Yeo Eun Ki/Tuesday 1pm/Chapter 5 final draft

There are many different kinds of love in our world. There is the love between a man and a woman, passionate and exciting. We often say we love our friends, and those important in our lives. And certainly there is the deep love we have for our country or humanity. And at one time or another, all of us claim to "love" trivial things like cupcakes or puppies. But, more importantly, there is the love we have for our family members. And even within that love, I always like to think there is a separate category for a mother's love. A mother can be the strongest person in the world for her family. With strength, resilience, and selflessness that cannot be compared to anyone else in the world, a mother's love knows no bounds. And because of this incredible devotion, mothers are willing to make sacrifices to give their children everything and anything.
  By my grandmother's bedside there was a packet of medicine and some tangerines. She coughed a little and sat up in bed. "This interview is for what?" she asked me again. There was still sleep in her eyes and confusion on her face. "My school, grandma. I'm writing about you," I smiled brightly. "I want to talk about a mother's love. And you're the strongest mother I know." To reassure her, I beamed and patted her hand. My mom, who had come with me, reached over and peeled the tangerines and handed them to us. So with bursts of sweet juiciness of tangerines in my mouth I pressed record and started with question one.
  To my relief, my grandmother actually liked talking about her life. "Tell me about getting married to grandpa," I said. "You married young, didn't you?" My grandmother nodded and almost immediately launched into her story. "I was only twenty-three." My grandmother was born in the countryside of the South Chungcheong province. Like most families living in Korea at that time, she grew up hungry. By her parent's orders, she moved to Seoul to marry my grandpa. They had met only once prior to their marriage, and my grandmother admits to being unimpressed by him.
  True to her first impression, my grandpa proved to be a poor father and husband to his family. "It wasn't because he didn't want to," my mom, who had been listening to our interview, interrupted, "It was because he didn't know how. Most men of that time didn't. Your grandpa thankfully never raised his hand against any of us. He was just disinterested in our family." My grandmother learned from the very beginning of their marriage to scrimp and pinch with the meager earnings my grandpa brought home. "Most days, there wasn't enough rice so I mixed it with flour and make porridge for myself and the children." She paused. "Your grandpa always had a bowl of rice to eat. But not us. Sometimes I was so hungry and tired I wanted to sit down and cry but had no strength to." She went on to tell me how my grandpa never came home early and would leave my grandmother to take care of the children. "I did everything. From handling the money to making sure there was something on the table for them to eat. I wanted my children to never grow hungry."
  The cheerful mood at the start of the interview slowly faded to a somber atmosphere. The abrupt silence that filled the room grew stifling. The tangerine I had been eating lay abandoned on a plate. I shifted uncomfortably as my grandma swiped quickly at her eyes and heaved a deep sigh. Tentatively, I asked, "But what made you go on? Wasn't it difficult? Did-" I hesitated. "Did you want to give up?" My grandma looked straight at me and said, "I thought about leaving for my hometown. Just abandoning everything and leave." When I asked her why she didn't, she shook her head while rubbing her knees. "I couldn't just go back home. My parents would never allow it." My grandmother sighed again and looked regretful. "So I stayed in Seoul with my children. Your mom and aunt and uncle are the only reason I stayed sane and alive. I worked hard to bring my children out of poverty." My grandmother then proceeded to tell me how she would buy a very cheap house, mend it, and sell it at a better profit. She laughed as I exclaimed at her accomplishments. The bright gleam was back in her eyes as she said with satisfaction, "By the time your uncle came along, I had sold four houses. And I didn't even spend half of the money I earned. I kept the cash under the wardrobe and saved and saved. Even your grandpa didn't know about the money." My grandmother bought a nice house of her own before my mom was born. By then the family was much better off than it had been when she had first gotten married. "But the hard life changed me," she said simply. When I asked her to elaborate, she explained, "I used to be very docile and shy. I didn't dare stand up to anyone. And I always kept to myself." But the struggle to escape poverty had my grandmother getting to reluctant arguments with men twice her size over the cost of rice, throwing away her already tattered pride to ask her relatives for money, and roughening her gentle hands to work in the bitter cold or the stifling heat. The more she talked, the more animated my grandmother grew. I looked down at my list of questions and saw that she'd answered half of them without me even asking her.
  Finally I asked her, "Do you regret your sacrifice for your children?" My mom was very quiet beside me. My grandma's eyes shined with unshed tears. "Never. Not a single one." My eyes followed her gaze and saw her hands, rough and wrinkled and no doubt tough from the decades of hard work. "I have this very nice house. Your mom, your aunt, and your uncle have all graduated from universities. All of them are happily married and well off. And I even have you, and all my other grandchildren." She reached over and took my hand, rubbing it to warm them. She smiled at me and her eyes crinkled into crescent moons.  
  After the interview was over, I got up and straighten my clothes. And before I left my grandmother's bedroom, I walked over to her dresser. In front of the large mirror, there were several photographs. I recognized my own picture, taken when I was an infant. Below mine is my cousin's. She still has the same smile. My uncle's graduation picture is kept special in a glass frame. My eyes lingered on the last photograph; the picture of my grandmother in her late 60s, looking dignified into the camera. She is looking straight into the camera, a small smile gracing her lips. One would never be able to tell the coarseness of her hands by the way she folds them so daintily in her lap. "It gives you a different perspective of your grandmother, doesn't it?" my mom commented from behind me. I nodded. From the moment we are born, our mothers make it their first priority to ensure our safety and happiness sometimes at the cost of their own. These sacrifices are not easy for anyone to make because you are doing something for someone else. You are essentially giving a gift that cannot be measured by money. But mothers can do it. Mothers can and are willing to do it for their family. And perhaps this is why for so many of us the word "mom" tugs at our heartstrings.

