Huiyeong Kim - Literacy Autobiography

201181021 HUIYEONG KIM Intermediate English Writing 1 (Tue 78) Tuesday, March 15, 2011   My Literacy Autobiography   A big and healthy baby girl was born on November 15th, 1989 at a hospital in Ulsan, weighing 4.2 kilograms. She has had plump cheeks and big eyes. She liked to go outside romping in the fields and play with dolls or toys. As a baby girl grew, she had to develop her abilities about reading and writing of Korean which is her native language. She was interested in these. However, she still preferred going outside to reading and writing something. That was me.   My house's walls were decorated with the posters which were written about the Korean and English alphabet like the other houses. I unconsciously saw them every day and started to write one by one. One of the consonants in Hangeul, giyeok(ㄱ) was the first letter I wrote of my life. After that, I mastered Korean alphabet, but I could just write my name by memorizing.   I am not sure whether I was 5 or 6 years old, at that time, my mother sometimes took me to the bookstore. I picked out some books that aroused my curiosity, and she bought them. Then my mother and father read them next to me in the house. I really liked to read fairy tales such as Snow White, Cinderella, and A Dog of Flanders, so my interest in reading books was gradually growing.   After I entered elementary school, I read books for children, but I was not a student who is a bookworm. At that time, in the elementary school, I have begun to keep dairies. At first, I wrote picture dairies. Keeping dairies was a kind of duty because I had to receive confirmation to my teacher, but it was interesting increasingly. For this reason, I got several prizes for a diary. I also received awards in writing in the sixth grade because there were school writing contests which had to compose a poem about the Korean island, Dokdo, and write a letter to the North Koreans about the unification of the Korean peninsula. The school writing contests were good chances to improve my writing skills, and I could also know how to write on the squared manuscript paper.   When I was a middle and high school student, I usually read all sorts of literary works that adolescent must-read to prepare the College Scholastic Ability Test. In addition, at that moment, there was a TV program called "Book, Book, Book, and Read Books!" This program introduced books to the people every week and erected libraries in the Korean cities where had few libraries. It strongly influenced on many people including me. I bought and read books which were presented on there. Because of this program, I thought again about my reading habit and tried to read many books. In writing, I think that I didn't write too many things in middle and high school. I just wrote letters to give my friends. I had no many chance to write something. However, after I entered university, most of my assignments have been reports in Korean and English, so I could write something again.   In English, I started to study English in earnest since I was in third grade, elementary school although I knew the English alphabet before. There was an after-school program for English. The teacher taught songs in English, for example, Edelweiss. Later, the teacher taught reading with two books which were about the true and amazing stories all over the world. The students in this class, including me, had to practice reading the scripts quickly. A student who read the article most rapidly could receive the gifts. It was really fun, and I could feel that my English skills were improving. I could take an interest in English because of this class, so this class was strongly motivated me to learn English.   Last year, I have been to Canada for about 4 months to study English. It is like an exchange program that the Department of English Literature of University of Ulsan does. In Canada, I took English reading and writing classes. I have read some of the English texts, but English writing class was the first time, so I could learn a little about the methods of academic writing. It was interesting, at first. However, the more I have studied English writing, the more I have realized it is difficult.   This year, I promised myself to keep diaries every day and read 15 books which contain English and French books by the end of this year. I am now reading second book. If I compare it with others, it can be a small number, but I'll increase gradually and do my best.