When I applied to teach in Korea, I was excited for a lot of reasons. I was excited to teach in a new school, to meet my homestay family, to learn about Korean language, culture, and food and to visit a lot of new places. But I was also really nervous, mainly because I knew very little Korean. Before coming to Korea, I had only studied a few basic Korean survival phrases and the Korean alphabet, hangul.
Growing up, I had always been really interested in different languages. At home in the U.S., I spoke both English and Telugu, a language from India. Telugu has always been an important part of my life. When I visited my grandparents especially, Telugu helped us bond over movies and food and a shared culture. Later on, in high school, I decided to study Spanish as well. In college, I had a wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Mexico, where I got to put my Spanish to use! It felt really cool to see how far I had come in my language learning. I loved being able to make new friends and navigate new places.
I knew that coming to Korea without knowing the language would make this experience different. So I applied to a program that included a one-month intensive language course before I started teaching, knowing that I would need all of the help I could get!
