A Top Writer's Voices

What makes someone special? If I want to be inclusive, I might say that each of us is a unique snowflake (it’s winter where I live). But we are wired to make distinctions and so we place people on shelves, levels and lists: who is the best actor who is the best CEO who is the best writer…? I do have at least one answer to the last question: Hannah Cho. Haven’t heard of her? Then this is your chance.

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your family? Where have you grown up and what do you like about where you live (and maybe what you don’t like)

I was born in Santa Cruz, California and lived there for about 3-4 years, when my parents made the inexplicable mistake of moving to Michigan. All jesting aside, I love being a Midwestern girl. I have a younger brother Alex and a small dog in our family named Brownie.

I'm not very "Korean". By that, I'm not really in tune or connected with the culture. My parents speak Korean to my brother and me (actually a combination of Korean and English we call Konglish), and we eat Korean food. We visit our relatives regularly, and I did go to Korea this December and in the summer of 2008. But there aren't that many Koreans in my area, so I'm not very familiar with the culture or customs. Overall, I don't think it's had a detrimental effect on me, but there are times when I wish I'd had more experiences with Korean culture and people.

Can you tell us a bit about the secondary school you attend? What are the students like, the classes and teachers? How hard/stressful is it and how do you cope?I live in a quiet, well-to-do suburb an hour from Detroit, a very friendly place with excellent schools and nice people. Summers are cool, winters are pretty rough, spring and fall are beautiful. I'm really quite lucky to be able to live in a place like Troy.

My school is one of the top schools in Michigan (it's been ranked consistently in the top ten). It has a pretty sizeable proportion of Asian students, most of whom make up my friend group.

In terms of difficulty, for many, it's normal to take 3-5 AP classes beginning in junior year. Both junior and senior year I'm taking four AP courses. It's competitive. People like being able to brag about how many AP classes they're taking or the A they got or some other accomplishment that would be deemed nerdy anywhere else.

I cope by dedicating my time to do well academically but also focusing on some of my outside passions. I write (on Quora and am trying to compose a literary journal), participate in school clubs, attend talks and events, and learn about web development. I also enjoy taking long walks in my neighborhood as a stress-reliever and a form of active meditation. If something has been hovering in my consciousness, I go on a walk and usually return with a solution.

What are your favorite classes?

I'm really more a humanities/English/psychology person. I love my English courses and psychology class. I tend to just get more out of my English classes in general. My teachers focus equally on lecture and Socratic seminar or open discussion, and I think I've learned more in those classes about critical thinking, philosophy, and social entrepreneurship than in any others.

I love my psychology class because: a) it's super interesting to study how these fundamental thinking phenomena tie so many people together though they may be separated by culture or geography b) my teacher is super cool and nice. I'd like to study cognitive science, which is an interdisciplinary field that incorporates psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics.

Do you have a teacher or mentor who has changed you in significant ways?

All of my English teachers have had the biggest impact on me. They encouraged me to pursue writing as a major part of life and influenced a habit of thinking about my thinking that I'll be forever grateful for.

One of my teachers had a class activity to promote analysis called the Five Whys. Essentially, we were supposed to select a theme from a story and try explaining it by asking "why?" for each answer. And we'd ask "why" and "why" and "why" until we didn't know who we were anymore and it was absolutely, wonderfully fun.

Another teacher was obsessed with class participation and constantly lectured us on how we needed to talk more or else lose points. I was a freshman who was very painfully shy and was terrified of public speaking. I remember one time while giving a presentation with a partner, I stumbled over my words and looked confused while talking, so much so that my partner felt compelled to cut me off and finished it mostly by herself. I was so ashamed.

After that catastrophe, I vowed to myself that this crippling shyness would continue no more. It was mostly in English classes that I had to push myself to discuss and present, so it was in these classes that I experienced much personal growth. I learned how to express myself articulately and how to fake confidence until I was actually self-secure in what I was saying.

How did you go about deciding which universities to apply for? How many applications did you file?

