First draft

In the cover image of gathering pearls, Sookan is wearing a black suit, and she is gathering pearls. Her hair looks a little untidy, and she is sitting on the wood floor. I can feel very strong emotions such as sadness, hopeless, desire. She went to America alone and lots of things happened to her, and those things make her emotions getting stronger. For examples, her mother died at the end of the book; she had both good and bad experience with her American friends. Emotions are one of the most important part of everyone's life. Sookan's life is changed by the emotions inside of her like the pearls on the floor around her. The pearls represent her conflicting emotions which she must figure out in order to do what is right for herself in her future.

Emotions have changed her life a lot. The first emotion is eagerness, when she wants to come to America. I remember that her family members do not want her to go to America, because they think that she is too young to come. When she comes to America, I can feel her fearness. “I knew no one in America, and my command of English was poor”(Choi 1). From this sentence, we can see that she was worring her situation like a little helpless girl, so she decide that she will become a stronger person, and she will get in to American culture. As we all know, she starts to learn and work very and extremely hard, and taht is way she becomes to a person who is totally get into the new culture, and she is working pretty well on her classes. Thus, emotions can change our life so much.

Emotions also influence her feeling and decisions. For example, when she was angry with Ellen, she said bad things to her and she leave Ellen alone, because she doesn't know what she should do. Then when she hears about her mother's death, she even don't have a power to cry, because her heart fills with sadness and hopeless. On the other hand, emotions also bring us some good feelings. For instance, when they have a little with her, she is full with happiness and passion. I can feel how happy she is, and I am sure that she is too happy to speak it out. As we can see, emotion is such a important thing in our life, and they can make us to feel better, and making a right decision. 

Brainstorming

On the book we can a girl is wearing a black suit, and she is gathering pearls. Her hair looks a little untidy, and she is sitting on the wood floor. I can feel very strong emotion. I can feel how sad she is. As we all know, her mother died at the end of the book, and her mother wanted her to find her own "pearls". In her mother's thinking the pearls show how strong she is, and how she solve problems. Another emotion I can feel is hopeless. Because she is all alone at America. I can feel how lonely she is, when she misses her mother. However, she cannot talk with her mother anymore, and she even cannot write to her mother. In this picture, she is not only gathering the pearls, but also thinking. She is think what her mother wanted she to do, and what's kind of person her mother wanted she to be. She starts to understand the meaning of the pearls. So she is starting to work for the goal, and she will finally learn from those experience happened to her. She finally finds that she has some really good friends, teachers, and a family. She decided to be strong and she will be the person like her mother.

Bright Future

Sookan thinks so many things such as, what should she do, where should she go, and what would her family want. She faces to the biggest trouble she had never met before, so she has to make every decisions. Father Lee will leave today at 9 am, and the last words he says, “ Take care Soookan, and remember that you should always fellow your heart this is the thing your mother always wants you to do. I do not if we can see each other again, so I put all the money that I can give to you on your desk. See you, and be stronger!” Sookan stands there and sees Father Lee leaving, she finally decides what she should do. 

At the same time she comes back to the dorm Sister Reed says, “Sookan there was a man calling you 5 minutes ago.” Sookan says, “Is that boy’s name Tom?”. 

Sister Reed says, “I don’t know. You can call him back if you want”. 

So Sookan calls him back, “ Hi, you finally call me back, I was thinking you would never ever call me back. Thank god. Are you doing alright? I have heard from Ellen that you got some big troubles. Is that true? If there are anything that I can help, please tell me, I will be right there”. What a familiar voice, Sookan is thinking. 

Sookan knows it is Tom, She stops for a minute then she says, “Hi, I am ok now. Don’t worry, thank you for calling me and helping me. How about you?” 

“I am totally fine. Actually, I want to ask you a question. Would you like to go on a date with me?”

Sookan is totally sharked. She says, “Well, I cannot answer you now. Could you please give me some time to think about it?” 

“That is absolutely ok. I can wait for you forever, because I love you!” 

