My Bitter-Sweet Story on Reading and Writing
Hwang Yoo Jung (200904349)
When did I begin to read and write? And why? Now reading and writing is natural things as I breathe and eat meal three times a day. At some point of bygone days, however, reading and writing must have been unnatural and artificial to me.
If I trace old memories, maybe I could have begun to read books imitating that my elder sisters read. Did it happen when I was about 5 years old? My elder sisters read "Snow White" to me at least over 100 times. I learned by heart the whole text without missing just a word. Of course, the text was too long for a young kid to read. My parents, for a long time, used to boast about their smart daughter saying "Yoo Jung must be a genius. "
In this way, I became interested in reading and I developed my literacy systematically learning Korean Alphabet and simple sentences like "Let's play together, Young Hee!" "Come here, puppy!" I was accustomed to read and then little by little I began to write. I kept a diary adding pictures and would send letters to my teacher during a vacation. Though my writing was quite poor, I enjoyed writing myself. What a pleasant experience it is!
In addition, quite a many books in the school library like a glittering starry night gave me hope and dream. They inspired my young soul with beautiful words making me feel the urge to write something. I enjoyed writing with my heart and would show my writings to friends. Also I participated in the writing programs of school and regional library.
It was after entering high school that I felt a sense of detachment from reading and writing something. Under pressure to gain admission to college, I could not do extracurricular activities nor could I read and write topics of no relation with an entrance exam. Reading and writing by obligation or appropriateness not by voluntary need was disgusting, and my free soul was bruised by a blow.
In an atmosphere of freedom in college, fortunately, my desire for reading and writing was brought back. Also, working as a reporter or editor in the school magazine, I became a messenger of communication among faculty, staff and students. At that time, I was very interested in current events and sometimes I wrote some critical essays. These writings, enhancing my thinking ability, helped to broaden my horizons.
For 10 years or so after graduating from the university, I worked as an editor in some publishing companies. To decide which book should be published, I had to distinguish between good and bad manuscripts from editor's viewpoint. Also, proofreading manuscripts, I could know better which ways are desirable for writing.
I think it has cruised one way or another without a serious hitch to develop my reading and writing in native language. If so, what about my English literacy? Actually, my reading and writing history is relatively short and it has nothing special.
I learned the English alphabet in the middle school and I read just English textbooks. Until I graduated from the high school, I read hardly any English sources except for textbooks. Even in the college, English was just a compulsory course which I had to read to learn the courses for my major. As we all maybe know, it is not such an enjoyable experience to read something mandatorily.
It was through travel in Europe to mark my 30th birthday that I came to rethink about English. Throughout the trip, I had to revive dead words in my brain, which was a great exciting thing. After my trip, while emailing to new friends living in other countries, I kept resurrecting many words, which were lifeless and unuseful in my life. How wonderful it is! I realized that I came back to the days of a 5 year-old-girl who memorized the whole text of fairy tale aspiring to read and write skillfully.
From then on, I have dreamed of becoming a translator. And this spring I came back to campus to give shape to my long-cherished vision. In the view of a translator, maybe I will meet another new world of reading and writing. How exciting it is! My soul, still young and immature, is all aflutter on the thorny path.
1. She used several questions in this writing and it makes me keep interested in her story and by doing so, she starts a new paragraph naturally.
ReplyDelete2. I think the main poin of this writing would be that she spontaneously aquired reading and wrting skills through working as an editor.
3. What I really like about her autobiography is she used exclamations such as " What pleasant experience it is! or "How exciting it is!
These expressions make this lively and fresh.
4. "quite many books like glittering starry night" this made me a little confused, it should be "many books like glittering stars in the sky"
5. Overall, I really enjoyed this writing!!!
Park Jin-kyung 200904082
ReplyDelete1. She used several questions in this writing and it makes me keep interested in her story and by doing so, she starts a new paragraph naturally.
2. I think the main poin of this writing would be that she spontaneously aquired reading and wrting skills through working as an editor.
3. What I really like about her autobiography is she used exclamations such as " What pleasant experience it is! or "How exciting it is!
These expressions make this lively and fresh.
4. "quite many books like glittering starry night" this made me a little confused, it should be "many books like glittering stars in the sky"
5. Overall, I really enjoyed this writing!!!
My Bitter-Sweet Story
ReplyDelete(The second draft 1)
Hwang Yoo Jung 200904349
Intermediate English Writing 1 (Tue 78)
When did I begin to read and write? And why? Now reading and writing are natural things as I breathe and eat meal three times a day. At some point of bygone days, however, reading and writing must have been unnatural and artificial to me.
If I trace old memories, maybe I could have begun to read books imitating that my elder sisters read. Did it happen when I was about 5 years old? My elder sisters read “Snow White” to me at least over 100 times. I learned by heart the whole text without missing just a word. Of course, the text was too long for a young kid to read. My parents, for a long time, used to boast about their smart daughter saying “Yoo Jung must be a genius. “
In this way, I became interested in reading and I developed my literacy systematically learning the Korean alphabet and simple sentences like “Let’s play together, Young Hee!” “Come here, puppy!” I was accustomed to read and then little by little I began to write. I kept a diary adding pictures and would send letters to my teacher during a vacation. Though my writing was quite poor, I enjoyed writing itself. What a pleasant experience it is!
In addition, quite a many books in the school library, like glittering stars in the sky do, gave me dream and hope. They inspired my young soul with beautiful words which make me feel the urge to write something. I enjoyed writing with my heart and would show my writings to friends. Also I participated in the writing programs of school and regional library.
It was after entering high school that I felt a sense of detachment from reading and writing. Under pressure to gain admission to college, I could not do extracurricular activities nor could I read and write topics of no relation with an entrance exam. Reading and writing by obligation or appropriateness not by voluntary need was disgusting, and my free soul was bruised by a blow.
My Bitter-Sweet Story
ReplyDelete(The second draft 2)
Hwang Yoo Jung 200904349
Intermediate English Writing 1 (Tue 78)
In an atmosphere of freedom in college, fortunately, my desire for reading and writing was brought back. Also, working as the reporter and editor in the school magazine, I became the messenger of communication among faculty, staff and students. At that time, I was very interested in current events and sometimes I wrote some critical essays. These writings, enhancing my thinking ability, helped broaden my horizons.
For 10 years or so after graduating from the university, I worked as an editor in some publishing companies. To decide what should be published, I had to distinguish between good and bad manuscripts from editor’s viewpoint. Also, proofreading manuscripts, I could know better which ways are desirable for writing.
I think it has cruised one way or another without a serious hitch to develop my reading and writing in native language. If so, what about my English literacy? Actually, my reading and writing history in English is relatively short and it has nothing special.
I learned the English alphabet in the middle school and I read just English textbooks. Until I graduated from the high school, I read hardly any English sources except for textbooks. Even in the college, English was just a compulsory course which I had to read to learn the courses for my major. As we all maybe know, it is not such an enjoyable experience to read something mandatorily.
It was through travel in Europe to mark my 30th birthday that I came to rethink about English. Throughout the trip, I had to revive dead words in my brain, which was extremely exciting. After the trip, while emailing to new foreign friends, I kept resurrecting many words, which were lifeless and unuseful in my life. How wonderful it is! I realized that I came back to the days of a 5 year-old-girl who had memorized the whole text of fairy tale aspiring to read and write skillfully.
From then on, I have dreamed of becoming a translator. And this spring I came back to campus to give shape to my long-cherished vision. In the view of a translator, maybe I will meet another new world of reading and writing. How exciting it is! My soul, still young and immature, is all aflutter on the thorny path.