Korean Category

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

Sofia is from Mililani, HI and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. I’ll be honest, my time with my host family wasn’t easy in the beginning. My host family and I were both very shy, and to make matters worse, none of them spoke English very well, with the exception of my little nine-year-old sister with whom I still couldn’t discuss international affairs or the intricacies of South Korean culture with. I was disappointed because I knew that the riveting and eye-opening discussions about culture and politics that IRead More

Carlie is from Dallas, TX and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. For International Education Week I’ve decided to share one of my favorite experiences while studying in Seoul, South Korea over the summer. Every Seoul summer NSLI-Yan is required to choose a culture club to participate in each Friday during the program. I chose Fan Dance (부채춤), a Korean performing art where a group of dancers utilizes hand fans to create elegant shapes and stories. Soon after making my choice, I received some performance fans (부채) to bringRead More

Cheyenne is from LaGrange, GA and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. It must have been a strange sight to see 50 kids crying and hugging each other at an airport terminal. It was at Incheon Airport where we were full of excitement at first, then 6 weeks later we arrived back at the airport as a bittersweet moment. For me to have the opportunity to go to Korea was a blessing itself. I have always dreamed and wished of traveling the world, and Korea was the start ofRead More

Katie is from Libertyville, IL and participated in the 2017 Korea summer program. With a bittersweet taste on my tongue, I sat on the cold metal seats of the line 2 subway returning from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul towards my host family’s apartment for the last time. Korean conversations that no longer sounded foreign to me fluttered in and out of my ears as I stared into the harsh blackness of the subway tunnel, eyes filled to the brim with tears at what I saw. I’d spent the pastRead More