Week 1: Reflecitons, Ms. Lee

My First Reading: a tool for play

    Thinking back my first reading experience, I could not but be amazed by the tactic and the educational intention of my parents. My reading was not the end itself, but the process by which I achieved the tempting goal – winning the game and getting the items I wanted for Chusok holiday. Reading was not hard-working, but educational and fun in that it brought me learning of brotherly and sisterly affection, and the importance of cooperation as well as learning of Korean alphabets.

     When I was six, my siblings and I, tired of playing in the playground all through the summer, were striving to find out a breakthrough which could refresh us with excitement and challenge. My father noticed all this hustle and bustle and gave us a cooperative task to read a series of picture bible and study so that we could answer the bible quiz scheduled in the following month. Around that time, I had just mastered how to write Korean alphabets. Though the picture bible was easy to read for an eight-year old eldest brother, it was too difficult for me. However, my father enticed us into a cooperative work that my elders taught me how to read and read the books to me, the youngest, by suggesting a big reward of buying Chusok items like a bike and clothes.

     Day and night, I read and asked my brother and sister of what I didn’t know, and they were willing to help me in whatever they could do to make me read and understand the books. How studious I was at that time, and how generous my brother and sisters were to take care of me! In our studying room lined up with three desks, we stayed up reading until late night. We even gave up watching TV. In the final phase, we discussed what we read, and talked back and forth about the questions. The unforgettable moment which had never been more serious before and after, remains alive as happy memory of my childhood.

     One evening a week before Chusok holiday, we gathered together in the biggest room for the quiz. Father threw out 25 questions from the series of picture bibles, and mother played a role of a judge. Anybody among us should answer the questions correctly within a limited time. We should have answered right 90 percent out of 25 questions. In a thrilling moment, we finally succeeded in acquiring the prizes and praise from my parents. Plus, we were rewarded with pride and successful experience of cooperation and study. One-month-long intensive learning from my siblings about reading and Korean vocabulary contributed to my early mastering Korean language and interest in reading and studying.

 

 

Learning Korean and English

     Looking back my childhood when I learned Korean and English, I can rarely remember how I initiated such a great task – learning language. One thing for sure is that I just positively and naturally responded to the challenge that came over to me, just as I did every developmental stage. Comparing my learning experiences between Korean and English, I come to see the similarities and differences of two learning processes.

    When it came to similarities in learning reading and writing Korean and English, learning processes of Korean and English were alike in two ways. First, learning reading and writing in either Korean or English was involved in intentional teaching and learning. When I learned reading and writing in Korean, my parents made every effort in motivating me to work on reading and writing. I was taught from how to grasp a pencil to write an alphabet to dictation from my parents. Quite often they made use of sibling pressure and competition to make me ‘study’ how to decode and encode Korean alphabets. Also as I first learned English reading and writing, I mostly depended on school teachers. The books and materials were given by school teachers during the class. They taught me how to read the words and understand the materials. They used a grammar-translation method to read and understand reading material. They would check the writing assignment where I had chance to write from words to paragraphs. Next similarity shared by learning Korean and English is the order of learning. Writing an alphabet was the first step in learning both languages. Also, writing sentences came last, because writing more than one paragraph meant more than a combination of words. A sentence-level of writing focused on dictating what the teacher said correctly until second grade.  

However, the learning process of Korean and English differs, in terms of the order of learning and effort of learning. The biggest difference between Korean learning and English learning is the sequence of learning. While speaking Korean was followed by writing Korean, speaking English came after practicing reading and writing English. In other words, Korean was naturally acquired orally, while English was intentionally taught in written form. That explains that writing occurred before reading, in regard to my learning English, while Korean followed the learning sequence -writing an alphabet, reading words and sentences, and finally writing. Another difference of learning between Korean and English is the time and energy effort to learn reading and writing. To reach the level that I deliberately write to express myself, I had less energy and time in learning Korean than English. Even though I spent almost 30 years to learn English, I am not completely comfortable to write my ideas and feelings in English.

By comparing learning between Korean and English, I realize that the magic of learning both Korean and English was attributed to the education of parents and teachers. They manipulated the order of learning to excel and ease the process for my convenience. However, the order of learning English and Korean was different due to the different nature of languages- first language and foreign language acquired after puberty. Learning foreign language was more time and energy consuming, demanding more effort on me. However, I have owned two worlds, and my eyes opened to different cultures through learning two languages, however hard it was to acquire them. This wonder leads me to adventure to mastering the languages.