I already had a pretty solid idea of which kinds of schools I wanted to attend based on location, strongest major, past visits, etc, so I didn't do much "new" research for any new schools. The ones I've applied to are ones I've been thinking about for a while and would love to attend. By February, I will have submitted in the arena of about 10 schools.

Did you do SAT prep or anything else to help you with the process?

It's a bit embarrassing for me to admit this. My father is the kind who I think instilled a pretty detrimentally intense view of college in me from an early age. As a result, I was often subjected to the measures my father was willing to take on my behalf. This included several test prep classes including the SAT, PSAT, and the ACT. I think they did help to an extent, but became unnecessary after a certain point. After you learn the structure of certain questions and specific tricks, improvement plateaus considerably. It just becomes a matter of timing yourself and focusing long enough.

What activities are important to you that are associated with the school and the community?

I started the Harry Potter Alliance Troy chapter at my school, which is an actual international social activism organization. No, it's not a fan club, it's a group dedicated to spreading awareness of world issues; in fact, I'd say a big portion of my work with the chapter has been just explaining what the group's not. We've done a successful book drive with the University of Michigan's HPA, participated in the 4liter Challenge, and held an HP Night at our local library.

I'm also a part of my school's American Chemical Society Chemistry Club, which is in large part focused on local education of chemistry practices and scientific principles. We do a lot of chemistry demos and presentations, which I love doing.

My favorite is a variant on the whoosh bottle demonstration, which I studied during a chemistry internship I took over the summer in Illinois. The original whoosh bottle is a demonstration on the volatility of alcohol and how it produces a brilliant reaction when lit with a flame. One is to coat the sides of a large plastic water jug with a few milliliters of methanol and let some evaporate inside. Then, when one puts a flame at the mouth of the bottle, the methanol ignites and creates a whooshing sound. The variation I studied, which my professor called a rocket car, puts the reaction inside a smaller plastic milk jug and sets it on its side so that it resembles—you guessed it—a rocket! (Racing milk jug rockets is really fun.) Nota bene: it's not recommended you use methanol because that's much more volatile and actually dangerous, but the rocket cars only work well with methanol.

When did you first start to blog? How do you choose what to write about?

I started blogging weekly as an assignment for my English class last year. As a requirement, my fellow classmates also had to read and comment on each other's blogs, and I received positive feedback on my writing. As I continued to improve through that class and through writing on Quora, I didn't want to stop blogging/writing even after the class ended. I figured that if I started a blog on Quora, I might feel more obligated to write on a somewhat regular basis.

I want now to ask you about your experience with the website quora.com. How did you first hear about it and why did you decide to participate?

A guy who attended my high school was relatively active on Quora. (I suppose not surprisingly he now attends a school on the West coast.) After seeing his content on my Facebook feed, I decided to check it out and got hooked. There's a trend I've seen often; a lot of people are intrigued by Quora, go on it and see all the interesting questions and answers and people, get addicted for a while lurking, and do one of two things: a) try writing answers, don't get much of a response and leave or b) continue lurking and eventually leave.

I did a third thing, which is I started writing, got a good response on some early answers, kept writing, and finally decided to actually put some effort into making valuable and creative answers and getting to know people online. The fact that I'm still on the site is really quite serendipitous. One of my first answers was something silly on love, but apparently people liked it enough that I got a pretty significant number of upvotes on that one. That's when I was hooked.

I found Quora to be very unique in this aspect; most people would consider consistently writing on Quora to be a bit tedious and a bunch of hard work, and Quora has pretty successfully found a growing group of people who don't.

At the New York Top Writers Fall Meetup with Charles Faraone

I hope you don’t mind if I talk about what a rock star you are on Quora. I first started reading your answers early this fall and I was impressed. No, I was more than impressed. You have the ability to bring with sophisticated insight and a superior level of curiosity to your answers. You are also exceptionally honest about how you fit in and don’t fit in the various communities you are a part of. Could you talk a bit how you brought so many skills to your responses?

Thank you, Parke! I was a pretty avid reader growing up, so I think writing has been a bit more enjoyable for me than most. Nowadays I mostly read essays and short stories and try to incorporate those lessons and my own experiences in answers. As I said before, English is one of my favorite classes, so I've worked really hard over the years to improve how I express myself. My main criterion for writing Quora answers is: is it useful and interesting? If not, work on it some more.

