LITERACY INTERVIEW

MS. HOYUN KIM’S LITERACY JOURNEY
AS TOLD BY ALEXYS CELLINI

As a part of the Single Subject Teaching Credential Program at the University of California, Davis, I had the opportunity to interview a fellow English Cohort member, colleague, master baker, book connoisseur, and all around wonderful person, Ms. Hoyun Kim. Through the interview process I was provided with insight into the influences and events that shaped Hoyun’s literacy journey. Much of Hoyun’s relationship with literacy, throughout the years, has been characterized by the sources of support that were around her, which ultimately nurtured a natural love of reading and prompted a lot of reflective, thoughtful writing. 

Like many, Hoyun’s literacy journey began at home, with her parents. Hoyun recalled her mother being a big influence on her literacy when she was young. When Hoyun was a baby, her mother would frequently read books in Korean to her, and since she was her parents’ first child she received a lot of attention early on in life. She was read to so often that when she started to talk she began demanding to be read to, which led to her parents’ purchasing books with corresponding cassette tapes, so that Hoyun could listen to the books being read on her own.

Hoyun remembers her parents being pivotal in the early development of her love of reading. Though she didn’t see her parents modeling reading and writing very much themselves, she always felt supported in her passion for books. Her father even eventually began providing her with a monthly “book budget” so that she could get new books she was interested in. The support of both her parents hasn’t wavered as she’s grown older, and she said she still uses the “book budget” today, which must come in handy for a graduate student!

The fact that Hoyun was drawn so early on to reading became a key piece of her identity as she grew up and started to find her sense of self. Though her parents sparked her love of reading and writing, she soon was out pacing everyone else in her family in her literary pursuits. She told me that because she believed she was the only one in her family who really intensely loved reading and writing she began to feel that made her special, and so literacy became a pillar which she built her identity upon. 

This centering of her identity around reading and writing made her passionate, but also presented challenges. In elementary school she felt at ease with her reading and writing abilities. One particular memory she recounted was her feeling of pride when she earned all the AR points for reading a Goosebumps book that was above her grade level. That natural ability and love of reading carried through high school as well, but in college she ran into some challenges that shook her sense of self a little. She found that writing essays in college was particularly tricky, and she always felt perpetually stuck at a B+. This hurt her pride a little, but nevertheless she persisted. Although she still prefers personal writing, like journaling, she does feel that she significantly improved her essay writing throughout her undergraduate experience. Her approach to writing assignments nowadays centers on ensuring that her writing topic can be supported with evidence. If she doesn’t feel she has adequate evidence to support her claim before she starts writing, she’ll change topics.

Another challenge that Hoyun faced during her literacy journey occurred when she moved to Korea for a period of time in middle school. Hoyun is bilingual and grew up being read to in Korean and speaks Korean at home with her parents. In middle school she felt comfortable conversationally with both Korean and English, but reading and writing completely in Korean was a struggle. As she grew older she began to reflect more on her bilingual status, such as noticing how much she code switches in her daily life, sometimes speaking in “Konglish” as she calls it. She also told me that she began to think of speaking English at times as a sort of game, where she would speak in different varieties of the language depending on her social group, for example Americanizing her speech when she was with Non-Asian groups. 

Hoyun characterizes her developmental journey as an analogy for a person growing up, tracing her literacy development from picture books, to chapter books, to the times in college where she felt forced to stop reading for fun. Up into adulthood Hoyun’s literacy journey was defined by her love for reading and writing, by the fun and joy and pride it brought her. So not having the time to read outside of her academic pursuits was a little overwhelming and difficult for Hoyun, and compounded the writing challenges she was already facing early in college.

I am happy to report, however, that Hoyun has overcome all of these challenges and more. Now as a graduate student, she reads for both professional development and pleasure. In fact she even has a Bookstagram (@thebloomingpage). She calls herself a binge reader, who prefers paper books, and reading while cozy and comfy in bed. She feels most successful or satisfied after reading when the book evoked emotion. She isn’t the biggest fan of classical literature though, which is sometimes a source of embarrassment given her desire to be an English teacher. 

At the end of the interview, as Hoyun reflected on her own journey, she realized that while she grew up believing that she was simply a naturally good reader and writer, there were actually many environmental factors that also influenced her literacy journey. She feels she really had the time, space, and resources to learn and grow to love reading and writing. Beyond that, she also reflected on how far she has come in her literacy journey, and though she still wishes she had more time to read for pleasure, she has so much to be proud of. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know her further and appreciate her willingness to share her literacy journey with me. It makes me so happy to call her a colleague!