David Jin

My parents came from a town in China that was largely made up of Korean immigrants so they grew up speaking both Korean and Chinese. When they got their greencards they moved to the U.S. and somehow (I'm not so sure how it works) I was born.

Growing up, the first language I learned was not a single “language”, but a hybrid of Chinese and Korean, since it was how my parents spoke at home. When I was the ripe age of 2 my parents started to drop me off at preschool, and it was there I learned that there was more than the “Chorean” language. It was there where I started to learn what English was. The only issue was the only two friends I had also only spoke Korean, so I never really spoke English there either. I also think that those two friends didn’t really understand half the things I said, unless they somehow understood Chinese.

After leaving that preschool I entered elementary school, where once again, the only friends I had were Korean, the only exception here being that I started to speak a little English, or rather “Chorenglish”, and much like the previous two friends, I don't think they understood a third of the things I said and just went with it, unless of course they somehow understood Chinese. I stayed at that school up until the third grade and gradually started to incorporate more English in my “Chorenglish” until I finally learned that Korean, Chinese, and English were three different languages.

Although it never really clicked how strong of an accent I had until I had to switch schools in third grade. It was there where it was made abundantly clear that I did not speak like a normal “American” child and had a very distinctive accent. When I first got there I was made fun of more than I would like to admit, so unfortunately I started to only speak English because I was too embarrassed by the way I talked and wanted to change my accent.

By the end of 5th grade the teasing stopped but so had me speaking any other language except English, and over time I forgot the majority of both Korean and english. Although it would be rekindled every time I would travel overseas to see my extended family.

Somewhere in highschool I realized how stupid it was to be ashamed to speak my native language and started to attempt to relearn it. Although it didn’t really go well (mostly because I’m lazy), I still haven’t given up on relearning Korean and Chinese and plan on taking both courses here at UGA. (Also apparently chor-english is a real word, who knew?)