안녕하세요. 저는 미국 Auburn University at Montgomery에서 공부하고 있는 Bob입니다. 울산대학교 복수학위 프로그램으로 공부하고 있고, 이번 여름에 졸업 예정입니다. 울산대학교에서 전공은 Industrial Engineering이구요. 미국에서는 Human Resources Management를 공부하고 있습니다.

이번 여름에 English Literature II 랑 Jogging 들으면 졸업합니다.

미국에 온지는 이제 1년 8개월..9개월 정도가 되어 가는 군요. 학교 졸업에 가까워 오니 학교의 풀 냄새도 그립고

뜨거운 햇살도 그립습니다.

제가 쓴 글이 있는데요.. 미국에 오기 전에 글을 쓰는 것을 목표로 했습니다. 그래서 하나 하나 글을 모았구요. 그 글을 여기에 올리겠습니다. 영어로 썼어요. 프롤로그와 Chapter 1 올립니다.

Why in English?

Have you ever read or tried to read a book written in English? Have you ever finished it? My first concern before publishing Bob’s Evolutionary English was whether readers would need it and whether they would read and finish to read it or not. It’s because I’ve also failed to read some English-written books since it’s pretty tiring to some extent: super tiny letters, unfamiliar grammatical patterns, vocabularies and complicated sentences. I tend to lose the way while reading.

Despite the concern, I wrote and completed this in English, and wanted you to read this in English, since both you and I could benefit from the effort writing and reading in English. And writing and reading things in English are the way you have to follow to study English. There are a lot of books for English in Korea. But I wonder whether the books are really helpful or not for English in use. I’ve studied English for ten years from the middle school. The English skills, however, were not improved until I came to America. I faced limitations. I’ve studied English through some private English education institutions and English teaching books. Those were not that good for my English, though. It’s because of the way I’ve used in studying English. The way for my English was wrong.

English to Learn vs. English to Use

Why do you learn English? Why do you want to be competent in English? The purpose of learning English has been ambiguous for some people in Korea. The people have no specific purpose of practicing English. They just learn English. To learn English, they learn English, not to use English. English is a language. So, once you learn English, you need to use it to meet the purpose. The bottom line of practicing English is to “use English.”

The process of learning and using English should be simultaneously escalated. Perfecting your English cannot be achieved through a unilateral procedure either by learning English or by using English. You should try to learn English and use your English at the same time. Keep in mind that you learn English to use it, not to learn it.

What makes the incident that people learn English to learn, not to use? It’s because they don’t have specific objectives of learning English except for taking better grades. Some people study English to get into a company or attain a scholarship. They are just eager to get higher grades. Even though they learn something, they sooner or later forget the instant and fragile knowledge based on their weak and ambiguous purposes. They just repeat learning and forgetting English.

Those who have learned English only for scores have to spend extra money and time to improve their speaking or writing skills for the sake of using them because they have learned useless knowledge of “how to increase test scores” focused on problem solving skills. By concentrating on those unnecessary efforts for English, they lose their interests towards English and their resources. They don’t know how to fully exploit their resources, such as time, money and effort, to improve their genuine English capabilities. In Bob’s Evolutionary English, you will learn how to use English, thereby getting out of the ineffective ways and increasing your ultimate English level.

Let’s Get the Journey Started!

In retrospect, it was not that long for me to be here in America. In the late April 2008, I completely finalized Bob's. It has been one year and 7 months in America since I’ve arrived in Montgomery on 10^th August to get my challengeable life started. To notice the process of learning English and sniff out better ways to study English, I have been recording almost every event which is related to learning English throughout my American life and school work and activities. Now, I am going to reveal all of them. And at the end of Bob’s, you will see how much you’ve improved your English and what positive attitude toward English you can get by reading this book. Also, you will know general life in America and in an American university.

Now that we see the purpose of this writing, let’s get on my journey and ready to evolve your English.  

Chapter 1 TO BE AN EXCHANGE STUDENT

Chapter 1-1: Bob’s Evolutionary English?

