It was five years ago, when my family moved to America to spend one year there. I was extremely excited about going to USA, because I always considered myself as part of USA, as well as Korea. My parents are both Korean, but I was born in a small city named Boulder, which is in Colorado, a state in America. Therefore, I have both American and Korean citizenship. So, I always thought without a doubt that I was part of both Korean and American society, even though I hadn't been to America since my babyhood. However, when I lived a 'real life' in USA, I had to realize that I was wrong.
My family settled in Seattle, Washington on Feburary, 2008. On the following day, I started to attend Echo Lake Elementary School, which was the closest school from my new home. I was full of excitement when I first entered the classroom. Everyone welcomed me, and I introduced myself to them shortly. This made me feel so comfortable, as if I was in a home that has always been mine. Unfortunately, this feeling turned into despair and embarrassment in the next few hours.
It didn't take me long to realize that I had a serious problem in English. I had to spend about 20 seconds to interpret every sentences that other kids said, which made it impossible to catch up what they were saying and participate in their conversation. I also couldn't understand my teacher's lecture and directions. Thus, I had to rely on other Korean students, and attend in ESL class, which was for those who were not capable of using English fluently. All of these happend in the first day, which made me feel wretched.
That day, I stayed up all night, thinking about how foolish I was to believe that a citizenship is the only thing I need to belong to a society. I spent all night thinking about what I should do, and I came up with a solution. The best solution was to find out the cause of my problem, and find a solution about it. After thinking about my own difficulties, I came up with a conclusion that I had to improve my speaking and listening skills.
From the following day, I tried to use English as much as possible in my daily life. I tried to speak in English with other Korean students, and I asked them to speak to me in English. I also used English when I was with my family. It was hard, and needed a lot of patience. But I had enough passion in increasing my English communication skill, so I kept the promise I made to myself.
My hard work really paid off. I could graduate from ESL class in only three months, and could have a normal conversation with other students two months later. Just before I came back to Korea, I could use English as comfortably as Korean. This enabled me to make lots of friends, and get a lot of invaluable experiences. I could finally feel myself as part of both Korean and American society. Even though I realized nowadays that reality is a bit more complicated than that, this was a feeling that I would always remember.
I also learned a lesson from this experience. Whenever you face a problem, find the cause of the problem first, and try to find a solution to it.
