While I was preparing for TOEFL test in Korea to
apply for a graduate school, I was desperate for some feedback on my writing since
I really needed to get a high score on it. I really wanted a private tutor or a
native speaker friend to help me but I could not afford it. So, instead of
getting a tutor, I used model essays from TOEFL textbooks and peer reviews. I
had a textbook on TOEFL writing test with 30 sample topics and sample essays
for each topic. After writing an essay on each topic by myself, I compared my
writing against the model essay. Then, I re-wrote the essay on the same topic,
adding some ideas and expressions from the sample essay that I thought were
better than mine. Also, I got a peer reviewer two months before the test day --
a girl who was also preparing for TOEFL test by herself like me, whose English
level was also quite advanced. We read each other’s essays and gave each other
peer feedback. I was happy to get a tutor for free. I was not completely sure
if her English and knowledge was good enough to give me any constructive
feedback, but I did know that having an actual audience would at least force me
to do a better job. The TOEFL test result was very satisfactory – 30 out of
30. There were several times when I came up with
certain phrases on my own but was not sure if they sounded natural or not. I
knew early on that Konglish expressions – expressions created by literally
translating Korean to English – would not work for all speakers of
English. However, I had no one to ask
if phrases I came up with make sense. Then, it occurred to me that if the same
phrases occur frequently in authentic English texts in the same context, they
would probably sound natural and okay to use in writing. This is how Google
search became my favorite writing tutor. When Google first adopted
autocompletion, I decided to like it even more.
