If the American Airlines app is to be believed, my flight boards in 8 hours and 44 minutes. In just under 9 hours I will be on my way to meet my cohort, the people I have been chatting with for months, and together we will embark for 6 weeks in Seoul, South Korea. It’s still hard to believe this is all real, even 86 days after I received my finalist notification, that in a few short days I will be living in another country and immersed in a new language.
While I’m both excited and nervous right now it’s hard to tell which is winning. The nerves mainly come from my lack of experience with the language. But as my NSLIY friends keep reminding me, I am going on this program to learn the language and no one expects me to have it mastered. Nonetheless, I worry about communicating with my host family or finding my way through Seoul as a foreigner. I know it will all work out in the end, and I shouldn’t let my nerves squash my excitement. And at the end of the day, that is how I feel- excited, beyond thrilled, ecstatic; and I cannot wait to start this amazing adventure.
Seeing as all great adventures start with a good night’s sleep, I should probably try to catch some shut eye. 5am will be here before I know it and that’s when this new chapter begins.
It’s funny. Nothing is packed. I’m sitting on a couch typing. I have no fear, no urgency. I’m relaxed. I’m content.
That’s just because nothing has set in yet. It hasn’t occurred to me that I’m not going to see my family for seven weeks. It hasn’t occurred to me that “home” will be Korea for the next month and a half. It hasn’t occurred to me that I really ought to get a suitcase for my stuff. The only thing that’s really set in for me is that I’m technically homeless, as my home was sold about a week ago and we don’t have a new one and I am currently located in a hotel.
Out of all the amazing people on this trip, there are moments where I feel like I’m the least deserving of this honor. I applied on a whim when I saw an Instagram ad. I turned in half of my documents late. I honestly forgot about the program between the part where I applied and the part where I got the semifinalist notification. Heck, when I got the notification, I had to look up what the program was in order to jog my memory. Yet somehow, someway, I made it in.
When I’m in that KakaoTalk group chat, I can’t help but marvel at all these people who I’m going to become family with over these upcoming several weeks. It’s sort of surreal knowing that by the end of this program I’m probably going to bawl because I don’t want to leave these unique and beautiful individuals. They’re interesting, they’re amusing, they’re smart, they’re fun, they’re creative, they’re clever. They’re people who I want to get to know even better. I want to leave this program with at least 49 new friends.
Though I suppose it’d be a little awkward to make all these friends when I still haven’t packed a single thing. I guess I should get on that.
My flight leaves in about 13.5 hours. I doubt I’m going to sleep until then.
I can’t describe how happy yet terrified I was at the same time when I got an email from my host mom. The moment I had been waiting for since my acceptance finally arrived, and I was about to make my first impression on the family that would be taking care of my for the rest of the summer. That’s pretty scary, but it was also a relief to know that these were real people that seemed to really be up to the task of dealing with me. My mom is an English queen and I’m really relived about that, and my dad is a small business owner. As an only child, I’m really looking forward to being a 형 for a bit. My little bro is 12 and plays soccer and video games.
So great, now I know a bit about who they are, but now the real question is, what do I get them? I decided to give them each an individual gift and one practical gift for all of them so here they are:
For my Mom: I got her a small necklace from Neiman Marcus, an iconic Dallas department store. It’s nothing too flashy because let’s be real, my family ain’t loaded with money, but I hope she likes it.
For my Dad: I got him bobblehead of the Texas Rangers outfielder, Shin Soo Choo. He’s a Korean player for my local baseball team, so I figured it would be symbolic of cross-cultural exchange. He can put it somewhere around the house or at his work if he wants.
For my Brother: I got an FC Dallas T-shirt because I hear he likes soccer. I really hope it fits, or he can at least grow into it.
For the whole family: Everyone needs to get groceries, so I got them a Texas themed bag from my local Trader Joes.
