From what I can recall, the earliest memory of me writing is a letter to a friend in kindergarten. I don't remember the friend's name or even the gender, but it must have been a close friend. I wanted to show that I was very happy to have a nice friend like him/her. Since I was young, I just wrote anything that came to my mind, of course. Writing letters is the easiest and hardest thing to do, because it is a very personal thing. You certainly do not have to worry about getting feedbacks, but it can be embarrassing to reveal your feelings so thoroughly. Letters can talk about a person a lot. They show your thoughts, personalities, attitudes.
I guess I've always been interested in writing freely but never really knew it, because I didn't have a proper chance to write until I went to an international school. Before then, it was just answering questions in essays at academic schools. An event that sort of changed my thoughts about writing was in English class. I loved reading, but I didn't like writing essays for homework (I still don't). Once, we had to create a horror story. I wrote a short story and handed it in, and my friends and the teacher complimented me about it though I thought it was childish. I enjoyed writing it as well, so I guess that's when I developed my interest in writing stories. I still do it every now and then, when I read something and an intriguing idea comes up to me. I write things and keep them to myself. The idea always grows too much, though, so I don't often finish what I wrote.
At school in Korea, there weren't many chances to write. We didn't have to do any creative thoughts. It was enough just answering questions, similar to what I have mentioned above. Then I moved to an international high school again, and I was asked to write so many essays using any topics. I think the hardest thing, always, is coming up with the idea and conclusion. These two are the most important things in essays as well. I think teachers that I have met in Korea before college, focused more on grammar than the content. But the teachers at international schools considered the content more important than grammar. Except for the English teacher, who thought everything was important.
Your essay is very relatable in terms of experience, however, your stance on writing remains somewhat ambiguous. It is impressive how you were able to identify writing traits in two cultures but I'm curious to know your exact opinion on them. More importantly though, I find your line "letters can talk about a person a lot" resonate with me because I have also given back and forth letters for a big part of my life. They do indeed act as a platform for self-expression.
ReplyDelete-Su Yeon Kim
201502643 Lee JiWon
ReplyDeleteSince I didn't attend international school I can't compare the writing experience from international school and Korea school, but I completely agree with your idea that teachers in Korea really focus more on grammer rather than content..So unfortunate thing..
I think so many people are too sensitive about grammer in Korea. Whatever the language is.I know grammer rules are important, but sometimes they're not a priority. (So let's find some errors in my comment!)
ReplyDelete201501670 chaeyoung son