Konnichiwa to everyone reading this testimonial! My name is Narae Son, a third year student at The University of Sydney, studying the Bachelor of Education/ Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Japanese.
Being a third year student means that you are at the point of your life where big decisions of where your future will be heading and your career options is a major issue to ponder up on. And talking to friends in the same grade as I, I notice that many of them are struggling through this process pretty harshly because they are unsure as to whether what they are studying is what they wish to continue doing throughout their life, whether this is the correct pathway for them to take and whether they will be happy. As I sit listening to these serious talks, as selfish as this sounds, I cannot help but feel an emotion of thankfulness and gratitude at the fact that I love and enjoy what I am doing at the moment. I simply cannot wait to get out there are start teaching Japanese to my lovely future students. And thinking about this, I also cannot help but feel thankful and grateful that I met Mrs Hwang in the hot summer of 2007.
Looking back in to my high school years, I am always astonished as to how a person’s attitude and incentives towards studying a certain subject can change so dramatically. My first two years of studying Japanese, I must say honestly, was filled with boredom, disinterest and hatred. Never having really taken a deep interest in the country of Japan, I was inevitably low in motivation to study for Japanese too. Lack of initiative meant that the hours spent studying Japanese were very little hence a poor grade and what naturally follows a low mark is a loss of confidence. This leads to a further degrading of interest, and the vicious cycle continues. This was the cycle that I was stuck in. I hated walking in to class and there were many times where I would lie in the sick bay pretending to be suffering from a terrible headache when all my classmates would be walking in to Japanese class.
It was at this point of giving up Japanese to pick up another subject for my HSC’s that I was introduced to Mrs Hwang. And it was from this point that my previous attitude towards Japanese changed 360 degree, to a whole new level. 
Walking in to Mrs Hwang’s first lesson, the first change I noticed was the different approach she took to teaching Japanese. It wasn’t all about books and pencils. It was about watching and experiencing the Japanese culture, interacting with the teacher and other pupils and it was to put yourself out of the comfort zone to compare your abilities with other students. Her lessons were not only centred around studying off the text book but was accompanied by a drama lesson held every Saturday with all of her other pupils (FOR FREE!) We would watch an episode of a drama where Mrs Hwang would stop after a couple of sentences, ask, on a random basis, whether a student had understood what the line had meant and what this statement had to say about the Japanese culture and go through a thorough explanation of the grammar, vocabulary and conceptions and ideology of the Japanese culture embedded in that sentence. This lesson, I must say, was the highlight of Mrs Hwang’s tutoring sessions as it was after this lesson that I began to take an incredible interest, not only in the Japanese language but the nation as a whole. A heightened interest meant that I went out of my way to look for more dramas to watch, more exposure to the culture and language of Japan, and within this process, I could feel myself gradually improving on my Japanese ability. 
And after this feeling of accomplishment, I could not stop but study the language more and more. It was the taste of heaven when I would understand more of what my favourite actor is saying in a drama, when I would be able to recognise a kanji and read it out loud in front of my class mates looking puzzled both at the kanji AND at my sudden change in behaviour and when my grades would jump from a 37% to a 97%. My aims were no longer a good mark for the HSC. It was passing the JLPT level 2 exam as just a young year 12 student. It was even going beyond to make Japanese as my third language, in level with my English and Korean proficiency.
And I guess I have succeeded in that goal to a certain degree! Here I am, my passion towards Japanese not stopping at a level of studying it myself but even teaching to others, my abilities in Japanese enough to award me scholarships to Japan and my interest in Japan large enough to be absolutely happy and loving the fact that I am studying it right now.
Mrs Hwang has not only impacted upon the Japanese aspect of my life, but it was her who planted the passion for me to become a teacher. I was inspired by the fact that someone can have such a big impact on a person’s life and future that I wished to do the same, and so here I am studying with a dream of one day becoming a teacher like Mrs Hwang.
And so, there is no doubt to say that Mrs Hwang wasn’t simply a teacher; she was my mentor, my mother and the navigator of my life. 😀
