Author: shariho

By living in South Korea for 7 weeks, I was able to experience a whole different side of life, and I am so grateful. Regarding my language journey, I saw that living in the native country was a crucial step in learning Korean. I say this because textbook Korean and Korean used in daily conversation are pretty different, and I wouldn’t have gotten to see this if I didn’t live in Korea. I also learned that, like in every language, there are certain ways of saying things that are phrases or words you just need to memorize. For example, the cashier uses a different word for “bag” that is not the same one I learned in class when you buy something from a clothing store. 

Also, I sort of realized this before going into the program, but I didn’t interact with a lot of native Koreans, and I mostly met the international students from my program. I wasn’t able to see a lot of Korean culture through the people, but I learned A LOT about other cultures from all over the world, which I am so grateful for. It made me realize how little I know and how there is so much more out there. What I also gained from this experience that I mentioned in my pre-departure expectations is learning to be independent, which I definitely did. I remember on the second day I arrived in Seoul, I was scheduled to go to one of S. Korea’s amusement parks. However, I was so scared to take public transportation alone and scared I was going to get lost that I didn’t go. However, by the end of the trip, I was so comfortable traveling alone to different places, which is super cool to me. Now, I think I am now ready to travel more and be more confident by myself.

I have learned and grew so much by traveling and living in Korea. I talked a lot about this in my previous posts, but I saw that there is so much more I can learn and experience and the life I live now is so miniscule compared to what the world fully offers. During my trip, people I met in South Korea told me all about their homes in different countries and the beauty they have to offer. I also corrected some misconceptions about the world and different countries, which made me wonder what other misconceptions I have that should be fixed as well. If you are considering applying for an SLA Grant, don’t hesitate and do it. Traveling alone internationally may seem super scary, but I promise it is worth it and you will learn so much beyond learning your desired language. I traveled the summer after my freshman year, which seems young, but I do not regret it at all. I learned so much about myself, the world, and the Korean language, and this opportunity is definitely once in a lifetime. Also, learning a new language is a gateway into learning about different cultures and meeting new people that you wouldn’t have been able to communicate with if you didn’t learn the language. I am so thankful for this experience and it was an amazing opportunity.

In performing these interviews, I was introduced to so many different perspectives about America and the surprising experiences they have had with American citizens. The first interview I had was with a girl I met from Saudi Arabia in my program. She goes to college in Arizona, so she has a lot of experience in living in both America and Saudi Arabia, and she told me about how restricting it is to live in Saudi Arabia regarding its laws. For example, it is illegal to drink alcohol no matter the age. Also, socially, it is also very hard to be different, which is why that is one of the reasons why she likes America. She said she is very free in the US, however, she did tell me her encounters with some Americas were very “narrow minded”. She was talking with this American student in our program, and he was asking things like “How is it living in Saudi Arabia?” “Is it hard?” and using a tone that very much implied that Saudi Arabia is a dangerous and scary and horrible place to live in. My friend told me that this is a very narrow mindset to have, and that it is true Saudi Arabia is involved in conflict, but there is so much more that makes the country beautiful. For me, I understand why this boy had this mindset, as I hear people around me, like my family members, that also have a certain image of countries like Saudi Arabia, which is another reason why I am so grateful for this trip. People have to realize that there is so much more out there that we have not learn and explore yet, which I think a lot of Americans don’t see. A lot of Americans are okay with staying and settling where they are comfortable. Even in this program, I noticed that a lot of the Americans would only talk to other Americans, which defeats the whole purpose of going to an international school. I will cherish this experience, as I have met and learned from so many people from all around the world, including from Australia, Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, France, China, Korea, Singapore, and so much more. And because of this and our conversations, I learned about different religions, political situations, traditions, cultures, history, and the list goes on. Going to this international summer school opened my eyes to how much bigger the world is than I originally thought.

The second interview I had was with a really close friend I met in this program who is from Great Britain and is probably one of the most knowledgable person I have ever met. She is 24 and she has had a lot of experience around the world and knows about many different cultures that isn’t her own. As we got to know each other, I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about the rest of the world, which proves my point in the paragraph above. She and a bunch of other girls would talk about her religion, Islam, but also knew so much about Christianity and she would talk about her Somali culture and traditions and history even though she grew up in Great Britain. And she would talk about Great Britain and American politics that I didn’t even know about. I don’t know if she just knows more than the average person or I know less, but she saw I didn’t know anything, and she pointed out it was very “American” of me, which I totally agree with. 

