Memoir- being a new student in America when you are a random Asian girl

           When I was 8, I went to United States for the second time. On my first experience, I was terrified at how everyone is speaking in a foreign language. Being terrified at a young age of 3, I had phobia of English itself. Consequently, our family had to move back to Korea in a year because of my extreme aversion of English. Whatsoever, my parents have decided to move back to United States- all because of my dad’s work!

           My first expression of my new school was horror. I saw the “not Koreans” walking around (which reminded me of my old experience) and those tall, scary-looking teachers talking in English.

My parents have prepared me with English before coming to United States by making me study with a bunch of private tutors. However, when it comes to reality I could not say a thing when my teacher said, “Hello, my name is Ms. Pierson. What’s your name?” My teacher, Ms. Pierson, probably thought I had some mental problems since I could not understand the most simple sentence – what’s your name- and stood there murmuring in Korean.

Well, the encounter with Ms. Pierson was not the worst thing I was expecting in my first day- I was anxious of the upcoming break. Time flies away, as it was break where I had to be ready to introduce myself with a bunch of Americans. I understand that they were full of curiosity to meet a new Asian student. However their relentless questioning made me forget all of my prepared answers and freak out.

“Hey what’s your name?”

“Are you from China?”

“Can new speak Chinese?”

“Do you know what NIHAO is?”

Unlike Ms. Pierson their pronunciation was not clear and for me all sounded like:

“Hey wat ture name?”

“Are rew fromme China?”

“Can new speeque Chinese?”

“Do you no wat NIHAO is?”

The only words I understood from them were China related words which helped me guess to say “No. I am Korean”. However the word Korea made them even more hyper for some reason.

“WOWWW Are you from North Korea? That is so cool”

“I heard that North Korea has bombs”

“I know how to speak Korean- arigato”

All of their response made me more panic.

 North Korea? Wait… is nam (South in Korean) north or south… I forgot the English word for it! And isn’t arigato Japanese?

Even during lunch those Americans irritated me the whole time. I brought a peanut butter sandwich, which apparently was very interesting to them.

“Whoa! You guys eat sandwich?”

“I thought you only eat Sushi!”

“Ching chang! You eat peanut butter sandwich?”

They were annoying me so much that I started to feel sick.

What was wrong with my name Seo yeon? Can’t they just pronounce it? I even introduced my English name just in case! Who has a name called Ching chang and Koreans do eat sandwich!

It was afterschool when my patience was out.

“Nihao! Ching chang do you ride the bus or carpool?”

I yelled at them “Stop Ching chang! My name is Seo yeon, and you cannot say, then you can say Cathy! I don’t ride bus!”

After saying that sentence I realized all my English studying back in Korea was not a waste of money and time.

The next day, I had confidence to speak with my friends even though I knew my English was not perfect- and even now, I am still learning.