Chapter 1-2: Exchange Student, Dual Degree and TOEFL

Chapter 1-3: Preparations & Goals for My American Life

Chapter 1-4: Before Studying English

Chapter 2 THE FIRST AMERICAN LIFE

Chapter 2-1: My Name is Bob

Chapter 2-2: The First Semester, fall 2007

Chapter 2-3: Cornerstones of English #1

Chapter 2-4: Spring 2008 #1

Chapter 2-5: Spring 2008 #2

Chapter 2-6: Bob’s Evolutionary English #1

Chapter 3 THE SECOND AMERICAN LIFE

Chapter 3-1: Summer 2008

Chapter 3-2: Cornerstones of English #2

Chapter 3-3: Fall 2008

Chapter 3-4: Bob’s Evolutionary English #2

Chapter 4 MILESTONES AND GOALS

Chapter 4-1: Spring 2009

Chapter 4-2: Bob’s Evolutionary English

Chapter 4-3: Internship

Chapter 4-4: Student Activity

Chapter 4-5: Bob’s Evolutionary English #3

Chapter 4-6: Relationship

Chapter 4-7: Milestones

Appendix A: Spring, Summer 2008

Appendix B: Fall 2008

Appendix C: Internship

Chapter 1-1: Bob’s Evolutionary English?

You Might Be a Victim of the Korean English Education System

Bob’s Evolutionary English?

Before Starting Bob’s

Quality of Bob’s

Target for Bob’s

Challenge against What Limits Your Capability

You Might Be a Victim of the Korean English Education System

The ways you use when you study English in Korea might be partially wrong. Not all people make the same mistakes, but many people have misused the ways in studying English through the English education system which has been too commercialized to focus on improving genuine English skills or through the public educational scheme which has been too poorly organized to advance English-related capabilities of students.

Students and English learners haven’t known what makes their English better because of the weak educational and societal structures with regard to English, English education, and pervasive approaches to the language.

Let’s narrow down this discussion to help you better understand the situation. In employment procedure, recruiters require TOEIC or other test grades to prove English proficiency of applicants. An objective of the grades is to set a minimum qualification to screen a number of candidates in the very beginning part of the selection period. Ironically, almost all recruiters already know that the test results cannot be the good measurement to determine whether or not the applicants have good English skills. Even though recruiters know the methodology is not appropriate to measure applicants’ English competencies, they exploit it because it is the easiest and most convenient way to sort out the capabilities of applicants in the first place of selection procedure.

They, however, don’t know or do neglect the impact of the qualification on the societal costs for English education. The measurement enormously affects the way people study English. Because companies require the score, almost all universities in Korea require specific TOEIC scores as a graduation qualification to increase the number of students will be successfully employed. To graduate and get a job, students should make an effort and spend a lot of time and money on getting the grade, not studying English, but looking for ways to increase their test scores. Accordingly, to help it, private English education institutions have taught students skills to solve problems to increase the score regardless of what students actually have to learn in English.

Furthermore, people’s recognitions and perspectives towards English have been misunderstood. They think that the more money they spend, the better English skills they can attain. They haven’t criticized the ways for English because the society requires them, most of their friends have done the same things and their parents want them to study English. So, you might study, learn, and practice English without solid purposes. You just do it since you should do it. This overall structure and mechanism in regard to English education in Korean society will waste invaluable resources.

The society, however, unintentionally encourages students to replicate these results, time-consuming and ineffective, by commerce-focused English education system which is also unintentionally made because of a lack of knowledge as to how to approach to English. Some private institutions teaching English are genius at making business and money based on the education, and unfortunately the current purpose of their business is not matching to what they are actually supposed to do as an initial purpose to teach English. Test-based and problem-solving English skills are severely undermining the Korean English education system in association with the poorly organized social framework in terms of learning necessary knowledge of English. Those who want to learn English apply for some programs to learn English as all others do. But, the programs are set for those who want to increase test scores, so the people who want to learn English can’t achieve their purposes. Even though there are some useful programs for English, they are costly, or they cannot achieve the ultimate purpose because they don’t give learners long-terms perspectives and advices. People who have spent money a lot in the programs might lose their interests because it is too costly to keep, and takes too long to achieve their purposes being good at English. This cycle repetitively replicates negative outcomes: probably the lowest return on investment. People pour money into bottomless pits.

