안녕하세요!
On this last day in February I look
back over this past week with a sigh of relief (and hold my breath again for
next week, two tests ug). With two
presentations and two meetings on top of regular classes and homework I have
been a little stressed but it has all come to an end now in a somewhat
satisfactory manner. I wanted to start
of by explaining a little about my academic advisor, Dr. Hellenbrand. She is a wonderful woman. Every time I go to see her I leave feeling
encouraged and rejuvenated, like nothing is out of my reach in regards to
Korea. Now for the information…
This is a collaboration of both my
meeting with Hellenbrand and Davis, my study abroad advisor. The first thing I talked to Hellenbrand about
was my language contract. I have to do a
“language contract” (mash-up of three languages where I take 2 courses in one,
2 in another and 5 in the third) to fulfill my language requirement because I
came into the program late. As it stood
two days ago I was going to take 2 Japanese, 2 Korean (while in Korea), 5
Spanish. But after thinking about it, I explained that I didn’t want my main language being one I wasn’t going to use in the
future. But, because App doesn’t offer
Korean I would have to take the equivalent of 5 Korean classes over in Korea,
which was going to be impossible to pack in on top of the culture classes I
have to take for my focus. So after
thinking it over I decided that if I were able to replace Spanish with Korean
as my main language I would stay in Korea through the summer in order to take required
number of courses. At the end of my long
spiel explaining this to her, Hellenbrand looked at me and said, “Michelle, you
plan it and I’ll make sure it works for you.”
She’s like an angel sent from Heaven to smooth away all my stress about Korea. Seriously, she’s a God given blessing that I
am so grateful for.
The second thing I talked about was
a scholarship program I may be eligible for.
The program is called TaLK (Teaching and Learning in Korea) and would be
an unbelievable addition to my résumé! The
only downside is that Chonnam University is the only university in direct
affiliation with App that offers the TaLK program. Now if I get the scholarship I will gladly
attend because the benefits of the program far outweigh the downsides of the
university. But if I don’t get it I don’t
really want to attend Chonnam. So what’s
the problem? Applications, deadlines,
and money, that’s the problem. I have no
idea when I would here back from the scholarship people letting me know if I
got it or not and by that time it may be too late to apply to another
university. But I also don’t want to
apply to another university (the cost of all the applications would total…well
a whole lot, over $500) and then get the scholarship and lose all that money. So I e-mailed the woman in charge of the TaLK
program at Chonnam to ask when deadlines are and when they start notifying
people of acceptance to see if those times overlap with the deadlines for
applying to another university. My
biggest dilemma right now is trying to decide what I’ll do if the time frames
do overlap. Do risk banking on being
accepted and not apply to another university or do I apply to another
university and risk loosing a whole bunch of money? Thoughts?
Now, in order to end this seriously long post on a happy note, I have a rather humorous story to tell. This past Wednesday I was in Spanish class
and we were told to find a partner and ask and answer a list of questions in
Spanish. Well my partner asked me which
class was my favorite and why to which I responded casually, “Mi clase de
Global Climate Change porque tango muchos chingos en la clase” (my Global
Climate Change class because I have a lot of friends in the class) and went
merrily on my way. To you people who know
Spanish, you’ve probably noticed where I went wrong, but I hadn’t. It wasn’t until she asked me what the word
“chingo” meant that I realized I had unconsciously replaced the Spanish word
for friend, “amigo” with the Korean translation, “chingo.” I had to laugh at myself because, even though
I haven’t even started to formally learn the Korean language, I am already
mixing Korean words into my Spanish (and sometimes even English) vocabulary. Heaven help me not to do that on a test!
잘가요!
