Korea?

A beautiful young lady spent a long time looking at the children's books.  She said her favorites were the OZ books.  It was not easy to understand her.  Her English was perfect and she was articulate, but her accent was Korean.  The music of the language was Korean, and her pronunciation was haphazard.  The accented syllable was random. 

We chatted.  She is 18, and an American citizen.  She was born here and lived in Chicago for seven years, before the family returned to Korea.  When she was 14, her mother and father wanted her to return to America where they felt she would get a better education.  In Korea, her mother is a kindergarten principal and her dad is working in a judicial capacity (I couldn't quite grasp that.)  Here she is living with a "guardian" family as arranged by the local pastor.

She is a high school senior now and will go on to Michigan State where she will study elementary education.  I was alarmed.  I suggested she take speech classes to polish her pronunciation if she will be teaching children, but she said no, she is planning on returning to Korea to teach there.  And live there.

Back to Korea?  After living in America?  "It is my country," she said. 

We said Goodbye, and when she reached the door, she impulsively turned back to take something from the shelf and bring it to the desk.  She chose a Wizard of OZ calendar dating from the movie. 

I hope her yellow brick road leads to her personal happiness.

---Florence

Comments

[johnny of epa]

huge ex-pat Korean community here in DC. my mechanic of 20+ years is one