During Spring break I had the opportunity to visit my childhood best friend in Baltimore, Maryland. My previous language partner, Somyung, actually gave me a ride there on her way home for the break. We had a great conversation in the car in Korean and I learned a lot about her family. I had so much fun and we did so many different activities that I decided to write down everything we did for each day in Korean. I later showed my writing to my language partner and even my parents to ask for feedback but also share with them the experiences and memories I had with my friend Saera. One thing I really love about Saera’s family is that they speak in a dialect in Korean that is located in Busan. The way they would say a certain word or the tones they used to speak is different from the Seoul dialect. I had so much fun learning and listening to this dialect and also found myself later using some of their words to speak.
I continued with reading the “magic” book and wrote my ten grateful things to exercise in Korean each day. I also wrote a reflection about what I read in the book for the month in korean. I had a conversation with my parents and they wanted to help out with my Korean language learning. They told me to research and write about the famous figure skater Kim Yuna. They told me I had to research using the Korean language and I cannot use any American sources.
This task was very challenging for me because I never tried researching things in korean. Also, although Kim Yuna was a famous figure skater, I think my parents chose this topic because I had no knowledge about her at all. They thought it would be challenging but also a fun prompt.
It took me a couple of days searching for information about Kim Yuna because I had to do it all in korean and also read and interpret the websites in korean. I also took a while to gather my thoughts and write an essay reflection. I figured out how much harder it was writing about a prompt than actually talking about doing it.
I wrote an inspiring essay that explained about Yuna’s life and her hard work that came from a lot of practice and dedication. I sent the essay to my language partner to get some feedback on grammar and then sent it to my parents. My parents read over it and commented on how to rephrase some of the sentences. But overall, they were very proud of the work I have accomplished. They even stated how I am becoming a true korean student which made me very excited.
I think I would want to continue to develop my writing skills by challenging myself to answer another prompt. Researching the information in Korean actually helped me to develop my reading skills and actually using that knowledge to write an essay helped me formulate a more educational writing.
Comments
Rachel,
It's so cool to see that you did a research paper on Kim Yuna! If I also had to pick one of the most influential athletes of all time I would definitely choose Yuna for her resilience, gracefulness, and strength. Thanks for an awesome post!