I am continuing on what I was saying above because I think this is an important pattern that needs to be addressed. I can’t speak for other people, but before I learned all of this, I didn’t even realize how much I didn’t know, so I didn’t really have the desire to learn more and go out of my comfort zone, which I think a lot of Americans also experience as well. Also, I also thought I knew more than I thought because America is composed of people of all different ethnicities and race, but what I forgot is that we are all still American. We all may have different backgrounds, but the lack of distance we have with each other influences a lot of similarity as well. It is only when we travel thousands of miles away until truly see what the world has to offer to us. My friend makes a very valid point about Americans’ desire to learn more. Also, I am not generalizing and saying ALL Americans have this mindset, but I have been seeing a pattern of Americas as well as what non-Americans have been telling me.

The last interview I had was with one of my friends who is a Korean citizen that I met up with a couple of times during my trip. She also said that compared to living in Korea, she is more free in America, especially in the education and job aspect. In Korea, she said the mindset is in order to be successful, you need to go to get a good education and that this is the normal route every Korean young adult takes or strives to take. However, the job rate is VERY low here. In America, there is much more flexibility on what one is socially accepted to do with their life. I say socially accepted because in theory, anyone can do anything with their lives, but socially, it is normal to go to college in Korea, and in America, socially, it is more acceptable to have creative and independent jobs other than going to college. I also like this about America because as I have lived in Korea and observed the people, I noticed that, specifically in Seoul, everyone kind of tries to be the same. Clothing stores sell the same products, so every girl dresses the same and every guy dresses the same. Also, everyone is so pressured to get a good job and they all work their butts off to achieve this. Everyone seems to be leading the same life, which is so interesting to me. In America, a lot of people want to be different and are more open to being different. This prompt especially gave me a lot more insight of how America and Americans are perceived and I am very glad I chose to write about this.

One very popular dish with traditional significance is 떡국, or rice cake soup, which is a dish that is eaten on the Korean New Year’s Day. In Korea, everyone turns a year older on this day, and my server told me that it is said that you only turn a year older when you drink this soup. It was kind of hard to communicate with her because of the language barrier, but she said this dish is made up of a clear broth, which signifies a clean, fresh start to the new year. It is also made of a mochi-like food called 떡, which are shaped in coins to signify prosperity and wealth. This dish can also be eaten on normal days, and I have seen in different restaurants that they put mandoo in it as well. This dish represents good fortune, and is also very delicious.

One non-dominant group in South Korea are woman. At first, when I came to Korea, I didn’t realize it was a big issue because I would mostly engage with foreigners in my program. However, I talked to this Korea-born male student who studied in the States for high school, and out of pure curiosity, I asked him about sexism in South Korea, and he did not want to talk about it at all. The tension became awkward and I could tell that he was trying to avoid the conversation because of what he believed himself. This surprised me, so I asked my closer Korean-American friend, and she told me that a lot of the males in this country, specifically putting emphasis on the younger generation (20s-30s), are “anti-feminist”. I put emphasis on younger generation males because I think that it is more normal (not making it right) for the older generations to have these views, but I was surprised to hear that the the majority of the males of the younger generation share these views as well. 

I did a little more digging, and I found a load of information about the country’s views on feminism, especially the views of the current president of Korea. The president is not shy on sharing his views on anti-feminism, and I was talking with one of my friends who is writing a paper about anti-feminism for her class, and she made a good point that a reason why a lot of people are more open about their anti-feminist views might be that the new president is giving the male citizens an excuse to act on their own anti-feminist beliefs. My friend also pointed out the low percent of women in government and board positions, the leniency of sentencing when it comes to sexual crimes against women, and how women are paid significantly less than their male counterparts.

The next non-dominant group in South Korea I want to talk about are foreigners, as I think it is important to address the current situation foreigners go through when living in or even visiting Korea . Since I am studying at an international program, I am surrounded by foreigners from all over the world. The people I see and interact with every day are not Korean citizens, but foreigners, so I have both experienced and seen first hand how we are treated, and it shows the severity of xenophobia that occurs in this country. I also talked to both foreigners and local Korean citizens and they said that the xenophobia has gotten worse over the years. Examples I have heard from others and have experienced are taxi drivers not accepting our request late at night when we try to wave them down, but then accepting a Korean citizen right after, getting cut in line by Korean citizens when they see we are clearly in line, and getting food served to you after Korean citizens when we ordered before them. Keep in mind that a lot of these experiences happened in Seoul, which is the capital of South Korea and Korea’s largest metropolis. I have mainly lived in Seoul during my trip, so I do not know if it is different in other parts of South Korea.

