DEAR DIARY : Born is not an option

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

Hello! I'm Park Dong Hoon.. First of all , my english is not that good. So, I hope you guys bare with all the grammatical errors.

I am a Korean who is now currently living in Chicago. As a Korean, the stereotype is on me which is I don't master the English language. But the stereotype of handsome face doesn't run on me. Let me share about my diary living in Chicago since 26th March 2018.

26th March 2018,
I stepped my foot on the land of Chicago for the first time in my life. With my friend, Kim Seo Yoon, we gambled our fate to find jobs in America. She was fluent in English because she was born in a rich family and she could afford all the tuition of english classes. While me, a shameless man who always asked for her sympathy and help. We went to a house that was bought by her father for her. She offered me to live with her for free but I refused to do so. So, I paid her the deposits USD 400. Half of the money that I had at that time. Why did I go to Chicago? Seo Yeon was a famous artist. She painted many great arts and I was hired to be her manager. But, I worked more like a luggage boy since she handled most of her appoinment herself because of my lack of English skills.

5th April 2018,
It was Seo Yeon's press conference about her new project. Everyone was speaking English , congratulating her for her upcoming project. While me? I was standing like a statue looking at her mingle with all the "high class" attendees. And there was a sophisticated looking woman approached me and asked me about how I could know Seo Yeon. But at that time, my english was very very bad and I couldn't understand her. So , I keep saying "sorry, I don't speak english while bending myself". And she laughed and loudly said "HAHA.. WHAT? THE MANAGER CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH SEO YEON?". Her words are still fresh in my mind. Her loud voice attracted all eyes towards me. Everyone was laughing. I laughed too cause I thought it was a joke. 😂How stupid was I at that moment!?! After the event , Seo Yeon told me about what the woman was saying and she asked me to be patient about that woman's attitude. I didn't care about it. Because as a person who didn't understand the language, I didn't get offended.

24th April 2018,
I received my first salary as a manager. It was USD 4500. It was the first time I received such a huge amount if salary. I paid my rent and I saved USD 2000 for my future. I still had USD 2100 that I used for my 1 month living. It was more than enough. So, I got a thought to use USD200 to pay for a tuition that I can join to improve my english proficiency. The class was held every Saturday at 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.

28th April 2018,
My first English class with the teacher, Miss Elena Flynn. She's very kind and even younger than me. All the other students are around 7 to 12 years while I'm the only 27 year old man in the bunch of kids. First thing I learnt was about the preposition. I started my learning with a very difficult thing. 🙃

18th March 2018,
That day was the official release of The Tower, Seo Yeon's new digital art. The event was attended by hundreds of rich people around the world. And once again, I saw that woman. She laughed hardly at the moment she noticed me at the corner of the stage. What made me shame was another man asked the reporters to live interview me about Seo Yeon's project. I was standing like an idiot. I never thought my lack of english proficiency could be such a harsh bully that they considered as "joke". But for Seo Yeon's reputation, I kept standing with smile until Seo Yeon finally called the reporter to interview herself and not me. I was very thankful. I was her manager but she was the one who always took care of me.

8th December 2018,
I was sitting for my english exam including the aspect of comprehension, reading and speaking. It was all the aspect that needs to be conquered by a 9 year old kid. Fortunately, I passed the exam. I was very happy. Seo Yeon treated me dinner with her in such a fancy restaurant.She even bought me a dictionary so that I could improve my vocabulary. That was my first step in becoming a great manager and english speaker.

1 year of another humiliation flew.. I was the joke of every events that Seo Yeon held. I was busy and didn't have time to write my diary. So, nothing to be shared here.

21st June 2020,
Seo Yeon faced a very critical crisis for the first time in her career. She was accused in a plagiarism issue relating to her current released painting. She was accused to "steal" the originality of a great painting
"The Scream". The media said her newest painting was just the fake version of "The Scream". She was crying the entire week. She couldn't even turn on her social media and she forcefully deactivated her instagram account due to uncontrollable hate comments. That incident was the only incident that she couldn't solve. With my piece of knowledge, I called the reporter to hold a press conference to clean her name.

23rd June 2020,
The official day of press conference regarding to Seo Yeon's case. With my poor english, I read the scripts that I prepared the whole night using google translate and my petite of vocabulary. At that moment, I didn't care about all my embarrassment and negative impacts that I might face. All I care was the reputation of a woman who had been taking care of me for years. I spat out all my evidence and tried my best to defend her. Luckily, the media controversy turned calm after a few days. Seo Yeon was very elated and that was the first time I was fully functioned as her manager.

6th July 2021,
I have collected enough money to buy a small house. I moved out from Seo Yeon's house last week. Seo Yeon has a boyfriend now and it's not nice for me to live with her anymore. Seo Yeon is planning to slow down her career since she will be married this December. Hence, I am now finding for jobs. For the 2 past years, I've been pursuing my study in the field of accounting. Quite shocking ah? 😂 I've just finished my accelerated degree. And I hope that I will find a job as soon as possible.

That's all from me guys. Hope this sharing will inspire you guys too. Thanks for reading my episode . Episode 2 : I don't understand