Change

In Korea, I always bowed to say hello.

In the U.S., people wave to say hello.

In Korea, we didn't talk about our boy/girl friends in public

In the U.S., we feel free to talk about them in public and it is a hot topic.

In Korea, we looked after neighbors' child for free.

In the U.S., we can get money from looking after others children.

In Korea, there was a division of roles between man and woman.

In the U.S., the roles between man and woman is balanced

In Korea, I needed to obey what older people said.

In the U.S., I do not have to do if I do not want to. 

In-class writing

In-class writing      10.29

       Thinking about my own experience about the first time I came to study in America, there are some similarities and differences between Sookan's experience. 

       For similarities, we are both looking forward to making more friends, because we are both international students who are from Asia and speak exactly different language with English. Besides, it is our first year in a strange school,a strange country. We both felt lonely and overwhelmed. So making friends became one of the most important things for us. But at the beginning of making friends, I felt shy and afraid of talking to others because I worried that I would make mistakes of English pronunciation and grammar. And I think Sookan and I are both hard working. Although I do not have as much work as she does, I do give myself some extra practice after finishing homework. I want to get into this new environment as quick as possible and become to an excellent student. This thought is same with Sookan. 

       For different part, basically, we are from different countries, speak different languages and have different cultures. And I do not have siblings. Moreover, We are not live at same times, nowadays the technology is well-developed, I can use iPad to record teachers' notes in class, so that in a sense, my life here in America is easier than hers. I would not meet that much problems and I would not be that tired. For example, I don't need to copy the notes by hand after class and miss the lunch, because I can just take a picture; I don't need to send letters to my sisters or my parents every week, because I can just use my phone to send them a message.

Questions about Chapter 3-4

1. Why Maric didn't have friends, and why she was lonely?

2. Why Sookan felt sorry to Maric?

3. Did Sookan like her job?

4. What did Sookan's mother tell her in letter?

5. What did Sookan feel after reading the letter from her mother?

6. Why is Sookan's study life so busy?

About Author:

Korean is Choi's native language.  She said, "I now have two countries, my native country of Korea, and my adopted country, the United States. Through my writing, I want to bring to life the history and culture of Korea to share with all my American friends."Choi writes about her own experiences as a young refugee from North Korea during the Korean War through her heroines in her books.

The themes of her books are communism, freedom, international politics, and interaction among nations. They can be used to teach about socio-geopolitical events and historical realities of Asian nations, including how big powers affect the fate of small nations.

Year of the Impossible Goodbyes. New York: Dell, 1991, Echoes of the White Giraffe, Houghton Mifflin, 1993
Halmoni and the Picnic, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 1993
Gathering of Pearls, Houghton Mifflin, 1994
The Best Older Sister, Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1997
Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip, Houghton Mifflin, 1997

Name: Betty Huang
Period:G
Date:10.10
                  See the colorful world through words
      The world is beautiful and changeable and life is like music’s the odyssey. Although they made impressions, we still can not remember all of them. In order to keep these beautiful memories, people write them down. Some of people even do much better job who write a book and public it. So that their bright ideas, experience and imaginations are known by other people.
     I love reading. I really enjoy reading beautiful and fluent sentences. I am so amazed about how writers can describe an object or atmosphere in such beautiful way. The emotions of characters express through each word, it likes they use words to sing a silent song and repeats in my mind again and again. Somethings, I write down sentences which I think are really vivid and beautiful,somethings maybe just couple of words. I want to learn the way that other famous writers write, and try my best to create a new way by adopting those good customs and getting rid of the bad ones . So I also love writing. But the most difficult things for me to read and write in English is that I do not have enough English vocabulary, I can not understand all of the beautiful words, so that sometimes I can not understand how amazing passage the author wrote, and when I was writing, my thoughts come so fast and brief, I have to write them down in Chinese first, or I will forget them. Then here is the thing which makes me mad is the words or the sentences are translated from Chinese to English are difficult to understand, sometimes they even do not make scene. Then I will feel so disappointed. It is really sad that I can not express my feelings. And I always do good job in Chinese. So the drop experience makes me a little bit afraid of writing.
I have not read many of English books before, the first one is the Station Eleven for the summer reading. It is a novel and it talks about a huge disease cover the whole world like a disaster killed most of the people, and survivors lived in some small towns separated at different places. And there was a traveling symphony traveled from town to town to perform music.
My favorite book is a Chinese novel named the combustion boy. It talks about the dark childhood of a boy whose name was Lingjiang. He was seemed as a monster in his little town and he experienced bully, betray and gossipy when he was such a young boy. The only thing which support him is friendship. He had only 3 friends, and finally he lost them and died. When I read this book, it calls my sympathy. I cried a lot because of Lingjiang. I really want to enter the plot and become his friend who never leave him alone. If there still have one person love him or encourage him, he won’t die. This book makes me think a lot that I should care more about poor people around me and give more warm to them.