Dan kim/ tuesday 1 p.m./ ch 5 final

Title: Dreaming Guitarist

 

I entered a music studio then moved myself to the room where my teacher was playing his guitar. In the far right corner of his room, a lot of expensive professional guitars were placed on a stand. And the opposite side of the stand was big Marshall guitar amp with small guitar effectors. On his desk was a big monitor screen with a bunch of music graph going up and down along the teachers' strum. "Yo! teacher, I'm here!" I shouted to him, because he barely hears anything when he plays a guitar. "Oh, ya already here my boy? Ok let's start today's lesson real quick. What we gonna learn today is phrygian mode with a combination of diatonic 5th scale…" I interrupted his line "hold up man, before that can we do some lil' pep talk with you today?" He replied "Ha ha. Ya already sick of learning harmony theory my boy? Fine, we need some refreshment sometimes. Ain't you play some time, than ya'll be dumbass. ha!"

 

I asked him "you know, what made you to take this job? I mean, when did you thought you should be guitarist and why?" He made some wrinkle in his forehead and knitted his brows for a moment as if trying to gaze his past day. "Hmm… I just liked rock music when I was a school boy like middle or high something and imagined myself being a star like Guns&Roses, Metallica or Red Hot Chili Peppers. And why especially guitar? C'mon, you come here every week to learn guitar, and still ask something like that? A band can't exist with some sick guitar solo and riff, and that's damn true! Guitar is everything." Yup, he thinks the center of a band is guitar and loves the instrument so much. That'll hold true forever for him. And I think that love and pride is the reason he is so skilled and perfectionist about his instrument.

 

I asked another question "then wasn't it hard to become like this, professional guitarist?" He lifted edge of his mouth and made a little smile and said "Oh, I bet ya couldn't even imagine how hard it was to achieve all those skills, money, or else. When I first started my guitar, there was no lesson or teacher at all. Everything I could do was listening to music just over and over till I can play the note with my guitar. When I tried to copy Beetles' Let it be, it took me like forever. But as the number of the song I copied gone up, I became bit better and better. But I felt that wasn't enough for me to become guitar hero." I asked him again "then what else did you do?" he restarted his story "well, when I graduated my high school, I gave up going to college and moved to Seoul from my hometown. Ya know the cliché used a lot in movies, like some enthusiastic guy filled with his dream going to big city with just a little bit of coin, right? Well I was that case. I came to Seoul to find a teacher who can teach me and band that I could practice together with some people." I was surprised. I've known him for 1year and noticed that he is reckless and very adventurous. But never thought he could have moved to Seoul alone with nothing but a guitar and little sum of money.

 

I asked "Then did you do well after that?" He burst into laugh and said "Ya joking right? How the hell could that gone well. Imagine a boy with no money with some poor guitar skill. As I low on skill, ain't no band wanted me. As low on money, gotta do a part time job almost every day, without rest, to pay a rent and lesson fee. It was like living in a hell. Every day I suffered from my back pain because of construction site job." What he said after that was worse. He ate only instant ramen and Kimchi, because he had no money to afford some fine food. He couldn't even turn on a heater or air conditioner because he had to save utility fee. And he once even went to a loan shark to get money for some gears.

