Almost American Girl

Robin Ha is the protagonist, author, and illustrator of Almost American Girl. “Ha Chuna” is Robin’s Korean name. In Korean naming conventions, one’s family name comes before their personal name—the opposite of Western naming conventions.

Robin says that several of her physical characteristics are “unusual for Koreans” (2). She has frizzy curly hair cut into a “boy’s cut.” At 14, she is 5’6”, which makes her feel like a “giant” compared to her peers in Seoul. In Korea, Robin has a flourishing group of friends with whom she shares common interests. They all love the same types of comics and attend the same “hagwon,” or cram school. After school, they visit food stands, cafes, stationery stores, and comic stores.

When she gets to Alabama, Robin has trouble forming these types of relationships due to linguistic and cultural barriers. Her struggle with overcoming these barriers is one of the two main conflicts that inform her character. For her first few months in the United States, Robin’s “lack of English was building a wall” between her and potential friends (123). When she goes trick-or-treating with a girl from her aunt’s church, Diane talks so much and so quickly that Robin’s translation skills cannot keep up.