I dont know if this is the right one which I am supposed to share

 This is when I first arrived to Korea. A friend of mine, who invited me for visiting Seoul, was not responding phone call when I arrived at the airport. So I decided to take some rest at a hotel. However, I went to the hotel reservation counter at the airport to get a room reserved. After getting it done I pulled my hand carriage to the taxi stand. The first interesting incident happened when the taxi driver asked me something in Korean, while he was putting my luggage in the taxi trunk. Pretending that I understand what he is saying, I moved forward and opened the driving side door of the taxi to sit in. The driver was surprised to see what I was doing. But he might understand that Im from a country where there is left hand driving system. Anyway, feeling a bit embarrassed, I quietly sat behind driving seat. On arrival at the hotel I was feeling hungry, so I decided to take a look around and find some restaurant for some food. After some struggle, I found a restaurant, which I got to know later, was a Kimbab restaurant. They served me a menu card. I was feeling difficulty to select a food as it was all written in Korean. All the staff in the restaurant was feeling sorry for this situation that I was failed to select any food on the menu. Finally I started to move around in the restaurant if I could find a food picture familiar to me. There were a few pictures of food on the wall but were not quite attractive for me. Finally, I saw eggs picture with some other food items. I was very excited to see them as they were the only food in the restaurant I knew before. I pointed to those eggs and made them feel that I want them. They felt relieved and served me shortly. I had four boiled eggs. Hence, my first meal in Korea was over. I cant forget that egg meal forever.

This post is from Park, Hyejin!!!

When I was a young, I like English very much. At that time, I can't learn English anywhere so I said to my mom, " I want to learn english so please allow me to go to academy"so she send me academy. I like english as language.

When I was in middle school, I have to study english and take a exam. It is irritated to me and It gives me stress. I don't like english any more.

now, Although English bother me, I like english. I feel english is important when I travel countries. I don't like grammar. but when I  talk to native speaker, however I feel nervous, I feel so good. I'm happy. I don't know the reason.

I prepare for trevel. 1 year later, I'm senior. so I have to look for job and prepare for something that I get a job. but if I get a job, I have no time. so I decided to go to U.S. I enjoy my trevel.

Bilinguality in monolingual society I

I speak Korean and English, and both languages have fluency, and I have two different codes that Korean and American social convention making. Knowing two languages with proficiency means that I know the use of language socially, so when I speak in two different languages, my tone of voice, way of speaking, attitude, and use of vocabulary change. Also, my thoughts and problem solving process change depend on the people in the society. Although I had ability to work on two different languages and I did not realize that I had two different codes until the new situation occurs with different group of people. In 2005 I came to Korea to live with my family and that time I was more comfortable to use English, so all of my exclamations and words were English first. I started to work at English learning institution, and the company hired me because I was good at English. The rule of the company was teacher must speak English only with students, but I had to counsel with parents in Korean. I was glad that I could speak both language, but at that time it was easy to speak in English with American teacher attitude. (My major was education, and I trained as teacher in the U.S.) However, there was interesting fact that Korean teachers, no matter how good at English speak only Korean when they have conversation with other teachers. I kind of thought that as manner, but I was not really pay attention because they hired me because of my English proficiency. It was funny that when they had interview they saw how long that lived in America, and how much I was Americanized, and gave credit on that, but when I worked with them, that did not help at all. They want me to behave and work just as Korean who grew up in Korea, and there was no excuse or acknowledgement in cultural difference. I was surprised on their attitude, and could remember the advice whom had job in Korea before. She told me that if I got a teaching job in Korea, make school did not know that I could speak English. Once people know that I could speak in English, they would give you extra overload work and Korean attitude of older and younger age. Moreover the situation got worst when I met the group of monolingual group.

Monolingual employee group

I started doing a Korean traditional martial art when I was 13 years old. From my instructor (who was American, but married to a Korean and very knowledgeable about Korea) I learned a lot about Korean culture and could produce a few badly pronounced Korean words that had been passed down through two generations of Americans before coming to me. I just knew the formal greeting and thank you, how to count and a lot of names of attacks, blocks and kicks. However, as I got older, I really wanted to learn how to speak Korean. I started trying to make penpals from Korea online and I did. I managed to find a used Korean language textbook in an old bookstore and I used it to teach myself Hangeul. I also found out about a local community school that was mostly just for Korean children whose parents wanted them to be able to speak Korean well and learn some Korean traditional things and Taekwondo. However, they also had a small class that taught Korean to foreigners once a week. I signed up and attended it for several semesters. At first, it was very good and there were many adults there who were married to Koreans that made the class enjoyable. Unfortunately, though, they soon stopped coming and then it was just me and two Korean teenage brats who never got better. It got to the point that I was like the co-teacher because we always covered the same material and I already knew it all. Because of that and the fact that I was well-known as the best non-Korean speaker of Korean in the Korean community, I began to believe that I was actually very good. Eventually, I found out about an exchange program through my university through which I could spend a year studying at Yonsei University. I jumped at the opportunity. I even showed up early, so I could attend classes at their Korean language center. I was put into level 1. At first, I was okay with it, but after a few days of learning Hangeul to which I was already quite accustomed, I decided I was so wonderful at Korean that I should be moved up to a higher level. The next day, then, I waited for the class break and informed my teacher of my decision. Then he talked to me intentionally very quickly for a while about how the class would soon speed up and then after a while, he asked me if I understood what he was saying. I replied somewhat truthfully, that I had, but he still refused to let me go to a higher level. Soon after, though, his promise came true and we reached and quickly passed my previous level. In that short course, I easily doubled or tripled how much Korean I could understand and speak. It was a humbling experience and it also made me start to realize how enormous a language is. In the protected environment of classrooms, textbooks and the dumbed-down Korean that I heard from my friends, I was oblivious to the reality of my ignorance. Im very glad, now, that my teacher refused to change my level. He knew better than me and I was foolish for doubting his assessment. Even now, eight years later, I am humble enough to know the limits of my Korean. ^^

