Interview with my mom
On a peaceful weekend, I was spending restful time with my family at my home. I suddenly wondered my parents' childhood so they found a small photo album for me. As much time passed, the album also seemed like very old. Its every edges were worn. When I saw the photo album of our family, one picture of skinny girl caught my eyes because I couldn't imagine the girl in that picture grew into my mom! The appearance was totally different.
At the time, I thought it would be the best timing to interview about my mom's childhood and brought a list of prepared questions. She laughed. "When did you prepare these all questions? I'm not a special person as you'd think." Then I said, "Mom, you are special enough for me and please answer about my questions." My mom said, "You might be bored." "Then we should start the interview to know your answer is whether bored or not," I said.
The first question, "How was your childhood?", led her to focus on the interview. My mom was born in 1969, in Uijeongbu, the city of Gyeonggi-do. In her childhood, my mom's nickname was 'Pepero', chocolate covered pretzels. I could easily guess the reason why she called as 'Pepero' and she told me the reason as if she read my mind. She was severely thin and the color of her skin was like dark-chocolate. She said, "There were a variety of food except for our family. Eating greedily was my biggest dream in those long-ago days." She spent a tough childhood because of the poverty. My grandmother gained unsold vegetables from merchants in the market to feed her five children. She couldn't afford to buy some fresh ones. With a sad look, she said, "Your grandfather used to go out every morning so that he sold the basins made of rubber."
My mom showed that the prejudice of 'The longer a person is exposed to poverty at childhood, the worse the achievement levels become' was completely wrong. She looked at me and said, "I had never missed the top of the whole school and it made me to develop a desire to be a teacher." I felt as if her heart swelled with pride. She saw my astonished eyes and continued, "However, I had no choice but to go to the commercial high school rather than an academic high school. All the while, I dreamed of someday becoming a teacher." At that moment, I saw a sense of frustration from her eyes. I understood that feeling of joy and sorrow was mingled in her face at the same time. She said, "There was no time to learn how to dress myself even I had no opportunity for it. Fortunately, I had been offered a job with one of the leading companies in Korea as soon as I graduated from the high school. It was like a turning point in my life!" After listening her answer, I thought it was natural that she could be an employee of that company because she was the most diligent person among the people I know but she thought it was just a reward by god. She continued to tell her story with a pleasant smile. "One of the biggest present I got from here was your dad." It was the first time that I heard how my mom and dad got married so I was so interesting to continue this interview. "One of my superior officers at work introduced your dad to me and I thought your dad could make me happy forever. Well…finally, you could be born!", she grinned wickedly. I asked, "Then, don't you regret what you had to give up for livelihood? Such as your dream of being a teacher." It seemed like she was lost in deep thought for a while. After a pause, she opened her mouth. "I don't think I gave up my dream. I just put my own dreams back. That's the reason why I decided to enter the university and majored the department of early childhood education at a relatively later age." It was true that she challenged to enter the university a few years ago, but I didn't notice her purpose of that challenge. She got a full scholarship for 4 years. She said, "To be frankly speaking, it was too hard for me to be an attentive mom, a thoughtful wife, and a nice student at the same time." She added, "But there's one thing that I really want to tell you. Don't live your life without your dream." She has a great zest for her life and I could feel it.
Now I understand the reason why she has lived her life so hard. It's because she has not given up her dream and she wanted to teach me the value of dream. Maybe she also didn't want that I felt frustrated in my life because of the poverty. Thanks to this interview, I realized her happiness was started from my dad, me, and her dream.
201502643 Lee Ji Won
ReplyDeleteYour essay of your mother’s life story was really touching. I could fully engage with the story! Plus, I think the writing was well organized to draw the central idea of your writing that you now understand why your mother has lived so hard and that you should value the importance of dream. Though I couldn’t see a thesis statement, it was enough for me to get the most important idea of your writing after reading it. I think it’s because the quotation that goes into “But there’s one thing that I really want to tell you. Don’t live your life without your dream” was really powerful and effective. The number of quotations was also appropriate.
However, there were two parts I was confused. The first one was the quotation of your mother “I had never missed the top of the whole school and it made me to develop a desire to be a teacher.” In this part, it was not clear what the top of the whole school means. Also, I’m not quite sure why the fact that your mother didn’t miss the top of school made her to dream of becoming a teacher. The second part that I was confused is the sentence that goes into “I understood that feeling of joy and sorrow was mingled in her face at the same time.” I’m curious why you saw both the feeling of joy and sadness. Is it because although your mother couldn’t achieve her dream to be a teacher but had a chance to enter one of the leading companies in Korea? I think revising these two parts would make your writing better!
Wow, what a touching interview! I'm surprised because my interview has a lot in common with yours; I also wrote about my mom's life lessons, and she was also born in a family with 5 children! I liked how you showed that your mother has proved the prejudice wrong throughout her life. I especially love the very last quote of your mother "But there's one thing that I really want to tell you. Don't live your life without your dream." The direct quote emphasized the importance of her message.
ReplyDeleteSome places that you could consider clarifying are these: "There were a variety of food except for our family" and "However, I had no choice but to go to the commercial high school rather than an academic high school". About the first sentence, I couldn't exactly understand what you were trying to say. The second one is actually okay; I didn't have a problem with understanding that your mom had to go to commercial high school because of money. But I personally think it would be more comprehensible to state it.
However, there was no problem in catching that the thesis statement in your essay is "Don't live your life without your dream." As I have mentioned above, I think this thesis statement & direct quotation is the most effective one in your entire essay
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I think the quotations are used appropriately. I felt as if I was sitting right next to you, listening to the interview. But if you were to change some parts you could use less of them; explaining in your language about what your mom has told you, instead of using a direct quote.
One suggestion about how you could improve your essay when revising is to consider focusing more on the main idea. You could organize the questions and answers so that they all lead to the thesis statement.
201502398 Subin Lee
201502384 LeeSooKyung
ReplyDeleteBecause my interviewee was my mom, it was relatively easy to conduct the interview. I just ask my list of prepared questions at my home in an informal atmosphere. However, if I had a chance to do the interview over, I would like to conduct it in a formal way. For example, to search about background information related to my questions will help me to conduct the interview thoroughly. If I knew more about the society-economic situation when my mom was a little girl, I could understand her answers more easily.
When I listened to the tape after audiotaping my reading, what I liked most about the essay was the quotations that I used in this writings. The reason is that I could imagine my mom’s childhood and her youth vividly through the quotations.
I will clarify some meanings of sentences that could make the readers confused. The sentences such as ‘There were a variety of food except for our family’, or ‘However, I had no choice but to go to the commercial high school rather than an academic high school’ could be some vague ones. I will add more explanations after each quotation to express what I want to say in a more specific way.