Overall, I know gifts aren’t the biggest deal, but I want to make a good impression on them. If you’re still deciding on last minute gifts, perhaps this may help a bit. If you already have them, I’d love to hear what everyone else came up with. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
heya there, blog readers (hopefully some future nsli-y korean applicants among you)! i’m shelby. i’m 2019’s resident clown and i’m here to tell you about my nsli-y journey. make sure to follow my blog over at https://shelbodoeskorea.home.blog/ for daily posts about the program!!!
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although i remember stumbling across the nsli-y website when i was in middle school, desperately searching for a program willing to send 12-year-olds abroad, i wasn’t able to apply at the time. thank the universe for that! the idea of going abroad had escaped my mind until this past october, when my mandarin teacher brought the subject up to me; i’ve long been the fastest-paced student in a class used mostly for giving language credits to kids who flunk spanish, and she wanted to see me take my skills to china. she mentioned nsli-y in particular, and i recognized the logo, so that night i obsessively read over blogs from nsli-y china alumni, excited that something i had dreamed about as a kid might become a reality!
when i pitched the idea to my parents, however, they were adamant that i would not be going to china. it was too dangerous, they said, and their minds were made. in the financial state my family is in, nsli-y is the only program that would allow me to study abroad. i couldn’t afford to do rotary exchange like other students at my school were going to do. i had to get into nsli-y if i ever wanted to have that experience. so, going out of my comfort zone, i picked another nsli-y language: korean. i spoke close to none, only knowing about 50 basic words and present tense conjugation. the reason i chose korean, though, was because i remembered my kpop-obsessed friend kareena trying to teach some to me in middle school, before i even knew about my passion for foreign languages. since i’d moved on to mandarin and french, i’d all but forgotten about korean being one of my first language-learning attempts. i decided that nsli-y was going to be a challenge for myself: i would see just how far i could get starting practically from scratch, and return to my “roots” as a language learner at the same time.
in total, 5 or 6 people from my school alone applied to be in nsli-y. i remember crying opening the semifinalist notification email, confident that i would be rejected. 3 of the other applicants from my high school already took korean classes on weekends and were easily intermediate level. despite that, and against all logic, i was the only one accepted as a semifinalist. i was ecstatic. with a boost of confidence, i spammed as many people as i could find on kakaotalk until someone added me into the 2019 korea group chat.
the interview came and went, and i met tessa, another florida friend going to seoul! i became the first person in my family to ever own a passport, which i promptly took ten million pictures of, and anxiously awaited hearing back about my position. my self doubt got to me again, and this time, i was pretty sure that i was going to get looked over in favor of tessa. i assumed with absolutely no evidence that nsli-y based acceptances partially on regional quotas. surprise surprise, we both got in. i cried! my acceptance story was a wacky one, though. bonkers, if you will. my portal said “finalist instructions” at the top when i checked it during school, but…. i had no forms. alumni i talked to said that that probably meant i was an alternate, and i cried again, thinking i was an idiot for assuming i was accepted. this was in the car on my mom’s birthday, too, by the way. two hours later, an hour after everyone else got their confirmation emails (which made me cry harder), i got my email. but still no forms! i was happy but very confused. after a few days reaching out to nsli-y, my forms were given to me on the portal. i was, at last, confirmed finalist for the seoul program.
the entire experience would have been better if i had stopped doubting myself. throughout the entire process, i always assumed the worst outcome, and it made me miserable. crying over cheesecake on my mom’s birthday as i tried to figure out my status was horrible, even though it was really good cheesecake! to any and all future applicants who may be reading this: believe in yourself. even if you’re a first time applicant, even if you’re up against other students, even if you have no reason to believe you’re anything special. you are! not getting in will not be the end of the world, ESPECIALLY if it’s your first time applying, like me. if you do get in, that’s amazing, but if you don’t, you will still find happiness!
i remember a particular phrase i said while i thought i was rejected: that i would have to see other people live my dream out for me. looking back, i know that isn’t the case. just because other people get to live your dream first, doesn’t mean you never will, or that you can’t live it in conjunction. remember this during the process, and i promise that it will all turn out alright.
