Losing My Korean Didn’t Make Me Any More American

Back in my era, the teachers encouraged immigrants to only speak English at home so that we wouldn’t fall behind. But what they didn’t know at the time — or perhaps they didn’t really care about — was that in the rush to make us understand English, many of us lost our ability to converse in our birth language.

Dino Lingo

Dino Lingo has reached out and given me FIVE foreign language-learning programs to give away to my followers. If you’re one of the winners, you get to pick from any of the 45 language programs that they offer (including Korean, French and Croatian). Dino Lingo will send a code to input at checkout to all the winners. #WinWithJae

Go Away With … Serdar Acar

“Each language has its own advantages,” says Dino Lingo founder Serdar Acar. “I realized that being able to communicate in (more) languages opened new doors and opportunities for me. But when it comes to traveling, I think English speakers are a bit luckier, because you can find an English-speaking person most of the time, especially if you stick to the tourist routes. That is why most people in other countries learn English.”

I Am Smart

On this particular day, my son couldn’t think of anything to tell me about school. And I grew angry. The kind of silent anger that I didn’t voice, but he could sense. I saw him nervously flipping through his binder of schoolwork containing words that he didn’t understand. He was looking for something — anything — that he recognized so that he could make me happy.