Why I Hate The First Day Of School

      I’ve always had a dislike for first days of school. Not only is there that nervousness and anxiety of starting a new school year, but an underlying feeling of dread that I possess every single time. Out of the 13 first days of school I’ve experienced, I’ve spent 11 of those days abnormally uneasy during attendance. Excluding pre-school and kindergarten, when I was too young to have such complicated feelings, I was ashamed of my name that was on the attendance sheet. Ashamed at how teachers were always stuck on me after smoothly saying everyone else’s name before me. Almost every teacher has butchered my name one way or another. Therefore, I’ve always had the phrase “I go by Victoria” on standby, ready to proclaim my American persona.

     My birth name is Youngchae, a typical Korean name but an atypical American name. Even as I am writing this, my name is underlined in red indicating that it’s spelt wrong when it is actually, undoubtedly spelt right! Try pronouncing Youngchae right now. (the correct pronunciation will be revealed at the end!)

     From a Korean’s perspective, it’s a simple name to pronounce. But after hearing countless people mispronounce it, I realized that it’s difficult for Americans to pronounce. I’ve gotten mispronunciations from Yoonchi to Youngkay and sometimes people don’t even try and resort to Ms. Kang. I had told my parents in 1st grade that a majority of people couldn’t say my name. So, they decided it would be easier for everyone if I had a different name; thus emerging my American name, Victoria. 

     Life has become much easier since I started introducing myself as my American name but my name on the attendance sheet won’t change until I legally change it. So, until that legal change happens, I will always have a hate towards the first day of school!

     Ok, the proper pronunciation of my birth name is actually quite simple after you break down the syllables. The first half, “Young”, is pronounced exactly the same as the word young (the opposite of old). And the last half, “Chae”, is pronounced as “chay”, like how the “ae” in sundae is pronounced and adding a “ch” in front of it. So put them all together and you get “young-chay”. Youngchae = Young-chay!

                                                                             I am the kid in the back :)