It may appear that my comments in the last question are hyperbolic so let me let readers know that you have recently been honored as one of the Top Writers on Quora. You are part of a small group in a community of well over 8 million. In addition you may be the youngest top writer (you probably know if this is accurate or not) on the site. Considering there are CEO’s, movies stars, Ivy League PHDs, and millions of bright people the world over who have not achieve this honor what is it you think you have that earned this recognition?

As it turns out, I'm not the youngest Top Writer! Apparently there is another boy who was either 14 or 15 when he became Top Writer, though I think that was in 2013. So I might be the youngest 2015 Top Writer currently.

Quora is inherently weird. I think the fact of my age has been a promoting factor. People like the idea of precociousness and the idea of supporting that precociousness (NOT that I consider myself precocious or anything, far from it.) I've been active in getting to know people by commenting and promoting, which has in turn brought their attention to my work, and thus probably brought Quora's (or whoever decides Top Writers) attention as well.

Would you be willing to share a few of the answers here that you think represent your best work?

What's it like to be on the outskirts of a social circle?

Some signs you're on the outskirts include
- You only really know one or two people in the group
- People in the group frequently hang out without you
- You're not aware of the latest gossip and don't know most of what's going on in everyone's lives

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It can feel pretty lousy at times, especially if you're at an age when you're trying too hard to impress people and have tricked yourself into feeling the need for validation from a certain group of people.

Conversations are strained when with two/more people from the same social circle. You try so damn hard to impress them, try to make them think of you as worthy of their interest, but it never works. You struggle to get them to invest in yourself, but you always end up asking the questions.

No one ever asks you questions.

There's a really awkward feeling of being excluded from certain events, relationship happenings, and the circle's latest gossip. You wish you could join in and understand, but oftentimes, when in these kinds of situations, people get selfish and unaccommodating and will invariably ignore you.

You feel small.

Sometimes, you start to question yourself and your value as a friend. Feelings of inadequacy in fitting the group's certain flavor of acceptance and coolness occasionally color your day. Finding a seat at the lunch table is daunting and exhausting. It's frustrating.

You have a few close friends, but if those friends are involved in some other social circle, you become a second option if they have to choose. Groups of people are more valued than just one, right?

Sometimes you feel lonely. Like a friendless loser. You beat yourself up for not opening up more. You question how others seem to effortlessly fit in.

I've gotten accustomed to this kind of life. I have many, many friends, nearly all of which have a relationship with me that is based on cursory and obligatory politeness. I don't have to show my true self. I generally don't let people spend much time digging beneath the surface to see my personal complexities and faults. And so I remain a perfectly one-dimensional mystery to most.

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How should you eat with a knife and fork?

The traditionally European way to eat with a fork and a knife is considered the more proper way.

Generally, the active utensil is held in the dominant hand, which is the right hand for most humans. Thus, the knife is held in the right hand to cut meat while the left hand uses the fork to hold the meat in place. After the diner has successfully severed a small piece of meat from the main, he/she will lift the portion to the mouth and chew (hopefully that's what Europeans do).

Evidently, it's those goddamn weird Nacirema* who have messed up the sacred tradition of fork and knife use by performing an odd and clumsy maneuver: switching hands, a technique Emily Post, the mother of American etiquette, has given the epithet "zigzag eating". Once the cut is made, the Nacirema will set the knife down and switch the fork to the right hand, which will then be used to transport the scrumptious morsel to the mouth. However, as Post commented, it "is unnecessarily complicated" and therefore "does not have so pleasing an appearance as the simpler European method.".

