Hello, everybody! Welcome :) Thanks for stopping by!
I'm Grace Benner and in August 2012 I will be leaving to spend my senior year of high school in South Korea through Rotary International Student Exchange. This blog is about my life as an exchange student, my adventures in Korea, and all that this beautiful country has to offer. It's going to be a fabulous year :) 가자!!
안녕하세요, 여러분! 환영합니다!
저는 그레이스입니다. 여기는 저의 블로그입니다. 여러분들이 방문해주어서 아주 행복해요. 고맙슴니다! 2012년 8월에 한국으로 갑니다. 그 곳에서 유학을 하고 한국어를 공부할거에요. 이제부터 제 생활에 많은 모험이 있을 거예요. 여러분들이 이 곳에서 제 한국 생활에 대해 읽었으면 좋겠어요!
안녕 :) I am planning to go abroad to Korea for my senior year (I am currently a freshman). However, because I am still 2 years away from my senior year, I couldn't ask my counselor about going abroad yet(I plan on asking him during my junior year). So this is my question, what are you going to do about your midterms and your finals? Also, what are you going to do about school work? How are the report cards going to be like because since you didn't take any tests or do any school work while you are abroad you wouldn't have a grade. Do they use the grades you got in the school at Korea? I am sorry this is a very long post but I just want to know what several students are going to do about school so I can get an idea of what I might be doing. Please answer and you should write more often~~
ReplyDelete안녕, 소피아~
ReplyDeleteIt's really awesome that you are planning this far in advance. I guess what you should know first of all is that every (American) school is different. My school, very thankfully, is counting this year as my senior year. I'll get grades in Korea which will go on my American transcript. However, other exchange students have to make up a school year after returning home. You should definitely find out about your school's policy on exchange.
Since my school in America accepts the grades from my Korean school, I don't have to take midterms or finals for classes in America. However, in order to graduate from my high school in America, we have to have 4 years of English, history, and gym classes. They have history and gym class in Korea, but the English class here is, of course, a second language class. So I have to take American English class by correspondence. Whether your school accepts correspondence courses is something that you should also consider. Otherwise, you might have to take some classes in advance.
The other thing that you should do is study Korean. As much as you can. I studied really hard for over a year before coming here, but I don't feel that I can hold a conversation very well at all. The very best thing you can do is to talk to people. Really, even if you know grammar and vocabulary, being used to conversing is the most important thing. It also helps to write in Korean often. Keep a Korean diary or something to stretch your abilities in structure and articulation. That helped me a lot.
Good luck to you and let me know if you have any question~
-그레이스
Hi Grace! I really enjoy your blog and I was wondering what your process in becoming an exchange student was like. I was looking at the rotary website and I think it said that I had to be in rotary in order to even apply for the exchange program. Were you already in the rotary program before you learned about the exchange program or did you just apply for it?
ReplyDeleteVanessa,
DeleteAnyone (within the age range-I think it's 15-18.5 years old) can apply to be a Rotary exchange student. I was not a member of Rotary and nobody in my immediate family is a Rotarian. If you want to apply, you will have an interview with your local Rotary and if you pass that, there is a bunch of paperwork to fill out. However, if you are interested in becoming an exchange student, going with Rotary is, in my not-unbiased opinion, your best avenue. Hopefully that response is helpful to you. Good luck!! Hopefully everything works out for you :)
Grace
Thanks a bunch; your response really helped out a lot! Hope you continue to have fun in Korea! ^__^
Delete