"I'm, I'm not English," was what I first said when I had to introduce myself at a junior camp in England when I was eight years old. I meant to say that I cannot speak English very well, but that was the best explanation I could think of at that time. Since most of the kids there were from English-speaking countries, I was very shy as I could barely speak English.
"We know you are not English, dear. Don't be shy," said one of the teachers as a response to my utterance. I realized that I said wrong and so they misunderstood me, so I became even shyer. After all the children finished introducing themselves, I just stayed where I was, silent, not knowing what to do, while other kids were chatting and talking to one another. Then, one girl with blonde hair came in front of me and said hi. I was surprised, but also felt relieved and happy to finally talk with someone. Her name was Alice, and she patiently waited for me and listened to me carefully as I tried to communicate with her with my imperfect English.
Although we could not understand each other's words very well, we soon became quite close to each other and hung out together throughout the whole week at the camp. We ate together, picked up flowers together, played house together, etc. We really did all kinds of activities together. On the last day at the camp, we went to a canteen after having lunch like we did every day. As we came out from the canteen with ice cream for each of us, Alice told me to wait and ran back to the canteen. About a minute later she came back to me and gave me a candy bracelet.
"This is for you," she said, smiling at me. That was her sweet goodbye to me which I still remember very vividly.
Now that I recall, I have learned that one can grow close with someone from another culture even if they cannot speak each other's language well, thanks to Alice. Such experience has allowed me to refrain from judging others and become more open-minded towards various cultures. One week with this lovely girl from London at the camp was surely a priceless and memorable experience for me.
Hi Ha-eun. Your writing has helped me remember my own memories of my childhood. As a student who lived in Guatemala, I was able to empathize your lack of confidence and the experience to have a new friend to help you get used to the new culture. Your opening paragraph definitely was good. I was able to know that you were away from Korea and it made me curious to read on how you would get adapted to England. Keep the good work!!
ReplyDelete3-a: Haeun's essay consisted of dialogues and specific time table of the camp which helped me to picture the whole scene in my mind. It was realistic.
ReplyDeletec: Her first paragraph instantly made me think of my first time of learning English. I have a similar experience as well that I could not agree more when writing Haeun's essay. It was a nice start as it grabbed my attention.
d: She mostly used past tense but the last two paragraphs were in present tense. I thought the tense change was appropriate since she stated her feelings after when she grew up and the valuable lessons she gained from it.
-Commented by Yeonjae Hwang
“I’m, I’m not English,” was what I first said when I had to introduce myself at a junior camp in England when I was eight years old. I meant to say that I could not speak English very well, but that was the best explanation I could think of at that time. Since most of the kids at the camp were from English-speaking countries, I was extremely shy as I could barely speak English.
ReplyDelete“We know you are not English, dear. Don’t be shy,” said one of the teachers as a response to my utterance. I realized that I said wrong and so they misunderstood me, so I became even shyer. After all the children finished introducing themselves, I just stayed where I was, silent, not knowing what to do, while other kids were chatting and talking to one another. Then, one girl with blonde hair came in front of me and said hi. I was surprised, but also felt relieved and happy to finally talk with someone. Her name was Alice, and she patiently waited for me and listened to me carefully as I tried to communicate with her with my imperfect English.
Although we could not understand each other’s words very well, we soon became quite close to each other and hung out together throughout the whole week at the camp. We ate together, picked up flowers together, played house together, etc. We really did all kinds of activities together. On the last day at the camp, we went to a canteen after having lunch like we did every day. As we came out from the canteen with ice cream for each of us, Alice told me to wait and ran back to the canteen. About a minute later she came back to me and gave me a candy bracelet.
“This is for you,” she said, smiling at me. That was her sweet goodbye to me which I still remember very vividly. I knew I was going to miss her very much and it was such a sad feeling, but I smiled back at her and said, “Thank you, Alice.”
Now that I recall, I have learned that one can grow close with someone from another culture even if they cannot speak each other’s language well, thanks to Alice. Such experience has allowed me to refrain from judging others and become more open-minded towards various cultures. One week with this lovely girl from London at the camp was surely a priceless and memorable experience for me.
- Ha-eun Jeong