Hello, I'm applying for GKS-G 2026 and I'm looking for some feedback on my personal statement. Im applying through embassy track. This is my 6th draft so far, so I hope it isnt too bad! hehe Thank you in advance!!!
When I told my mother I was not applying to university, she was extremely distraught. Having raised me on her own, she had always hoped I would pursue higher education. My reasoning was simple: the program I was passionate about was not offered in my country, and I felt uncertain about direction. I started working part-time at a local burger restaurant in rural southern Estonia, setting new goals for myself every week, though few of them felt concrete. After months of endless shifts, my mother offered to use part of the savings she had set aside since my childhood to help me get just a little bit closer to those ambitions. With the money saved from grilling patties and my mother's hard work, I was on my way to Korea.
That spring, I spent 10-weeks at Seoul National University, where I dedicated each and every day to studying Korean to the best of my abilities. I ended up graduating top of my class and received awards for both academic excellence and perfect attendance. The roughly three months spent in Korea changed me to my core. For the first time in my life, I experienced living alone in a foreign country and met other Korean learners to connect with and share our passions and struggles. I had always had my own perceptions of Korea and its society, but hearing about my newfound friends' experiences helped me understand how perceptions of South Korea range from everything from a pop-culture powerhouse to the "friendly twin" of North Korea. The 10-week language course helped me come to realise that, to me, Korea and Korean Studies were not a romanticised obsession, but something I wanted to pursue professionally.
Soon after returning to my home country, I finally found my place at Tallinn University's English Language and Culture bachelor's program, one of the most competitive in the country. An English degree was not necessarily the path I had envisioned, but I soon came to realise that a bachelor's degree in English was the ideal foundation for cultural and discourse studies, fields that could be seamlessly applied to Korean studies, and a direction my mind had already started moving towards during the semester at SNU. For my minor, I chose Japanese Language and Culture, a program that proved to be much more difficult than anticipated, but one that would give me a fresh perspective in cultural studies regarding Asia and, therefore, the Korean peninsula. During my bachelor's program, I attended Tallinn King Sejong Institute, where I am still a student to this day. Studying at the Institute provided me with the first opportunity to prove my Korean skills through the annual Korean speaking contest. After preparing for weeks, trying to get all the details perfect, I was announced the winner and was given the opportunity to attend the Sejong Institute's Program for Outstanding Learners 2025. Tallinn Sejong Institute was not only a place for learning, but it became a second home to me at Tallinn University, and a place that became my core connection to the Korean community in Estonia. Everything from my bachelor's studies, my time at the Sejong Institute and volunteering at international conferences and film festivals at the University taught me that I was most fulfilled when navigating between cultures, explaining one context to another, and contributing to mutual understanding rather than remaining a passive observer.
My bachelor's thesis was defined by a deepening commitment to interdisciplinary research, a path heavily influenced by Professor Moon Chung-in. While studying his course on Korean politics and his work, The Sunshine Policy, I realised I wanted my academic trajectory to address the complex situation of the Korean peninsula. I was particularly drawn to representations of the Korean peninsula in the West, a topic that, given my knowledge of South Korea and English studies, I could manage well in an interdisciplinary manner. Thus, I looked toward the research of Dr Elizabeth Campbell, PhD in North Korean studies from Korea University, whose work on North Korean cinema and women provided the inspiration to pivot toward cultural and media representation. This led me to my bachelor's thesis: a corpus-based analysis of the depiction of Kim Jong Un across nine English-language media outlets. By compiling and coding data to identify recurring linguistic patterns, I was able to merge my background in English with my passion for Korean studies.
During my bachelor's degree, I completed a year as an exchange student at Sungkyunkwan University. The year marked another turning point in my journey. First, knowing that my mother could not financially support a full year abroad, I began working part-time at a local café, saving every cent for the exchange. The savings accumulated and an Erasmus+ scholarship enabled me to fulfil a longtime goal that would have otherwise been impossible. The summer before, I had taken the TOPIK exam and achieved level 6 completely through self-study, which enabled me to take most of my classes at SKKU in Korean and culturally immerse myself in a top-tier university such as SKKU. It was initially difficult to adapt and resulted in misunderstandings regarding the attendance system, but it taught me not to go into anything too confidently, no matter how skilled or experienced. The highlight of the exchange year was a short research paper I wrote fully in Korean for a modern Japanese literature class. The paper was daunting at first, but a core step in pursuing Korean studies and working with Korean academic material in further graduate studies.
