Korean Friends&The Importance of Making Korean Friends

Congratulations to all of you finalists who just recently found out you will be going to Korea for the summer!! I am so excited for you guys [and super jealous]! You are going to have an amazing time.. I know I did. One of the reasons I had such a great time was because of my Korean friends! So this post will be about the importance of making Korean friends, or at least why I think it's important and helpful during your time studying in Korea ^^

So I have a lot of Korean friends as my school has been hosting Korean exchange students since I was in 3rd grade and I go to a camp with lots of Korean people who come from Korea... I got to meet some of them while I was in Korea which was awesome, but I also made Korean friends while in Korea.

I'm not going to lie, making Korean friends during the summer program isn't easy- it requires a big effort on your part because besides the day camp and supporters (and for us, the cooking class), you really don't have much interactions with Korea students your age through program stuff. (P.S. A lot of this is about my experience haha hope it's not too boring)

Ways I was able to make Korean friends (outside of program activities):  

• Visiting Korean Schools- During the summer, a group of us visited a Korean middle school and an all-boys high school. We were able to interact with the students, do "projects" with them, and even hang out outside of school with some! What was really cool about going to the middle school was we did these presentation/projects with them where we compared Korean and American school life and student life. I definitely thought that was interesting and learned a lot from it.. They also helped me a lot with my Korean! Both the middle school and high school students would communicate with me in Korean while also teaching me about Korean culture and school life. (We were able to visit these schools because other NSLI-Y kids' host parents worked at them and arranged for us to visit. We visited the boy school once and the middle school multiple times)

• Befriending Students at Sogang University- I was able to make a friend that attended Sogang University, the school I was studying at. This was a friend I made on my own and why I say making Korean friends can require an effort on your part. I am really grateful I made a friend at Sogang because he knows the school&area really well! He showed me cool places around Sogang/Sinchon and was a big reason my Korean improved. He really encouraged me to speak Korean and not be afraid to do so! I also was able to meet some of his friends who attended Sogang! 

• Meeting Other NSLI-Y Kids' Host Siblings- This is something that you all could do and is a great, easy way to make Korean friends! While I didn't have any host siblings my age, my best friend did! I often hung out with her and her host sister who was around our age and had the best time with them! Together we'd go to jjimjilbang or noraebang, eat bingsoo, walk around and shop, visit touristy places, etc.. just hang out! My friend's host sister definitely was a big part of my summer and am so glad we became friends! I met another friend's host brother and we went to noraebang with him (and that noraebang became our favorite one to go to btw). Fortunately he didn't mind our craziness and even embraced it- he made me sing IU's Good Day hahaha. I also got to meet some other people's host families which was cool too. If you don't have older host siblings, definitely try to meet them! They know good places and can help talk to workers at places when you don't have the Korean skills to do so :) 

• Meeting Friends of Friends- This was also a good way to make friends. I have a lot of Korean friends and through them I was able to make even more friends! I met my one Korean friend's best friend and they took me out to eat, met my NSLI-Y friend's Korean friends, met friends of host siblings, and met my family's friends. Supporters' friends are also people you could meet! 

Those are some of the ways I made Korean friends while in Korea! All of the Korean friends I made were super awesome and a big part of my summer. They helped me a lot in Korea by helping me with Korean and teaching me more about Korean culture and what it's like for someone my age to live in Korea. They also knew the good places to take me and were able to negotiate on my behalf to workers if I couldn't!

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I think making Korean friends while you're there is super important. You have classes with other NSLI-Y kids and most likely will hang out with them most of the time, which means you will probably be conversing in English with them. Having Korean friends helped me grow and learn more, and I think that making the friends had me take a step outside of my comfort zone. It's natural to gravitate to those who are similar to you and who make you feel comfortable (ex: people who speak English while you're in a foreign country), but this program is great because it gives you the immersion aspect! Because you're a foreigner, I think that gives Korean people a reason to want to know you... Of course be mindful of who you befriend, but try to take a step out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there- Go make some Korean friends! I wouldn't have learned as much Korean if it wasn't for my Korean friends.. and I wouldn't have tried certain foods and gone certain places if I didn't have my Korean friends. They know what's good and how to do things, how things work in Korea. I know it can be hard to try to befriend someone who is a stranger, especially when you have awesome people around you and there is a language and cultural barrier with Korean people. But do it!

Also, I was able to meet up with some of my Korean friends I met in America years ago when they were exchange students at my school. Years later and now I'm meeting them where they live as an exchange student. They took me to some Korean restaurants that I never would've known about and bought me food I never would've tried. I also got to meet their families which was really cool because I was the host family for one of the girls I met up with! One of my friend's mothers made me homemade Korean food and spoiled me with all this stuff. Actually, both of the families spoiled me and it was really sweet :) These friends also showed me places that aren't really known to foreigners, so that's a plus of having Korean friends! Both friends also have some cool connections hehe. And one of my friends and I took a walk around the Han River and stumbled upon a drama filming site.. he said it was popular place for drama filmings! Korean friends really know the cool places to go :)

Samgyupsal w/ an exchange I hosted years ago!

*Another thing that is so great about making Korean friends is that they are someone to continue practicing to speak Korean with once you return to the US! I have kept in contact with them and continue to practice Korean because of them. When I make mistakes, they help correct my Korean which is really helpful! So go out and make some cool friends in Korea and take a step out of your comfort zone ^^