Personal Achievement Reflection

Description

During my time in Korea in August of 2019, I stayed there for vacation. During my stay, I
wanted to relearn my language. My aunt helped me with reading and writing; she even bought
me three workbooks to work on my skills. I would study and write in the notebook every day
for 1-2 hours. I would practice my writing and pronunciation. Every time I had a question, my
aunt, parents, and sister would assist me in it. Relearning my language was a personal
achievement due to my desire to connect more with my culture.

Personal Relevancy

This was an achievement for me because I wanted to be closer to my heritage. This was
relevant for me as it became much easier to read and write in Korean; now I didn’t need to ask
for help with translation and instead did it on my own. Relearning this was a step closer to me
being more connected to my background. This was a meaningful achievement since I am still
able to use what I learned four years ago, but now it feels like a first language instead of a
second language.

Skill Development

The skill I learned from this experience was memorization. I had to be able to memorize
the Korean alphabet, 24 letters, and all the pronunciations, which took a long time to get the
hang of. I also had to develop and refine my reading and writing skills to understand the
language. Finally, I had to be personally responsible for everything, such as memorizing,
reading, writing, and asking for help; they were all skills I had used, but only due to my being
responsible for them.

Self-Awareness
 From my experience with this, I became self-aware of the fact that memorization was
difficult, but it was much harder to memorize everything within a 1-month span. I became
aware of the fact that it was quite draining to memorize a whole language that I was only 50%
proficient in. Although it was hard to memorize, I had learned that learning a language was fun.
I dislike French, but if it was a language I was interested in, there was fun and joy in it.

Future Connections

The future connections I could make from this achievement are that I would be able to
make connections with other people who can speak the language, therefore meeting new
people. Being able to converse in another language can help me get closer to my cultural
heritage, which I would like to happen. I would be able to make connections, and if I were in
the business industry, I could expand them to a much bigger degree. With the ability to speak
this language, it would be much easier to learn a similar language, such as Japanese. Finally, I
would be able to get a job in Korea if I were to ever move there and start a new life.