Cathy Park Hong is a rare gem currently existing in the world. The multi-gifted essayist and poet lack a single word to describe her. Hong is witty, highly informed, knowledgeable, authoritative, and observant. She is a Korean native living in the U.S. and uses her experience as the ‘other’ to inform the world. There exist different pieces of literature under Hong, all depicting the author’s outstanding gift. One striking aspect concerning the writer touches on the fact that she excels in using a foreign language. Almost all of Hong’s literary works are in English, a language that is somewhat despised due to its speakers’ excessive pride. As such, Hong creates all her literary work with a purpose. The present work thus seeks to elaborate the reason behind Hong’s valuation of ‘Bad English’ as featured in the book ‘Minor Feelings.’
The valuation of ‘bad English’ by Hong partly purposes to celebrate and appreciate the author’s struggles as a young child. Hong exhibits Korean ancestry and lives in the U.S. As a child, the author never grew in one of the best surroundings, as noted by Hong (1). Hong reports that the English she heard in church while growing in K-town, Los Angeles, was broken, barbed, and short. Objects and subjects in the K-town dialect never followed a specific order, while verbs disagreed forever. Moreover, the teenage language was full of obscene words copied from the native English speakers from within the neighborhoods. Hong provides words like ‘fuck him,’ ‘asshole,’ and several others as common nouns in her language as a young person (Hong 1). Nonetheless, the same person is today a renowned essayist and poet with the ability to write pure English. The author thus remains appreciative of her challenging past by celebrating the hardship and making it fun.
Another intention by Hong when using ‘bad English’ concerns the need to reveal variety. Hong understands that diversity makes the world beautiful. The author is, therefore, concerned by the fact that many Americans and individuals around the world want to make English the only language. Hong notes in her work that some elements are never changeable. For example, Hong describes her inheritance of a pronounced nose from her father as something she can never change. The author remembers how, as a young school-going child, many English natives branded her as an abnormal being (Kliger 1). The students never at one point stooped to imagine that their short noses were the wrong version. Growing through the experience possibly made Hong hate herself, which she purposes to change today. Hong’s move gets support from Bordowitz’s argument that radical art connects crowds who would not generally merge better than social media (Hong 1). Valuing ‘bad English’ when the mainstream media encourages the use of pure English thus ensures that people appreciate variety and differences as part of life.
They need to appreciate the humor present in language variation also leads Hong to embrace the ‘bad English’ subject. Hong is both an essayist and an author whose works impact readers immensely. The poet exhibits an excellent ability to incorporate funniness in her poetic works, making significantly serious topics freestyle. The aspect comes from the mastery of the ‘bad English’ facet. Hong notes that “I take the statements and utilize them in my poetry… because (they) exhibit all the qualities of astounding poetic lines” (Hong 1). Hong provides statements like “I feel a happiness when I eat him” (1) to indicate the wealth of ‘foreign’ language when used in the mainstream language. Consequently, she successfully promotes fun among her readers by incorporating the bad English elements in her literary work. The author thus realizes uniqueness through the style, which is an excellent path to ensure success in a world full of competition. The move by Hong, therefore, presents her creativity and innovativeness as a scholar and author.
Celebrating the ‘outsider’ and provoking good old memories among readers is also a major purpose of Hong’s valuation of the bad English paradigm. Hong notes that her plights as a Korean native living in the U.S. are not unique. The point that there are thousands of Koreans in the nation means that they all experience the same treatment. Hong comprehends that not every Korean growing in the U.S. exhibits a strong will like her. The author also recognizes the lives of people like her mother, who, despite being of age, continue to feel messed up when talking or expressing themselves to a native English speaker. The experience is substantially hurting for the many that cannot overcome it through intrinsic means. That is why Hong is out to impact them positively by sharing her experiences with bad English words. The author’s desire pushes her to conduct online searches to gather more ‘bad English’ words to impact even a larger population worldwide, particularly among Asians (Kryah 1). Hong’s determination and talents make the work easy, manageable, and interesting.
Hong also purposes to protect her native language from English cannibalism through the utilization of ‘bad English.’ The experiences of Hong as a young child were never pleasing. Growing in an area where young native language speakers experience a constant attack from native English orators was never easy for Hong. This aspect made almost everyone in the family lose trust in the Korean dialect. Hong says that many young Korean lovers find using the Korean equivalent of ‘I miss you’ weak because it appears to be a false expression of feelings (Hong 1). The author also notes that students often matched her Asian name and accent to lack of experience. Others even branded the young Hong as a mistaken identity. All these issues arose from language differences, with English putting excessive pressure on the Korean dialect. The seeking to eliminate the Korean language from the social settings in the U.S. amounts to cannibalism, which Hung finds hard to bear. That is why the essayist is out and always committed to the Korean, Hawaiian, or Chinese-based bad English to change the mentality.
To ‘other’ and decolonize the English language is another primary role in Hong’s utilization of the ‘bad English’ paradigm. Hong argues that the prevailing notion that English is the only genuine language around the globe is very wrong. The idea mainly crops racial misbranding, which introduces racial injustices into the world of language. Hong reiterates that “to make English ‘other’ language amounts to exposing the imperial power attached to the language and to dissect the dialect open to reveal its dark side” (1). According to Hong, English language speakers utilize language to colonize the world without the masses’ knowledge. The aspect allows almost everyone to feel weak in front of the language and its ‘owner.’ To end the issue, the essayist encourages people around the world to introduce their dialects into the English language and make it as local as possible. The move stands to de-commercialize the language by sharing it, hence promoting cross-cultural motivation for continued innovation. Hong’s purpose is thus to de-center whiteness, which hides in the English language.
Last but not least, Hong wants to preserve the dying art of bad English through her literary work. According to Hong capitalism and the White influences’ dominance on the internet force authors to establish literary material that complies with pure English language directives (1). Poems shared online ought to bear a concise format related to the original English format to acquire buyouts. Getting things like a poet’s accent is thus becoming harder every day due to the issue. That is because the internet lacks room for ‘free’ content creators to showcase their talents. Hong notes that tweeting a poem with a bad English line makes it sink link a heavy lead metal, it never manages to float. Such implies the need to share bad English offline for it to survive. Books and live performances remain the best offline channels to preserve the art. The risk thus sends Hong to fight for the art to remain alive. Arguably, the work of this great author and poet is what will save the art from perishing. Realizing this aspect makes it more necessary to share the work with as many people as possible.
In conclusion, Cathy Hong is a special person owing to her many works in the world of literature. The essayist and poet use her background experiences to impact the world. Cathy Hong is best known for the ‘bad English’ literature. She uses the literary movement for different purposes, such as defending the majority of Asian immigrants in the U.S. whose accents expose them to self-esteem-murdering brandings. Hong also purposes use the literature movement to promote and celebrate diversity around the world. Better still, the need to preserve the bad English art, as well as decolonize the English language, constitute basic reasons for Hong’s pursuance of the movement.
Works Cited
Hong, Cathy P. “Read an excerpt from Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning.”Buzzfeednews, 2020.
Klegar, Jared. “Cathy Park Hong on Ethical Storytelling and Her ‘Accidental’ Writing Process.” The Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation, 2021.
Kryah, Joshua. “An Interview with Poet Cathy Park Hong.”Poet & Writers, 2007.