Scholarship /
Being at crossroads in the journey of life. My "Personal Statement" for Government Scholarship [6]
Merged: My "Personal Statement" for Government Scholarship/ Edited
Hello everyone. I hope you all are great. please take a look at my personal statement and let me know if it covers all the acquired fields mentioned. also, I need to cut it down about two paragraphs in a way that important points are still kept. Thank you in advance.
o Motivations with which you apply for this program
o Your education and work experience in relation to the KGSP
o Reason for studying in Korea
o Any other aspects of your background and interests which may help us evaluate your aptitude and passion for graduate study or research.
An enthusiastic student of language and literature, I was born to a family in which my parents have always been supportive of my education to the fullest. My father is a holder of PhD and my mother instilled a love for literature in me by constantly reading interesting stories to me from when I was very small. Thanks to this upbringing, I was already writing stories and making little illustrations to go with them by the time I was eight. Writing became a way to channel my feelings and creative energy, and I started to write more seriously by eighteen, eventually receiving awards at regional writing competitions.
My very first encounter with anything Korean started with a little emblem showing a cute Korean couple in traditional wedding clothes. It was on the keychain my father gave me when I was sixteen, and had an inscription of the words 믿음, 소망, 사랑. When asked my father for an explanation on the emblem, he asked me to search for it myself. That search led me to find out about Korea's traditions; "Hanbok" and "Pansori" which I was soon drawn to as this style of music conveys sorrow and joy at the same time. That's why when Park Aeri visited Iran in summer 2017, I was honored to be one of the members of Sejong School Cultural Academy, who was lucky to visit her at Korean ambassador's house. I consider this event as destiny.
I was always fascinated by K-culture, literature and language and its linguistic and cultural similarities to that of Iran. Thus, I started teaching myself Korean in 2008, and after a series of tests and interviews, I got accepted into Korean Sejong School. The only problem was the 8-hour distance of commuting by bus from Arak to Tehran, but I eagerly sought to be taught by a native teacher.
I decided to apply for KGSP due to the enthusiasm I have for Korea's culture, tradition, literature, poetry, and traditional music, Pansori. I was able to visit my dream country in the summer 2017, thanks to the money I have saved through ten years of working. One of my biggest reasons for this trip was to ensure that Korea is my right choice, and I absolutely fell for it more than ever, because I experienced Hanshik, Hanbok, traditional instruments and Jeju Island in person and was able to use my Korean abilities easily to communicate with people. I also visited my dream universities HUFS and Korea University, which made me try harder throughout last year to achieve my goal that led me to self-study and get my TOPIK 4 band within two months. These universities are my first and foremost choices, firstly, because HUFS has Translation Studies field and secondly, Korea University has Semiotics in linguistics major which are my most favorite.
I studied experimental science at a prestigious high school in my hometown Arak, but I chose to study English and translation in university, because I knew that was my passion. I went on to excel in it, taking a temporary student-teacher position for English instruction and passing the rigorous screening to join the Iran Language Institute, which is one of the most renowned institutions of its kind.
From the early years of elementary school to college graduation with M.A. in Translation Studies, I received awards and letters of appreciation from General Governors of Makazi Province for my high grades and researches I have done as a pre-eminent student. I finished my B.A program one year sooner than the scheduled four years. My Socio-Semiotic paper ranked in the first place at the National Conference on Translation Studies in 2015, in which I was one of the key presenters who gave a speech based on my paper before an audience of 700 attendees. In addition, another paper of mine was selected in 2017 for publication in Shahid Chamran University Translation and Discourse magazine, which is one of the prestigious national universities in Iran.
Starting my English education at ten, I was drawn to this first foreign language early on. I devoured the Harry Potter series as a thirteen-year-old, and later got into the habit of comparing English texts with their Farsi translations to spot missed contents owing to censorship and other reasons, which I now realize was my own way of doing comparative analysis.
I believe Korea is the best place for me to study Translation Studies or Applied Linguistics, because it provides exposure to every aspect of life, which is in direct connection with the program I applied for. It also combines unique linguistic features, culture, and literature which provide excellent training for a translator. Korea's importance in politics and economics has been increasing, and Iran has always been the center of attention for political reasons. Additionally, it has always been favored by many around the world for its culture and literature, especially its poetry (both classical and modern). Many Korean students of Persian Literature are interested in Farsi literature and language. However, they feel that there is a lack of Persian sources translated into Korean. Moreover, the world is not as familiar with Korean literature as they are with Japanese and Chinese literature! I am personally a fan of Yoon Dong Joo, Ahn Do Hyun and many other Korean poets and was so inspired by them that I wrote some short Korean poems. In addition, Korean children's works are morally and educationally perfect like Baek Heena's works, which I really admire. I already have translated "알사탕" and "달샤배트" from Korean into English and Farsi directly from Korean that are waiting to be published soon. Therefore, I have made a decision many years ago to be a bridge to connect different cultures via literature in an effort to allow each country to have better insights into the other. I started by working to become proficient in many languages. I have been able to teach myself a basic level of Japanese and French and am able to speak English (which is the world language), Korean (which is one of East Asian languages), and Farsi (which is my mother tongue). I hope to continue this journey by studying in Korea.