Final reflections on studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea
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I feel like no study abroad experience can really be complete without time to reflect on the experience: the good, the bad, and the ugly. For me, I reflect on experiences I’ve had through conversations, but I thought it’d be fun to change things up by writing about my study abroad experience. So here are my reflections on studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea.
As a first-generation student, I am thankful for the support from my family, friends, and college. At no point did anyone question my choice of location or my abilities to get myself there. The only questions I got were, “How can we help?” I’m so thankful to have people in my life who think that way, especially being the first in my family to study abroad. I also think one of the unique traits of being a trailblazer that I really tapped into this semester was self-advocacy. This led to some really cool opportunities like swimming weekly at Yonsei’s pool, going to a South Korean pride expo, and trying on vintage hanbok! The support from back home and confidence to try new things helped me feel less alone abroad and reinforced the feeling of being a trailblazer, one of one, which helped me to feel more integrated in the culture.
As a Latina, I noticed that leaning into my ethnic identity helped me feel more secure in my personal identity abroad. Yes, I will always introduce myself as an American from Chicago with pride, but I know I look different, and I also have a whole other culture and language that is important to me! For instance, braiding my hair with ribbons and cheering for Mexico in the World Cup helped me feel more confident in my identity abroad. It also helped me to mentally shift the way I felt about stares I’d receive from Korean people. Yes, South Korea is a very homogeneous country, and even though Seoul has a lot of tourists, people still stare. After a while of noticing this behaviour, I got used to it. I learned to think of it as them looking because I’m embracing my own culture and background in another country, and that’s beautiful!
As an older sister, I can’t lie, studying abroad has made me realize that I miss my siblings a lot. There are just some things that your siblings will always understand better than close friends. Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to learn how sibling dynamics look in similar and different ways through my experience volunteering abroad. I had the opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage in Seoul that supports kids with special needs and those who cannot be reconnected with their families for a variety of reasons. From the playful banter to the little arguments and the kids asking if we knew what Italian Brain Rot was. These kids reminded me so much of the petty arguments I used to have back home with my own siblings. Furthermore, even the relationships I created with my IES Abroad and Yonsei friends also reminded me of my siblings back home. I’m grateful to have experienced these different relationships because they feel so familiar yet different, which helped me to recognize how significant my relationships with my siblings really are.
As Marci, I’m prouder of myself than I have ever been before. I always like to challenge myself to push myself outside my comfort zone to absorb as much information as possible. This was truly the furthest I’ve pushed myself yet! Something I think no one talks about is how you become like a sponge when you go abroad. Like a sponge, it becomes increasingly important to absorb new things, such as cultural nuances, language, and mannerisms. Yet sometimes I struggle with feeling like I over-adapt to a new environment and balancing all the new things I learn and my core traits. While studying abroad, I learned to be a lot more mindful of my presence and leaned heavily into the South Korean style of social awareness (눈치 /nunchi), which led me to become very irritable with my American peers who could not seemingly grasp this concept. I think I also struggled with feeling overly mature or uptight in comparison to my peers, which was exemplified by trying to fit into a new culture. This meant that I had the awkward dichotomy of wanting to blend into South Korean life more and not stand out as a tourist, but hanging out with my American peers made that goal feel impossible. But then, after leaving, it’s almost like being squeezed, and all the mannerisms I picked up came pouring out because the context that required them was gone.
Coming home, I didn’t have to worry about forcing myself to conform to a certain culture or social awareness because of how diverse Chicago is. The reality that there are only so many things that you learn that you can keep in your life after studying abroad hit me very quickly. The hardest part for me was learning to partially let go of the mannerisms or rules I picked up abroad since I don’t need to follow them in Chicago. Of course, it is still important to pay attention to social context, but just not to the degree that it was expected in Seoul. Although these experiences make me miss being abroad even more, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to have learned these lessons.
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