The Imperfect Art of Romanization The Korean language felt like home — until I saw it written in English.

I was born in the United States, but raised by my Korean mother, who exposed me to her language early and consistently. Over time, though, English took over as my primary language. I have a solid grasp of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, however, and a smattering of basic survival words, most of which I learned at home when my mother urged me to “bballi bballi mogo” — eat faster, faster. I recently downloaded Duolingo in an attempt to regain some of my fluency. Language learning apps like Duolingo promise to turn our previously wasted social media scrolling time into productive bursts of self-improvement. With such a convenient tool at my disposal, why wouldn’t I replace my doomscrolling with a little language learning?