Native Speaker (Created by Hannah Kim)

1234567891011121314151617181920
Across
  1. 3. This refers to the fake background stories that people in Henry’s field must come up with. Henry states “I cracked the lid of my ___'' (Lee 89) when he tells his fake background story to Janice. He says he’s a freelance writer.
  2. 6. _____ refers to prejudice and discrimination one faces due to their race. Henry faces this living as an Asian American, getting made fun of by his appearance by his non-Asian peers. Henry’s son also experiences this at a young age, with people pushing him and calling him names.
  3. 7. ___ is the name of Henry and Lelia’s son who passed away due to an accident that occurred playing with friends. After ___ passes away, Henry and Lelia’s relationship deteriorates.
  4. 8. Lelia is a _____ therapist. She helps children with speech impairment. She tells Henry that he pronounces certain words differently, implying that he doesn’t sound completely American. This can be viewed as Lelia subconsciously drawing a subtle line between the two, not considering Henry as a native speaker.
  5. 12. At the end of the book, Henry quits his job and works with Lelia. They teach young students who don’t speak English as their first language. Henry calls himself the ‘Speech ____.’ The ending of this story shows that Henry fulfills the void in his life by helping children who are like him.
  6. 13. Kwang’s _____ makes people feel as if he is bequeathing a significant part of himself. No matter what your race is or what your opinion of Kwang is, his _____ makes you feel like you are someone close to him, like a brother. This helps build a strong connection between Kwang and any person he meets.
  7. 17. Henry and Lelia don’t talk about their son’s death for a long time, and they slowly become distant. Lelia even admits she has a new lover. When they finally do have a conversation about their son, Henry says it was an _____. But Lelia strongly disagrees with him. She bursts into tears saying that it wasn’t an _____. She says it was karma, or an incident that happened due to her and Henry.
  8. 18. May is from ____ stock. This means that May is from one of the noble and wealthy families in Korea. When May gives Eduardo’s family a lot of money for his funeral, Henry thinks, “The money, her eyes tell me, is simply an acknowledgment of our dead” (Lee 262).
  9. 20. Henry enjoys drinking with Lelia’s ____ as he didn’t do that with his own father. Lelia’s ____ thinks Henry is ambitious, serious, thoughtful, and says that there’s a lot to learn from the Oriental culture and mind.
Down
  1. 1. This refers to the combination of Korean and English. Henry refers to it often when explaining how his father and his workers used to speak: “All that ____, Spanglish, Jive” (Lee 337). He states that he used to be embarrassed of his father’s ____. Now, he misses it more than ever.
  2. 2. _____ brother is a perfect person from Henry’s imagination who carries two ethnic identities. He doesn’t have a name, because Henry doesn’t want him to have a common American name nor a Korean name that he doesn’t know the meaning of. _____ brother is Henry’s dream, almost like the boy he wants to become. By creating this character, Henry tries to fulfill a void he feels as a Korean-American boy.
  3. 4. The housekeeper at Henry’s house calls Lelia a nasty American ___. She isn’t happy that Henry is married to a white woman. She also has trouble accepting that Henry’s son is only half-Korean. Thus, she expresses her discomfort by saying this.
  4. 5. This refers to a person who moves to a different country permanently. Henry’s parents are ____. Henry’s father prefers to hire new ____ at his store as he knows the struggles they experience and also knows they will work hard.
  5. 9. The name of a Latino man who worked for Kwang’s campaign. He passes away during the fire that happens at Kwang’s headquarters, which turned out to be an inside job by Kwang.
  6. 10. Kwang models his network after the traditional Korean concept of ___. It refers to “money club” in Korean. Henry is familiar with this as his dad was a part of one. Henry’s dad’s first ___was formed from a couple dozen storekeepers.
  7. 11. In “Native Speaker,” some phrases are written in ____. This is either to emphasize important points or to point out that someone is talking in Korean. For example, the sentences that come after “He was shifting into Korean, getting his throat ready. Then he spoke as he rose to leave” (Lee 64) is written in _____.
  8. 14. Henry is a ___. He’s a ___ that deals with people. He specifically works with Koreans. A ___’s job is to provide their clients with information about people working against their clients’ interests.
  9. 15. After Henry’s mother passes away, a housekeeper comes and lives in Henry’s home. Henry calles her ____. He doesn’t like her presence and thinks she will never be able to replace his mother.
  10. 16. Henry and Lelia have an unstable relationship. Henry lies to Lelia about his job and Lelia eventually figures out what Henry does for a living. When Henry continues to hide details about work, with a sarcastic tone, Lelia says, “Oh good, it’s the ____” (Lee 6). This implies that she’s not surprised with Henry being dishonest like always.
  11. 19. Henry feels like an ____. He doesn’t feel Korean or American. He’s felt this way for his entire life. Lelia even states this in the long list she left him before she went on her trip. She called him an illegal ____ and emotional ____.