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Mastering a foreign language is not easy. Memorizing innumerable words and reading English books are not themselves sufficient to bridge the gap of talking with foreigners. But there is a man who conquered the monster, English, after age 30. He is Hyung-kyung Lee (Harrison Lee · 37), the personal aide of KAIST President Robert B. Laughlin.
He had to study especially hard, like other Korean people who learn English late. But the effort paid off. He became a reporter at San Francisco Korea Times and a staff member at the Silicon Valley branch of IBM. But he also had hardship. He was mistaken as a weak businessman because he did not shake hands firmly, and got fired because he said "I am sorry" inappropriately at a company. It took long for him to realize that "I am sorry" means "I admit that it is my fault."
He wandered a lot until he realized the importance of his experiences. He wrote a book based on the painful lessons he learned in America. The title, Let's Talk with Native Speakers Naturally, represents his experiences well. He said, "I wrote this book with my beginning days in US in mind. I focused on easy English and cultural understanding." He also emphasizes that, "Being freed from grammar, words and idioms filling your brain will enable you to get closer to natural English."
He has now advanced to the level where he enjoys English under any circumstances. When he returned from US, he worked at Science Times as a reporter and got a job offer from KAIST thanks to the scoop he got about Stanford professor Robert B. Laughlin's KAIST presidency acceptance. President Laughlin counts him as one of his best students and shows deep confidence in his assistant's enterprising spirit.