Ironically enough, the switching hands method originated in Europe. While its origins are not precisely known, according to Darra Goldstein, editor of Gastronomica magazine,

Americans actually got the transfer method from the French. It was fashionable among the French upper classes. Only theory can explain this, of which there are a few:

What explains the rise of the cut-and-switch? One theory: Fancy manners often fetishize delicacy, and it’s just easier to delicately convey food to your mouth with your dominant hand. Anna Post, Emily’s great-great-granddaughter, passed along another possibility. Back when dinnertime violence was a not too distant cultural memory, lowering the knife—even a rounded one—was intuitively associated with high manners. Indeed Goldstein describes how American fork-floppers lay the knife on their plate—blade facing in—as a “medieval position of trust.”

The cut-and-switch could also reflect garden-variety prejudice against the left hand. Even today, in much of the Arab world, the right hand alone is used for eating (traditionally without utensils), while the left is relegated to a less exalted realm of daily responsibilities. Nor should we underestimate the possibility that the cut-and-switch became popular precisely because it was cumbersome. Harry Mount, the author of How England Made the English, reminded me how often, in the contrary world of manners, “greater inefficiency can infer greater elegance.”

Nineteenth-century Americans acquired the cut-and-switch from France—“the arbiter of elegance” for Americans then, says Goldstein. But by then Europe was already changing. In 1853, a French text claimed it was trendy to not cut-and-switch. Again, there may be no good reason. Bethanne Patrick, author of An Uncommon History of Common Courtesy, told me she suspects convenience and efficiency eventually won out, hastening the adoption of the no-switch style we now call Continental or European—and then that, too, took on the force of fashion.

The American Way of Using Fork and Knife Is Inefficient and Inelegant. We Need a New Way.

But back to the question, what "should" we use? Upon some reflection, I can only defer to Post:
Although some people feel that it is "putting on airs" to adopt this "foreign" way of eating, I can see nothing wrong adopting a custom that seems more practical than your own.

I think matters of personal style should be respected but a perspective of pragmatism in all our endeavors--yes, even the little things like eating with a fork and knife--should be accepted.

Just don't accidentally stab anyone while eating, and you're good.

* "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"

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A women rubbed her sandals on my chair. What does it mean?

Dearest OP, ignore everyone else and listen to me. Sandal-rubbing-on-chair could mean several things:

• The woman is marking her territory via means of leaving her own excrement on the bottom of her sandals and rubbing them on your chair. She has claimed the chair by leaving her scent on it. (Or there could be some mud or something on the bottom but probably not.)
• She is testing out the chair.
• If you suspect she's super eccentric, she may be testing out possible percussion instruments.
• She is giving herself a public foot massage in the hopes that you'll pick up on it and give her one yourself.
• Rubbing one's shoes is a compliment in some countries! It's a multicultural thing. She admires your penchant for sitting on chairs. (You must be really good at sitting. Like, really good.)
• She has something on the bottom of her footwear. It could be poop, mud, gum, or dirt. Or it could be her scraping her heart out for you. More details needed.
• She wants the "D", as they say.
• The woman could be in a hostage situation of some sorts and is secretly communicating to you through a series of Morse code scrapes on your chair. I.e. Short scrape, long scrape = A; long, short, short, short scrape = B; long, short, long, short = C, etc. You get the idea.
• She is testing you out to see if you'll horribly misconstrue her actions in a desperate attempt to derive meaning from trivial movements, a desperation that stems from your own lack of experience with women, men, and people in general. She's a clever bitch, you fell for it.

Disclaimer: Invalidity of one or more of the aforementioned provisions for implied meaning does not affect the probability of any other provision.

Oh come now. I'm clearly joking. It doesn't mean anything and is not even worth a Quora question.

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Recently you have been exploring the creation of a site or an App that would help students, schools and communities coordinate programs and visits from colleges to a particular city or town. Could you describe what you are doing as I think (as do some other educators) that this is a great idea?

I was standing in my room, amidst a pile of colorfully designed packets and papers, doing a periodic dig through of all the mail I received when I asked myself if there were a way for this whole process to be streamlined. How can I easily find out information about colleges on my own terms?

What if there was a website that compiled all nearby college information sessions, financial aid workshops, scholarship opportunities, and etc. onto a single calendar?

You'd be kept up to date on school rep visits without having to spend an ungodly amount of time compiling your own schedule and be able to add filters to fit your specific wants and adjust your geographic area.