What’s more, ironically, Korean society requires people to study English regardless of their needs. For what? It’s pretty funny that most people learn English without any purpose and without any place to use it. There are people who need English. But there would be those who don’t need English. I claim they don’t have to learn English if they don’t need it. To be fluent at English, a continuous education and efforts are essential through the whole period of learning English. And once a person reaches a specific English level, which is good enough to communicate in English, the person might need to keep making additional efforts to maintain the sense and skills for his or her English.

Under the circumstance, the first problem is that English learners do not have specific purpose because they do not have to use English through their lives. Also, how do they keep making an effort without the purpose of learning English even though they fully learn English after pouring a bucket of money into English education? Here’s what I think. Do not study English if you don’t have to. If you need to study English, start with setting the purpose in very detail firstly, learn English, and then make a continuous effort to improve and maintain your English skills. You don’t have to spend your valuable time on studying English if you don’t need it. There are other important things; really important for you. If you study English without your own purpose, the time for English is going to be just a succession of tiring without any improvement for your English competency. The English ability you want to possess is never going to be achieved if you don’t have specific purpose.

Eventually, this framework in Korea has been increasing the costs for English education, and degenerating the effectiveness and results of the education. So, students cannot improve their English skills while concentrating their efforts on getting a higher grade. As mentioned before, the methods are so centered upon technical skills to solve questions. This mechanism is actually ruining Korean students’ English capabilities. The primary failure of the education system might appertain to the uneven balance of “Active” and “Passive learning.”

Simply, the passive learning is what has traditionally been used in Korean society to teach students English. These days, however, people tend to approach to English with active learning methodologies through directly talking with people to speak in English and directly writing things in English. The time for active learning, however, is still not enough. Besides, within the mechanism, students have to focus on learning English in passive ways to get a good grade, scholarship and job so that they have no enough time to learn English as active ways.

Bob’s Evolutionary English?

I’ve noted down almost all activities as to what and how I’ve studied English while I’ve been in America. The reason gathering the sources was first and foremost to make a book including part of my American life, and secondly to forge ahead with my English skills. When it comes to the second reason, I needed to know about my current English level, for recording things pertaining to activities and achievements in learning English enabled me to notice my English level every day, every week and every month. Knowing my general English ability had been a way to enhance the weakest part of my English, thereby focusing more on the part and maximizing the performance of learning English.

I named my book “Bob’s Evolutionary English” after several revisions to seek the best one. In Bob’s, I will help you metamorphose the traditional methods you’ve employed to study English into innovative ones to be fairly effective in learning English and to minimize the time required to be as competent as you expect in English. One thing you should do is to completely finish reading the whole Bob’s and exactly crack all what I mean.

Before Starting Bob’s

A journey entails setting plans and embracing unexpected hardships as well as the pleasure you get from expectations or you see through something new and exciting. In Bob’s, there are some prerequisites you need to know to help you better understand on what I want to elaborate on.

There are a number of answers in life regardless of what questions are. Likewise, in learning English, there might be 100 or more ways to practice and improve English if there are 100 people. Even though I assure that my methods for English might be better than others, the methods for me can’t be answers for you because of different situations and conditions in which we are surrounded. So, readers of Bob’s need to wisely consider what the best methods are for English, and also need to exploit the best methods when they study English. Also, I want them to keep ascertaining their own methods to accumulate and stretch their English skills getting steeply better and better. You have your own style to study English, and letting you find your own style would be a purpose of Bob’s by showing that there’s no only one answer in studying English and by revealing some advantages of studying English in new perspectives and approaches. Throwing out the ordinary and primitive English-learning methodologies (and books) might be the first step to knowing what English is and to being familiar with the language. Please tear apart the out-of-date and obsolete ways you have employed for English.

Quality of Bob’s

While I’ve been attending classes in AUM (Auburn University at Montgomery), I’ve never tried to be privileged in exams, presentations, or other school duties because of my nationality and language. There might be some students who want to be differently treated because of their language. They tend to request something special to professors or instructors like putting off the paper due date or slightly expressing before presentations that English is a second language so they can’t be good at presentation.

