Education Abroad Expo Reflection

On September 4, 2018, I attended the Education Abroad Expo at the Ohio Union. The Expo qualified as an Academic Event for my International Affairs Scholars requirement. The event impacted me very positively. I am very interested in studying abroad in both China and Korea for either semester or year-long programs and the Expo informed me about looking for scholarships, programs, and deadlines. The event changed my perspective on study abroad, pertaining to financing because there are many more scholarship possibilities than I thought. The Office of East Asian Studies has scholarships that are not need-based that I will now be applying to, thanks to the Education Abroad Expo.

 

The Education Abroad Expo related to the topic of International Affairs because it showed students that studying abroad can be affordable and accessible. I believe education abroad is a truly necessary component to one’s college experience if one plans to work in an international environment or with people from different backgrounds from them. Education abroad allows us to expand our mindset, perspectives, and worldviews which equips us with necessary skill sets for work and daily life. Experiencing other cultures provides us with many benefits, including increased empathy, expanded linguistic abilities, and the ability to cater to a larger market of people. I am currently studying both Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and this event also united me with like-minded individuals from many different disciplines across the University.

 

If I could design my ideal education abroad experience, it would be a year-long intensive language and study program that would take place in both China and Korea. Students would first attend Yonsei University and study Korean and Korean culture classes for an entire semester, paying close attention to speaking, reading, and syntax comprehension. Students would have to take a series of speaking, reading, and grammatical tests to be admitted into the program as it would cover two semesters of Korean in one semester. In addition to the Korean courses, students would take their level of Chinese at Yonsei in Korean, so that they are preparing themselves for the next semester while being exposed to teachers’ grammar in Korean. After the first semester, Students would attend Qinghua University in China, where they would take two semesters worth of Chinese in one semester. In addition, they would take their level of Korean language in Chinese.

 

For those who could handle the program, their language abilities would rapidly advance, they would get a chance to experience the culture firsthand, and their brains would be trained to work tri-lingually and translate more spontaneously.  Knowing myself, I would benefit greatly from my study abroad experience. I have been abroad, as well as away from home for long periods of time, and I have not experienced homesickness. I like to believe that I have quite a nomadic soul. I hope to travel around the world for some expanse of time after graduation from the Ohio State University. There are so many places that I would love to see, and a wide array of languages and cultures I want to learn about. My study abroad experience would put at a nice professional speaking ability in both languages so that I could confidently pursue employment opportunities in the United States or Abroad that require fluid language use and cultural understanding. I hope that one day I can bring an American perspective to conversations with international business people and vice versa in the States. One of the first steps towards that goal is to study abroad, and the Education Abroad Expo was crucial in making me more informed about my options.

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