Yejun Chung made a difficult move to the U.S. when he was 7, nine years ago. At that time, he didn’t know English since he was born in South Korea. Up until that point, he had what he said was a normal childhood.

“I would go to school, go to taekwondo practice with my friends and hang out at the park,” said Chung, a sophomore at Naperville Central.

However, in July 2012, after completing first grade, his life would change. Chung, without even knowing how to speak fluent English, moved to the United States.

“My dad had to move for work,” Chung said. “He wanted us to come with him so he didn’t have to be away from us for a long time.”

Chung had a positive outlook on having to move across the world.

“I was actually excited,” Chung said. “I didn’t have that many friends in Korea.”

However, the transition to living in the U.S. was not an easy one for Chung. It took him a long time before he was able to fully communicate with people. Chung also experienced culture shock when seeing things like having a water dispenser other than a sink in his house. On top of all that, Chung had a difficult time adjusting to his new house.

“Day one [in the U.S.] I was sick, and it was really hot,” Chung said. “We all had to sleep in the basement for the first week because we didn’t have beds. They were shipping in from Korea.”

School was also a difficult adjustment for Chung to make. He struggled mostly with things that involved English, including word problems in math. Chung also had trouble learning the new rules that schools have in the U.S.

“We had name tags on our desk and I couldn’t read so I accidentally sat at a random kid’s desk,” Chung said. “I didn’t know we weren’t allowed phones and my mom had bought me a flip phone because she was worried about me.”

At the beginning of his life in the U.S., Chung struggled with making friends as a result of him not understanding what people were saying.

“[My class had a] bathroom break in first grade and this one kid was talking about Minecraft,” Chung said. “I caught the word Minecraft and I played Minecraft with my brother so I repeated it and he started talking to me but I had no idea what he was saying.”

The move was slightly easier for Chung as he had already completed first grade in Korea.

“Everything we did in first grade I could already do,” Chung said. “There was also a teacher that would help me study English in school.”

Throughout the first grade, Chung had an unconventional way of learning about American culture and how to speak English.

“Watching cartoons helped me a lot,” Chung said. “Learning to speak [English] was actually pretty easy. You can just copy other people. I actually didn’t study it at all, I just picked it off from other people.”

Chung learned fast and was able to speak English fluently enough to communicate with other students and begin to make friends.

Leonardo Tebar, a sophomore at Central, has been friends with Chung since first grade.

“He was in a different room than me, but during math, we switched classrooms. 

I sat next to him,” Tebar said. “I became friends with Yejun because he’s funny, he got me into shows I like, he’s really cool and I like his style.”

Luka Van Osdol is another sophomore at Central who has known Chung since sixth grade.

“I really like his sense of humor and personality,” Van Osdol said.

Today, Chung has fully adjusted to life in the U.S.

“Everything’s normal. Food’s fine, I can speak and read English, school’s normal. I’m glad I live in the U.S.”