Day 65: Post Korean Critical Language Scholarship

Entry #3

It's been a while since I last updated. I was busy, trust me. In Korea.

So for eight weeks off of a competitive U.S. State Department grant known as a Critical Language Scholarship, I learned the equivalency of two semesters of college Korean. I studied at Chonbuk National University with 31 other students who were also accepted. Divided up into different classes we learned Korean speaking, reading, writing, listening, music, and culture. Not only did I have stay with a home stay family for eight weeks but I also commuted to home and school everyday. Furthermore, every student in the program had a peer tutor, a native Korean who they met up at least twice a week for outside class tutoring. We had free weekends but also weekends where the CLS Program would also take us on cultural excursions like hiking Deogyoo Mountain, exploring Andong, and  doing a temple stay at Mihwangsa. I'll be breaking down each aspect of my CLS experience systemically as I talk along.

1. What is a Critical Language Scholarship?

On the initiative that the U.S. has deemed certain languages of high importance to the U.S's relations with other countries, the State Department has warranted the implementation of the Critical Language Scholarship program. Through an intensive and extremely selective application process, this program takes students from across the nation and ships them overseas to learn the language of the host country for one summer. The scholarship time can last from eight weeks to ten weeks and it is a scholarship where literally everything is paid for. So flights, transportation, meals, textbooks, and other impending items are all free. Receiving one is a pretty big deal and is an honor given to only about 550-575 students every year for the past couple years its been established (the applicant pool was around 5,500 for the 2011 summer program making the acceptance rate roughly 10%--sort of like ivy league admissions).

I applied for my scholarship during Fall 2010, got into the secondary admissions round by December 2010-January 2011, and passed the secondary round of admissions and into the acceptance pool by February 2011. I finished my paperwork by March 2011 and then after finishing Spring semester I waited three weeks before leaving off to Korea.

2. Why did you choose Korean and not other critical languages?

This gets more on the personal and a little less on the informative, so you can skip this if you want.

Having invested a lot of my passion and time into contemporary Korean popular culture (music, dramas, variety shows) and being really fascinated about doing comparative education research (which is now slowly turning into comparative linguistic education research) of East Asian cultures, applying for the Korean language scholarship was a no-brainer. And though I'm taking Japanese and could have applied for the Japanese scholarship, one needs at least four semesters or two college years worth of rudimentary/elementary Japanese to be accepted into the Japanese CLS program (they accept only Intermediate and Advanced students). I had only taken two semester or one college year worth so I decided Korean would be a good fit.

Furthermore, I decided to study abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea for my entire sophomore year to continue my Korean language study. So the CLS program would be my excellent transition not only into a higher level Korean language course but also as a buffer for me to not get lost and feel clueless in Seoul, having really no experience in Korean language.

And though Korean may seem like a superfluous language for Americans to learn, as there are many Korean-Americans and Korean immigrants in America, I've learned a lot over the eight weeks I've been in Korea about why studying Korean is so significant. I'm not going to go into details but its worth is very significant in its human rights value, its economic and development value, as well as its peacekeeping and militaristic worth---the social aftereffects of the possibility of reunification, its label as an "Asian Tiger", North Korea and its bilateral/multilateral relations with the rest of the world (or lack of).

3. What did you learn and how did you learn there?

It is important to know that what you learn during a CLS is different based for each student, each year. The State Department has no role in what the language curriculum actually entails or what textbooks are being used. It is the host institution, which can differ for every student (in programs like Chinese and Arabic which have hundreds of students accepted) that dictates what the program will be. However, because the Korean language program this summer was very small, all 32 of us learned at one university, Chonbuk National University.

Through the Chonbuk Korean Language program I learned, I believe, at least two semesters of Korean language and probably about an extra 50% or 60% of another semester. As a beginner, I learned roughly 1000-1300 words formally and informally in the classroom with another 200-300 outside informally. In terms of retention, the textbooks we used, Active Korean I and Active Korean II which our class both completed, makes it so that at least 1000 of those words are solidly linked in your head. Also given the fact that I was in Korea and therefore using lots of different concepts and vocabulary all the time, the language growth was very intense and rewarding. So in accumulation about 1.25 years worth of very solid Korean. The 0.25 comes from interaction with members of higher leveled classes as well as spontaneous learning in everyday life.

I had classes everyday from 8:30 a.m up until 1:30 p.m. with no lunch break until after 1:30. I had ten minute breaks in between that big five hour gap of classes so it wasn't pure grinding. My language learning classes were pretty much "Speaking and Listening", "Grammar" and my cultural learning classes were "Music", and "Culture." I can't give the statistical weighing or a daily schedule, but the ratio for speaking and listening to music and culture classes for the entire school week was around 3:1. Obviously, language learning comes first.

Writing and reading in Korean come naturally as you speak and listen so writing and reading were basically intertwined with the "Speaking and Listening" class as well as the "Grammar" class. I was disappointed at first that the language learning wasn't integrated, because I was so used to having all four criteria of language learning in one class (this familiarity stemming off the fact I had been taught using Integrated Genki I for Japanese). However, I realized that because I was in Korea and that pure theory class was being taught for approximately 3 hours a day, the integration sort of became a subconscious thought process.

The point of the program is to learn as much Korean language as possible and observe the culture as you go along. With this mindset, it came to no surprise to know that none of my teachers knew English. In the beginning, it was semi-difficult, but because of Leslie Grothaus, a fellow beginner of mine, the first couple weeks of class weren't bad.