In less than 10 days i’ll be spending the summer in Seoul with 49 other crackheads like me (that’s a joke, don’t do drugs kids). That’s still crazy to think about, and it only becomes real to me little by little. You may be wondering how I ended up with you lot, so here goes:
My name is Dominic Phillips, and I grew up in Plano, TX. If you know anything about my hometown, it’s probably that the city is filled to the brim with Asians. And by that I mean they’re everywhere. There are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indian grocery stores all over the place; there are great restaurants from a variety of cuisines, and you can even find a 노래방 or two. All this exposure to other cultures got me interested in international travel. If there’s one thing I most enjoy doing in life, it’s going abroad. Additionally, I enjoy learning languages (why else would I be here?). My school school offers Chinese, so I take that, but wanted a chance to learn something new.
When I found out about NSLI-Y, it was a dream come true. I get to live with a host family in another country and learn the language, for free????? I went in tho the application with a “Why the hell not?” attitude because I didn’t think I had a real shot of getting in. In the beginning, I was torn between applying for Russian, Arabic, or Korean. In the end I settled on Korean for a few reasons: 1) South Korea is such a highly developed country with so much cool stuff going on. I live for the city life sometimes. I can’t wait to explore Seoul and check out all the cool things the place has to offer 2) Hangul is sooo cool from a linguistic standpoint and so much more convenient than Chinese. Imagine not having to memorize a different character for every word and tell the difference between 4 tones. 3) My dream job would be to work for the State Department, so if I know Chinese and Korean (and maybe i’ll try Russian later who knows), i’ll be set.
The whole process went in kind of a blur, from the essays to the interview. I was overjoyed to hear that I was a semifinalist, and nearly lost it when I got accepted. I got the email during school and everybody was so confused why I suddenly had a mental breakdown. It may sound cliche, but getting that acceptance was one of the happiest moments in my life. To make things better, I have found in my fellow finalists a group of fun, intelligent, and supportive people from all over the country. I couldn’t ask for a better group to spend the summer with, and I haven’t even met any of y’all! Here’s to having a great NSLI-Y experience and growing together as Korean speakers!
This is probably gonna be something I look back on and cringe, or colleges are gonna find and facepalm at during admissions but you know what I’m sleep deprived so impulse wins.
Sup, my name is LH.
I applied for NSLI in my sophomore year when my friend who was applying for Arabic told me about the program. At the time, I was self teaching myself Chinese because of the business opportunities and also the sheer number of people that spoke the language. Also, I wanted to impress some girls with some supreme i n t e l l e c t (that was also the reason I took Latin in middle school). I applied for the Chinese Summer program with extremely extremely banal essays. So banal, that if you read them and found them interesting, you’re probably the type of person that watches those live Chicken Cams online that show all those chickens running around and laying eggs or something weird like that. I won’t judge dog. Of course, I got rejected because I really didn’t have the right motivations for learning Chinese, and my future is probably not in that country. My essays also sucked.
This year though, I tried to do some introspecting. Now, I’m not the type of guy that introspects too often, I sort of just do things on impulse. Like writing this post at midnight. Anyways, I’m going off track. For those of you who don’t know, I’m half-Korean, and I work at a Korean school. I’m definitely not fluent, but I know enough to teach the really basic classes with young kids. I guess you could say I applied for that but I don’t really think that’s the big reason, you know. I might make a post on that later, no idea.
I really didn’t think that I’d get in. I kind of just applied just to apply. Somehow, stuff worked out and here I am writing this post. Welp, heres to NSLI 2019.
Our generation is very well acquainted with stress and even severe levels of anxiety that have not been seen with past young-adults. This is very specific to us and we are almost at home with this constant weight. This isn’t a neuroscience research paper, I promise. This is my blog post to remind you of how proud I am of all of us and how proud you should be of yourselves. It takes serious grit to even apply for a program like NSLI-Y, especially when we are in the midst of witnessing the terrible acts of others in the world and when we are trying our best to destroy the system we were put in by utilizing our right to education. This alone is very brave and it is so important that we are using this right when there are so many that can’t. We are learning and we are going to change the world that we know into one we can be proud of. In exposing ourselves to a whole other culture and life this summer, we will develop our empathy the way that is needed to better our society; because beyond everything, all we need is love.