Sookan does not know what she should do, so she just hang up the phone call. 

After 5 years, in a beautiful church we see Ellen, Marci, and Kelay. There is a wedding. Suddently, we see a bride is walking in. It is Sookan, and she will marry Tom. Sookan did not go back to Korea, and she started dating with Tom in her junior year. She still kept writing to her all family, however she wuould never ever come back. Her roomates were Marci and Ellen. It was so surprising that Marci and Ellen got along very well. After the wedding, Sookan finds a job at a high school in New York City, and she teatchs Korean, writing, and English. Lots of things had changed, but Sookan still keeps her pearls in a black wood box with all her mother’s letters. Everytime, when she gets in to troubles, she opens it, and she can always find the solutions. She also becomes the person that her mother wants her to be. She acturely like her mother, because she is tough, strong, accepting all others, and she always fellowing her heart.

Study guide 13-18

Gathering of Pearls Study Guide: Chapters 13-18

Chapter 13

1.       Describe Marci’s relationship with her parents.

She wants more freedom, and she doesn't like her parents. However, her parents think she should be the person who her sister is.

2.     She thinks Sookan should just tell her the truth that Sookan is tired, and she wants to make her own chose.

3.        I don't think so. Because Sookan is transitional Korean. She doesn't want to argue with her sister.

Chapter 14

1.       A pearl necklace.

2.      Ellen gets engagement.

3.       How do her parents react?

Her parents told her to come back, and they are worried about her.

4.       Sookan stands up to Ellen in this chapter and defends her parents. DO you agree or disagree with Sookan’s position? Why? I agree with her, because I think you should always help your friends to become better and better. Sometimes we also need to say some bad thing or hurt them. You cannot make the dicision such as engagement without parents.

Chapter 15

1.       Explain why Sookan has conflicting emotions (positive and negative) regarding the experiences she has in this chapter.

She wants to buy the suit to show her friends and sister Reed; because, she gives Sookan a necklace. Howeve she used all her money to buy this. She gets money by doing more and more part time job. So she doesn't want to use them. She also wants to buy tickets for her mother to attent to her graduation.

2.       I might use all my money to buy the suit. Because I want to make my friends and people who cares about me happy.

Chapter 16

1.       She did a great job on her studying, and she got used to American culture. As we can see, she made two extremely good friend and she had some great time with them. She also learned what are important things.

2.       She is not follow her sister blindly. She even go out with a boy and drunk alcohol. She is also getting stronger; as we can see, she find herself more part time job.

Chapter 17

1.       Her mother went to the heaven at beginning of May.

2.      Her mind was explode, and she even didn't have power to speak and cry.

Chapter 18

1.    She realizes that how deeply her mother loves her, and how important things that her moth did for her. She also understands what pearls mean; she found her own pearls and she stats to gathering them.

2.     I want to say that you should be tougher. No mother wants see their children are sad and they stop moving. She should fellow what her moth told her that she should put all "pearls" together and make heart becoming stronger.

Don't Say It, Do It!

Gathering of Pearls was written by Sook Nyul Choi, who was Korean. This book is about a girl called Sookan who is a Korean too, and she went to America for education, like what Sook did. I have read 12 chapters, and I like this book so much, because Sookan and I is in the same situation. Sookan shows her tough heart and personality when she faces to so many troubles from different part of her life. I have met most of her troubles in my first year at Cheshire Academy. Finally I learned that we should always have our goals and we should work extremely hard for achieving them.

