Post-NSLI-Y/College Life Pt. 1: Keeping Up With Korean
Wow, I haven't posted on this blog in months, even though I had intentions of posting more over the summer and during this past winter break. It's hard to believe it has been almost two years since I received that exciting notification telling me I was going to Seoul, South Korea for the summer! When I talk to people about my time in Korea, sometimes I still say "last summer" before I realize it wasn't just last summer... it was two summers ago! Time flies, I've gotten old.
Okay, time to get to the actual blog. This one is geared more towards alumni, but anyone can read it to learn of some of the opportunities you get as NSLI-Y alumni and know how to keep up with language studies even after you come home from being abroad!
This blog post ended up being much longer than I expected, so I have split it into two different posts:
Part 1: Keeping Up With Korean
Part 2: Opportunities as a NSLI-Y Alumna
They're quite long, but I encourage you to read both of them. They're filled with personal but relevant post-NSLI-Y experiences that will hopefully be beneficial to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NSLI-Y is a great program because you get to learn in an immersive environment- you're not only taking language classes for a few hours, but you're also learning and putting into practice what you've learned through interacting with your host family, eating, and just walking around. Immersion is a HUGE part of learning a language, but once you return home you lose that aspect. You're not using the language as much and you're back to speaking mostly English, which makes it hard to maintain and grow your language ability. When I came back from Korea, I was a senior in high school and continued to speak Korean with Korean exchange students and text my friends from Korea, but I wasn't in classes anymore. Even so, texting, speaking, and hearing Korean helped a lot, so I strongly urge you to at least do that. In addition to that, I now am in a university that offers Korean, and I am even minoring in Korean language&literature here at The George Washington University.
A typical lesson consists of 30-40 vocabulary words a lesson, 3-4 grammar points, a conversation (which we read aloud multiple times, discuss the meaning, then make&answer comprehension questions about the conversation), a paragraph (which we read aloud and answer questions about as well), a listening assignment, a writing and speaking assignment, and an online discussion board. There are also multiple exercises and questions we complete throughout each lesson to reinforce our knowledge of the subject/vocab/grammar. We also have home, a quiz, and a test with each lesson. So I have been getting my fair share of language instruction, but I only spend 2.5 hours a week in class. A lot of how much I actually learn depends on how much I practice outside of the classroom and study on my own. This part can be hard when you're surrounded by English, but in college, there are SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES to speak Korean (and really any language you're learning).
Friends: Compared to high schools, universities have much more diverse student bodies, so I guarantee you will find at least one person who speaks whatever language you're learning. In my case, many of my friends are Korean American (that speak Korean) and international students from South Korea, so we often converse in Korean. This has been HUGE in helping me with speaking and listening. It's a lot less intimidating speaking with friends, and I have friends of all ages so I use formal and informal Korean. Speaking Korean with my friends helps me use conversational Korean (because I'm in business Korean), learn how native speakers actually would say something, learn slang, and just gain confidence. They correct me when I'm wrong too, so I learn a lot by just speaking with them about everyday things. Definitely the easiest way outside of the classroom to keep up with the language! My Korean American and Korean friends (who range from fellow freshmen to much-older grad students) also help me when I struggle with homework or need help studying. They're awesome!
I also have many friends in the beginner Korean class, so they often ask me for help with their work. Helping my beginner friends reinforces the basics that can be easy to forget about. So while I'm not exactly at the level to teach someone Korean, I have been able to help my friends a lot which in turn helps me learn as well.
Tutors: My university has many resources when it comes to language-learning. There are [free] tutors pretty much everyday during the week that you can go to. They're native speakers or very high-level speakers that will help you with your work or just provide you with opportunities to put to practice what you've learned in the classroom. My friends in the beginner class have taken advantage of this, even befriending the tutors (who are usually also students). While I haven't really used the tutors here, they have been a huge help to my friends. So if your university has tutors or language-exchange partners you can get in touch with, I encourage you to do so!
Language Cafe: This is something offered at various times throughout the semester. The language cafe is like a cafe setting where there are native speakers (usually faculty) and students learning languages. So if you don't have many friends who speak the language you learn, this is a great opportunity to practice and get to know native speakers!
