Fireball! KOREA - A place where I can be brave -
» Japanese
by Ayumi Asari, Japan
High School: Hirosaki High School, Japan (Aomori)
Study abroad: Korea University, Korea
"If I get fed up, I can go home right away." This was my true feeling before I went to study abroad. I got caught up in the Korea boom when I was a high school student and became vaguely interested in Korea. After I entered Waseda University and started to associate with international students from Korea, my vague sentiment became stronger, and I decided to go to Korea to study. However, after I found out that I would be able to go study in the country I admire so much, I became filled with anxiety about my first overseas experience. My parents and friends encouraged me, saying, "Korea is really close, so you can always come home during vacations if you get tired of it." When I actually started living in Korea, I found myself smiling every day despite the negative feelings I had had before.
Two major incidents in Korea changed me.
▲Won the 2nd prize in dancing
One was an incident during the International Student Festival (ISF) held in November, which was not so long after my study abroad started in September. In Part I of the ISF, international students open ethnic food stands in the plaza located at the center of the campus and provide cuisine from their own countries and also wear national costumes and introduce their culture. Part II is a talent show in which international students who come forward give performances and compete for rank. In Part II, I danced together with other fellow international students. I was too shy to dance in front of people, but amazingly, at that time I felt like doing it on my own initiative. That might have been the magic of study abroad. Since I was taking a full load of courses, it was hard to practice three hours every evening until late into the night. I was not particularly good at dancing originally, but I really pushed myself to practice hard. During a rehearsal, the Korean student who was the organizer repeatedly criticized us, saying, "Your movement is not dynamic" or "You don't have any spirit," and we were all very depressed. However, though I exchanged opinions with Korean students using an inexpert command of the language, I began to realize that we all shared a common desire of wanting to deliver a great performance. At that point, I began to take criticism seriously, and we proactively continued practicing five hours a day. As a result of our hard work, I was able to dance confidently without feeling embarrassed during the real performance. Remarkably enough, we won the second prize. The Korean students praised us and said, "You did a good job, and it was really fantastic." Eventually I even became good friends with the Korean student who repeatedly criticized us and whom I had hated at first, and we even went out for a meal together at the end.
▲With a Gyeongbokgung
Palace gatekeeper
Another incident was one in which I met many Koreans who are good at Japanese. If I say so, many people will probably wonder why. A common theme with regard to study abroad is that students desperately learn the language to survive because that is the only language used there. Of course, when I went to Korea, English did not work as well as I had expected it might and it was a struggle to communicate with Koreans in Korean even for five minutes, but that is not what prompted me to change.
Generally speaking, in Korea, there are many people who are interested in Japan or fluent in Japanese. For example, Korean interest in Japan is very high, as can be seen at Korea University, where I went to study, which has a division of Japanese Language and Literature. One of the reasons may be that Korean and Japanese grammar are very similar. However, I was shocked by the fact that many Japanese speakers learned Japanese on their own through cultural contact such as TV dramas and animation. Some of them are really good at Japanese even though they have never been to Japan. Usually, self-study motivation tends to lose stream halfway through. For a long time, I wondered why their Japanese is so good. One day, I discovered that the reason was their enthusiasm about study. When I was participating in a language exchange with students of the department of Japanese culture at Korea University where we taught each other our own language, they asked a bunch of questions about stuff they didn’t understand. When I met them the following week, they had already completely mastered words I had taught them the previous week. Being inspired by such enthusiastic students of Korea University and people who skillfully use self-learned Japanese, I, who had struggled to communicate in Korean even for five minutes and had almost tried to escape, came to think that "Because Korean people can speak Japanese so well, I must be able to speak Korean if I try hard." A willingness to study Korean harder began to build in me. At that point, though it may have been a small thing, I began by sitting at the front of the class and asking questions immediately when I didn't understand what the teacher was saying.
▲At a traditional building in Korea
Before I went to Korea, I had a negative feeling of something like "I can go back to Japan anytime." However, during my approximately one-year stay in Korea, I did not go home even once. I wanted to absorb every last minute and second I could of the country before I returned home. In the end, I stayed in Korea longer than any other Japanese students in the same term. Furthermore, on the flight back to Japan, I looked through my notebook, in which I had written down my memories of my 11months and 1 week of study abroad. There I saw photos of international students and Korean friends and shed tears even though there were other people around. I think studying in Korea holds a fascination that changes people. In fact, every single person I know who experienced studying in Korea said they had a great time. You will never regret it, and the experience can change you in more ways than you expected. That is what I think about Korea. In my case, I gained the power to think and act on my own, and I became active. If you are brave and proactive, Korea will certainly respond to you.
Up Date:2010/08/31