A personal anecdote about my speaking and listening teacher, Park Song Ran. We had the most classes with her every day--give or take around we have at least 15 hours with her out of the 25 hour school week. We didn't know how our Beginning class was going to learn at all because she knew no English like the rest of the teachers. Luckily enough, our teacher did her doctorate's dissertation in Chinese and our lovely Leslie studied 12 Chinese for years of her life and so when we didn't understand what was going on in Korean we would have our teacher speak in Chinese to Leslie and have Leslie translate to us in English. And, voila, we learned Korean!

And if I was an intermediate or advanced student, I would have probably learned a lots tons more, but I still learned tons from my peer tutor Yeojin Yu, as well. Every student in the program gets a peer tutor and these are basically your native Korean friends for the length of the eight weeks. They were mostly all college students who, through their own application process, were selected and paired up with us so they could aid us in Korea. They were like the extension of the teachers pretty much in helping us adapt to Korea. Yeojin was awesome. I'm a fast learner so I never needed to go over what was in class--I just needed someone to help me go over essays, provide me context with new vocabulary I picked up, and overall instruct me outside of the classroom on how Koreans "really" speak. She did all of that and more and I'm so grateful to have her as a friend!

So if you count up the time you study in class, the hours you spend with your peer tutor studying and playing outside of class, the fact you need to eat and do little daily chores, coming back to your home stay for dinner where you mentally and emotionally have to adjust yourself for all the new things that might hit you, as well as preparing and studying for the next day, the day is exhausting. I woke up from 7:30 in the morning and went to sleep around 12 or 1 at night.

At night I realized why around $16,000 USD was invested into me. They really wanted me to learn Korean. They wanted me to learn it fast and well, without waver.

4. What did you learn about Korean culture? Did you fumble a lot? What was really exciting? How were the people? The food?

This is a real case-by-case, as we all intake different perspectives of what culture is and these days especially in South Korea its a very transnational blend of post-Westernization clashes, but I'll name off a couple things.

• Honorifics: The honorifics, at least for learners of Korean, isn't too much of a big deal as you start. I made it a big deal while I was learning and subsequently got a lot of praise for it from teachers and peers. But our program was super focused on getting us to speak and use the language so fumbles in honorifics weren't too much of a big deal. I used banmal, the informal speech, so much with my host family and friends that it slipped up a couple times while I was in class talking to my teachers. That's a big no-no for all you learners of Japanese and Korean! Honorifics are essential and will always be unless you go back in time and completely obliterate Confucianism. Being Thai-American and understanding the need for honoring as well as learning Japanese and Japanese honorifics I have to say that Korean honorifics are so much more complex. There is a social hierarchy installed within the language that puts psychological and social constrictions and freedoms on a conversation and the people that are talking each and every time. To add on to this, there is an undoubtedly high level of flattery and complimenting that goes into the introduction, middle, and ending of the conversation. 
• Food: I'm going to go beyond the stereotype of how Koreans and Asians in general eat dogs, cats, bugs, etc., and go into comparative food technique. In Korea, dog is eaten. Korean cuisine is a lot of stewing, mixing, and fermenting. As such I can appreciate the taste and flavors of many Korean foods, its hard-pressed to find me not eating something at any given time while in Korea, but I can't really appreciate Korean cooking style. Its mostly stick it in a stew and let it all just cook. Its put it in a batter and fry it. Its mix it with some sauces and its ready. It looks, sometimes, wholly unappetizing but for the most part is delicious. There's just really no presentation to food at all though. Side dishes, main dish, rice, and soup. It doesn't really go into an expansion beyond that and I sometimes get really bored by how Korean cuisine can lock itself in all the time, at least traditional cuisine. But really, I haven't lived long enough in Korea or eaten enough Korean food to gauge what is beautiful, what is bland, and what is bad. I do know what is good Kimchi.
• People: There are three types of people in Korea: soldiers, lay people, and ahjummas.
• Soldiers: Every Korean man has to go into the military service for two years before he turns thirty. It isn't uncommon to see soldiers in uniforms, who really are students in uniforms, walking around Chonbuk National campus. They were there for re-training I think.
• Lay People: What Americans would consider homosexual or hyper metrosexualism dress is standard affair for men here, at least for the casual man. Man bags are the norm and are sometimes the envy. Most all students wear uniforms to school so an article of clothing that really stands out makes someone special in a sense. Women dress well everyday, of all ages. Heels. Killer heels are a favorite of all teenage to pre-thirty women here. And a lot of caking on the face. Also, hand-holding among girl best friends is normal. A teenage boy sitting on another boy's lap is normal. Kissing and playing in public as well as liberalism in how much skin you show, seems to be highly conservative. These are just observational differences, I don't really know the backgrounds behind to judge them.
• Ahjummas: Old women with wrinkles and curly perms that signify a change in a woman's life from beautiful or unmarried into an obliterate community of fierce grandmothers who wear giant sun visors and tacky sparkly shirts.
• Most Exciting: Living in a city, in Korea. I come from a diverse but mostly ethnically upper-class Anglo-Saxon suburb so the everyday excitement of being a passable Korean and embracing a really awesome culture was great enough for me. I'm also going to a college that is really similar to where I live in that its small and quiet and not really booming with life and excitement every living moment.

5. Ending Comments

I could go on for hours about the CLS program and I'll probably add more as I update my blog. In all, learning two East Asiatic languages at once and knowing one Southeast Asian language really got me into thinking about the linguistics behind language acquisition, especially those of East Asian and Southeast Asian languages. So I changed my William and Mary major from Asian Middle Eastern Studies to Linguistics. Not only does it give me more flexibility to study abroad, I'm actually looking forward to the classes that I'll be taking after I look at their course descriptions. I think these day I want to do comparative education research between East Asian education systems and the rest of the world but I want to focus it on the English education phenomenon that is occurring within East and Southeast Asia. I should stop now before I go into a research rant.