In September 2025, I had the opportunity to represent Estonia in (--- quiz show), a televised survival quiz show hosted by KBS and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Even after a decade of learning Korean and the culture, I spent months preparing. I acquainted myself with every major aspect, ranging from language, history, art, music, important figures and pop culture. The competition was fierce. After two rounds of local preliminaries and over 1500 competitors from 24 countries worldwide, I became the first-ever Estonian representative on the show, and later, the first-ever European winner. I was honoured with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award- an award that became much more than a personal accomplishment. Not only did the experience provide an ideal opportunity to delve deep into Korean studies, but it ultimately put me in a role of national ambassadorship. I was approached by national and international newspapers, YouTube channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and even Estonia's national broadcaster, ERR, to appear on a radio channel talk-show. I realised that this was far bigger than myself. Inadvertently, I had become a point of contact for Estonia-Korea relations, a role I could never take lightly. Navigating this newfound responsibility taught me the importance of careful, intercultural communication, and filled me with pride after seeing commenters saying they had discovered Estonia through me.
Currently, I see my future in academia and cultural media production, angled specifically for Westerners interested in Korea, and therefore, the next logical step is undoubtedly the Global Korea Scholarship. I am applying for the scholarship because it offers the specific, immersion-based environment required to become a specialist in Korean Studies. While there are many Korean Studies programs in Europe, the GKS program would allow me to study domestic perspectives of the country, something that would be far more difficuly in Western institutions. In addition, I believe that Korean Studies requires not only cultural but linguistic fluency. Although having already achieved the highest level of TOPIK, I continue to feel a lack of professional vocabulary that can only be acquired through immersion, and requires graduate-level education in Korea to achieve. Moreover, institutions such as the Research Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University and Yonsei University's Institute for Modern Korean Studies provide not only research opportunities but a foundation to build on further. As South Korea becomes increasingly prominent in international discourse, there is a crucial need for specialists who can communicate cultural-historical nuances accurately and effectively to global audiences through both academic research and mainstream media platforms to create a more balanced and less dramatised image of the country and the peninsula as a whole. My goal is to become one of those experts, and that goal is best achieved through the Global Korea Scholarship.
When I told my mother I was not applying to university, she was extremely distraught. Having raised me on her own, she had always hoped I would pursue higher education. My reasoning was simple: the program I was passionate about was not offered in my country, and I felt uncertain about direction. I started working part-time at a local burger restaurant in rural southern Estonia, setting new goals for myself every week, though few of them felt concrete. After months of endless shifts, my mother offered to use part of the savings she had set aside since my childhood to help me get just a little bit closer to those ambitions. With the money saved from grilling patties and my mother's hard work, I was on my way to Korea.
That spring, I spent 10-weeks at Seoul National University, where I dedicated each and every day to studying Korean to the best of my abilities. I ended up graduating top of my class and received awards for both academic excellence and perfect attendance. The roughly three months spent in Korea changed me to my core. For the first time in my life, I experienced living alone in a foreign country and met other Korean learners to connect with and share our passions and struggles. I had always had my own perceptions of Korea and its society, but hearing about my newfound friends' experiences helped me understand how perceptions of South Korea range from everything from a pop-culture powerhouse to the "friendly twin" of North Korea. The 10-week language course helped me come to realise that, to me, Korea and Korean Studies were not a romanticised obsession, but something I wanted to pursue professionally.
Soon after returning to my home country, I finally found my place at Tallinn University's English Language and Culture bachelor's program, one of the most competitive in the country. An English degree was not necessarily the path I had envisioned, but I soon came to realise that a bachelor's degree in English was the ideal foundation for cultural and discourse studies, fields that could be seamlessly applied to Korean studies, and a direction my mind had already started moving towards during the semester at SNU. For my minor, I chose Japanese Language and Culture, a program that proved to be much more difficult than anticipated, but one that would give me a fresh perspective in cultural studies regarding Asia and, therefore, the Korean peninsula. During my bachelor's program, I attended Tallinn King Sejong Institute, where I am still a student to this day. Studying at the Institute provided me with the first opportunity to prove my Korean skills through the annual Korean speaking contest. After preparing for weeks, trying to get all the details perfect, I was announced the winner and was given the opportunity to attend the Sejong Institute's Program for Outstanding Learners 2025. Tallinn Sejong Institute was not only a place for learning, but it became a second home to me at Tallinn University, and a place that became my core connection to the Korean community in Estonia. Everything from my bachelor's studies, my time at the Sejong Institute and volunteering at international conferences and film festivals at the University taught me that I was most fulfilled when navigating between cultures, explaining one context to another, and contributing to mutual understanding rather than remaining a passive observer.
