dubai, which is a city in the middle east, during my teenage years. Although I lived there for only about 3 years, many things within me changed a lot, and one of the memories that I can never forget is the first year I started to learn snowboarding.

Dubai was and still is a magical city where many unreal things actually happen in real life. They have the tallest building in the world, artificial islands that has rows of private villas with their own beach in the backyard, and even an indoor skiing slope in a shopping mall. Thanks to the 'ironic' indoor skiing slope idea, I had a chance to take snowboarding lessons as part of school's extra-curricular activities.

It was no fun at all at first, as I wasn't even able to stand up and stay still on the slope with both of my feet strapped on to the snowboard. However, as I slowly got over myself and completed each little steps of basic snowboarding, I started to feel the real fun of snowboarding. I was able to ride down the slope with some speed after two full semesters of snowboarding lessons in such tiny indoor skiing slope. I surely felt the sense of accomplishment, wanting to get to the next level as soon as possible.

Then, my PE teacher suggested me to join in for skiing and snowboarding trip to Switzerland in the following semester. Even though It was my first time going abroad without my parents, I was able to get my parents' approval to join in the snowboarding trip, which made my life change in various perspectives.

The biggest impact that I have gained from the trip to Switzerland is to always dream for travelling. Seeing around in a completely different country makes my point of view widen in a way that I could think more diversely. Switzerland, especially, has beautiful sceneries everywhere and such sceneries evoke myself to be more adventurous and curious of new things. I was a type of person who does not like to get out of the comfort zone at all, but learning how to snowboard and actually flying over to Switzerland and feeling a complete different culture made me change my thoughts.

Furthermore, my personality also changed through the whole journey of learning how to snowboard. I was mostly a shy girl until almost the end of elementary school, but mingling with other people while sharing the common interest, skiing and snowboarding, taught me how to be more open minded to others, and it is completely fine to be open to strangers. I guess the difference in the eastern and western culture in terms of strangers had quite affected my personality during the young age at that time, but the trip to Switzerland was a turnover of my life to be more active and enthusiastic in what I like to do.

I still dream of going back to Switzerland to go snowboarding, and one day I will go back to update my most memorable and wonderful memory of my life with whole new experiences that I could never imagine.

Su Yeon Kim/First Draft/Thursday 1-3pm

201500568 Su Yeon Kim

Two Sides of a Coin

  

  I'm certain that most people, if not all, can't exactly pinpoint their first memory or remember their earliest memories in flashes, like a spliced movie. I must have been barely five when my family moved to Fiji and to be completely honest, the first year of my life in Fiji is a blurry memory. When I look back now it feels as though my life till now had been a pleasant dream. Any blank in my memory is filled in by the stories from my family members particularly my dad, who is blessed with extraordinary memory. Just a normal day at home, my dad, brother and I were enjoying a casual beer at the dining table and were reminiscing about the good old days when my brother abruptly directed a question at our dad.

  "Dad, I can't begin to imagine how you felt when we first went to Fiji. What even could have possible motivated you to move to such a place? I mean we know the main reason was because of the IMF crisis but why Fiji?"

  My dad slowly started to smile and simply said, "Hm, I wonder. It's been so long."

  With the encouragement from my brother and me (mostly my brother), my dad finally began to share his story.

  "So before the IMF crisis, I had done a lot of traveling because of my job. I had seen the world outside Korea and always thought there's so much to be learned outside the borders of Korea. Your mother was always completely open and supportive to the idea of moving. There was no better time to implement this idea than when the IMF crisis hit Korea. So we laid out our options and with the process of elimination, we crossed off the cold countries for your mom's health, then we crossed off countries with high living prices. At this point we were still unsure but one day by some coincidence while watching TV, an advertisement about Fiji came on and quite frankly, it looked like paradise." He then took a chug of his beer and paused a while as though he were reliving that moment.

  Of course, we have no idea why Fiji became so popular in Korea back then. My father at this point didn't seem as though he wanted to give all the information but we pressed on.

  "But Fiji back then was so underdeveloped. Did you know exactly how you were going to make things work?" I inquired.

  "Of course not," my dad said with a chuckle then stopped again. It was clear at this point that he needed egging on.

"How did you feel when you first landed at the airport?" This was the question my brother and I never bothered asking.

"So in the taxi, going to our new place, you kids and your mother fell asleep in the backseat but this was when the impact of the whole thing came crashing down. I had no confidence we would make it and almost wanted to go back to Korea immediately." 

