When I was six years old, my family and I immigrated to the rural town of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. Even after our move, we always communicated in Korean at home and I learned English at school. From a young age, I was exposed to a multicultural environment. Every night at dinner our family would talk about the world news and we each shared our opinions on domestic and international affairs. My parents were always passionate towards making sure that I had a broad perspective of the world. They wanted me to understand that there was so much beyond what was happening in North Carolina.
Then, I switched to a new school district and I finally had the opportunity to learn another language at school! I chose to learn Spanish in the ninth grade, and I have continued studying in Spanish since then. At first, Spanish did not come naturally to me. The linguistic concepts were different from other languages that I knew, and I was often discouraged by my performance throughout my first semester. However, I improved with practice and patience! Now I am in my seventh year of studying Spanish and I am much more confident in my ability to communicate.
In college, I got the opportunity to truly advance my Spanish studies and began to consider the opportunity of studying abroad.
