The struggle to learn
Getting it right Chongdae Won is a Korean student who attends MU and ESL classes and took the TOEFL before entering college. A government official in South Korea’s defense acquisition program, he came to the United States about six months ago to study public affairs as part of a government fellowship program that covers his living expenses. Won has been in the class for three months and said the hardest part for him has been pronouncing and understanding different English words with similar meanings. His English studies in South Korea, which started in middle school, focused on learning basic grammar from books. Won said that one of his tricks to learning English has been memorizing as many individual words as he can. “English have so many words that have the same meaning,” Won said. “It is the most difficult thing for me ...” Won said he sometimes becomes frustrated when talking with American friends. He recalled a conversation about Wal-Mart in which they had trouble understanding him. “I had to talk five times to make sense about what I say. ‘Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, WAL-Mart,’” Won said with a laugh. Two things that have helped Won are watching reality television shows such as “The Apprentice” and listening to radio addresses that he downloads from the White House Web site. Won lives in Columbia with his wife and two children. He doesn’t practice English at home because he’s afraid his children will copy his speech patterns. “When I am teaching my kids English, I cannot help to just repeat the way that I talk,” he said. “I’m afraid that I make my children like me.”
‘Roll up your sleeves’ Another Korean student, Seongdeuk Kim, goes by Robyn in class, and started the advanced class in September 2005. A translator in Korea, what Kim says she knew about the United States before she moved here came from films and books, including those by her favorite author, John Grisham. She said ESL classes have helped her develop a broader understanding of American culture. “Some things we don’t understand. We can’t understand, and sometimes they cause some miscommunications or conflict or problems with someone on the street,” Kim said. “Conversely, people here may not be able to understand us. … Adding to cultural differences, language barriers can make things worse. ESL classes are where we can ask our teachers about U.S. cultures and traditions while learning English language.” Kim said the class gives her a place to socialize. Her husband, an economics major at MU, has an easier time meeting others, but ESL classes give her a place where she can talk to people with similar and different backgrounds. “Unless I choose to study and get admission at college, there is no place to go for learning,” Kim said. “ESL classes here offer foreigners like me with an affordable, flexible and good-quality choice to learn the language and the culture. This is not only about English. This is a nice place to meet people from diverse cultures, from Italy to Asia to South America.” Kim, 36, who began studying English intensively when she was in her 20s and came to the United States about three years ago, said the ESL class has taught her common expressions she didn’t learn during grammar, reading and writing lessons in Korea. “We begin with, ‘Good morning, how are you?’ ‘This is my grandma.’ We begin with grammar. We do not do that much listening or speaking,” Kim said of her English studies in Korea. “I knew ‘roll up your sleeves.’ However, I did not know you can say ‘roll up your car window.’ I could learn it when I came here and started to drive in and around town. Before that I did not know.” Outside of class, Kim likes to watch television shows such as “CSI” and “West Wing.” She also practices English by reading books with her children. They started with stories such as “The Magic Tree House,” then moved onto the “Little House on the Prairie” series and the Harry Potter books. “I use English a lot with my kids, “ Kim said. “I started to use English intentionally to help my kids to catch up with the language faster. After a few months at school, my daughter could use the language very proficiently. Then she noticed that my English did not sound right. I had foreign accents. My daughter used to correct me. She does it even now.” Kim recalled that during her first summer in Columbia she went to buy sand. Her daughter helped her ask a clerk for help when he didn’t understand her. “The staff did not get what I was trying to say. I repeated ‘A bag of sand that children can play,’ ‘sand bag for kids’ and ‘sand bag.’ Still, he had no idea,” Kim said. “After a couple of minutes of frustration, my daughter, at the time 7, with a grin, came to my rescue. The staff understood her right away. The episode added … to my early frustration. Not only that I did not know accurate names of things or persons, but also I had foreign accents.” ESL classes have helped solve some of those problems. And Kim said they really help ensure good communication with children, who learn English more quickly and tend to use it at home and with teachers at school. Kim found the lesson Siebeneck gave about the Columbia Public Schools quite useful. “If your mother tongue is not English, then parent-teacher conference is a huge challenge,” Kim said. “There are a lot of parents who’s really afraid of meeting teachers and who struggle to help with homework for their kids.” Kim works hard to improve her English inside and outside class. In addition to watching television and reading books, she regularly listens to radio broadcasts and reads magazines and newspapers. “Eight hours a week is not enough to better your language,” Kim said. “It takes extra effort. Study, practice, listen to the TV or radio. It’s up to students to make the difference. |
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