 

I said with frowned face "Oh my god if I were you I would have just gave up and went down to my hometown already." My teacher replied "Well I also thought like that sometimes, but whenever I thought like that, some image came into my mind too. It was image that I myself doing a gig in front of millions of crowds and rocking all the night. That image was just so vivid and clear because I wanted to be like that so much. That image just kicked some ass to thoughts like 'I wanna give up, I ain't gonna make it'. So, I endured and practiced my guitar all day, drawing in my mind that me play like a pro. And after about ten years of all those hard work, I finally became what I want. Now I do a concert at gig site, guitar lesson and release album like a pro. I achieved my dream as a result!

 

When we ended our "pep talk" my lesson time was already over and another student was waiting in front of the room. I said bye to teacher and leaved the room. Even though I didn't learn anything about scale or chord that day, but I think that talk did worth it for me as a guitarist wannabe. I shall not stop dreaming about my goal.

Sangjee Lee /CH5 final draft /Tuesday 1.p.m

National Anthem and Curfew

My mother and I talk all the time but the interview for writing essay was unusual for both of us. She used to tell me some anecdote from her childhood. She told me that her father gave her three white rabbits for Christmas but she never told me how other people lived when she was young. I'm not sure why I didn't ask her before, but preparing for the essay I found out that a lot of events took place during that time in late 1900s such as dictatorship, 1988 Olympic, and biggest economy hardship that Korea went through so far. She looked amused and interested looking at all the questions that I wrote down to interview. But I wanted to focus on the memory that she wanted to tell, rather than writing a whole chronicle about her life.

I casually asked her if there are any particular reason she didn't tell me about the historic events that took place in Korea when she was young. My mom laughed and said that when time passes, only special memory left in people's heart. It leaves a footprint but you can usually remember them not as a whole story but the image. "By the way, I know you always complained about history of modern Korea. So I figured I might make you boring with my story" she added. I told her that hearing from a person who really went through the whole event would be different from just reading the list of simple fact from the history book. "What change the most when you compare the past and today?" She quickly made a cup of coffee while saying that the so many things have changed. "But I guess people have more freedom to think the way they wanted to think. Various opinions are accepted these days." She also added that seeing the society now, and looking back the year, she can't believe how all the thing changed so much.

"Do you remember any specific event when you were young? At least some image of it that made a deep impression on you?" I wanted to start with a first image that comes up to her mind.  "I remember people had to hear national anthem before watching the movie at the theater." She told me that one time, she followed her mom to watch movie at the theater. When she sat down waiting for the movie to start, she noticed all the people are standing up. "It was national anthem coming from the speaker. The image of people standing up before the movie might look strange to you but it was normal from that time." I asked her how she felt about it. She said that she was a young girl and simply thought it was weird and didn't pay much attention but later found out that it was for the patriotism. It was only decades after the Korean War. Government forced patriotism in people's mind. "Your grandmother told me that the life got so much better compare to the time right after the war. But I guess people didn't have much freedom to think in the way they want to think." In school, she had to write a lot of essay about democracy as a writing contest.

I was glad she brought it up because that was few keywords I had in mind. During the research I found out that lot of people remember 1960s and 1970s as oppressive time. The next question I wanted to ask her was about curfew. "I actually had some funny incident about curfew" she said smiling. I didn't understand why she was smiling so I asked her "wasn't curfew uncomfortable?" She said she might have felt that way but now after twenty, or thirty year or so, it is just a memory. "It was almost like I was in 007 series." The curfew was from 12:00a.m.to 4 a.m. but it started much earlier before she was born. She was at her friend's house but lost track of time while talking. When she realized it was too late it was almost past 11p.m. She said she don't know why she didn't thought about just staying at friend's house but she left quickly. She ran and ran through the ocean of people. "The street was literally filled with people around 11 p.m. because of all the people trying to go home." She said people got caught by the police if they stay on the street after 12.a.m.

I learned in high school that late 1900 was when Korea's industrialization happened and Korea's GDP hiked, but hearing her story I felt it was a dark time for people to express their thought freely. I asked her how she felt about the whole situation such as curfew and listening to national anthem before watching movie. "I guess the scariest thing is that you get used to it." She said she heard lot of people talking about that time whether it is negative or positive. "But I want to know how people would see this after hundred years." She told me how people take different point of view when studying history of Joseon dynasty. People make movies and write books about kings and queens while revaluating them. "I might not live that long to see that time but It makes me wonder how people from future would think about the time I lived." My mother said after finishing the cup of coffee.

