As I was growing up my family just recently came to American and were unfamiliar with the English language.  Being born shortly after they arrived in America I was surrounded by my family speaking Korean.  I don’t remember whether English or Korean was my first language, but my mom told me that I started off speaking Korean until I was about 4 years old.  When older brother and sister became more familiar with the English language they slowly began to teach me how to speak some English.  However, my family realized that me not knowing English became an issue when they sent me to school and I didn’t know how to tell the teacher I had to go to the bathroom.  It resulted in me having an accident and that’s when my brother and sister really began to teach me how to speak English.

When I was younger I was able to speak Korean very well without thinking twice about certain words; however, as I got older I started to use Korean less and less especially when I started elementary school.  I only used Korean to talk to my parents and I noticed when I was about 11 or 12 years old that speaking Korean was becoming more difficult for me.  My mom tried to send me to Korean school and my Korean started to come back and I also learned how to read and write Korean.  By the time I was about 14 years old I was able to speak, write and read Korean.

As I entered high school I decided that I did not want to go to Korean school anymore and I was no longer practicing how to read or write Korean and I barely had any reason to.  Since I have not read or wrote in Korean in years I no longer have the ability to do so due to decay.  Although, since I still speak to my parents in Korean I am still able to speak it.