Undergraduate / "Stronger" - Name an influential person: My Father (Common app essay) [7]

"Oh my gosh! Absolutely brilliant! Fantastic goal! Rooney scores another one for Manchester United!"

Stronger

A sudden sharp, ear-splitting sound began to fill the empty house. My fingers frantically searched for the "off" button of the stereo. Before long, I understood the CD was not for any kind of musical pleasure. It was for my father to train himself to pain. Stunned, I placed the CD where I first found it, inside my father's coat pocket, where I, as a fourteen-year old, could always look for some coins.

My father heard a ringing noise in his ears, what the doctors called "tinnitus." It came as an unexpected side effect of a nose surgery he received seven years ago for his frequent sneezing. However, my initial worries about his condition gradually faded away, as he never expressed his pain in front of the family. At the same time, I grew distant to my "indifferent" father; he always came back late from work, missed the dinner with the family, and left early for work in the morning. It was only much later I realized he was trying to compensate for the time and money he lost in fighting his depression from the ringing noise.

Through his soundless struggle, my father taught me the value of inner strength that eventually guided my transition to a foreign country. My poor English listening skills and understanding of the American culture in the first few months of high school in America, were constant weights on my shoulders. But I knew everything would turn out better if I believed so. And what I believed came true; I met the most wonderful people by mustering up the courage to approach friends and teachers first.

When I was little, my father used to tell me stories from Aesop's fables. This one line from a story still vividly comes back to me: "The little Reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over." Even though I will be away from home in the near future, like the little Reed, like my father, I will remember to be strong inside, despite the obstacles I may face.

I would love criticism!! :)

Undergraduate / Common app essay, free topic "The Beauty of Translation" [10]

Free topic: The Beauty of Translation

As Toru Okada, or "Mr. Wind-Up Bird," drifted into a deep sleep after his long search of his missing cat and wife, the same uplifting feeling I had before from reading in Korean and in English, overwhelmed me. The blank portion of the last page stared at me for a while and whispered, "That's the beauty of translation."

In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Toru Okada, the main character, and I, the reader, encountered different characters that shifted us into their metaphysical worlds. I was quickly captivated by Haruki Murakami's beautiful, surreal, exotic writing and his ability to fit numerous stories and perspectives into a single book. But what eventually intrigued me more were the resembling feelings I had each time after reading the book in the translated versions and in the original version.

Looking back, Korean and English translations gave a distinct touch to the story, with the unique structures, rhythms, and sounds of the Korean and English language. These three elements magically blended into the narrative and the dialogues of the characters. At the same time, there were the inevitable flaws of translation. For example, a simple sentence of five words, when translated, became a sentence of fourteen words. Some Japanese idiomatic expressions, when translated, lost their distinct cultural flavors. But the voice of Murakami was still there, if not within every sentence, within groups of sentences and paragraphs. Even with the imperfections, the dialogues and the narratives carried the same tone and gravity in both translations, giving me the same "chills."

For the original Japanese version of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I read at a slower pace, because I had to constantly wrestle with the dictionary. My slow reading brought my attention to the individual words and phrases that Murakami had chosen, and the way they were deliberately put together in a sentence. In other words, I became aware of the importance of understanding the subtle meanings beneath these intended words and phrases, in order to truly understand the story itself. Thus, when I finished the original version and received the same stirring feeling that I had before from reading the translations, I could not help being amazed by the translators, as much as I was amazed by Murakami; they were able to carry the voice of the writer from one language into another by fully grasping the dynamics of both languages. Ultimately, it was the reading of this book that stimulated me to become an aspiring translator.

The beauty of translation lies in devouring the text, retelling it, and bonding different groups of people. In this sense, translators are artists, who, despite knowing the imperfections that inevitably follow, seek the best way to share with others the soul of a piece of literature. And that is exactly what I wish to do as a translator in the future, to continuously challenge myself in understanding language and literature.

I will greatly appreciate some criticism! Tear up this essay, please! :)