In the midst of anxiously waiting for NSLI-Y results, I wrote two letters to my future self. One to read if I became a finalist, and one if I did not. Almost an hour past the release of two Korean programs, I almost gave up hope and read the dreaded “Open if you are not a finalist” letter. But sure enough with one more refresh, I found out I was set to explore Seoul, South Korea for the summer while deeply engaging with the language, the culture, and the people. To say I was excited is an understatement. Inspired by visits to Korea Town with my family when I was younger, I set out to learn the beautiful language myself two years ago. My old friends made fun of me for learning Korean and I had no one around me to help with my learning. The fact that all the effort I put in and taunting I brushed aside paid off, is huge to me. I hope to take this opportunity as not only a chance to improve my language skills and grow a better understanding of a new culture, but also as a chance to use what I know and will learn to uplift and help those around me. In a few days I’m headed off to meet the other finalist, who over these past few weeks have become sincere friends. I know this experience will be challenging at times and some days will be hard, but my dedication to absorb as much as possible on this trip will push me through any tough moments. And while I’m excited to eat Korean food, visit karaoke rooms, and watch Hongdae street performers, I can’t wait to finally learn more about something I have been passionate about with those feel the same way. NSLI-Y has provided me and other students with a tremendous gift, one that I can’t wait to share and cherish forever.
Disclaimer: A complete chronology, this is very long and contains useful and anecdotal information concerning the NSLI-Y Application Process from being a Prospective Applicant all the way to being a Finalist.
안녕~ Heyo~ If you’re reading this blog post, you are probably either
A: a prospective NSLI-Yian (like Earthling, but for NSLI-Y) Keyword: @Prospective
B: someone who was rejected from NSLI-Y Keyword: @Hope
C: a Semifinalist Keyword: @Semi
D: a fellow NSLI-Yian of the Class of 2019 (AYYYY WE MADE IT!!!) Keyword: @Fellow
E: an alumnus NSLI-Yian who is reminiscing about the past Keyword: @Alumni
F: a human being who has access to the Internet somehow 😉 Keyword: @Human
In an effort to provide the most relevant information to the appropriate reader, I’ve divided this blog post into sections. Feel free to skip to whatever fits your fancy by searching for the Keyword associated with each type.
For example, if you’re a Semifinalist, Ctrl F “@Semi” and jump to that section. Of course, feel free to read on~ (Ctrl F for Windows, Cmd F for Macs, as of 2019/6/13)
@Prospective (for the Prospective NSLI-Yians)
The prospective NSLI-Yian goes through a variety of different phases. (By the way, NSLI-Yians are people who receive scholarships to travel to a foreign country and become at least bilingual) Listed below are some of the moods you might encounter for your convenience.
“wait. language scholarships are a thing? i got to apply”
“wait.. why are they so annoyingly expensive”
“wait… i get to travel and receive stipend and learn dat language? i got to apply to NSLI-Y”
“(internally wishes the selection committee to accept the application that you worked on for weeks/months)”
“(internally wishes the selection committee to accept the application that you worked on last week)” <– DON’T DO THIS
“/outwardly is super confident in your application because you poured your time, effort, sweat, and tears like you never have before”
“(internally doubts that you’ll make it even past the first round because it’s cOmPeTiTiVe)”
When I became a prospective applicant, I was pretty excited. I felt like I had nothing to lose by applying. I had self-studied Japanese for since middle school. Chinese was my heritage language and I was taking Spanish in school. The self-proclaimed language nerd, I literally wasn’t aware of the existence of study abroad scholarships until my high school Spanish teacher talked about it in class.
To be honest, i was S H O O K.
After the S H O O K phase, I went onto the NSLI-Y website and signed up to be reminded when the application came out.
This is the start line.
To be honest with you, there are just so many blog posts on the Internet that have advice for the prospective student.
My Advice: Don’t study a dozen or more blog posts and over-analyze them (even though you think you’re not)
Do, however, plan for every requirement the application offers — recommendation letter, transcript, essays, logistical data tasks.