Local Business Owners/Workers: There are many businesses owned by Korean people around my university with workers speaking Korean. For some reason, many of these workers assume I'm Korean and speak to me in Korean. I explain to them I'm not Korean but learning Korean, so we still end up speaking Korean together. This has been very helpful in using formal language and learning to understand how native speakers. Besides restaurant/business owners, I have had the awesome privilege of going to the Korean embassy here in DC as well as the Korean Culture Center. While there, I used Korean as well. Most of these situations I'm speaking with older and professional people so I get nervous, but it's a big learning opportunity! It's also fun seeing the surprise and excitement people get when they find out I speak Korean. It's a good conversation starter and it has helped me form relationships with local business owners here, making this big city feel more familiar and comfortable. (I've also gotten free food from workers I spoke Korean with.. not sure what exactly prompted them to give me free food, but I assume the Korean played a part in it?)
DC: Washington DC is a very diverse city. Besides conversing with local business owners and Korean employees at the embassy/culture center, there are organized opportunities to practice speaking. Every week, there is a language exchange event at a local cafe or bar with a diverse group of people- over 10 languages are spoken at this event so it's a cool opportunity to meet people and practice your language skills.
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This post was mainly just a large block of text, so even though it probably was kind of boring, I hope it gave you some ideas for how to keep up with your language studies even after returning home!
The second part of this "Post-NSLIY/College Life" post will be a lot more interesting, I promise. A lot of these opportunities are pretty obvious, but even so, I wanted to share my personal experiences to hopefully encourage y'all to find ways to keep practicing the language you've been learning! There are many ways to somewhat recreate the immersive environment you get abroad- it's not the same and it's not easy, but with some effort, you can find tons of ways to keep speaking! Don't stop using your target language! And if you're learning Korean and really can't find anyone to speak with, you can always contact me haha.
Don't forget to read "Post-NSLI-Y/College Life Pt. 2: Opportunities as a NSLI-Y Alumna" - it's much more interesting!
Now playing: Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin
Okay, time to get to the actual blog. This one is geared more towards alumni, but anyone can read it to learn of some of the opportunities you get as NSLI-Y alumni and know how to keep up with language studies even after you come home from being abroad!
This blog post ended up being much longer than I expected, so I have split it into two different posts:
Part 1: Keeping Up With Korean
Part 2: Opportunities as a NSLI-Y Alumna
They're quite long, but I encourage you to read both of them. They're filled with personal but relevant post-NSLI-Y experiences that will hopefully be beneficial to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keeping Up With Korean
NSLI-Y is a great program because you get to learn in an immersive environment- you're not only taking language classes for a few hours, but you're also learning and putting into practice what you've learned through interacting with your host family, eating, and just walking around. Immersion is a HUGE part of learning a language, but once you return home you lose that aspect. You're not using the language as much and you're back to speaking mostly English, which makes it hard to maintain and grow your language ability. When I came back from Korea, I was a senior in high school and continued to speak Korean with Korean exchange students and text my friends from Korea, but I wasn't in classes anymore. Even so, texting, speaking, and hearing Korean helped a lot, so I strongly urge you to at least do that. In addition to that, I now am in a university that offers Korean, and I am even minoring in Korean language&literature here at The George Washington University.
On-Campus Opportunities
Korean Class: I was in the intermediate class at Sogang University in 2014, and after completing six weeks of language studies at Sogang, I was a high-intermediate/low-advanced speaker. About one year after returning to the US, I took a placement test for my university's Korean program and placed into Intermediate Korean III (Business Korean). I actually thought I might place into Intermediate Korean I because it had been a year since I studied Korean. Also, I had only studied Korean in a formal setting for six weeks- prior to going to Korea, I learned Korean solely through watching Korean TV shows and communicating with Korean friends. I was worried going into third-year Korean class in university that I would be way behind everyone and struggle, maybe even have to drop down, but I was wrong! Korean was one of my best classes last semester, despite the very little instruction I had received prior to that. I learned a TON of grammar and vocabulary last semester, and I am learning a ton this semester as well. I have class for 1 hour and 15 minutes twice a week, but Beginner I - Intermediate II Korean students have class for 50 minutes (2x a week) and 1 hour and 15 minutes (2x a week), so they basically have double the amount I have. In my Korean class, we have a strong emphasis on speaking, writing, reading, and listening- we cover it all.A typical lesson consists of 30-40 vocabulary words a lesson, 3-4 grammar points, a conversation (which we read aloud multiple times, discuss the meaning, then make&answer comprehension questions about the conversation), a paragraph (which we read aloud and answer questions about as well), a listening assignment, a writing and speaking assignment, and an online discussion board. There are also multiple exercises and questions we complete throughout each lesson to reinforce our knowledge of the subject/vocab/grammar. We also have home, a quiz, and a test with each lesson. So I have been getting my fair share of language instruction, but I only spend 2.5 hours a week in class. A lot of how much I actually learn depends on how much I practice outside of the classroom and study on my own. This part can be hard when you're surrounded by English, but in college, there are SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES to speak Korean (and really any language you're learning).
