Chang Hye-won/ Week 3/ Tuesday 11 a.m.

Chang Hye-won/ Week 3/ Tuesday 11 a.m.

 

"asfdgwerg?" Still, I am not sure about the first word I heard in English. Maybe it was a friendly "Hello", or maybe, it could have been bit more formal "Good Afternoon". Or by chance, it could have been a compliment, something that a big white man could say to a little Asian girl. Oddly enough for a Korean, I heard the first English word from a foreigner. My father was working with some company staff from the United States when I was young. The first foreigner I met was one of them who actually came to my house with my father. He had been friends with him, and he liked children, according to my father. So my father thought that it would be a good idea to show his good friend to his daughter and son. Only he didn't know that it would be a frightening experience for someone who never saw a foreigner.

I have quite an impression about the first foreigner I met. One reason would be that I had never saw foreigner even in the movies or television programs. Until I become four years old, I never saw people outside from Korean except the animation characters from Disney. My mother firmly believed that if her children see television from early age, they will become spoiled. Therefore, it was the first time that I ever saw someone from the other world. Even though most of my early childhood memory was forgotten, I have strong memory about the man. He was very tall, he was even taller than my father, and had brownish colored hair that shined like copper. My father asked me and my younger brother to exchange greetings with that man. I held my brother's hand worrying that maybe he will just start crying or run away, or maybe I was frightened myself. I still remember the sweat in my hand and I tried to get that off in my light yellow checkered dress.

Soon, it was found out that I was the bravest family member in the family. My mother was too shy to have further conversation with the foreigner and soon disappeared to the kitchen. Then, my younger brother did both of my worries. He cried and ran away to the kitchen. I was just standing there and watched my father and his friend. I think my father looked quite embarrassed and his friend was laughing his head off.  After laughing for some time, he said 안녕 in Korean, to the little girl who was the only survivor of the family. I answered back in Korean. Then, he lowered his head and looked at me directly into my eyes. The first colored eye I saw was lightly hazel colored. I thought that it kept changing its color. He said "Hello?" once more and I imitated his words. Then both of two men were laughing out really loud. He said something to my father, and soon, I was left with the bunny puppet the foreigner gave to me with some words I cannot understand.

 

The memory after that is faint. According to my mother, I said her that the friendly monster who can change his eye color gave me the bunny. My brother also wanted the rabbit but I cried out, so my mother gave me the bunny. My mother said to my brother that you ran away, and that's why he can't have present, but late in that day, my father brought lion puppet with him. The puppets stayed in our house until we were in the middle school and no longer feared foreigners.