Lee Chaehyun/Chapter 5 Final Draft/TUE 1PM

It was almost dinnertime when my mom and I sat down for this interview, because I had waited her to wake up from her 'Sunday nap'. Mom looked sleepy but seemed as if she was all recovered from the weekdays' fatigue. "So, what questions do you have for this interview?" She asked. "Are you going to pay me money for this?"

I was curious about her dream, and her current occupation as a pharmacist. She had told me before that it was her father's word to be a pharmacist. I asked her, "Mom, you are a pharmacist now, right? What did you want to be when you were little? Or have you always wanted to be a pharmacist since you were young?"

She frowned, as if she was recalling the memories of the past. After a while, she answered that she wasn't. "Actually, I wanted to be a writer. She told me that when she was little, she was very good at writing. The time she was in elementary school, she had been awarded for every piece of writing she wrote. She also said proudly that all of her teachers liked her works. "At that time, you had to turn in your diaries, so that teachers can see them and make sure you have written your diaries every day." She said her diaries were so funny and well-written that they had made her teachers laugh.

Then here was my second question: "Then how come you did not become a writer?" Mom answered in a quite indifferent way. "Because of your grandfather." She said that the place she had lived was very conservative, not allowing women to study as equally as men. And her father was also not an exception. Grandfather had said that men can learn whatever things they wanted, but women should major in something that can earn money. "That's why he wanted me and your aunts to major either in pharmacy or education; to be a pharmacist or to be a teacher." I asked her whether his words were more like recommending or mandatory. She answered, "The latter, of course."

At that time when my mom was young, what men did and women did was very different. Men could learn whatever they wanted to learn, whereas many women did not even have the opportunity to receive higher education. That's why my grandmother could not continue her learning after elementary school. Maybe that's because the time when my grandmother was young, the inequality between men and women was even bigger, and many women were forced to work after graduating elementary schools. My grandmother does know how to write, but still has to make other people to write for her.

I felt a bit surprised. Of course I had known that gender inequality was bigger in the past, but I never knew that even my mom and my grandmother was involved in it. They could not have an equal chance. I was lucky, because my generations had much more freedom for selecting our own dreams and future occupations.

I asked my final question: "Do you ever regret of choosing your current job?" "No." Mom answered shortly. She said she would have been bad at writing, if she became a writer. The workplace had made her very tired when she was in her thirties, since she had to look after us and work at the same time. But she had never regretted of selecting her current job. She likes it, because she can give a hand to those who are in need, can keep herself busy all the time, and can keep on studying. She told me that her father's words benefited her after all, although they were mandatory in the first place.

From this interview, I got to know that there were generation gaps between me and my mom, and even my grandmother and my mom. As a woman, my grandmother and my mom could not receive the same opportunity as their male counterparts. My grandmother could not receive any education after she had graduated elementary school. Mom had few choices to make about what to learn. Our generation, in contrast, is free from all of these social restraints, and young women can do whatever they want. To me this social phenomenon felt somewhat as a 'generation gap'. I was glad that my mom is content with what she had learned and enjoys her current job, but I know many other woman of her age would not. That fact made me think a lot about the women's lives in the past.

 

Yeonjae Hwang/Chapter5 final/Tues 1pm

 

Interviewing A.

 

 

I went to a girls high school that none of my friends went to. I was the only one assigned to go there, so when I entered the school I had no one in familiar and had to make friends all from the bottom line. However despite of my concerns, my first year of school life was successful. I made numerous friends from diverse groups, which all of them are still in close contact with me up to this day.

One of them is my friend called A. We were in the same class during our first year of high school, and after school we would seek for a delicious restaurant and spend pleasant times of our own. We talked a lot, contacted each other frequently, and met often even after our graduation. She was indeed one of my closest friends. I thought I had known the best about her and it was vice versa for her too. But there was one thing I never knew since then. And this confession is based on what I have heard and interviewed from her.

My friend was the only child who had lived happily with her parents. However, at the age of her middle school years, a small crack appeared on the surface of her parents' relationship. "I was too young to know such, but as time passed by I started to realize the difference and slowly felt that something was going wrong" she said. Back then, her mother was a normal worker at a company and her dad was an illegal moneylender. She said that she lived a very abundant life in terms of material wealth, "honestly, our family had a lot of money. Especially for my dad, he piled up bunch of money in a huge closet at our house and spent it as if he was using water, but you know what the strange thing was? The money never shrunk."

