SangJee Lee/My personal experience with writing /Tuesday & 1 p.m.

When I was in elementary school I had a very interesting writing assignment. Since the class was quite small, we made the 'class book' each year which was carrying pictures of our class, and some writings from students. In 6th year, my homeroom teacher suggested that we should do something special to publish in our class book. He wanted to do something that all of our classmates could participate. So we ended up writing a story just like passing baton. Teacher started the story with "Once upon a time there lived…" and then one by one students added their own story in order. First student wrote the story and added his story to the first line. Reading first student's story, second student wrote the following story. This went on for about whole month before all twenty of us wrote something. This was a really fun and memorable experience for me. It was the first time I thought writing could be fun. I had to read carefully what other people wrote before I think up the following story for my own because story as whole at the end have to make sense.  How we are going to finish the story was all we talked about in school. All of our classmates had such a fun  writing the story.

As growing up, I had to write a lot of essay and report that did not really interest me or simply stressed me. In high school I had this particular time where all the class had to read the short story that is known to be frequently on the college entrance exam. After reading the story we had to submit a book review within two hours. That time was extremely stressful for me. I did not have enough time to think about the story or what I would like to write but had to produce something. Especially I am not very fond of writing book review. I generally love reading books and hearing stories. But reading something while thinking I have to write an essay about it takes the joy out of reading. I constantly feel pressure about the fact that I have to find something to write in the essay and that disturbs me from concentrating on the story. However, when there is no mandatory book review I usually write down how I felt about the story after reading something I love. 

Almost all of my writing was done in Korean until I graduate high school. Of course, I have done short English writing in English class but it was nothing huge. So when I entered college, it was a huge shock for me to write a whole 5 paragraphed essay in English. Writing in my first language is quite different compared to writing in English. I am more comfortable in listening or reading English compared to speaking or writing. So whenever I have writing assignment in English, I get very intimidated just about the fact that it is English. When I write in Korean I am very cautious about making grammar error because I myself don't really like to read something that has very bad grammar. And I know when I make simple grammar mistakes in Korean. However in English, it is a lot harder. I need someone to help me just correcting grammar. Also, even though I have some idea or feeling that I want to express, there is always a limitation and I end up writing less. But after the discussion in class, I got to know that actually a lot of people have this similar problem. I was somewhat relieved that I am not the only one having a hard time. We all have different problems or difficulties in writing and I hope that we can help each other to become a better writer.