Lesson 5: Encyclopedia of Me
A After school
After the school ends at 3:30, I go
to(prepositional phrase) deli as soon as the
bell rings. Deli, the heaven for the all students
in KIS, is making my life happy.(Appositive)
Preparing my legs to run faster than
usual.(Participle phrase) My two feets are
getting farther and farther from my body and
the heartbeat increases like the rapid drum
sound. When I’m at my limit, the feets stay
still for a while, my nostrils and mouth
becomes bigger. I could hear my heartbeats
through my ears even though it’s placed
inside. When I’m standing in line, I think what
to eat. Stuffs that I buy in Deli: crispy, sweet
cookies and lemon flavored water clears my
mind as Ms Johnson drinking the Morning
coffee.(Colons) I spend time eating them in
the deli.
B Barrier
When I came to the High school in KIS, I felt
like we were in the combination of harsh
military and restricted prison which is
disguised as a school. All of the four sides
are surrounded by metal, sharp fences which
is 10 feet high. Even if I try to smash the
fence, it’s unbreakable. Even the sundays,
we can’t go out without parent’s or teacher’s
permissions. My miserable life surrounded by
the sturdy solid barrier.
C Cambodia
It was my first time to visit another country in
KIS. I was excited and full of joy since the
flight to the cambodian. Even when I was
sleeping in the plane, my heart was bouncing
and it galloped like the horse chasing the car.
When I arrived weather wasn’t that good. It
wasn’t hot but very humid. Weather and
many mosquitoes sucked my energy with
blood and it made me exhausted. As soon as
I arrived at the hotel called the “Lucky
Angkor”, I gasped at the poor condition at
Cambodia. I could see the lizards on the wall
hissing like the snake and avoiding me. It
was really in the serious condition. I actually
stomped some bugs near my foot. However,
overall the activities, I could endure them and
made a good memories as well.
D Drama
My favorite subject and hobby is drama.
Drama changed my whole life. The
miserable, shy boy to the enthusiastic joyful
student. It was the only thing I was talented
at. I found my talent at the public speaking
class while we were learning about the
“Improvs”. Going on the stage and stating my
opinion was difficult for me and made me
nervous but improvising was fun. I felt like I
was telling a story to the audience. I found
out that act in the stage was totally different. I
think it was one of my best discovery since I
was born. I was trying, I’m still trying, and I
will try to be in the best Drama for some day.
I would like to show my family my acting and
want to get applause from them. I really like
drama.
E Expressing feelings
I’m not confident at presenting my ideas. I get
scared because I might hear a criticisms from
the others. I have a trauma that I got
embarrassed by the speaking contest when I
was 10, judges were criticizing that I wasn’t
loud and there weren’t main points. I felt
many feelings crossing through my mind.
Later on t was like the movie “Inside out” that
anger got the controller and I couldn’t control
myself. I screamed and cried because I felt I
was humiliated at that time. After that things
happening I speak in front of people, it gets
nervous and my heart is pounding like a
cheetah running in the field. My mouth gets
stunned and paralyzed. If I start talking, I get
worried whether I would say something
grammatically wrong. Nowadays, I’m fixing it
by the drama, but I still need more time.
F Frustration
I often get frustrated because of the lack of
time but I can’t concentrate on my work.
There are lot of things which are attracting
me such as games, sports, watching videos,
and sometimes reading books disturbs me.
When I’m depressed, It’s really difficult to
concentrate and eventually, it leads to low
quality works, lower grades. As a result, it
leads to the frustration again and It happens
again and again like the cycle.
G GG
You know what this means? It means Good
Game. I think my life is a game. It’s like I’m
moving the character like the movie called
the “Avatar”. Like game, we can’t always
‘win’. Sometimes we have a bad day like
dropping the toast with the side pasted with
the butter and raining without bringing the
umbrella. However, some days, we have a
joyful day such as finding 10,000 won on the
road or the snack for the day is a cheese
burger. My life is always a good game.
H High school
It was my first time in highschool and I really
like the both interior and exterior of the
school. Exterior is covered with silverish gray
color and it’s angled. It looks so straight.
Also, the interior is awesome. As I saunter
around, I find that the tiles on the 1st floor is
always shiny and clean. It makes wince all
the time. The high school PAC is also
enormous like the stomach of the whale and
every seats are clean and well organized just
as my dormroom. I was really satisfied with
the high facilities and the cleanness of the
school when I first came here and I still like it.
I Immature behavior
When I was at the age of 7, I fought alot with
my friends. I was a self centered boy. I
always wanted to do things that I wanted and
objected things I hated. One day, I accidently
pounced with one of the boy. He looked like a
and I wanted to hear sorry from that boy, but
he wouldn’t. I punched him right on the
middle of his face and the fight started. Both
of us punched each other as hard as they
could with the right hand making the palm in
thfist. Ev
J Jumping jacks
It’s really serious but when I see people
jumping jacking, I often laugh. Not to be
offensive but it looks like old ladies exercising
before they get into the pool. I imagine them
saying “How ya doin?”. One lady says “I lost
my dentures, my teeth are cold now”. Another
saying that her wife is having a 70th birthday.
There’s lot of imaginations coming through
me when I do a jumping jack or see others
doing jumping jacks.
K Knotty relationship
On this summer vacation, I noticed
something weird at the academies. Some
students born in 2000 was 9th grade but
another students were 10th grade. Even
though we call their english names, it’s quite
awkward to respect them. I had hard time
fixing relationship with them and eventually, I
got to call them a “ same aged friends” so I
didn’t need to respect them that much.