We should always have our goals. The first time I came here was my second semester of freshman, and that was the first time I came to America. It was 8 PM at New York City. I just got off the flight, then I met Mr. Poisson. He asked me:" Do you want to use bathroom?" I thought that bathroom was the place to take shower, so I answered:"No, thanks!" I congratulate oneself for that I had went to the "bathroom" before I met Mr. Poisson. In this book, Sookan also gets in the same situation. " "Don't you like this one?" "Yes, I don't like it," I replied, noticing the high price tag. "Sookan, what do you mean?" Ellen asked, looking very puzzled. " 'Yes, you like it' or 'no, you don't like it.' Which is it? "I mean I do not like it," I said, sorry to be disagreeable " (Choi 13, 14). We were all embarrassed, because we used wrong English. However I didn't study hard in my freshman year, and I played video games everyday. I lost myself, and I didn't even know what should I do until I got my grades. Then I decided that I will get a better grade, because I don't want to be embarssed and shamed. Result is that I am hard working now, and I am not playing video games too much. As long as we have a goal, we will not lose our passion and hope. As we can see, goals are one of the most important things that we should have.

We should also work hard for our goals. My freshman year grade was so bad; however I have Second Honors and Effort Honors in my last semester. After I gave myself a goal, I went to extra help almost everyday, and I always go to the writing center. Working hard really helps us to achieve our goal. I will keep working hard for a higher level. Sookan takes world literature, Greek culture, world religions, and early Europe history, andnone of them is easy. She knows that shehas to work hard, because scholarship is not easy to get. " At the end of the hall was the showe room, the only room in the building where the lights were kept on all night. There, at the end of the long row of showers, were five sparkling clean bathtubs. I heated to the tub in the corner and spread out my blanket, placed my pillow at the back, and laid my books on the floor" (Choi 73). This is the way that she uses to study after lights out. I don't mean that we should study after lights out; however we should work hard. As we can see, we should always give ourselves a goal, and we need to work for the goal.

Goals are not the thing that we speak every day, they are the thing that we do every day. No matter how bad situation that you are in, you can always find the way to get out. Finally, giving yourself a goal and working hard for it. One day, when you look back you will be pride of yourself.

Citation:
Choi, Sook Nyul., and Sook Nyul. Choi. Gathering of Pearls. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Print.

Thinking question

1. What was Sookan's feeling when she was reading letters from her mother and sister?

2. Why did Ellen take Sookan to her family?

Study Guid 6-12

Gathering of Pearls Study Guide: Chapters 6-12

Chapter 6
1.The problem between Sookan and her sister is that her sister wants her write her about everything happen in her school life, however Sookan has no enough time to write it down. In Sookan's mind she wants to fellow her sister, however she has no time to do it, and she think her sister does not about her feeling.

Chapter 7
1. Ellen thinks that check out the social scene is very important.
2. Ellen considers that everone should choose for themselves, however Sookan’s always makes decisions for her. So Sookan starts thinking if she really should follow her sister’s opinion.
3. In my opinion she should not lisen anyone. I consider that she should make her own chooses. She has a really strong heart, however she also care people’s emotion too much.

Chapter 8
1.Because she missed the affternoon attendance.
2. If I were her, I would not sneak out, because I do not think she should do this just for writting the letter. She can find another time to write.
3. It is aout what did she do in the past weeks, and telling her sister how she misses her and others in Korea. She also tells her that she has not too much time to write letters to her.
4. She may be angry first, because she thinks Sookan is not fellowing her decisions. Then I consider that she would be upside, because she loves Sookan so much. When she find she is not like she was before, she will feel sad.

Chapter 9
1. Gice at least two reasons for each. It is good, because she can learn more American culture, and she also can get a better relationship with Ellen. It is also bad, because she cannot understand everything during holidays, and she misses home more.

Chapter 10
1. Shower room
2. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach
3.plenty of sleep

Chapter 11
1. The letter from mom is more care about Sookan’s feeling, however the letter from sister is telling her what she should do. It makes Sookan feels bad when she read her sister’s lettter. As we can see, mom is more gentle and she cares Sookan more. Sister is more tough.

Chapter 12
1. Korean food
2. Butter cookies and brownies.

3. Who joins them?Sister Reed jioned them.
4. This gathering helps her get 3 very important things. First she understans that why her mother loves cooking so much. Second, she has Marrci and Ellen who is really good friend. Third, those two thing gives her more power to study and live in college.