As I progressed through the trip, I learned that this behavior definitely reflects a lot of the values Koreans possess. I was talking to a Korean American classmate that has lived in Korea all her life until she went to America to study, and she told me a lot about how in Korea, it is predominantly a single-race nation. In contrast to America, which homes people with backgrounds from all around the world, Korean citizens are most likely Korean. I know this is pretty obvious, but this fact influenced the mindsets of a lot of Koreans. Koreans have only grown up and lived with other Koreans, so living with and interacting with people of different race and ethnicity isn’t normal for them. I know there are a lot of issues that stem from this like the concept of homogeneity and the shamefulness of dating or being in a relationship with a foreigner. For example, I talked with my aunty back in the States who isn’t Korean, but married a Korean man, and she told me how her parents-in-laws hated the idea of their son marrying her and would treat my aunty horribly just because she wasn’t Korean. There is this prejudice Koreans have on foreigners because they have lived in a society with only their own ethnicity. However, I did observe that the younger generation is more open to meeting and interacting with foreigners, and that when I talked with a lot of the people I “interviewed”, they said that the Koreans that treated them not so kindly were people of the older generation, which was interesting to see how Korean’s mindset is changing over the years and how they are staying the same.

I had 5 days in South Korea before my actual classes started to do whatever I wanted to do. Because of this, I had a lot of time to explore with my friends and was able to interact constantly with the native speakers, and during this time, I had to order a lot of food (since my program did not provide a meal plan). I learned in my Korean class at Notre Dame how to order food, but I didn’t really comprehend the differences between how I order food in America and how I order food in Korea. In America, to order a water for example, I would say, “Could I please have a water?” Using the specific word, please, communicates politeness and respect, and I would use the word, please, whenever I would ask for something. In class, we were taught to order the food in a polite way, like “물을 주세요”. In this sentence, there is no actual word for please, but the ending of the sentence implies politeness. I thought this was every interesting, as I always feel the need to say please when I am asking for something or a favor, but in Korea, there isn’t really such a word for these instances. Looking further from this specific example, in the Korean language, to change the politeness and respect of the same sentence, you don’t change the words, but you only change the ending of the verb. The vocabulary word is the same, but just how the word is conjugated changes the meaning behind the sentence, which I think is really interesting.

The next thing I noticed isn’t a specific word, but is the importance of pronunciation of the Korean language. In my Korean class at Notre Dame, my professor did a great job in pointing out the pronunciation rules when we came across it in class, but I didn’t realize how if some words were pronounced wrong, a native speaker would not be able to understand me, and I wouldn’t have been able to see this if I didn’t live in the country. For example, I was trying to ask my server if a tea they served was sweet, so I said one word, which means sweet? in Korean. I pronounced it like “dal a yoh?”, with a d sound in the first syllable. However, when I said that, the server looked confused and didn’t understand what I said. I know the word I said was correct, so I didn’t know why he could’t understand me. However, my friend next to me, who was familiar with the importance of pronunciation, corrected me and said, “tal ah yoh”, which a t sound instead, and then the guy immediately understood her. Even though my teacher drilled the pronunciation rules in our heads, I think that the most beneficial way to learn how to pronounce Korean words is the listen and practice with native speakers. It really is trial and error and takes a lot of practice until you learn the correct way, which is why I am so grateful for this experience.

I definitely think that I will get more out of this immersion experience than from my in-classroom learning so far. I will be living in the country that speaks the language for 6 weeks, so even though my class will be taught in English, I will be immersed in every other aspect of living like going out to eat and buying clothes and toiletries. I will be surrounded by people who fluently speak the language and I will be able to pick up on common phrases just by the constant exposure I will be getting from this experience. In-classroom learning in the United States doesn’t offer any of this, which is why this experience will be so valuable.

During my stay in South Korea, I will mostly be in a school/classroom environment with people around the same age as me. Because of this, I will be gaining everyday phrases that are most commonly used by 18-to 20-year-olds. I want to be able to go around Seoul comfortably and be able to confidently take public transportation, order from restaurants and street vendors, ask for directions, and if possible, have a conversation with a native Korean that is around the same age as me.

Other than improving my proficiency in Korean, the main thing I realized I will learn from this experience when planning for my trip is that I will learn how to be completely independent. I will be living in a foreign country alone for six weeks without knowing almost anyone, and all the things that seemed easy to do like getting a taxi and ordering food from a restaurant are actually so much more complex and scarier now that I am all alone in a country I barely know the language of. I will need to go way out of my comfort zone and push myself to adapt to these situations.