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Living in the unknown zone - part 1

Blogs > konadora
Post a Reply
konadora *
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Singapore66183 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-09-01 14:36:47
September 01 2009 12:26 GMT
#1
Just a condensed life story of mine in parts that I would write once in a while.


Part 1 - The Move

Working in a Chaebol company (Hyundae) has its pros and cons. A decent paycheck but having to go overseas every other day. One day, the employee gets sent to South-East Asia (for purposes up til now still unknown), for which his children and wife follow soon.

Now, migrating to a country with a totally different climate (summer 365 days a year) and national language (mainly English and Chinese, officially Malay) at an age of 5 may come off rather bad. The first few months in Singapore can be described as "being lost and alone in the Sahara Desert", albeit less hot than the actual Sahara Desert.

I remember living in a condominium ever since my new life began here due to some laws (foreigners can't really rent the local apartments here, which are cheap as fuck compared to the condominiums) and that took quite some toll on our finances. After paying for the rent and school fees (I attended an intentional school because we did not know the existence of a 'local government school' for which we had to pay only 1/100th of the fees we had to pay for international ones), there would hardly be any money left, hence there would be some days where we had to skip meals and save money.

Then my dad started his own business, took some loans and make the business grow. On the finance part, everything was working out well. But for me, nothing was. Migrating at an age when I should be starting to speak more of his own mother tongue, I could speak neither my own mother tongue nor English. Mandarin was out of the question. I was all alone. Desperate, my mother put me up for Chinese tutoring, hoping I would speak at least one language fluently.

Meanwhile, I would just attend school and try to pick up as much words as I could possibly do, return home and read more English books in hope of being able to understand the language, all while speaking Korean at home so as not to forget my roots. It was a linguistic nightmare. Playing was almost out of the question, so very often I would just stay at home (sorta like the modern term 'hikikomori' except I was in education), mainly due to the fact that I couldn't (and to some extent, didn't want to) communicate and interact with others.

For almost 2 years, I spent my life at the international school, until the day my father set up his own company and we moved house and I was finally sent to a local school.

- to be continued -

*****
POGGERS
JohnColtrane
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Australia4813 Posts
September 01 2009 12:35 GMT
#2
your english is great now :D

so you are of korean origin? and moved to singapore young?

well written and very interesting, i hope you keep writing these
HEY MEYT
GoSu
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Korea (South)1773 Posts
September 01 2009 12:39 GMT
#3
interesting sotry!
#1 olleh KT 팬 http://sports.kt.com/ | #1 김택용 선수 팬 | 좋은 선수: 송병구, 이제동, 도제욱, 정명훈, 이성은 | KeSPA 한국 e-Sports 협회
Vex
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Ireland454 Posts
September 01 2009 12:44 GMT
#4
nice :D
"Bonjwa" is the most retarded word ever. Wtf does it even sound like.
konadora *
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Singapore66183 Posts
September 01 2009 12:53 GMT
#5
On September 01 2009 21:35 JohnColtrane wrote:
your english is great now :D

so you are of korean origin? and moved to singapore young?

well written and very interesting, i hope you keep writing these

yeah i'm pure korean 100% and moved to singapore at the age of 5
POGGERS
bigsack
Profile Joined August 2007
Korea (North)220 Posts
September 01 2009 12:55 GMT
#6
Yeah, very interesting story. I always wondered how Konadora knew so much different languages, especially how good of his English living in Singapore. Looking forward to part 2!
Hilary Clinton for 2008
konadora *
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Singapore66183 Posts
September 01 2009 13:04 GMT
#7
On September 01 2009 21:55 bigsack wrote:
Yeah, very interesting story. I always wondered how Konadora knew so much different languages, especially how good of his English living in Singapore. Looking forward to part 2!

http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=92713

a brief intro of mine
POGGERS
ghostWriter
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States3302 Posts
September 01 2009 13:21 GMT
#8
Very interesting. Keep going!
Sullifam
snorlax
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States755 Posts
September 01 2009 13:47 GMT
#9
cool looking forward to more =]
thedeadhaji *
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
39489 Posts
September 01 2009 14:22 GMT
#10
if you went outside your room, you werent a hikkikomori btw
ShloobeR
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
Korea (South)3809 Posts
September 01 2009 14:24 GMT
#11
Harsh dude.

I migrated to Spain when I Was 6 from Ireland... it's not as bad as your situation but I kinda know how the language thing feels.

Looking forward to the next part : )
: o )
Luddite
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
United States2315 Posts
September 01 2009 15:32 GMT
#12
haha wait, you were having trouble speaking, getting confused by the mix of English and Korean, so your mom decided to enroll you in Mandarin classes? lol. Glad it worked out for you though, you're trilingual now right? I wish my parents had put me in foreign language classes when I was that young.
Can't believe I'm still here playing this same game
Athos
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States2484 Posts
September 01 2009 16:14 GMT
#13
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you abused the critical period for linguistics to the fullest.



Nice story dude.
krazymunky
Profile Joined June 2008
United States727 Posts
September 01 2009 16:15 GMT
#14
Born in Minnesota
moved to Vancouver,Canada when i was one
moved to Hong Kong at six
moved to San Diego, CA at sixteen
went to school in Irvine at eighteen
planning to move to san francisco after i graduate next year.

moving around has its pros and cons.
now i speak four languages fluently :p
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
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