Lee SangHoon (201002378)
Reading
When I was yet to go to school, lots of books were in my house, and they were all mine. My parents were busy with their work, and because they were not bookworms at all, the many books in my house had been bought not for themselves, but for their own little boy, SangHoon. Most of the books were children's classic stories including Korean traditional fairy tales as well as world-famous fairy tales such as the Snow White, the Little Mermaid. I liked to read these books. Of course, I had loved to play with toys like other children. But toys and books were all that I had interests in. I hadn't considered a book boring. Recently, my mother told me about the reason that I like reading books saying, "I tried hard not to make you feel uncomfortable with reading. So it's thanks to me that you get to love reading."
My father encouraged me to borrow books regularly in the school library and read them as I went to elementary school. Since, as always, wishing that his son grow as a great man, he especially recommended biographies of great people. And as he became a Christian, I started to read the bible. I read the Proverbs of Solomon at least 30 times in elementary school days. On vacation, I most love to go to library. One of the reasons was that I got a very low allowance(still so), so I like to spend my leisure time in a library reading books because it's free.
As a child, I mostly read short stories. I miss the precious moment that I think one of the most reasons people so like reading novels. That is to be moved to tears by novels. Among so many books I've read, Pilgrim's Progress, Evergreens, Ohsing and Freezing Point are the four most memorable ones. My face was bathed in tears reading these stories. In middle school days, I was once enthusiastic with Harry Potter series. And I read a number of Christian books because a curiosity about Christianity arose.
In high school, as preparing Korean SAT, I read a number of various literature and non-literature. I enjoyed reading articles about diverse topics such as economics, science, technology, art, culture, language and etc. After entering college, I couldn't read much during the semester. However, on vacations, I didn't do anything but read. Actually, I did some things. For example, on last winter vacation, even though I had many things to do - I helped mom nurse my grandmother who was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, went on three retreats(such as The Young College Student Mission Camp, and Campus Leadership Conference and Orientation for Incoming Freshmen), and so on, I read staggering 8 books! But I still have 3 books unfinished.
Actually, I haven't finish a single book written in English. Because I heard much from others that reading English books helps a lot to improve reading comprehension, I tried several times to open them; but never succeeded. When I was in the 10th grade, I really wanted to go to a college in the U.S.A. So I studied with a SAT preparation book. But among the sections, what made me feel like being in hot water was critical reading. I immediately couldn't help but give up the dream to go to college in the U.S. And during the rest of high school, I improved my reading comprehension skill while preparing Korean SAT(which one of the sections is English). Last year, as a freshman, I didn't take any English course. But I read English everyday with "Living Life," which is a Christian spiritual journal with the Scriptures.
I want to weep again while reading as I did several years ago. These days feel too busy to have time to read novels. Please recommend any book you know definitely make me deeply moved to tears.
Writing
As most of the Korean elementary schools require their students keep a diary everyday(it's everyday homework.), I was writing in my journal what happened and what I thought everyday. However, I quit after suffering a kind of shock that my mother dumped all of the diary notes I'd kept since 1st grader when my family moved. After that shock for a while, I rarely wrote in my diary.
I love reading; however, I didn't enjoy writing. The reason was perfectionism. I thought like this: 'what if this is not the best occasion to write it? I may write better when writing it later – after an hour or tomorrow' or 'I might find a better writing which is concerned with what I am about to write!' So I hardly wrote on my own. Because of this bad habit, I still have some difficulty to write for myself.
When studying SAT, the most difficult part was the first writing section. Although my teacher advised and helped me to write five-paragraph essays, I always wrote only one or two paragraphs for limited time, 30 minutes. Last summer, I flew to U.S.A. I took an ESL course for 5 days at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Hartford, CT. I was the most hardworking student there. I particularly put my priority in writing class, and focused primarily on writing good essays to improve my writing skills.
I expect my writing improve a lot through this class.
Sanghoon, you really love to read books and spend time for it. I was interested that you were impressed by Pilgrim's progress because I only knew it by game. Moreover, you read Proverbs of Solomon 30 times!
ReplyDeleteAnd it will be nicer if you give more details about why you had never succeed in reading a English book like you mentioned perfectionism as the reason for writing problem.
It was interesting to read your writing. See you in class.