This reply struck my brother and me. In the silence that followed that answer, I'm sure my brother and I came to the same realization which was that our attitudes in getting to know our parents as people should change. Out of my earliest memories, the day we arrived at our new home is the most vivid. I remember not having a worry in the world and just running around the new backyard with my brother. How could we ever have known the responsibility that fell upon our dad's shoulders?

My father upon seeing our reaction gave a hearty laugh to break the silence and said, "This is a parent's burden and responsibility that you don't have to worry about."

 "Why didn't you stay in Korea though? Surely finding another job wouldn't have been that hard with experience such as yours?" My brother asked cautiously. The answer that followed was completely unexpected yet if anything it asserted my dad's character as to who he is was and what he valued.

  "When you enter a company, you're not immediately allowed to work in a high position or the position you had in your previous work. You start from the bottom and after being in the position that I was back in Daewoo I couldn't bear the thought of having to go back to the bottom and work for those younger than myself."

  At the time of this conversation my brother was having a difficult time adjusting to the working environment in Korea while I was just getting used to the Korean culture. I suppose, my brother was somewhat able to sympathize yet feel a great dissatisfaction for such work morals and I was simply shocked. The answer did not change the way I thought about my dad but allowed me to finally understand the reason behind some of his deepest personal philosophies. His story was the other side of the coin and it that made me view everything he did for the family in a new light and made me appreciate all the sacrifices he had made for us. He provided a whole new perspective and side that I could not have possibly been aware of as a child.

 

Jung Aa Ahn / First Draft / Thursday 1-3 pm

Culture Shock

     The day was a little different from other typical Sundays. First, it was unusually sunny out, without a trace of fog to be found. Second, I could not smell the coffee that my dad would always brew on weekends. Third, I woke up by myself. But I did not think of any of these as peculiar until I stopped in front of my parent's bedroom door. When I opened the ivory door, I knew something was wrong. Mom, instead of greeting me with her typical sweet smile, was lying down with a pale, strained look on her face. Dad and my sister were standing by her with panicked eyes.

     "Your mother is very sick," dad said. "She's leaving tonight." And he stood there with a strange smile – one that strangely did not seem like a smile at all. I could not understand him at the time. I was so sure that mom was going to be fine, because she said so herself when she woke up. But because his tortured eyes were so vivid, it felt wrong to even imagine being away from her. When my parents gave me the choice to stay, or go back to Korea with them when our visa expired, I decided to go back with them, unaware of what my choice would bring upon me.

     Our family returned and her chemotherapy procedure began. She reassured me and my concerned sister, in the States by herself at her new university, with playful whines about the big painful needles. She joked about how much more the treatment would have cost our family if her tumor had not been a malignant one. My mom was fighting a stage three ovarian cancer like her usual cheerful self. Although I was not allowed at the hospital with her, I could guess the pain that she was going through from fact that she sleeping much more than before. Nevertheless, her records were great, and the doctors were astonished at how well she was doing. With such a strong mother fighting to stay with us, I could not afford to fail at anything at all.

     I tried to enjoy my new life as much as I could. When I opened the creaky, tattered wooden door to my classroom in my awkward new uniforms, I immediately became the center of interest. My classmates and visitors from other classes surrounded me in thick circles and asked me endless questions with curious eyes directed to the stranger. "How long did you say you lived there?" "Say something in English!" "What's your hobby?" While I was busy answering the questions, a girl that has been standing by me asked me whether I was hungry. Before I could say anything, she stuffed the piece of bread that she's been nibbling on into my mouth. And then the bell rang, and everyone went back to their places.

     And then it became lunchtime. Every single girl in my class sprinted out of the classroom to the cafeteria. They pushed and pulled violently on each other to get into the lunch line. Before I could realize what was going on, I was in the middle of the chaos. A girl in my class later explained that this was the way they did things, and laughed at the fact that a broken arm or leg would be occasional. Then she marched to the bathroom with the other girls to brush their teeth.

     By the time I got used to these behaviors, I graduated intermediate school for the second time in my life. I got accepted to Seoul Global High School, and because I always had fantasies about Korean high schools, I was excited beyond myself. The small differences that I felt during the six months in middle school seemed petty and meaningless. I anticipated for my high school to be different.

     High school was completely different, however, in a different way from what I have expected. I went through painful process of difficulties, just to find out that I was different from everyone else - I was a third culture kid. Because I always thought of myself as a Korean, it was shocking to see how I was unlike the others. Nevertheless, I could not think of myself as an American either, because I simply was not, both legally and mentally. I started getting depressed, and started trying to change who I was. It felt wrong to be me. I tried to become someone else.

