After reading "Mother tongue" by Amy Tan

Last week I read one essay called "Mother tongue" written by Amy Tan. At the first time before I started reading through, I felt some of the similarities with the author as her name is Amy, same with mine, and also she speaks multi languages. She started the article with introducing herself and her mother who is Chinese, who also has asian cultural similarities with mine.

Amy shows her experience between her mom and other people about her mother's "broken" or "fractured" English, and I could easily feel the same way she felt. When I was new to Abu Dhabi, I wasn't a fluent English speaker, I could only understand some of easy words and it took me long time to communicate even with simple issues, such as asking what subject do I have for next period. I felt myself that I was the one who's using "broken" and "fractured" English. But as time goes, I started to getting more time to speak in English instead of Korean, as I spent more time in school and I only used my mother tongue at home, I gradually started to feel confidence about communicating in English. Until now, I feel like I don't speak perfect language in English, but I feel satisfied with it.

But now I'm having some issues between my mom and me. It's been 4 years that my family stayed in Abu Dhabi, but for my mom, the only time she gets to speak in English is only when she gets to to grocery shopping. Once I was young and didn't understand why she confuses with some of the phrases in English which has similar pronunciation. Once what happened with my mom and my friends, they were coming over my house to hang out after school, and my mom drived us there. After we arrived, my mom wanted to say that get your "baggages" from the car trunk, but instead of baggages, she used the word "garbages". I was young, and was still being such childish, I felt such embarrassment because of my mom. She knew that I was, and she started to learn English even at home when she has spare time. Now I feel sorry what I've done to my mom, and I understand her. Even though she doesn't speak a perfect English, she is intelligent the way she is, but she just cannot rephrase it in English. I am very proud of my mom that she is trying her best to learn English.

Nowadays I am helping my mom just like what Amy Tan did, I call people on the phone(my mom doesn't make me yell at them though), go to shop with her, and I just love my job becoming her personal translator.  I really enjoyed this article that has similarities with me and my mom.

“How to Pay for a Baby”

In “How to Pay for a Baby” written by Kool A.D., the author uses slangs and abbreviation to explain the difficulty that young parents who has new born baby might have in humorous but serious way. 

Kool A.D. uses languages such as slangs or swear words which might be harsh but humorous which will attract readers have curiosity and be suspicious about what the author wants to say. As he uses unique language which is normally not used in formal essays, to give readers curiosity of what he is trying to say. 

In my personal opinion as using English as second language, it also helped me to understand the article way more easier as he used harsh words after important word that he mainly wants to say.

Who am I? What am I going to do for this year?

        This is my first blog entry and I am a little nervous about it. I was born and raised in Seoul Korea until I was 13, and I moved to Abu Dhabi. I was in 7th grade, with speaking very tiny bit of English, and had no idea what to do in this foreign country. For now, beginning of my 5th year in Abu Dhabi, now I have a dream of becoming a professional graphic design artist especially in animation, and illustrations. Now I am trying to draw any kind of drawing, even the small ones, per day. I have my croquis book everywhere and you might see me drawing, sitting on the bench in front of cafeteria during lunch time. There is a image of my illustration that I have created recently. 

Definition of language for me is the way to communicate with others, and for me, communication is mostly important in my life. Every living things needs to communicate. Language is one way to communicate with others, telling their life, what they feel, their emotions, their opinion, etc. But what I felt, especially in the beginning of learning arts in my life, I felt like art is the only one language that communicates with everybody in the world with no barriers or obstacles. That’s why I started love art, and still, I have a dream of becoming a graphic designer. 

Something new that I am going to try for this year is planning routine in my life for detail. In my recent years, I only started doing something without plan or poor plans, which made me finish with bad results. I already bought a small sketchbook and I promised myself that I am going to draw any kind of sketches, croquis, comics, etc once a day. It doesn’t matter with it’s size or quality.  And end of this year, I will check my development throughout the year.