Friends: Compared to high schools, universities have much more diverse student bodies, so I guarantee you will find at least one person who speaks whatever language you're learning. In my case, many of my friends are Korean American (that speak Korean) and international students from South Korea, so we often converse in Korean. This has been HUGE in helping me with speaking and listening. It's a lot less intimidating speaking with friends, and I have friends of all ages so I use formal and informal Korean. Speaking Korean with my friends helps me use conversational Korean (because I'm in business Korean), learn how native speakers actually would say something, learn slang, and just gain confidence. They correct me when I'm wrong too, so I learn a lot by just speaking with them about everyday things. Definitely the easiest way outside of the classroom to keep up with the language! My Korean American and Korean friends (who range from fellow freshmen to much-older grad students) also help me when I struggle with homework or need help studying. They're awesome!
I also have many friends in the beginner Korean class, so they often ask me for help with their work. Helping my beginner friends reinforces the basics that can be easy to forget about. So while I'm not exactly at the level to teach someone Korean, I have been able to help my friends a lot which in turn helps me learn as well.
Tutors: My university has many resources when it comes to language-learning. There are [free] tutors pretty much everyday during the week that you can go to. They're native speakers or very high-level speakers that will help you with your work or just provide you with opportunities to put to practice what you've learned in the classroom. My friends in the beginner class have taken advantage of this, even befriending the tutors (who are usually also students). While I haven't really used the tutors here, they have been a huge help to my friends. So if your university has tutors or language-exchange partners you can get in touch with, I encourage you to do so!
Language Cafe: This is something offered at various times throughout the semester. The language cafe is like a cafe setting where there are native speakers (usually faculty) and students learning languages. So if you don't have many friends who speak the language you learn, this is a great opportunity to practice and get to know native speakers!
Off-Campus Opportunities
Local Business Owners/Workers: There are many businesses owned by Korean people around my university with workers speaking Korean. For some reason, many of these workers assume I'm Korean and speak to me in Korean. I explain to them I'm not Korean but learning Korean, so we still end up speaking Korean together. This has been very helpful in using formal language and learning to understand how native speakers. Besides restaurant/business owners, I have had the awesome privilege of going to the Korean embassy here in DC as well as the Korean Culture Center. While there, I used Korean as well. Most of these situations I'm speaking with older and professional people so I get nervous, but it's a big learning opportunity! It's also fun seeing the surprise and excitement people get when they find out I speak Korean. It's a good conversation starter and it has helped me form relationships with local business owners here, making this big city feel more familiar and comfortable. (I've also gotten free food from workers I spoke Korean with.. not sure what exactly prompted them to give me free food, but I assume the Korean played a part in it?)
DC: Washington DC is a very diverse city. Besides conversing with local business owners and Korean employees at the embassy/culture center, there are organized opportunities to practice speaking. Every week, there is a language exchange event at a local cafe or bar with a diverse group of people- over 10 languages are spoken at this event so it's a cool opportunity to meet people and practice your language skills.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This post was mainly just a large block of text, so even though it probably was kind of boring, I hope it gave you some ideas for how to keep up with your language studies even after returning home!
The second part of this "Post-NSLIY/College Life" post will be a lot more interesting, I promise. A lot of these opportunities are pretty obvious, but even so, I wanted to share my personal experiences to hopefully encourage y'all to find ways to keep practicing the language you've been learning! There are many ways to somewhat recreate the immersive environment you get abroad- it's not the same and it's not easy, but with some effort, you can find tons of ways to keep speaking! Don't stop using your target language! And if you're learning Korean and really can't find anyone to speak with, you can always contact me haha.
Don't forget to read "Post-NSLI-Y/College Life Pt. 2: Opportunities as a NSLI-Y Alumna" - it's much more interesting!
Now playing: Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin
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