L Language usage
It is really difficult to use english in the dorm.
Most of the students are speaking korean
and forcing students to use english would
actually make the thing worse. Also, it is
difficult to say hi to the 12th grade students
because what would they think if the 9th
grader boy who are able to speak korean but
wouldn’t.
M Making money
I think the most memorable experience was
working in the convenient store for 1 day. In
the law, the age under 19 can’t work but
since my uncle was the owner of the store, I
could work. I worked there and I saw many
people who were visiting the store. One
person looked suspicious and I kept watched
him. He didn’t steal anything but I thought it
was a difficult job because many various
people can visit the market. There’s nothing
easy to earn a money.
N Nonsense
The word “nonsense” is used in many
different ways. It can be the exclamation or it
can be one of the. When I hear something
weird, I immediately say “nonsense” in
Korean. It’s one of my habit. Also, I like the
word nonsense because nonsense means
creative when we look the word at the other
perspective. I like to make things and it
satisfies me when I build a lego, mini robots
and etc.
O Opportunity
I think I had many opportunities to do what I
want but I’ve lost my privilege for the certain
reasons. In my house, I lost the advantage of
playing games because I played game
secretly without asking any permissions from
my parents. I also, lost the opportunity to
have a sports outside because my left thumb
was accidently broken. I think I was a
troublemaker at that time.
P Previously...
Before I came to KIS, I was just a book worm
studying in the library and reading books for 4
hours a week. It might sound a lot, but
actually it isn’t. People in public korean
school always studies for the test or pressure
of the parents. I didn’t have anything to
relieve my stress. After in KIS, my life
changed, I made many different hobbies and
enjoy life in the dorms. KIS rules!
Q Quality over quantity
Same Q but totally different meanings. I think
the large amount of questions and high
leveled question are different. I think solving
many question is the step before solving the
high leveled question. In order to solve
difficult problems, basic should be mastered.
Mr. Elshoff likes this sentence and I think I
was affected by it. Therefore, I think quality is
needed than the quantity.
R Radical
When I was 8th grade, my favorite subject
was math. The most memorable chapter was
a Radicals. It’s solving the roots which looks
like “√ ”. I think it really looks like the root of
the tree. I also like the brainstorming paper
which was about the radicals and the catapult
made by the wooden sticks were fun as well.
I think I really enjoyed my middle school math
class.
S Stereotypes
When I was at the age of 10, I had a
stereotype that men should do something
strong and women should do things in the
house. There is famous gay entertainer in
Korea and I thought he was crazy. When I
grew older, I realized that there are various
people and we should respect them without
any prejudice or stereotypes.
T TGIF
Monday is the worst day. I have to start the
week all over again. However, I also hate
sunday because the next day is monday. The
cycle begins and I always wait for Friday. I
have two days to rest again. It feels like an
oasis in the right middle of the scorching hot
desert. Thank god there's Friday!
U Unique habits
I have a habit when I study. I use an earplug
when I study. Otherwise, I can’t concentrate
well. Especially in my dorm room, my
roommate “David” likes to hear to loud music
so I must use the earplugs to concentrate. Or
else, I have no choice except for the
sleeping. Also, some people use earphone
but I can’t. It also disturbs me. Listening to
the music tickles my ear and the music keep
flows from ears to my brain. As soon as I
notice it, I hum the lyrics. I can’t get high
quality works through them. I have a unique
habbit which is using a earplug.
V Victory
I always wanted to win the game. If I lose the
game, my mouth goes down a bit and my
eyes gets bigger and as well as my nostrils.
Fury doesn’t get away easy when you lose
the games. I like the victory but I hate
failures. I think I should change my mind or
else my entire life would become a failure.
W Winner
I think the world is unfair. Always, the winner
gets what to do. So the talented people has
the power. For example, when you look at the
history, it is always written in the perspective
of the winner. For example, when we look at
the invention of the phone, most of people
think it’s “Graham Bell”, but actually, person
called “Elisha Gray” made the telephone first.
X XRay
When I was young, I was afraid of the xrays.
I thought the laser was going through my
body and attack me. At that time, most of the
animations had a laser beam sword
(especially the “Star Wars”) and I thought
xray was similar to it. When I went to the
hospital, I always cried “I don’t want to die”.
My mom tried many ways to bring me to the
hospital to take the x ray.
Y YOLO
These days, my life in dorm is too restricted.
Strict and organized structure makes my
mind and body exhausting. After the school, I
have a drama practice right away and go to
dinner after finishing drama practice. I run as
fast as I could to the Cafeteria and finishes
the meal by 10 minutes. I read some books
and go to the study hall. When the studyhalI
ends, I go to bed at it repeats again and
again. One day, I felt I really want to enjoy my
life. I like playing video games with drinking
soda (especially Coca Cola) and eating hot
spicy ramen and clicking my mouse. I feel
euphoria. You Only Live Once! Enjoy your
life! Yay!
Z Zombie Prompt
Nowadays, I’m on a afterschool drama
activity called the “Zombie Prompt”. I like the
play but I have a problem. Most of the actors
are 12th grade and I’m afraid to talk to them.
Especially, my partner is a 12th grade and I
always act like an old robot when I meet her.
My sentences breaks down to the words and
most of the conversation aren’t natural. For
instance, I didn’t say loud enough so the
some conversations were ended right away. I
like the story which is basically about zombie
dating a normal girl and the topic such as
bullying, suicide, and discrimination. However
I want to talk to naturally to the 12th grader
and have more natural conversations.
Overall, I’m looking forward to work on that
show and performing it.