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An Na was born in Korea and grew up in San Diego, California. A former middle school English and history teacher, she is currently at work on her third novel. She lives in Vermont.
In Korea, the last name or surname is always presented before the first name/given name.
In Korea, women do not traditionally lose their last names after being married. In America, of course, it is a common practice. As a way of preserving her Korean heritage, her parents used her entire name—An Na—as a double-syllable first name. Then, when she got married, she could always keep her last name as she was meant to. And her given name evolved into the Americanized “Anna.”
The initial stirrings for the story stemmed from one of my memories.
"I remember getting my hair permed, and being told that all Americans have curly hair. But as the novel grew, it became Young Ju’s story."
“The teacher holds her chin. I play with my color sticks and pretend I do not see her thinking about eating me. After a very long time, the teacher gets up and goes to her desk. She comes back with a bag filled with big yellow crumbs. They are just like the car seat crumbs I am not supposed to pick at. I am worried. The teacher knows I disobeyed Uhmma. (8.25)”
“An ahjimma will curl your hair so you will look just like a real Mi Gook girl. (5.16)"
“Outside the important place that will make me pretty, Uhmma fixes the bow in my hair. She tucks my hair behind my ears. Good, she says and then opens the door. We step inside. My nose wrinkles iee! This cannot be the special place. There are ugly smells inside. Worse than Halmoni boiling clothes in soapy water. Uhmma sees my nose and gives me the squinty eye. I push my nose back down. (5.34)”
Socioeconomic status can be defined as a person’s social standing or class in society. It is greatly determined by a person’s education, income, and occupation. A Step from Heaven depicts the impact that the socioeconomic status of the Park family plays on each individual family member.
Young Ju has the immediate realization that America, Mi Gook, is far from heaven, especially for people with a low socioeconomic status. The socioeconomic differences of people in America become apparent to Young Ju when she is enrolled in school.
Young Ju’s mother and father showed different views in supporting their children’s education and learning. The mother, Uhmma, wanted to come to America for her children so they could have the best education.
Proficiency happened later on. Her family only spoke Korean and limited English.
Her family doesn’t encourage and motivate Young Ju to pursue her dreams nor urge her to study or do homework—Young Ju is self-motivated. She does this all on her own without being told and without the help of others. Apa doesn’t see how hard Young Ju works in school, he only can see his daughter becoming ‘Americanized’ and how American girls are a bad influence on her.
Whatever their educational backgrounds were in Korea, it was not supported in the United States. Due to their linguistic differences, Young Ju’s parents were forced to take low-wage jobs.
The Fold
Wait for ME
The significant differences between Korean and English, particularly in sentence structure and morphology (word structure), make it hard for most Korean ESL students to acquire English at the same rate as, for example, their European peers.
Alphabet
Phonology
Grammer
Vocabulary