I first realized that just feeling like I know some English is not competitive enough. The inherent value of a person does not come from speaking English fluently like those in Hollywood but rather, what you fill the language of English with is important. To achieve that, you need to make mistakes. How did you study grammar, teacher? Well, I can say I am a bit of a special case. Can I talk about personal things? Yes, yes. Oh, I'm so curious. For example, when I was around 16 years old, at that time, I had some mental disorders or similar issues. So, that led to a complete learning disability due to the onset of the illness. Therefore, I couldn't study at school at all. So, if you think about it now, well, I couldn't understand what I read, or various conditions like that, where I couldn't understand what I read. There are various names for such conditions, but back then, at that time, I didn't know exactly what was going on because of the era, so.

English class was quite scary. When the teacher spoke, it all sounded like some kind of Chinese characters. After that, we had to read and take tests on it. So, at that moment, I thought that if I really listen carefully, wouldn't I be able to study English well? It was a very innocent thought when I first started in high school. So, now looking back, I ended up rebelling against English exams alone, refusing to study for entrance exams. Instead, I practiced listening and speaking alone. Eventually, I devoted a lot of time to such studies, went to the U.S. to study language, and ended up writing essays and reading articles for college. That's when my abilities started to show. I was doing things like going to Taco Bell, but my grades weren't good at all. So, I thought, This won't work.

For the first time, I found the internet in the United States really slow. Yes, but I tried various online grammar lessons in Korea. At that time, I could communicate in English, so I realized, Oh, I said it like this, which turned into a case of reverse confirmation. As a result, studying grammar became very interesting. For example, it felt like a Korean person not understanding why they say certain things, but after listening to Korean grammar, it felt like a sense of enlightenment. In this process, I learned in reverse, and gradually my professor started reading my essays. With a lot of learning data accumulated, as I properly studied the theory, I absorbed it completely like a sponge. Yes, so while studying at that time, for the first time, I realized that I made mistakes in my English. It was also the first time I learned that using grammar differently was a thing, and that awareness was completely new.

I didn't have it, so I only had the language patterns that I knew statistically. I didn't know exactly how things were supposed to be according to the prescribed grammar rules until I found out. So the language was refined. Yes, as I started to be able to do university assignments, it motivated me to study harder. I also realized that there were still learning issues, and English was too difficult. In that situation, usually people just give up, saying, I can't do it. But instead of giving up easily, I thought, Let me try to do it my way. How hard you tried in your own way is impressive. Well, back then, actually, there was no other way, so I couldn't just give up on my studies. I had to do something, even if it was like this. That's how it was. Later, I studied practical English for a very long time.

As I started doing it, I naturally had the opportunity to meet foreigners, and then I thought, Should I go study abroad? My friends said I was really good at languages, but looking back now, I wonder if people always thought, Oh, you must have been good at it from the start. It's not to belittle this, but when I look back now at the level of vocabulary I used back then or the structure of the sentences I wrote, it's clear that I learned English on the streets. So, it's not to criticize this, but anyway, because I went to college, from the professors' perspective, they must have thought, What is this person doing here? and had certain expectations from Korean students. They expected them to be smart, logical, good at math, so I did the opposite. I spoke really well and all, but couldn't do math, didn't know any grammar, so when I acted like that, seriously, I...

The moment I thought this isn't it, the professor really called me separately because of this. This is not in English. When the professor saw what I wrote, he asked, Why did you write it like this with 'able'? The professor said, Are you not... But that was also a mistake on his part. When I went to watch a movie, he said things like, Are you crazy? At that moment, I realized the seriousness for the first time and thought I should learn academic English. So, I felt sorry for the students, but I decided to go to the library now. I will really act like a Korean and look for all Koreans there. Then, I found out that there was a writing center at our school. When you go there, native speakers help international students like us with writing. At first, when I went there, they corrected everything. Like, What are you doing? But I went there every day for a year.

So, after about 6, 7, 10 months, they became closer gradually. Then, they were like, Hey, you've become a person. Later on, they would write things like excellent J there. I realized for the first time that just feeling like I know some English isn't a competitive advantage. There aren't too many people who want to grow their English skills more than me. But, it's not about that. You should be able to handle complex academic or current affairs topics in refined English. I learned this around my first year, second semester, and it was a big deal from then on. I thought, What should I do? So, I started going to the writing center every day. To do something properly, I felt like I should do it for at least 10 minutes every day. So, I thought, Just this much English study is enough. I need to stop this habit of starting and stopping, really. I've been trying to send emails these days, but

You might have felt the effect of sending emails. It seems that our brains recognize it as something very important. Humans have never evolved to learn because we just evolved to eat and survive. So, if we do something daily repeatedly, it must be important for the survival of the individual. I think like this. Therefore, forming a habit, even if it's just for a short period, becomes a habit in about a week, they say. But for people like me who really... really struggled, it takes about 6 months or 3 months to just endure, and then our brains naturally realize, You need this, so go ahead and do it, releasing dopamine. When you start rolling the first gear of the wheel with difficulty, the next part becomes really tough.

If you don't make an effort, it will be difficult for a lifetime. They say that the environment setting is important when studying English. Gather people to do it together like this. Were you alone at that time, or actually, at first, when I went there, I hardly spoke Korean because I wanted to learn English quickly. But later, when I started to learn academic English in earnest, among Korean people, there were those who were much better at English than me, those skilled individuals who would even buy me food, asking me how I could improve my English skills like them or like an older sister. I sought a lot of advice and received honest criticism. They told me that I had to study, to write every day, even if things didn't work out, just write. And when native speakers corrected it, don't feel uncomfortable, accept it. Hearing that, I woke up and thought, I can do well like them, right?

And then I did it. It seems like the beginning to expose weaknesses and accept my shortcomings. So, truly skilled people all did that. Not a single one was afraid to wonder what they couldn't do, no one was afraid to reveal that. The reason why Koreans can't speak English is that they have a lot of fear. It seems like the fear is a bit too much. People are afraid to make mistakes, so they don't try. But you can do better by revealing that. The education system itself is like that. It's a system where you can't make mistakes, so it's not about perfect conformity. It's a system where you're out if you make a mistake. There is definitely an inherent fear because of the education system that is structured that way. But whether it's language or anything else, if we don't make mistakes, we can't learn. But now, we have this idea of ​​being too perfect in English. But ironically, because of that.

I don't think that works. So, actually, when I meet many people, they are not bad at English, but they feel very nervous, especially when they are with other Koreans. They tend to be more nervous when they are with Koreans because Koreans tend to criticize each other. For example, How much English do you speak? It can be a bit harsh, but that's more of a 20th-century mindset. Nowadays, in places like Harvard, there are many professors who are not American. So, if you bring in talents from each country to give lectures, those professors have different accents, different grammar, and sometimes make mistakes. But that doesn't mean Harvard students look down on those professors. The inherent value of a person is not determined by which Hollywood [END OF TRANSCRIPT]

I think it's important to express English fluently like the people coming out, but it's not about how I speak English, but what I put in the language of English. So, I think if you repeat this kind of thinking repeatedly, you might be able to get out of it a bit. I think you can learn all the know-how from the English independent idiom book quickly, easily, and completely. I am very grateful. Because the master who explains everything to me clearly, I think I was able to learn a lot by myself. So now, I should shorten the time a bit. Thank you. Thank you.

영어 초보자에서 탈출하기 위해 저는 매일 '이걸' 했습니다. (주지후x김이사 인터뷰 2부)

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