change

In Korea, only women were in charge of cooking and serving in the kitchen.
In Korea, women had to do all the house work, and men were working outside.
In Korea, people had to be polite and could not say no to elders.
In Korea, parents were the one who decided their kids' marriage no matter they liked it or not.
In Korea, individual paid for everyone (friends/elders) to show polite.
In the U.S., both women and men can cook and serve in the kitchen.
In the U.S., both men and women can work outside, and both of them can do the housework (together).
In the U.S., people have freedom of speech.
In the U.S., people can marry whoever they want to, and not base on their parents' opinion.
In the U.S., people split the bill and pay for their own.

Vocabulary

Melancholy Adj.
Sad, melancholic
I felt melancholy after reading mother’s letter.

Imposing V. -ing
let people remember him/her very clearly and easily.
He became homeless and he has lost his imposing appearance.
I knew how mother hated imposing on her children.

stroll N.
walk slowly outside.
After dinner, I took a stroll around the city, I drew in a deep breath of the deliciously fragrant air,picturing my stroll along the stream with Sarah and Jimmy.

transformed V. past
exchange their thinking with others.
They transformed their basement into a reading room.
The note said, "What a grand surprise to see our neglected greenhouse transformed into a lovely little garden."

greenhouse N.
a room like a garden, but the tempreture there is always warm.
I was in the greenhouse earlier,checking on my chrysanthemums.

neglected V. past
don't care about it for a long time
Inside, the plants seemed terribly neglected .

mixer n.
the things mixed together.
All the girls in the dorm were still fast asleep,recovering from the excitement of the mixer the night before.

invigorated V. past
refresh, have enough energy.
I was shocked to hear Mari say these things, but strangely invigorated.

oddball N.
the people looks strange
I am out of place  even in my own home. I feel like an oddball wherever i am.

pretentious Adj.
think herself is good but maybe it's not.
She had once told me she thought the dress code and the formality were ridiculously pretentious and a waste of time.

fulfilling Adj.
make people to be happy about it
She was told me that she wants me to work alongside her, and lead a worthy and fulfilling life as she does.

rambled V. past
walk to any place
 It is so pretty, ellen rambled, and I want to show you off.

frankly Adv.
Honest, say everything true
I think it is because your culture encourages people to speak openly and frankly.

horrified Adj.
afraid of it; scared about it.
I was horrified. I had never gotten a single demerit before.

demerit N.
disadvantage, fault
Anyone who violated these rules will receive the appropriate number of demerits.

humility N.
not pround and don't say anything even if it is really good.
Here, they do not place so much emphasis on patience, humility, family harmony and silence as we do in Korea.

harmony N.
peace
Here, they do not place so much emphasis on patience, humility, family harmony and silence as we do in Korea.

ambassador N.
the representative
You have become quite an excellent ambassador for your country, and have made lots of friends, i hear.

farmhouse N.
the place or farm.
The next day, ellen and I took the train t her parents’ farmhouse in New Jersey.

acres N.
the unit of a big area.
As ellen’s mother watched me survey the land, she said. we have sixteen acres here.

Sookan and me

When I came to America, I also very nervous but not like Sookan. She has scholarship so she is more pressure in the school on her study. When I came to America, the first thing I think is to chat with American. Also, I was thinking about can I understand what the teacher said and will they speak to fast? By the other way, I was very exciting. That is my first time live outside for so long and I should take care of myself. In China, my mom will do everything for me and I don't have anything need to do. I wanted to try to make my life to be myself. Therefore, when I came to the U.S. The most emotion for me is exciting. I cared more about my life not my study. Sookan is different from me, she needs to keep her scholarship. She should spend more time on study than me. Also, when I came to America, it is eighth grade, but Sookan is in university. The life in university is more tired than eighth grade.
There still have some points, when I came to the school, I found the Chinese is not very few. But there's no Korean in Sookan's university as so long. However, as the same, we both very nervous to chat with American. Even, I don't say anything in the class because I afraid to say wrong things. But Sookan also different from me. She has a good roommate that can help her about her English and life. Next point, Sookan should find a job to make money, but my mom support my life and I was too young to have a job in U.S. And, the first time when I get to America, my mom and dad were coming with me and I was not so lonely. Because my family can support me to go back. I can see them fourth in a year.

Dicussion questions

1. Teachers’ advices are music and studio courses, but why did she finally choose world literature, religions and some hard courses? Just because of tuition? 
2. Why did she didn’t say anything when she met Marci, silent to walk together to go to dining hall. 
3. Do she think baby sitting for Bennetts on Saturday easy or hard? 
4. When they ate sandwich in a narrow path, they are silence, do you think this silence are as same as last silence, what did Sookan feel that Marci waited for her and did not go to dining hall?
5. Why they talked about their best time? And they talked about their best friends, do you think Sookan thought Marci is her good friend?

Sook Nyul Choi

She was borned in North Korean and immigrated to America later. She spoke the language is North Korean. However, when she came to America, she began to have the good education and use english very well. Then, she began to write the stories. Because of this, she wrote this story.

Reading and Writing

Reading and Writing

I like reading books. My favorite book is The Giver. This book is about a boy who was lived in a small community. However, this community is a perfect world. They don’t any pain and there’s no bad things in this community. One day, the boy saw a things that called color. He became a most important people in this community that who can have all the memory about this world. He knew what’s the snow; what’s the war; and he saw a very different world. However, he also very confused why others could not see this pretty world even this world have pain have wars. So, he ran away from this unreal community. He saw lots of things that he never saw it before. In the end, this boy died. I like this kind of books which have a very interesting story. It seems not real but I can’t forget it. Also, sometimes I will read some short stories and there are some themes in it. When I read these stories, I can know something in our life. This kind of books can give a direction for my life. For the story, I like reading the happy end or no ending that I can think by myself.

The favorite kind of the words that book has is the lively. Because if I read a book which have a lot of formal language I will feel very unreal, and I won’t meet these things in my real life. And also, the very lively words will make me like a person in the story and saw what’s happened. It's make the reader very comfortable and make them want to read more about this. By the other way, if this book have lots of vocabularies, you should stop there and find what's this word means. When you find the meaning of this word, most of the time you will forget what happened at the last moment I the book. For this kind of books,I have no interest in them, because I should stop and read the last sentence again and again. It will lose so many time, and I will feel this story is very unreal in life. I don't know what happened in the story. Just like when I feel I am in the story and see what's happened, there is a hand before my eyes, I cannot see anything. I always give up this kind of stories.

I like writing, but in my writing, there are lots of grammar mistakes. I try to change a lot and now it’s more better than when I came to America. I like writing some stories. It can about me and also about some books or movies. I thought writing is very interesting but sometimes I can’t find a good title and a good theme. By the way, I like writing some very lively things, such as my life, or whatever I saw and whatever I heard. Before I went to this school, I’ve written a story in Chinese which is about the ancient china’s love; the love story in ancient china.

When I choose a good book, first I will saw the title about this book. If I have interest in it, I will begin to read the menu in the book. When I read the menu, I will almost know the things in the book. If I feel this story is interesting, I will begin to read it. That's why I know a good title is important for a book because the reader will see the title first when they choose a book to read.