My bachelor's thesis was defined by a deepening commitment to interdisciplinary research, a path heavily influenced by Professor Moon Chung-in. While studying his course on Korean politics and his work, The Sunshine Policy, I realised I wanted my academic trajectory to address the complex situation of the Korean peninsula. I was particularly drawn to representations of the Korean peninsula in the West, a topic that, given my knowledge of South Korea and English studies, I could manage well in an interdisciplinary manner. Thus, I looked toward the research of Dr Elizabeth Campbell, PhD in North Korean studies from Korea University, whose work on North Korean cinema and women provided the inspiration to pivot toward cultural and media representation. This led me to my bachelor's thesis: a corpus-based analysis of the depiction of Kim Jong Un across nine English-language media outlets. By compiling and coding data to identify recurring linguistic patterns, I was able to merge my background in English with my passion for Korean studies.
During my bachelor's degree, I completed a year as an exchange student at Sungkyunkwan University. The year marked another turning point in my journey. First, knowing that my mother could not financially support a full year abroad, I began working part-time at a local café, saving every cent for the exchange. The savings accumulated and an Erasmus+ scholarship enabled me to fulfil a longtime goal that would have otherwise been impossible. The summer before, I had taken the TOPIK exam and achieved level 6 completely through self-study, which enabled me to take most of my classes at SKKU in Korean and culturally immerse myself in a top-tier university such as SKKU. It was initially difficult to adapt and resulted in misunderstandings regarding the attendance system, but it taught me not to go into anything too confidently, no matter how skilled or experienced. The highlight of the exchange year was a short research paper I wrote fully in Korean for a modern Japanese literature class. The paper was daunting at first, but a core step in pursuing Korean studies and working with Korean academic material in further graduate studies.
In September 2025, I had the opportunity to represent Estonia in (--- quiz show), a televised survival quiz show hosted by KBS and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Even after a decade of learning Korean and the culture, I spent months preparing. I acquainted myself with every major aspect, ranging from language, history, art, music, important figures and pop culture. The competition was fierce. After two rounds of local preliminaries and over 1500 competitors from 24 countries worldwide, I became the first-ever Estonian representative on the show, and later, the first-ever European winner. I was honoured with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award- an award that became much more than a personal accomplishment. Not only did the experience provide an ideal opportunity to delve deep into Korean studies, but it ultimately put me in a role of national ambassadorship. I was approached by national and international newspapers, YouTube channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and even Estonia's national broadcaster, ERR, to appear on a radio channel talk-show. I realised that this was far bigger than myself. Inadvertently, I had become a point of contact for Estonia-Korea relations, a role I could never take lightly. Navigating this newfound responsibility taught me the importance of careful, intercultural communication, and filled me with pride after seeing commenters saying they had discovered Estonia through me.
Currently, I see my future in academia and cultural media production, angled specifically for Westerners interested in Korea, and therefore, the next logical step is undoubtedly the Global Korea Scholarship. I am applying for the scholarship because it offers the specific, immersion-based environment required to become a specialist in Korean Studies. While there are many Korean Studies programs in Europe, the GKS program would allow me to study domestic perspectives of the country, something that would be far more difficuly in Western institutions. In addition, I believe that Korean Studies requires not only cultural but linguistic fluency. Although having already achieved the highest level of TOPIK, I continue to feel a lack of professional vocabulary that can only be acquired through immersion, and requires graduate-level education in Korea to achieve. Moreover, institutions such as the Research Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University and Yonsei University's Institute for Modern Korean Studies provide not only research opportunities but a foundation to build on further. As South Korea becomes increasingly prominent in international discourse, there is a crucial need for specialists who can communicate cultural-historical nuances accurately and effectively to global audiences through both academic research and mainstream media platforms to create a more balanced and less dramatised image of the country and the peninsula as a whole. My goal is to become one of those experts, and that goal is best achieved through the Global Korea Scholarship.