Yet I tried not to be privileged solely by my language problem. I wanted to be treated like native English speaking students. So, I’ve never said, “I am not good at English” to professors or teammates even though my language has at times caused problems.

While the progress of Bob’s has been in full swing, I’ve had a petty question to myself: “What’s going to be the quality of Bob’s? All letters are written in English. Am I qualified enough to write this in English?” Answer? I kept in mind that “I am going to create Bob’s in high quality in terms of using English and disseminating my ideas, in part better than native writers.” (After this, “natives” mean those who use English as the mother language.) At first glance, it may sound ridiculous (even to me) inasmuch as I’ve been in America for nearly two years. Ever since I kept it, however, I’ve felt more comfortable in writing Bob’s. And we will see how well Bob’s going to get done in terms of achieving my goal, better than natives’ writings. I never expect Bob’s to be treated as “non-English user’s writing.” I expect to produce good quality of Bob’s.

(I haven’t used electronic dictionary and Korean-English dictionary to complete Bob’s since using them might retard the performance of learning and the expected improvement.)

Target for Bob’s

Bob’s is more likely to be helpful for students or English learners who have to advance their English skills as fast as possible in time limits. If you are going to stay in a foreign country to learn English for one or two years, you’d better hurry to reach the English level you desire since you have evidently not enough time. (Later, we will discuss how to find your ideal level of English you hope and how much effort you should dedicate to reach the level in detail.) People may assume that if they study, learn, and practice English in America or other countries where English is the first language, they are going to be so good at English soon in one year or two years that they will freely speak what they think in English, and completely understand everything they hear. It’s, however, one of frequently made mistakes by inexperienced people. Students who study abroad don’t have enough time as much as they need and people think. They might have to deal with an avalanche of trivial issues a day. For me, even eating was not easy. Cooking was a big deal taking my time away, so that I did not cook, ate frozen or junk food as often as two times a day during the beginning period. Besides, there are a profusion of administrative issues to handle for school or VISA and relationship-related affairs to be carefully treated. Bob’s is for people who have time limits and have to achieve something, such as getting a better job with the English level they have accomplished within the limited times. I will show you how to maximize your achievements in learning English by extinguishing things unnecessary and time-consuming and by making you aware of and practice what you are supposed to do for better outcomes with your limited resources.

Challenge Against What Limits Your Capability

You may or may not know how much time you have to spend learning English, pretty long or immeasurable. Let’s assume an incident to let you know the importance of advancing your English level as fast as possible and to stimulate you to study English as effectively and hard as possible. You got an admission letter allowing you to be an MBA student in America. The MBA courses may be organized with two-year schedule, and after the time, you have to find a job. You took some business courses, and successfully completed all courses to get the degree. Interviewers would expect that you are fluent enough at using English, for you graduated an MBA school in America. Do you think you have enough time to study English, and you would gain the expected English level to conduct jobs with natives? It’s up to how much effort you put into advancing your English. Simply, it’s contingent upon your efforts. Some people can handle them, but there might be those who cannot. With an MBA degree, you are going to be evaluated as worse than you actually are if you cannot speak English up to the level interviewers and you might expect, since your insufficiency in English proves that you haven’t made an effort to better your English during your school days. You need to make your English level up to which job interviewers want. You’d better be so aware of the importance of English skills if you want to achieve your purpose; purpose of life.

Now that we get some ideas about the imperativeness of strengthening your English competency within the limited time, let’s try to look for clever ways to study English, and to reduce the time you are initially supposed to spend for your good English skills.  

 Chapter 1-2: Exchange Student, Dual Degree and TOEFL

Things I have to do for my future were unforeseen. I had just roughly drawn some pictures for my life. Getting started another freshman year, I wanted something to do, and began to find the things for my life. I dreamt various values. I have specified and crystallized my plans for the values. One day, a thought sparked: “What about international exchange student?” I’ve kept the idea implicit until the moment of a notification came to me, enabling me to go to America.

Exchange Student?

Plans for Exchange Student

TOEFL and Misfortune

Not for TOEFL, But for English

Short- and Long-Term Views for Your English

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Dual Degree

Thanks to

Exchange Student?

