Traditional Change

It’s billed as A Match Made in Heaven, a revered traditional Korean love storycarried down from a bygone age to … More

Haven’t you learned anything? she says

What is it you see out there?  What do you hear? My woman standing at the window staring out into the … More

Land of English Only

I was born in a land of English speakers,where parents believed speaking Englishwas the key to success. My father was … More

Learning This Right Now

No need to save anything on a board anymore, black or white, ephemeral chalk or marker. I’ve seen it in … More

Wrong

I stared at the block of numbers on the board. I recognized all of them; I could count. I did … More

After All

I teach composition at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.I choose to spend as little time in my office as … More

Race

In Hawai‘i, my Korean half dominates my look, so I blendin with the majority, no one can even tell I’m … More

Mind Your Frickin Manners

Lots of times you don’t know if it’s a joke with Dave or not.  If you survey all us folks … More

The Sharpest Knife

Never mind the bloody footprint track his right boot made for the first few steps.  Nobody is 100% perfect. But truly, … More

Strong Women

She was having a hard time going to sleep, maybe fear of the dark and all those kinds of trauma … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 24, All’s Well That Ends

1977.  It’s mostly a blur.  Sometimes when I try to recall the events of that year, it seems as if it were … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 23, A Tale of Mad City

My first semester at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, definitely had its best of times and worst of times split … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 20, I Draw the Line

I was maybe 15 minutes late.  I ran up the stairs to the 3rd floor of George Hall and popped in the … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 19, Ah yes, I remember it well

The line was incredibly long.  We stood in the dark, many of us smoking because none of us knew about secondhand … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 17, The Man from Maui

Ho!  I bet you thought when I said I’d write about that other important 11th-Grade teacher later, you were wondering how … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 16, The Man from the North

My junior year in high-school was one of those amazing years, the kind of year that does not come around … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 14, A Petty Pace

I know this may be hard to believe, but there was a time once, many moons ago, when English majors … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 8, To Read or Not To Read

I’ve always felt that there are some books I love so much that I keep coming back to them despite … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 7, The Good Old Summertime

If I’d been the right age to have experienced those long summer breaks of my childhood, where I’d have two-and-a-half … More

NaNoWriMo: More About That Later, Chapter 6, Like Riding a Bike

One October when I was living in Madison, I agreed to housesit for some friends who were headed out of … More