2012 EISC Session I Participant: Ami Terachi
Mount Holyoke College, Japan

I remember the day I arrived in Seoul at the end of June, when I couldn’t even figure out
the way from the nearest bus station to the University but didn’t have courage to ask for
direction because of my poor Korean; after wandering about for some time in the intense
heat of summer with heavy suitcases I was already exhausted and sweating all over by the
time I finally made it to the International House of Ewha Womans University. When I left
the campus one month later upon the completion of the program, however, I was feeling
much more comfortable walking around the neighborhood and even had gained confidence
in talking to people on the streets in Korean. It seems to have passed by in an instant, but
one full of discovery, learning and self-reflection. I learned so much, not only about the
Korean language itself, which was my original purpose of attending this summer college,
but also about the Korean society in general, the city of Seoul, Korean food, history and
culture, and to some extent, about my home country Japan.

One of the things that I liked most about this international summer college was its diversity
of the participants. Until I got to the campus I had no idea as to how big this program
would be, but as it turned out, there were more than 200 students from more than 15
countries. Simply meeting these people from different universities all over the world was
itself a valuable experience, as well as learning what motivated them to come all the way to
Korea; many Korean Americans (and alike) seemed to have come to learn about their
heritage language and culture; some were East Asian Studies majors and pursued their
academic interests; others were K-pop lovers and of other Korean popular culture; yet
others, including myself, were language freaks – coming to learn Korean as their fourth or
fifth language “just for fun”. In my classes there were students from Singapore, Britain,
Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, US, and Korea (Ewha students and others) and I truly enjoyed
learning about them and their perspectives. Their levels of Korean varied as well, from very
beginner who had never studied Korean (not even Hangul) to very advanced. We explored
the city together, tried Korean food together, learned from each other, laughed together, and had fun together.

During the program, I took modern Korean history class in the morning and Korean
language class in the afternoon from Monday to Thursday. Between the two classes I often
went to Posco building to have cheap but tasty Kimbap (only 2000-3000 won) for lunch
and did homework or took a nap, and after class in the evening I went out to try different
Korean dishes for dinner. On weekends I ventured into the city with my new friends. Seoul
is such a vibrant city and has a lot to offer; although I didn’t go to many tourist spots that
guidebooks tell us to go, I got to catch a glimpse of modern as well as traditional aspects of
the city by simply walking down the street – looking up the skyscrapers, admiring historical
temples, looking at numerous advertisements of plastic surgery – or by just
people-watching while riding the well-air-conditioned, highly-digitalized Seoul Metro.
Seoul is also very international, and so is Ewha Womans University; I could totally have
survived without using Korean during the program and initially my Korean didn’t seem to
improve much. With that realization I pushed myself to use Korean as much as possible
during the second half of the program and I started to feel more comfortable speaking in
Korean. The language class and daily life conversation complemented each other in my
learning of Korean. Although I could hardly main