After talking about the idea with some other high schoolers, college freshmen, and teachers, it appears that such a concept does fill a niche. The information-finding process now is convoluted and bound to be streamlined within the next few years. I might as well start trying to fix it now. My target audience would be first-time parents and young high school students. The idea of an app (if super user friendly and up to date) was also thrown around.

Is there anything else you want to add?

I'm a self-improvement junkie. My favorite quote is, "In the end, the satisfaction of having done our best, and the proof of that labor, is the one thing we can take into the grave."

I would like to end with this particular answer you posted on Quora. The words you have shared in this interview help add to the stories we need to read.

Why do people need stories?

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate. The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea.... We live entirely by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.--Joan Didion, The White Album

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Hannah knows the importance of stories and she knows words flow, slowly mostly, with revision, tweaking rhythms and images into sentences. And she know that writing means re-vision too, seeing and saying in new ways both to the self we inhabit and to the selves that taste the tempting fruit of our labors.

But I still have some questions (rhetorical) not for Hannah but for those reading her words. What does it mean when we say that a writer needs a “true” voice? If you had to write down in a few pithy gists a description of Hannah’s voice what would you write? I ask these questions as I think Hannah, like many talented writers, has a range of voices. Her Quora answers demonstrate this. Her “outsider” response, with its clear and direct acceptance of where she is in the hierarchy of the social set shows she knows how to look with an unblinkingly direct gaze at herself. As we read our hearts change, not just our brains. Ezra Pound called for effective writing to be a “direct treatment of the thing”. Hannah fearlessly gives us this.

But what of her knife and fork essay? Here her voice is that of a guide, letting us explore with an anthropologist’s gaze, the nuances that distinguish the history and geography of table manners. The voice is intellectually acute, leading us on a pragmatic journey that satisfies what another poet, the Roman Horace, said writing should do: “please and instruct”.

And then there’s the shoe answer. Here, an imaginative list becomes both a comment on cultural mores and a satire of strange questions and answers. We go through this quirky journey and emerge with a smile, but also a bit nip from a dark barb floating underneath the meandering stream of consciousness.

Each of these pieces has a different voice. The first might draw a sympathetic tear, the last a from the gut guffaw, and the middle might leave us reaching for our copies of Levi Strauss’s La Pensee Sauvage or Barthes’Mythologies.

Is one of these voices more “true” than the others and if so which one? If I had to answer my own question I’d say that each of the answers approaches the question in a useful way. Each adopts a voice which works. I mention this as I read a lot of advice that people give students about writing essays, for college admission or for anything else. Most of them emphasize the need for a student to have a unique and singular voice. I respectfully disagree. Part of learning to write and part of a life of writing, in fiction, in essays, and in most other forms and genre consists of being able to inhabit different voices. I don’t think a student in high school (or octogenarian either) should have one voice. Developing a style that meets the needs of different questions and situations seems, to me at least, what we should be teaching and encouraging students to do. I therefore submit, members of the jury, my evidence-Hannah’s words. I hope that you will find them guilty of breaking the rules, of taking common wisdom and showing that it isn’t always what we should accept without question.

I would like to thank Hannah for sharing her story here. I have learned not just about voices but about what the current state of the union is when it comes to high school student trying to balance her life while also getting into great schools. Any school lucky enough t enroll her will hear her many voices but will also have someone who cares about education and access. I do hope educators will read about Hannah’s proposal to gather college data to make communities aware of all the things going on. I have run her proposal by a number of people in education ad many of them see the need for this. It would help many students, especially those who may not have the same access to information that well-funded and staffed schools districts may have.

"One way to improve economic mobility in the United States may be to fix the misconceptions that high-achieving, low-income teenagers often have about college. Two years ago, a study found that the vast majority of such students don't apply to competitive colleges. Now, the same researchers have discovered that providing better information to such students can dramatically increase their enrollment rates at more-elite schools." Reuters

I hope readers will agree that Hannah has earned her top writer status on Quora. She has also earned my gratitude for taking the time to share her voices and insights here too.