<p>In terms of my literacy development I was somewhat of a late developer – certainly more so than the average person – but in the course of my school experience I have acquired a love of reading and of books as a learning medium. Now I am an avid reader, and do my absolute best to keep myself informed as much as possible and find myself taking the opportunity to read wherever and whenever I can. In this essay, I shall describe the reasoning behind my current and former literary practices, and tie them in to how reading has developed throughout my life.<br />
<!--more-->I did not have a great deal of firsthand literacy experience during the years I was growing up in my home country of Korea. Although my parents were avid readers, their attempts to inspire me to read were not particularly well-received by me, since I was perhaps rather an immature child in my outlook at that time. I would prefer (probably like many other children of my age) to spend most of my time working or watching television, or going out to play with my friends at every opportunity – in short to do anything rather than to be persuaded to do what they wanted me to do – read.<br />
In the beginning, I found school very difficult, mainly because I seemed to have an instinctive aversion to reading. I would usually do some reading when my parents pressurized me to do so, but really hated having to do it. It felt merely like some sort of unpleasant but necessary chore for me, all the more so because my parents were always totally dedicated to having me read as much and as often as possible. Although they both read extensively and often, for some reason the idea didn’t “rub off” on me. I think I saw that activity as something adults did that had no connection with me whatsoever. It was a more a case of while they were reading, I could slip away to do something much more interesting and pleasurable like playing games with my friends.<br />
Despite gaining that “compulsory” reading experience (or perhaps because of it), I still did not like reading itself. It always seemed boring to me, and I would always much prefer to just hang out with my friends or do whatever else I wanted when I was by myself. I don’t recall that I ever actively chose to read for pleasure, and I tended to resent my teachers and/or my parents trying to teach me discipline, so I would do my level best to avoid doing what they said whenever it was possible for me to do so. I knew how to read, but reading for pleasure was simply out of the question for me – in my mind reading was for boring grownups. Looking back, I can see now that I simply lacked the needed self-discipline, and had a total lack of motivation.<br />
The turning point for my own interest in literacy came when I began attending Michigan State University in 2006. At that point, I can see now that I was still very immature and childish in my general behavior and attitude, thinking that I did not need to learn anything I did not feel was important or necessary for me. Because prior to then I did not really respect my parents or myself, my grades suffered as a consequence, due to my lack of literacy and self-discipline.<br />
Fortunately, I found that self-discipline after I returned home to Korea in 2008 to perform my mandatory two years of military service. I can see now that military life changed me considerably, and for the better. Partly due to the rigors of military discipline and by being forced into quick thinking and achieving better physical fitness, I learned a greater appreciation for life and my station within it. While serving in the army, I could see from my new “mature” standpoint that many of the new entry soldiers were acting just as I used to act: rude, immature, and childish. I believe it was observing their actions and behavior that actually helped me to realize how stupid and immature I had been, and also helped me to decide to start living my life from then on in a more meaningful way.<br />
On my return from those military duties, I gave a great deal of thought to the future – I decided to increase my level of literacy and put much more effort into my schoolwork. I also started to think actively about my longer term future – what I wanted to do after I graduated – giving my life new direction, that I am convinced I would not have had before I joined the military and found out those things about myself that made me realize how much I needed to change if I was to make a success of my life instead of just wasting it.<br />
That realization made me work much harder in life and in school once I returned to the United States. Once I was able to start checking out books from the library, I did so constantly. I started out slowly, reading mainly fiction. I think at that time my goal was just to practice and improve my English and to find and learn new words to increase my vocabulary.<br />
During my second year at university after returning from the army, I checked out the Webster’s Dictionary, and tried to make my way through it, starting at “A”. I just read it casually, not taking notes or using any other method to get it into my head. I got as far as the letter “C” before I gave up; there were far too many words to take into account, and I simply could not keep up that pace. To be honest, the sheer amount of the dictionary still remaining from “C” onwards was simply too daunting to contemplate. Eventually, I would get my own dictionary as a reference, but I would never again attempt to just work my way through every word in the English language!<br />
I also do my best to read works on a wide variety of topics, so as to not restrict my learning to just one topic or issue. I alternate between non-fiction, fiction, news, articles, biographies, science fiction, etc., or at least attempt to (as far as is relevant and/or practicable) with every new work. This, I believe, will afford me a wider range of general knowledge than if I were to just read everything I enjoyed. Sometimes these works can be difficult to get through, but in the end I feel as though I have been exposed to and learned from a new topic. Overall, I feel it must be better for my general education and enhanced literacy that I become more informed, rather than merely to read what I like.<br />
I have found that the work I have done on the course, particularly in this last semester when we explored various ideas in literacy, and different understandings and uses of literacy in a variety of cultures and disciplines, has not only helped improve my literacy, but has given me thought for the future, such as how I might benefit from a better understanding of literacy and hence be able to reflect that knowledge and use it in my future career. Without a doubt, I can say that compared with my standard of literacy before this course, the difference is enormous.<br />
In conclusion, I consider in retrospect that my somewhat stunted literacy in the earlier years of my life was overcome through hard work and a passion for the written word, that I think perhaps developed as much as anything due to a need to fit in with my peers. Also, it was the realization that came to me as a result of my experience with the military that I had to grow up and stop being immature and childish in my general outlook to life, education, and the world around me. After returning to the United States I wanted to catch up with everyone, and so I started to read as much as possible, a habit I continue to this day. It is something that I hope to keep doing – I never want to stop reading, hence also learning, and as a consequence being entertained as well as furthering my education.</p>
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