I'm @bree1042 who loves books and English!

이름을 써주신 @tata1 님 고맙습니다.

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Hello.
I'm @bree1042, a new member of SNDBOX!

This is a caricature of me that a friend of mine drew like 10 years ago. :)

I'm very excited and honored to be part of this wonderful community. As a new sndbox member, I'd like to introduce a little bit about myself.

I was born and raised in South Korea, and I've been living in the USA for 10 years. I have published three books in Korea - about "learning English for beginners."

I love to read books, write essays/novels and study English. So most of my postings are:

Book Reviews

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Good books open your mind, make you want to understand the world around you and other people, and help you define who you really are. When I read good books, I'm eager to share my thoughts about them.

Now that I'm living in the USA, most books I'm reading are written in English. So I also want to encourage Korean (or anyone who wants to study English for that matter) to read books in English. I think reading books is the ultimate way to learn a language, not to mention that it's unbelievably pleasurable experience.

Here are a few of my recent book reviews in English:

#10. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - The Road to Find Myself

#11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ㅡ To Become Family Again

#12. Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt - To Find Out How to Live with Trouble

#13. Sophie's Choice by William Styron - Craziness of War

#14. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Hilarious and Sad Adolescence of a 14-year-old Boy

Essays about Books

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I like to read books but I also like to talk about - or write about, you could say - books. If you're an avid reader, you'll agree that talking about books are almost as good as reading them. :)

I have to confess, though. I'm not a bookaholic. I'm more of a picky reader; I usually choose novels over non-fictions and always try to avoid certain genre such as teen romance. But still, even a picky reader has a lot to talk about books. And with all my essays about books, I hope to encourage people to read. Because, seriously, reading is so much fun!

Translation

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Even though I'm somewhat good at English, I don't want nor intend to be a translator. But when I meet some very good books or contents, I'd give in and want to introduce them to the world. I guess that'll make me a picky translator(Even though I'm not sure if there's such a thing.)

Nowadays I've been translating Bootoon series of @tata1. Bootoon is a kind of cartoon using paintbrush (Boot) and indian ink on a thin drawing paper.

Here are a few of the recent Bootoon, if you want to know what they are.

[BootToon] Daddy & Daughters Diary - I picked it up at Kindergarten...

[Bootoon- Manyer story ] - Radical Counseling and Obnoxious Clients

[Bootoon - Manyer Story] Answer of a God

While I'm working on it, it hit me that my postings can be helpful to those who study English and want to translate Korean into English. So I'd like to share how I translate, what causes problems, and what I have to be cautious about when I translate, etc.

Teaching English

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I like English. That's one of the reasons why I want to write essays (and hopefully novels in the future) in English. Just as Jhumpa Lahiri is trying to write in Italian, I'm challenging myself to write in English.

But it's not easy for me. Like I said I was born and raised in South Korea. I'd lived in South Korea for over 30 years, during which I'd never visited America to study English. Even though I like it, it was not always easy for me to study English, especially when I was living in a country where people don't speak the language.

So I know just too well how difficult and frustrating it can be to learn English for some people. Now that I have (partially) mastered English, I can see a way to ease them into it. And I'd like to tell them that learning English can be actually fun!

As a way of easing them in, I'm introducing interesting English words and expressions. I'm planning to teach reading, writing and speaking English in a fun way down the road.

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My Goal as a Steemian and a SNDBOX member

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As a member of SNDBOX, I'll share my love and thoughts about books and English, like I mentioned above. I'm hoping to publish books (essays, novels and/or English learning books in Korean) after I have enough postings in my blog.
I hope you enjoy reading my postings as much as I do writing them. :)

Thank you!