She told me that she still does not know the exact reason for her parents' divorce, yet she estimates that it perhaps would be due to her dad's occupation. Her mother originally knew his job before their marriage but as the job is first illegal and secondly is very harsh, which to the general public is known as a Korean version gangster, my friend reflects how hard it would have been for her mother to tolerate and sacrifice all those. "After their divorce, I stayed with my dad. It was when I was 15 years old. As I was young, I could not accept the fact that I had to live apart with my mom. But of course, now I understand and respect my mom's choice and you know parents' divorce is not child's problem, yet it's just a matter between the wife and husband."

I moved on, asking about any other difficulties she faced after her parents' separation. "Other than the fact I missed my mom, there were times I felt scared and frightened because of my dad. Sometimes, my dad did not come home for days which for me as a young girl, I had to stay home all alone and I would barely go to sleep at night. Later, I found out that he was in prison. Such life was repetitive for him and me. Also, there were days when strangers trespassed to my house. I cannot forget the moment. I was home alone watching television, when I heard a noise outside the front door of my house. It was men talking to each other and they tried to unlock the door. However, as they failed, they used some kind of a machine to break into the house and with the help of it, the front door instantly opened."

Actually, listening to A's story was like reading a thrilling novel. It was beyond my reality and imagination. A continued, "Yeonjae, you should be careful too. I don't know exactly what that machine is called but it could quickly unlock any kind of doors and I think that is how robbers trespass to people's houses." "Anyways, the strangers unlocked the door and came into my house, using harsh words as they were looking around. Then they saw me frozen on the sofa and asked me where my dad was. I said that I didn't know and it was true. I really didn't know where my dad was. Luckily, they didn't hurt me perhaps because I was a little girl and I either could not understand what they were saying or their intentions of breaking into my house." I could not even imagine how scared A would have felt at that time.

"And there were times when my dad brought up women that looked nearly as the same age as my mom to our house. Those new face women changed constantly. Although I was young then, I knew that it was his girlfriends." It was hard for A to understand her dad and accept the new faces, so there were times she shouted and swore at them whenever they showed up, eventually making them to stop coming to the house.

Then I questioned how she'd managed to settle the struggles. "The conflict between me and my dad never stopped. There were lots of ups and downs and that's the reason why last year I went out and lived alone for months." "I promised to myself that I would not live the same as my dad. But the fact that he is my one and only person never changes and as I am grown up than before, I am now able to control myself and manage to stop the inner conflicts within me. During my middle and high school years, I kept struggling to myself and was disappointed at things I could not change just because I could not accept the whole situation. Unlike then, now I somehow learned to accept and let go of some parts that is out of my control. So I feel a lot better and try not to care about it much. In addition, as my dad is getting old, I can notice that his behavior is gradually changing. Metaphorically speaking, he was like a fierce lion in the past but now I think he is becoming a sheep." While answering to my questions, A looked very calm. She looked like a completely different person to me.

Concluding the interview, I asked her my last question: whether she has any regrets or not. "It would be a lie when I say no. Frankly, yes I do have regrets about what I have said to my dad when I was young. Yet, other than that, I have no regrets in terms of what I have done and my actions to handle the problem for myself. Now I continuously try to talk a lot with my dad and surprisingly it's the same for my dad too." Indeed, my friend was as the bravest person that I've ever seen. She was the one who went through harsh times and learned how to cope with all kinds of conflicts. Simultaneously, she knew how to hide her emotions, while being totally honest at times. After my interview with her, I silently blushed since I remembered myself grumbling to her about trivial matters through the days. To A it would have sounded like a tip of an iceberg, yet she was the one who comforted me and suggested solutions. She was always a big person to me, and now she is an exclusive.

 

 

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Sieun Kim/ Chapter5 Final Draft/ Tuesday 1pm

Being Oneself in the Era of Deficiency

South Korea has changed economically and politically in a short period. Just about 30 years ago, Korea was ruled by a military dictatorship and there was not enough food for the majority of people to eat. I wondered how people in this era continued their living and how they felt about their lives as I, who live in a much better social economic situations feel unsatisfied about the life in Korea. How could they accept the condition of loss and cope with the situation? The one who could answer this question was my mom who is my nearest and dearest person to me but has lived through a totally different social condition.