When I was at the early stage of learning English, I had problems with tense. When I was supposed to say, "I went to school.", I used to say "I go to school or I will go to school." I studied English in the Philippines. One day, when I was at home alone, one of our neighbor, Joanna, came to see my roommate. My roommate was a fluent English speaker. Unfortunately, she was not at home at that time. So, Joanna asked me to tell my roommate that she was here to see her. I wanted to say to her, "I will tell her. Don't worry." but, what I said was, "I told her, don't worry." Joanna seemed a little puzzled to hear that, but she somehow understood me and left. It was I who was really puzzled actually. I struggled with the thought, 'what's wrong with me~~~~ I know the grammar rule, I can use it perfectly in my writing, but what's wrong with my speaking~~~ ' After sometime, I could control my tense^^, but sometimes I still make a mistake in tense when I speak English.

Like Corder (1981) said, 'Errors are not bad; they are a sign of language development. 

Exposure and Interaction Matter

To be honest, I did not have to develop English speaking skills mainly because I majored in electrical engineering at university. However, when I decided to study abroad for a PhD, I had to improve my English skills, especially speaking skills, as quickly as possible. I signed up for an intensive program at a language institute, where I practiced English skills for three hours a day, five days a week. The program consisted of reading, speaking, and writing classes each day. I attended the program for five months in total over the year.

During the period, I was really satisfied with the quality of the curriculum and instructors. They provided me with valuable experiences by which I could improve my overall English skills and develop my own strategies for improving those skills. I started to absorb huge amounts of useful vocabulary and expressions and practiced newly learned words and expressions as much as possible whenever I spoke or wrote in English. I had had difficulty speaking and writing in English since I began learning English at middle school. However, since then, I have been able to improve my English skills drastically.

Come to think of it, it seems to me that the large amounts of exposure to and interaction in English led to my success in improving my English skills for a relatively short period. Now that I know how important exposure and interaction are in second language acquisition, there is no doubt how I could quickly develop my English skills those days. Especially for speaking skills, exposure and interaction matter the most, I think.

Its a story happened when I first went to America.  I had a chance to study in CAL State, East Bay as an exchange student when I was a junior in university.  A bunch of other students in my university went to the same school to study in the language program there.  We stayed at the dorm together.  On the first weekend, one of my friends said he needed a multitab for his computer (Of course its Konglish, but I had never even thought about that before).  Three of my friends and I explored the neighborhood area and found a K-mart.  Since it was a huge mart and there were every kind of things so we thought we could find a multitab there.  After about an hour of searching, we couldnt find any.  On our way back to the dorm, I saw a hardware store and thought I could find one in that store. 

All of my friends had low proficiency of English and were in the language program and I was the only one who took the regular courses in the university.  They seemed anxious about talking to Americans at that time.  As we entered the store, there were two guys working there.  One was an old Indian guy and the other was a young white guy.  They wanted me to talk to the guy and get a multitab.  I came close to the old Indian guy and asked for a multitab.  Of course he couldnt understand what I was talking about and kept saying no with a frown on his face.  At that time, I never doubted multitab is an English word.  And to be honest, I didnt know any matching word in Korean so I could not look it up in an electronic dictionary.  I started to explain him when I use this thing using a bunch of other Konglish words.  To make matters worse, I heard my friends giggling and I thought they were laughing at my English.  Then my anxiety went up so couldnt think of any words and started to stutter.  After we went out of the store, they said they giggled because of his accent.  Even though I tried to explain really hard and draw a picture of it, the guy seemed to look puzzled and give up understanding me.  Then, another guy who worked there came to us and brought a multitab to me.  All of my friends and I screamed YES, thats what we want.  He said he was also listening to me and took a guess it might be a surge protector and brought it to me.  He taught me it is called a surge protector.  After that experience, Ive never had any chance to say the word surge protector and Ive never even seen the word so far.  Nevertheless I couldnt forget that word.  Maybe I wont forget that word in my life.

