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Joohye Oh

Dr. Song

C&T 598

12 June 2023

Language and Literacy Autobiography

I consider myself as a multilingual Korean American young adult who has lived the

majority of her life in the Midwest. One reason that I am multilingual is the fact that I have at

least intermediate proficiency, if my proficiency (reading, writing, listening, and speaking)

across Korean, English, and Spanish is “averaged.” I think that novice proficiency in a language,

at least for me, would not mean the same thing as at least intermediate proficiency when

considering if someone “speaks” a language. This is why my very short but intense month of

Japanese language learning is something that I consider to be a smaller part of my multilingual

linguistic identity. The second reason that I am multilingual is because I have enough cultural

context of Korean, English, and Spanish to effectively communicate without compromising

much of my desired outcome. I thank my parents for providing me a deeper understanding of

Korean culture, my teachers, peers, and my siblings for helping me with my English, and my

Spanish instructors for taking the time to incorporate cultural aspects into language learning

lessons. In the following section, I will discuss, compare and contrast my L1(Korean), L2

(English), L3 (Spanish), and finally, conclude with some hopes for my future in the context of

language and literacy.

Korean is a language that I associate with home. Specifically, I think of my grandparents

on both sides of my family who primarily use Korean to communicate with their grandchildren.

Since my parents pushed my siblings and I to attend Korean language schools on Saturdays, eat
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Korean food, and call our grandparents over the phone in Korean at least once a week, I believe

that my speaking skills in Korean are advanced. In fact, I primarily spoke Korean beginning on

my flight from SEA to ICN. I also used Korean to order my first non-Kyunghwa meal at a small

snack shop. In comparison to my speaking skills, my listening skills are a little more advanced

because my parents speak only Korean within our house although my siblings and I speak

English mixed with a few Korean words back to them. I would also like to mention that although

I have strong speaking and listening skills, my proficiency is more novice and intermediate when

it comes to reading and writing. I believe that the strong focus on English as well as the long

hours that I spend inside the classroom have contributed to my relatively novice reading and

writing abilities.

My English journey started in preschool where I was immediately immersed in an

English-only environment shortly after my parents immigrated to the U.S. I do not have many

memories of learning this but am sure that two important factors were: first, the need for

understanding the preschool teachers’ instructions; and second, the desire to make some new

English-speaking friends. I still have some alphabet workbooks as well as cursive workbooks in

my home. These are two important books that helped me learn to spell my name as well as start

to match certain sounds with certain letters. As for reading, I remember progressing from simple,

thinner chapter books like Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White to more complex books like The

Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. My English proficiency across the areas of speaking, writing, reading,

and listening is quite advanced because I am always interacting with the English language in

diverse contexts such as my job as a peer mentor for first-year undergraduate researchers, my

duties as a student of English Literature, and the multiple trips to grocery stores that require me

to continue to adapt and polish my English skills.

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Spanish is a language that I cherish. It is one of the many things that I have chosen in my

life to pursue because of my interests. My first time learning Spanish was during the last few

weeks of my eighth grade enrichment class. Our teacher gave my class Spanish names based on

famous people from Spanish-speaking countries. This is how I became Gabriela, taken from the

famous Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, for three weeks. I also remember that we were introduced

to six of the most useful as well as most used verbs in the Spanish language: ser (to be, physical

traits), estar (to be, for emotions, locations), tener (to have), hacer (to do), and haber (there

is/there are). We practiced conjugating these verbs, something that I subconsciously do for

Korean and English verbs, on small whiteboards and played role-playing games so that we could

practice simple introduction phrases. I was and am very fortunate to have a background in both

Korean and English because there were times where my knowledge of Korean, such as the

Korean pronunciation of Korean characters helped me pronounce Spanish words. One of the

greatest differences between Spanish and Korean/English is the grammar structures for

adjectives and adverbs. However, learning small rules like these was something that did not

impede my Spanish language development due to my diligent practice and initiative to listen to

Spanish music, speak it as much as possible, read poems and short novels in Spanish, and write

something in Spanish every day.

In general, my knowledge of three languages helps me navigate various spaces. For

example, at a grocery store in Lawrence, Kansas, I can listen to shoppers commenting on the

freshness of hothouse tomatoes in Spanish while my mother speaks to me in Korean about

choosing the right bunch of carrots which are marked by a small plastic sign in English. Another

aspect of my language use that I find interesting is how much English makes its way into spaces

that are also associated with Korean. In a space like my home, my parents do not use any English
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unless they have to. Several times, they will just “Koreanize” the English word by breaking a

word like “meeting” into “mee/ting.” I also find it interesting that there have been a lot of

English words that have been making their way into the Korean language such as “well being”

which is used to describe a variety of foods and the word “self,” for self-service, which just

means that a restaurant expects diners to help themselves to items such as filtered water.

I will always continue to polish and learn more about the different languages that I have

learned and am learning (Korean, English, and Spanish). I know that I will be able to maintain

my L1, L2, and L3 by making sure that I have good quality input that interests me such as works

of contemporary literature or some popular music in my three respective languages. I look

forward to more opportunities to immerse myself in new environments whether this means

visiting new restaurants or traveling. I hope that my future is full of language learning

opportunities and maybe I will be able to pick up new languages like Portuguese, German, or

even Japanese.