How Learning Korean Re-Ignited My Passion for Teaching and Community Engagement

 Honestly, after a while this Capstone Project can be a bit monotonous to write about. I have not been doing anything new really with it, but I have been thinking about what else I can do to enhance my language-learning experience. More on that later!

I have been actually taking a lot of time to work through my textbooks lately, and I am really excited about that! I took a week of class to work on at least a lesson (half a chapter) a day. I can feel it paying off, too, when I listen to podcasts or read things and understand them quite well. This upcoming week is the last one of school before winter break, and I have been very smart about my timing. I have completed pretty much all of the work for this upcoming week, so I can work solely on Korean (and starting new college applications). And of course, I will be working on Korean doggedly throughout winter break now that I will have a bunch more time to myself away from schoolwork. I am quite excited! I also (finally) figured out how to work with a Korean keyboard on my computer, so I can now learn the typing positions easier! I am still figuring out how to put it into a Word document, but that is a problem for another day.

I have been listening to more podcasts on the way to school, and all this has been culminating in understanding quite a bit more than I used to. And it has slowly been getting me back into the habit of intentionally studying Korean a bit more every day. I am very relieved, to say the least, about this because I can feel the deadlines of this project and the biliteracy test breathing down my neck. I worry sometimes that I will not be able to finish in time, though. But that is a good motivator for me to continue working quickly and efficiently, and it is good for me to have a little bit of stress: otherwise, I would not get anything done.

One of my teachers has told me they may have Korean contacts and friends at a local university who may be able to tutor me, and that makes me quite optimistic for the possibility of new opportunities to work on my spoken Korean. It really does help being in a classroom setting, but my desire for tutoring goes deeper than that. I know I can teach myself through textbooks now but talking one-on-one with a fluent speaker will help with my accent, speaking skills, language retention, and so much more. It also gives a sort of insight to culture I would not have learning on my own. I am excited to see how it pans out!

I have been speaking to some friends about how to get more involved with ESL communities because it is truly something I am interested in. This is something that branches from my love for Korean, but also for more languages and community aspects. My friends mentioned checking out local universities for ESL programs and inquiring about becoming a tutor. And I noticed on my school's website that they have founded a center for programs in a nearby city that caters to ESL adults and even youth in the city. I have been trying to search other sites as well, but I believe this may be a wonderful addition to my Capstone Project-actively engaging in ESL communities and working at helping younger children in their language-learning journeys.

My friends have turned me on to looking for nonprofits and initiatives for language and culture, and I have been coming up dry lately in that aspect. There must be more organizations than I am seeing here locally, and I am determined to find them. I think being closer to Korean communities through this sort of involvement would launch me farther into the culture aspect of this project I seem to be lacking. 

I will continue to search for ways to reach out to specifically Korean communities as well, which should include talking to the World Languages and Cultures department at school. I plan to pop in after class tomorrow and talk to them about finding initiatives and organizations to better connect with my project. I am now finding that this Capstone Project means more to me than simply learning a language. It is connecting with the communities around me, even outside my target language. And I am very excited to see how my personal development will continue growing throughout the rest of my high school career. This is also something that does not have to stop after I submit the final product for Capstone. I will continue learning, refining, and growing closer to more communities in ways I had not considered before. I will work on making connections and having new experiences that will follow me for a lifetime.