Moreover, I wanted to know about my mom more by the interview. My mother is a person who I admire the most. But it doesn't mean that I admired her since I was young. I always saw her working hard at home since I was a little baby. She always typed something on the computer and searched via Internet. So I thought she was a person who only works and works and works. I had a prejudice that a person who always work would be strict and don't have many friends. That's why it was not easy for me to tell her honestly about my faults. However, my mom was not that strict and isolated person as I thought. She was really good at making friends. She had many friends all over the world who could help her whenever she needed help. I knew this when I became 20 years old. I travelled many countries with my mom and wherever we go, there were her friends who greeted her. They all praised her. She was a person who not only worked well but also took care of people around her. She was also an innocent and childlike woman compared to what I thought of her. She is about 50 years old but she still likes dolls. She cries while watching sad movies or dramas. She is a sensitive and caring lady. I wondered why she seemed so strict to me.

I began my interview eating a dessert with her. I asked "How was your childhood? Are there any special experience you would like to share with me?" to her. As the interview went, lots of questions popped up in my mind. "I grew up in a poor family as most of people living in Korea were. I studied wearing gloves at home in the winter. My older sister worked to pay my tuition. That was why I tried so hard, worked my best to enter a good university. I didn't want to see my sister get disappointed," my mother said. In fact, she got formal education and now she is a professor. She rebuilt her family fortune and now her family members are all living in a good condition. She continued speaking, "I also resisted dictatorial government." She told me a lot about the life under dictatorship and how schools that day were different from these days. It was really interesting. Through her, I could imagine how life in Korea was different in the past compared to today's society. I think Korean adults who went through this hard condition should deserve respect.

Ha-eun Jeong/Final Draft of Chapter 5/Tuesday 1 p.m.

             These days, more and more people learn foreign languages, not only English or Chinese, but also other languages that are used by relatively fewer people than the two. I am one of them as well; I have started learning French last year and decided to choose French as my second major. After some struggles, I was able to get some help from a language exchange application, and Bastien is one of those I met there. He is a French native who was born and raised in Paris. He has a great passion for travelling and is deeply interested in Asian culture. He is also interested in photography, so he has made several series of short documentaries when he travelled Asia. He has been learning Korean by himself along with his studies for master's degree in finance.

The first question I asked was, "How did you end up learning Korean, while there are many other languages that are much more useful?" Then he answered, with a little bit of French accent, "Well, first I tried learning Japanese, but I gave up because of Chinese characters. And I did enjoy travelling Southeast Asia but the language didn't really interest me. Then when I visited Korea, I fell in love with everything there―food, people, ambience…so I just chose to try Korean. It's obviously easier than having to memorize those Chinese characters." He frowned when he said the last sentence. I had experienced the same kind of frustration when I was in high school. I tried learning Japanese by myself out of pure interest but the use of Chinese characters mixed with hiragana or katakana made me give up on it. So I frowned slightly and smiled at the memory as well.

Then I asked him why he loves Asian cultures so much, and he said that he could not explain exactly why. "But, I guess, because you can experience things you can't in your own country? I see many Koreans who admire European cultures, but as a European I don't see anything impressive. But, well, when I first saw a golden temple during my travel to Southeast Asia, it was simply amazing. That chill I felt, it was something I could never forget, I'd say." As he answered, I remembered when I went to London and visited Buckingham Palace. Then I was able to understand what he meant by the chill. He added that since the first trip to Southeast Asia, he was "addicted" to travelling because he wanted to explore more on other cultures that are different, "exotic" he said, to his culture. He chuckled and said, "I'm getting wanderlust every time I talk about this kind of stuff." He shrugged.

When I asked him if he thinks there is a correlation between learning a language and travelling, he answered, "Bien sûr. Definitely." He continued, "Travelling around Asia was actually a turning point in my life in some ways I think. That's why I went to Singapore as an exchange student." He explained that he decided to go study in Singapore because he felt the need to improve his English while experiencing another culture there at the same time. His English was already very good, but he said that he wanted to experience living in an English-speaking country with non-western culture, and so that was why he chose Singapore. He envied that I studied abroad in New Zealand when I was younger, and he said that he wished he was able to study abroad earlier like I did.

"Me learning Korean is also because I travelled around and found Korea attractive. You already know that. When you travel new places and experience different cultures, it is likely that you will find one or some particular cultures you get really attracted to. And that's how you start learning a new language," he added. I asked him if he ever felt that French people tend to be like that more than any other countries, he chuckled again. "Maybe, or maybe not. Well, it could be, but I don't know." Then he shrugged again, smiling.

At the end of the interview, he told me that he enjoyed answering the questions because many of them were what he had been thinking about on his own. Then I realized once more that learning a new language is not just about learning the language; it was about learning the culture through interacting with the people, sharing thoughts and ideas with one another. He thanked me for choosing him as my interviewee, but in fact, I was the one who should be more thankful about having this interview.