I will never forget the day I picked a new name. I was standing in front of my class on my first day of school at Craig Elementary in St. Louis, Missouri. I had, only a day before, landed at Lambert airport after a sixteen-hour flight from Seoul, South Korea. I was ten years old. I was nervous, terrified, and jet-lagged, and I was wearing a vest because I thought it was chic.
For my entire life, everyone, including me, had known me by my Korean name: Jun Hyuk. But here, in this new country, in a brand-new classroom full of foreign faces, I had to pick a new, easy-to-pronounce, American name. Jason. Jason Kim. How did I settle on Jason? Because I didn't speak any English. Because my teacher didn't speak any Korean. And because it was either going to be Aladdin, from my favorite childhood Disney tale, or Jason, from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
I spent the next decade wanting nothing more than to look like a Larry Lorberbaum or a Garrett Kennedy. I still vividly remember my first time at recess, a confusing experience for several reasons, in large part because hanging off monkey bars and making each other cry during dodgeball was not educationally sanctioned2 activities in Asia. What was so fun about waiting in line, running up the steps, and going down a tiny slide over and over again? What was the value in sprinting after your classmate like a person with rabies, screaming, "TAG!" [1] [5] 1. fashionable and stylish; cool 2. "Sanctioned activities" refers to activities that are allowed or approved. 1 Why didn't anyone look, sound, or act like me? I spent most days at recess sitting alone on the sidelines, eating the special snack that my mother had packed. The snack, a rice cake or a piece of candy from Korea, was always accompanied by a note, usually a joke, and sometimes embellished3 with a drawing, which often looked like an abstract painting when it was meant to be a sketch of our beloved deceased poodle. A month had passed when a teacher finally tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you OK, sweetie?" Before I could answer, another teacher rang out, "Maybe he likes sitting alone. Maybe that's the Asian way." But in truth, I wanted to participate. I wanted to run up to Timmy like a crazy person and yell, "YOU'RE IT!" I just didn't know-how.
Question: Why was it hard for Kim to interact with other kids?
He did not feel comfortable joining them.
He did not like the games they were playing.
He did not know how to ask them to join in English.
He did not like them because they teased him for being different.