Example: August 2018 — I received the notification September 2018 — I asked my Spanish teacher for a rec letter, brainstormed my essays, took time on the weekends to do the annoying logistic tasks, etc. October 2018 — I submitted my application.
And most importantly, pour your entire heart and passion into your application.
“If the other person can see your linguistic passion leap off your application, you’re a strong applicant.”
– Jonathan, NSLI-Y Summer Seoul Finalist
Personally, I think this was the defining characteristic of my application, and though I am not on the committee that selects applicants, I’m sure that skimming through the links I’ve posted below will show this to be one definite way to become a NSLI-Yian.
My Curated List of Links Instructions: Just skim these.
Perhaps you just saw the notification five minutes ago, or it’s already been a couple of months now.
How are you doing?
Perhaps you’ve been taking it a bit too hard on yourself, or you’ve kept replaying the one thing you’re sure ruined your application or interview.
Perhaps you’re confused. Perhaps you’ve given up.
Here’s a tip.
STOP
Why? Three Reasons.
One — Because replaying your supposed mistakes aren’t helping you.
Two — Because with every new application cycle, you have a chance to demonstrate your newfound appreciation or linguistic awesomeness in your application.
Three — Because your rejection now says nothing about your future destiny.
Perhaps you’ve stopped, and reflected on your application, and what this means in your future…
Will you decide to stay down
Or stand back up?
To reflect on how you could improve your application
To further explore your fascination with said language and culture.
No matter what your motivation is for applying, no matter what your background is, no matter how many foreign languages you know, you can do it.
The next step is yours to take.
@Semi (For those awaiting their interviews, aka Semifinalists)
At this point in the NSLI-Y Application process, you might be feeling one of the following moods.
“(impatiently waiting for my notification)”
“(S H O O K when you passed the first round)”
“(dancing in the car outside the library because you didn’t want to make a scene in the library)” <– tbh, this was me
“/realizing that you have to do an interview”
“/again scrubbing the internet for tips on interviewing”
DO YOU KNOW HOW s h o o k I WAS WHEN I SAW THIS
My ADVICE – Don’t scrub the Internet looking for a dozen blog posts and keep sTrEsSiNg oUt.
Do practice interviewing with someone like your high school counselor or your foreign language teacher.
Do watch your email inbox vigilantly for any updates from the interviewer. (They got a lot of people to interview, make sure they don’t forget you want to interview)
“Fill your interview time with your fascination with said language and your unique perspective, as if you were talking with a friend who loves foreign language and culture.”
– Jonathan, NSLI-Y Summer Seoul Finalist
Quite frankly, your interview CAN BE that friend who loves foreign language and culture. Literally in my interview, I couldn’t stop talking about how fascinated I was with Korean, its unique alphabet, its similarities to Japanese, and . . . I’m going to stop here.
Because you have your own unique reasons for learning said language, whether it be Korean or otherwise. Build off of that to create a wonderful experience in your interview.
Go show that interviewer what you’ve got! You can do it!
P.S. If you want, here’s my curated list of links for you to SKIM. (Don’t over-analyze these y’all)
I know for all of us in the KakaoTalk group chat for the Seoul Summer program, one recurrent theme is how excited everyone is to meet one another.
This blog post is so long, so I decided to split it.
Click this link <> to read my blog post about my reflections and observations since I’ve become a NSLI-Y Finalist~
@Alumni (for the honorable NSLI-Y alumni)
Frankly, I’m not an alumnus yet, but I can attempt to write a blog post as if I am writing a time capsule letter to myself.
Feel free to check out my separate blog post here at <>.
Note to Future Self: Making my first blog post is pretty cool, but not when pulling an all-nighter because sTrEsS.
@Human
Thus, this extremely long blog post concludes. I hope this blog post was of use and aided you in educating or entertaining you.
I recently started my own personal blog, which aims to record my adventures on this Earth throughout my lifetime. Feel free to click HERE if you want to check it out.
NSLI-Y 서울 Summer 2019 