The Accidental Code Switcher

            Way back in 1997, when I was a much less traveled and worldly individual, and had just completed my teaching certificate at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York I was truly excited about starting my new professional career as an educator.  Where was just one little bump on this amazing journey that needed to over come.  A year of foreign language study, what!  You mean to say that I must take a foreign language course at the University level and actually pass.  I felt doomed to remain in this little purgatory of my own creation, how on Earth was a monolingual simpleton like myself who barely passed grade nine French ever going to complete not one semester but two semesters of a foreign language study. I really want to be a teacher so I would have to make this work.  The solution that I came up was simple.  Divide and conquer!  Instead of putting myself through sheer agony for an entire year of French, I would take French and Spanish during the same semester and get out purgatory six months sooner.  Everything was going great until I took a look at the final exam schedule with 3 weeks left in the semester.  My finals were 30 minutes apart!  What the hell, I screamed, an exam period of two weeks and my exams were on the first day back to back.  Ouch!  I had come to far to let this mountain of a mole hill defeat me now, so with all the resolve I could muster and a little bit of whinnying thrown in for good measure, I settled down to study.  Every minute of every day I poured over the textbooks and listen to tapes even in my sleep.  I wrote out the target language until my fingers looked crippled and my head was set to explode.  With two exams so close together my choices were limited.  I took the exams and received an A in Spanish and B in French.  Success at last, I was now a teacher.  I went out to celebrate that night and ran into TA from the Spanish class at the pub that night.  He told me that that the only marks I lost were when I code switch into French.  So he wanted to know if I was French, we had a laugh and then he told me that the French TA came to talk to him about the exam to see if I was code switching in his exam as well.  So there you have it, I am Jack of three languages and fluent in only one.

Jeffrey T. Gibbons

Native Teachers smile sometimes confuses some Korean students!

I have an American native English co-worker at my working place, high school. We have a conversation class twice a week in English zone, the special room only for English lesson. Students are supposed to come to class in time, but sometimes theyre two or three minute late for class for some reasons. My co-teacher really dislikes their coming late, but she never expresses her feeling, but just asks the students number to get them minus point for their scores. The problem is, since she doesnt show any anger for it, but asks her students of their student numbers in a gentle and soft voice, the students think that being late is not that big deal. On the other side, when Korean teachers point out the students problem, they immediately get the point and try not to be late for next time. Its probably because Korean teachers directly blame their faults in an angry voice. I know it is kind of cultural difference in education, so I feel like I have to teach my students how to understand the speakers intention beyond their utterances and gestures.

Anecdote : Wedge heeled sneakers

It was about 15 years ago. I had a chance to homestay for two weeks in Bournemouth which was a southern part of the England. My homestay host family was very kind people. There were a married couple and their three children who were slightly younger than me in the family.

One evening, maybe 2 or 3 days after my arrival, I was bumped into my homestay father (He was indeed as almost same aged as my father.) in the doorway and at that moment I could sense his eyes caught my shoes for a few seconds. They were snickers but with wedge heels. They were in a fad in Korea at those days and I liked them very much because they were comfortable and made me looking a little taller than I was. At the supper table, finally he asked me about the shoes, and it was like, Do many people wear that kind of shoes in Korea?(I cannot remember exactly, but it was that sort of) I answered in a quite blunt tone, No and didnt say anything more on purpose. Since that talk, we didnt talk much to each other while I was getting along with other family members well with a lot of conversation for the rest of the stay.

The truth is that I was offended from the moment he had given a look at my shoes. I felt it was a look when we see look something peculiar or weird and I interpreted it as a kind of insult toward me. I guessed that he thought I was wearing those shoes to make up for my height and he just wanted to know the same thing happen to all Korean women. I dont know the truth on his part, still. However, I regretted my attitude after some time. In a way, wearing wedge heel sneakers for taller height was at least true for me, and he might have asked that question just out of curiosity not with any intention for giving an offense on me. It could possibly be true he could be offended by my bluntness with no reason on his part.    

I had just gotten engaged to my current fiancee, and I went to meet her family for dinner.  We had met several times before, but this was the first time since the engagement.  I was in a particularly good mood, and her mother noted, "You're smiling a lot."  Wanting to seize the opportunity to pronounce my love for her daughter, a Korean woman, I told her "I've been happy ever since I married your daughter."  However, because I had learned the two words together, I accidently flipped "since" and "until", saying the Korean equivalent of "I was happy until I married your daughter."

There was an awkward pause, and because of the silence, my mind was scrambling to figure out what I might have done wrong.  Her mother finally looked at me and asked, "Did you mean, 'since'?"  Then it hit me.  "Uh...yeah!  SINCE!  SINCE!"  I buried my face in my hands, and my fiancee could only pat me on the back as the others laughed.  Too embarrassing.