Korean Category

Ellie Cook is from Spokane Valley, WA and participated in the Korea Summer 2018 program. My host mother stands firmly by the principle that food, like all other good things, should be served with generous portions of love. Among the first questions she asked me were “잘 먹는 게 뭐 있어? (What do you like to eat?)” and “보통 미국에서 뭐 먹지? (What do you usually eat at home?)” As I am not a very picky eater, I initially replied that I would eat whatever she made (and everything sheRead More

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi is from Baltimore, MD and participated in the Korea Summer 2018 program. During my time in Seoul, South Korea, in the summer of 2018, it was in my wildest dreams to go and eat my culture’s food with my host family. When my roommate and I first moved in with my host family, my host mother and father bashfully told me, “Ashley…we didn’t know was Persian was. We had to look it up!” As an Iranian-American, this was culture shock to me. Everyone in the United States knewRead More

On Wednesday, November 14, at 9:00 am EST, NSLI-Y students from the Korea and Taiwan Academic Year programs together presented on the theme of Citizen Ambassadorship. The presenters shared about why citizen ambassadorship is important and what it means to them. This event was part of International Education Week: International Education Week (IEW), November 12-16, 2018 is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts toRead More

Kyla is from Denver, Colorado and participated in the 2018 Korea summer program. 안녕하세요! 저는 카일라입니다. 콜로라도 주에서왔습니다. 이번 여름에 한국에서 공부했습니다. 한국어를 많이 배웠습니다. 한국에 다시 가고 싶습니다. 한국어를 더 공부하고 싶습니다. 제 이야기를 즐겁게 읽어주셨으면 감사하겠습니다! Hello! My name is Kyla and I am from Colorado. I studied in South Korea this past summer and I learned a lot of Korean. I want to go to Korea again and study more Korean. Please enjoy reading my story! I had never been away from my family for more thanRead More

Shreya is from Plano, TX and participated in the 2018 Korean summer program. I wanted to share a translation and video of the Korean speech I wrote for my program’s closing ceremony. While writing it, I reflected on the growth we’d all experienced over the six weeks and thanked the people who made it possible. The content of this speech sounds rather simplistic in English, but a lot of thought was put into each sentence! — Hello! My name is Shreya, I’m sixteen years old (in Korean age), and I’veRead More

Danielle is from Miami, FL and is an alumna of the 2017 Korean summer program. Some of the experiences I valued most that the NSLI-Y program provided me with were instances where I was provided with the opportunity to teach someone something new, that they may have never been able to understand otherwise. South Korea, a country I’d previously thought, as it was so technologically and economically forward, was a global society, similar to the U.S. in that knowledge about other cultures would be so easy to access, that everyoneRead More

Alex is from Las Vegas, NV and participated in the Korea AY program from 2017-2018. Alex’s language journey began in 9th grade. Her first time walking through the many Asian markets of her hometown, Las Vegas, Alex experienced a new variety of smells, tastes, and most intriguingly, languages. “Las Vegas is one of the most racially diverse cities in America. I was fortunate to experience Korean, Chinese, and other Asian cultures first hand while growing up.” Korean culture provided the motivational spark for Alex to begin studying Korean. She didRead More

Alex is from Louisville, CO and participated in the 2014 Korea summer and 2016-2017 Korea academic year programs. 334 days, 11 hours, and 25 minutes after my initial departure, I find myself back in Seoul, South Korea; the city that was my home for 268 days, 10 hours, and 20 minutes. At first everything seems just as I left it, nothing changing, everything the same. I can still effortlessly navigate the subways by memory; I easily remember the location of my favorite candy at a local convenience store I frequented;Read More

Oluwatobi is from Houston, Texas and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. My relationship with my host family was great from the beginning. I played with my 2 younger host sisters, and I talked to my host mom frequently. However, my relationship with my host dad was a little awkward. Anytime we would run into each other, there were rushed greetings and rushed goodbyes. I am quite a shy person, and my host dad is too. We struggled to find things to connect over. It wasn’t until one ofRead More

Jacquelin is from Irvine,CA and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. Another tea house I’m trying out! Probably my 3rd time experiencing a traditional tea house. Out of the other tea houses, Mok Hyang I rate it a 3/5. It’s in the middle range and is not bad. But there really isn’t much of a traditional experience to it. The tea house is located on the second floor of a traditional Hanok house and is pretty small compared to other tea houses I’ve been to. We sat at aRead More