Essay #2

Indicate a person who’s had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

I have been influenced my many people. However, thesedays when I am studying more than ever for my future, a person who I can’t see anymore is conjured up in my mind: Guyane. She was my English teacher in an academy when I was studying in Canada, and she contributed to all the achievements I accomplished so far: my interest in languages, literature, and European history.

She was a linguist, and had been a professor in linguistics when she was living in her country, Armenia. As a linguist, she was trilingual, and that was the first time I met a multilingual. She spoke English, Armenian, and Russian fluently. Many of her friends had different national backgrounds, and I saw her speaking in other languages with her friends who had dropped by. Slowly, I took interest in learning languages, and set Guyane as my idol. Thus, when I came to Korea, I learned that there are special schools called “foreign language high schools.” I was excited, and strived to get into Daeil Foreign Language High School, to be a person like Guyane, able to communicate with people from nearly all over the world.

In her classes, I improved English by reading books, having discussions, and analyzing the books. I loved every class I had with her, especially when we came to the analysis of the book. It was a new experience for me, since that was the first time learning “underlying meanings,” “historical backgrounds,” and “symbols.” That was the reason “The Animal Farm” was my favorite. Since the book was a satire, the whole story of the animals represented historical figures in reality, like Stalin; it was all about the author’s implicit motives through learning history and symbols. She gave me a new eye for reading.

Through her, I also developed my latent interest for history. Most of the books that we read were classics, and this meant that to read and understand properly, I needed to understand historical backgrounds for many books prior to reading them. It could have been seen as a burden, but with the help and instructions of Guyane, I rather was excited to find out about the events happened at the time the authors wrote. Learning of the specific times in history through various sources, including Guyane, I found how much I was interested in European history. Till then when I was in Korea, history was the most boring subject of all. However, learning from Guyane made the whole thing different.

Having retrospected on the past and coming back to the present, I think that Guyane had a string of influence in my life ever since I met her. Through her influence, I found my distinct goal for the future. However, most importantly, I found my interest leading to my future happiness. This is the most meaningful and priceless present I have ever received.

-I could not log on to "writing inside" : I found my ID but my password is constantly not delivered to my e-mail. So I will post it here.