     Things changed as I started understanding my symptoms through a class in my junior year. In that class, we learned about culture shock. Up until that point, I could not understand why I was different. I thought I was wrong. But as I studied culture shock, and how a person from a different culture can feel like the way I was feeling, I realized that I did not have to change who I was in order to fit in. The class taught me how to deal with culture shock, which includes interacting with people from the initial culture who can empathize with one. I tried out the method, and it made me look at myself in a much more positive way.

     I talked with my roommate, who told me that she lived in Canada for a few years. Talking with her and sharing thoughts on Korean culture made me accept the fact that I was just different. And as I understood that and looked around, I realized that there were many people who would be willing to comprehend what I was going through. I saw how I have been hiding myself too much. Additionally, I grasped how I was a third culture kid, with my own culture that has characteristics from both America and Korea, and how this let me see so much more of the world. I began to see how the difficult times that I have gone through have given me a broader perspective.

Shin Sungjoo/Memory Chain/Thurs 1-3 p.m.

Although I was born and grew up in China, I could not speak any Chinese when I was child. It was due to my family's circumstances, both my parents are Korean and they spoke Korean. Korean was also the language that I have learned since I was a baby. My parents spoke Chinese but it was not as good as Korean and they knew how important Chinese was, especially for someone like me who lived in China. Thus, my parents were decided to send to the Chinese language school. At that time, I just finished third grade's class in Korean language primary school which class was all taught in Korean.Obviously, my Chinese level was way behind the same age Han Chinese kid. Therefore, my parents sent me to a Chinese teacher's home to study Chinese during the school break, before I transferred to Chinese language school. I left home for almost three months, it was not easy for a ten years old child. I remember the first time I stepped into Chinese teacher's home, in my mind, there was full of fear instead of any expectation. Fortunately, the Chinese teacher was a very kind lady who was around 40.My first Chinese class began at first day I moved to teacher's home. Teacher took me to a wall with an Alphabet on it.

"Can you read it?" teacher asked.

"OK... b,p,m,f,d,t,n,l." It was a piece of cake for me. However, those were weird English alphabet sequences that I have never seen before. Teacher told me I was right, but there is a different pronunciation in that kind of alphabet. I took a good look at them, and I found out there was a strange English word under the each of the alphabet. Then teacher told me those were Chinese alphabet and English words were phonetic transcription.

As being a beginner, Chinese was a totally whole new area for me. I started with alphabet. At first, I found it was really hard for me to pronounce Chinese alphabet and made me missed my English teacher as well. It took me a week to remember all of alphabet. However, that was just beginning, the true hardest part was learning Chinese word which looked like magic symbols and I had to study hundreds of them every day. However, after few days study, I noticed that one word could have a different pronunciations, it was like betrayed by someone who was already friends.It is also one of the reason that Chinese is hard to learn. In Chinese, It call the polyphone. It is the word had two or more pronunciations – like twin brother that looks exactly same, but have different name. The only way to distinguish the pronunciations is how the word combined with other words and way to remember the words is to recite them. 

After three months study, I was transferred to the different primary school that taught class by Chinese. Perhaps the new teacher had a different accent, I could not understand teacher's speaking and 'What?' in Chinese was mostly the first response when someone talked to me in class. In the first two or three week of class, I found myself like a deaf people, because I could hardly followed class and that made me frustrated. I even wondered if I could finish the semester with my poor Chinese. The true hardest part was writing. When I was writing, I always stopped by the word that I did not know how to write. Luckily, teacher permitted me to use pin-yin in my writing. That was like give a pass card which I could get through all the way of writing. And after one year studying in the Chinese language school, I could literally communicate with my classmates. And when I graduated from primary school, my Chinese was as good as native.

Today, I have been using Chinese almost 15 years, thus it is very comfortable for me to speak and write Chinese. Looking back all the way, I believe that the most important part is accumulation. In fact, learning a new language is a challenge, nevertheless, it was much easier to start learn in young age. Nonetheless, from another point of view, circumstance is also considerable. As for my experience, learning in a Chinese speaking family and Chinese language school was truly helped me to improved my Chinese.

 

Jung Aa Ahn / Memory Chain / Thursday 1-3 pm

"I'll be right back!"