When I first heard about “Exchange Student” in a TV program, I was little. The title of the show in English would be “Three Boys and Three Girls,” and it was pretty popular in Korea. You may remember it if the show covers your generation. One of the characters in the show went abroad as an exchange student. (She was out of the program after the scene.) I don’t know why I still remember the scene. But it was the first time for me to just hear about “Exchange Student.”

I’ve never thought that I’d be in America or any other countries to study throughout the entire past. First, I wasn’t good at studying. Secondly, I wasn’t interested in studying.

Going abroad was literally not part of my life, and I’ve never pictured me studying abroad until I challenged myself against things restricting me. After the military duty in Korea, I dived into delving on some basic math and science for my major back in my school, studying very hard. One night, I was in a library in Ulsan University, and a timid thought burst which has presently changed my entire life. “Exchange student” “Studying abroad” “Studying English” 

I wished them. But the wish was just a wish without any confidence. Surprisingly and unbelievably, I’m now writing this in America. Thanks to my school, Ulsan University, I’m fortunately here in America. I’m still surprised and excited about it. One morning, while jogging, I questioned myself: “Am I in America? Me?”

Plans for Exchange Student

Life struggles in front of milestones which are as vague as we wouldn’t encounter any future. Back from the military service and work experience in a restaurant, I’ve tried to find my ways to mount my new life as a 24 years old freshman. The year, 2005, was pretty meaningful for me in terms of starting the new life. I was at that time majoring in Materials Engineering. After completing the freshman year, I hammered out to change my major to Industrial Engineering. As soon as I switched the major, I went to Hanyang University as a domestic exchange student for the first semester in 2006. My hectic life had just got started since the semester.

In Hanyang University, I’ve roughly solidified the plan to be an international exchange student going to America in the following year, August 2007. Those days, applying for the international program, however, was with fifty-fifty possibility, probably lower than fifty. I had nothing sure about the future except for enthusiasm towards it.

Having made the plan more visible, I thought I didn’t have to wait for something coming to me for my life. I needed to pioneer my future.

Beyond the semester, I’ve taken some English classes for TOEFL in a private institution in Jong-Lo, Seoul. I took morning classes covering both listening and writing with 45-minute schedules, respectively. The quality of the classes was very poor. In every morning, when I got into the classroom for the first class, the teacher who was in charge of the class had not used to arrive at the class in time. The teacher was always late at least five minutes as if the schedule was originally set like the time. The teacher always brought a cup of coffee for the class. What if she did not order the coffee and came to her class earlier? Her reputation would have been changed, positively. After arriving at her class, she prepared a CD player and some listening tapes she was supposed to teach students. Then, while doing it, additional five minutes were gone. The maximum-minute of the class was about 35 minutes. Students in the class paid money for a 45-minute lecture a day, but the instructor ran the class only for 35 minutes every morning. How ridiculous it is! How irresponsible it is! How many parts of listening dialogues can be lectured for 35 minutes? It was pretty funny to know that a teacher could come to a class later than students. After this class, I was convinced that not all classes are reliable for my English. And I planned to study the test alone.

A month flew so fast, and I switched the class to a conversation class just to prepare speaking section for TOEFL for the rest of the summer vacation. Ulsan University provided domestic exchange students with some apartments, and I was able to stay there for the summer vacation. For the second semester in 2006, I went to Yonsei University in the same program, domestic exchange student. During the time, I took two English classes, “Intermediate English Conversation” and “Reading English Articles,” and two major courses. I had channeled most of my energy into improving my English skills based upon the two classes. I was mesmerized by the numerous English classes in Yonsei University. I heard that there were several different levels even in intermediate conversation classes. What’s more, the quality of the two classes I took was of which I’ve never experienced. The two professors have given students pretty heavy workloads including a couple of presentations, team meetings, assignments and tests with various teaching materials. The levels of tests and things the professors have required students were different from those of what I’ve done. I’ve improved my linguistic skills those days a lot, and I’ve been aware of the ways to study English since that time, and aware of how imperative the methods are for effective learning and achievement.