Supporter Groups

For those not familiar with what a supporter is, a supporter is a Korean college student that you meet with two times a week to study Korean and go around Seoul with. Supporter groups are groups of 2-3 NSLI-Y students around the same level of Korean (usually from the same class) paired with a supporter. 

Supporters are something unique to the NSLI-Y Korea program, though other programs may have something similar. They act as tutors, tour guides, and friends all in one!

Supporters as "Tutors" 

As I mentioned above, you meet two times a week with your supporter for a few hours, and it is up to them where you go. One of the supporter's main role is to help you with your Korean, so they have a little book that corresponds with the lessons you learn in class and work out of them. We mainly focused on speaking. We would go over vocabulary and grammar in their little book then do some kind of role play or question and answer to practice what we were learning. After we were done practicing and getting familiar with the questions/scenarios, we recorded ourselves speaking. Every supporter meeting, each student had to record themselves talking about a given topic and/or acting out a given scenario (with questions to guide you). They were usually very practical topics, so doing these recordings were definitely helpful albeit awkward.My supporter group usually did the recordings in the beginning of our supporter meeting so we could get them over with and do whatever for the rest of the meeting haha.



Some supporters spoke English very well, and some knew very little English. My supporter did not know much English, so we communicated 95% in Korean.This really helped my Korean to improve, even though it could be frustrating or difficult at times. Supporters can also answer questions you have about Korean, homework, class lessons, etc. They are the perfect person to ask questions to if you don't feel comfortable asking your teacher or have questions outside of class.



Supporters as "Tour Guides"

Because my supporter group met in a different location every meeting, we really got to explore different areas of Seoul that we might not have gone to on our own otherwise. Supporters live in Korea so they are familiar with the area and know where to go. They know where the good cafes, restaurants, noraebangs, stores, and tourist places are. My supporter would text us the location we were meeting the day before, and we would meet at the given subway station at around 10am. From there, we would usually walk to a cafe to eat bingsoo or drink smoothies and do our recordings. My supporter always took us to great cafes with delicious options! Plus the supporter pays since they get money from the organization to buy us food. We usually ordered two bingsoos wherever we went.

 After we went to the cafes and did our recordings, we would go eat lunch at a restaurant. The money also covered lunch, so it was nice not having to pay for lunch two times a week. My supporter took us to all different kinds of restaurants- Japanese, Korean and Chinese restaurants, well-known and small hole-in-the-wall ahjumma restaurants. We tried all sorts of foods around Seoul, and it was really fun getting to do so. Without my supporter, I probably would not have tried all of the foods I did.

We also explored the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), tried on hanboks and made paintings in Bukchon Hanok Village, walked around the Han River, visited palaces, and shopped during our supporter meetings. My suppporter was the 막내 (youngest supporter) so he was practically our age and just a fun friend to hang out with. I always laughed until I cried during supporter meetings, they were so much fun and helped me to experience Korea more. He also knew the best places to shop, so I definitely took advantage of that haha. If there is something you want to try or somewhere you want to go, let your supporter know and I'm sure they will be able to help you figure it out or even take you there!

Supporters as "Friends"

While the supporters act like your "tutors" and "tour guides" while you're in Korea, they're also like your friends. You spend a lot of time with your supporters, and since they're usually somewhat close to your age, you get really close with them like friends. Not only did we spend time with our supporters/supporter groups, a lot of us also spent time with supporters/supporter groups that were not our own. The supporters become friends, so sometimes they would plan joint meetings or events outside of supporter meetings you could go to. We had multiple joint supporter meetings, including one with my best friend's supporter who I got close with because of her.

The supporters my year made themselves very available outside of supporter meetings, so outside of supporter meeting times, we would hang out as well. Some things we did with supporters outside of our meetings included playing a Running Man game at the Han River, bike riding at the Han River, having a birthday party for some NSLI-Y students, going to the beach in Incheon, going to Lotte World, going to noraebang (karaoke), shopping and eating at restauarants, photoshoots, etc. I also lived in the same neighboorhood as two of the supporters, so we could easily hang out and travel to/from places together since we lived at the same subway station.

With a supporter in DC!!

The supporters were really great in helping us with Korean, guiding us around, and doing fun things with us. I will always cherish the memories made with my supporter group and the relationships built with all of the supporters. One of the things I find to be really cool is that many supporters have traveled to the USA and met up with us NSLI-Yians while here, and NSLI-Yians that have gone back to Korea have hung out with supporters there. The relationships did not just last 6 weeks. It's also pretty fun getting to show the supporters around where we live this time. I still keep in touch with multiple supporters, and I cannot wait to go back to Korea and see them!

My supporter group, 우리 의리

NSLI-Y6 Students and Supporters

I hope this helped you learn more about who supporters are on the NSLI-Y Korea Summer program in Seoul. To my knowledge, the only program to have supporters is the Seoul program, but I'm sure there are similar people to supporters for other programs. All supporter groups performed together at the closing ceremony, but talking about that would make this post longer than it already is, so I will post about the closing ceremony in the future!