I giggled and ran off, feeling the soft sand break below me, with the big yellow rubber tube tucked under my arms. The sun was stinging into my eyes Thousands of other families were chatting excitedly. My mother's panicked voice --No, Jung-Aa, wait! Go with your sister! -- trailed behind me. I briefly turned around to wave at her, and ran through the wave of people and parasols to jump into the real, murky, blue waves. I probably should have listened to my mom then.

The sea was somewhat disappointing -- it didn't look like the emerald blue ocean that Ariel always played in, I thought. But why did that matter when I was finally here? I hopped past the darkening line of wet sand, over the pile of sticky seaweeds, and across the sand castle a boy was attempting to make. A wave sneaked onto my toes. The Haeundae waves weren't that clean, but the bubbles felt funny. A girl and her father was playing with the waves as well, squealing and giggling as the man lifted her up to run away from the waves.

I carefully watched what other people were doing. I knew I would be okay even if I fell in the ocean. The small child in me smirked and boasted -- I'm the best swimmer in school! But I figured that it would be okay to watch a bit. Never mind, the waves were too interesting! I threw the tube over me, and went off. I bounced along the bottoms of the waves, until I could not feel the ground anymore. The waves felt gentle around me, as it pushed me up and down the current.

Other people around me, all adults or kids older than me, were jumping on the ground. Hmm, I wasn't tall enough to reach the ground at this depth. I pushed myself toward the beach, and started jumping like other people. The rubber tube sqeaked whenever my arm rubbed against it, and smelled weird. My arms did not feel tired at all! I waited for the current, the next wave, and jumped. The wave gently pushed me up, making my guts feel funny. I could not stop giggling. I jumped, got pushed, jumped, jumped, floated, and jumped again. It was the best day of my life.

After jumping countless times, I decided to go back and bring mom and sister with me. They needed to know how fun this was to do. I rode on the currents naturally, which I learned to do after jumping waves so much, and pushed myself towards the beach. The sand hurt against my soft legs, and left marks. I made a mental note to tell mommy and sissy to be careful. Daddy won't need my warnings - he always knew everything.

As soon as I got on the beach, I tucked the yellow tube by under my arms again. I hopped past kids playing with sand, across the seaweeds, and got back on the dry, white sand. The warm, almost hot sand felt nice against my wet and wrinkly feet. I felt tired after all the jumping. I slowly walked towards the wave of red parasols to find my family. But something was wrong. I couldn't find them. A crowd of faces, none of them mom, dad, nor sissy, stared at me. I was lost.

Lee Bun Calvin / Memory Chain / Thursday 1-3pm

In fact, I didn't want to write about her but I can't think of anything except her now.

That was the first time I landed Seoul, year 2002, yeah, 14 years before.

I came out from the plane and walked through the corridor to the immigration sector. The immigration was still using 586 computers with big monitors. And I was quite nervous at that time because I was struggling to remember few Korean sentences. Then I came to the counter and give them my passport.

"Why you came to Korea?" The officer asked me.

"Tour!" I can only remember I answer her by this simple Korean word.

After she heard my answer, then with a sound "Pang", she stamped my passport and let me go.

 At that time, Inchoen airport was not as beautiful as now.

Everything was very primitive.

There were no electric sign boxes, no big banners. What I can only remember is the slogan – "Welcome to Korea!", white color characters with a deep blue background.

The ladies talks loudly in the lobby and the gentlemen smoked immediately when they came out from the airport. And I was busying to find the air-shuttle bus counter to get a ticket to Cheongnyangni. Finally, I got the place.

 "May I have a ticket… to go to Cheongnyangni?" I asked the counter lady.

"What?" She replied

"I want to go to Cheongnyangni." I use my dump Korean language to ask her again.

After several conversations, mixed with Korean and English, it seemed that she understood what I mean and show me the way to the shuttle bus terminal.

"You need to hear carefully on the bus. Cheongnyangni is not the final stop!" I thought I got what she mean and it made me nervous again.

I got into the shuttle bus and it started to move. I have to confess that it was the longest time in my life when I travelled in it. It seemed that every noise stirred up my mind and nothing would be more important than to hear the word "Cheongnyangni" from the driver's announcements.

I was like a chick for almost 2 hours and then I finally heard the words in Korean "Cheongnyangni station". I got all my languages out from the bus and counted whether anything was missed before the shuttle leaved the place. I was thinking that I brought lots of snacks, instant noodles, chocolates, candies… to her. Suddenly,

 "Calvin!"

I turned around and looked at her, she smiled to me.

We stared for few seconds or more than few seconds… maybe.

That is the most beautiful smile I never see before.