So-Eun Yoon/ Attitudes toward writing / Tuesday 34

My Attitudes toward Writing   So-Eun Yoon   I've always wanted to be a good writer. I found it fascinating that books could evoke feelings or raise questions in people. To me, they worked as great tools to inform, inspire, or enlighten. I've also wanted to create such effects through my writing. But the more I tried to satisfy the readers, the harder it was for me to get honest with my writing. Most of what I wrote was merely a combination of complex sentences and fancy words that worked more as a show-off. Although I've always loved writing, the pressure to satisfy readers has taken away the great joy I used to feel when writing. It's funny because I was never a best-selling author with a wide range of readership. The only people who ever read my papers were my teacher and some of my classmates, but I was still under much pressure. I want to overcome this pressure to enjoy writing again.   I first started writing was when my family moved to a small town in Michigan. My parents immediately enrolled me in a public school so I had to quickly learn how to speak, read and write in English to overcome the language barrier. Every week, I had a writing class taught by Mrs. Conrad who always carried her pocket dictionary to translate English words I didn't know into Korean. She taught me words like 'granite', 'igneous', and 'limestone' and created a fun atmosphere where everyone in our class could learn a few Korean words by repeating after me while I learned English from them. She really helped me take a genuine interest in writing.   I was also strongly influenced by my dad. Growing up, he was the most fearful person in my life and his words were like the wordings of law to me. In order to quickly acquire fluency in English, my dad forbade me from speaking or writing Korean inside the house. His penalty for using Korean was five dollars per a Korean word. Considering my modest allowance which was ten dollars a week, paying a fine of five dollars was a tremendous charge, so I tried my best to stick to the rules. Although I hated the rules back then, I think they really helped me get proficient in both speaking and writing in English.