GKS SCHOLARSHIP LANGUAGE STUDY PLAN BEFORE AND AFTER

a second soul

"To have another language is to posses a second soul" This quotation is very true indeed. Growing up in India, a country diverse in culture and tradition is great for mastering various language. I am Kerala and did my schooling and college in Tamil Nadu so speaking both Malayalam and Tamil were like eating a piece of cake. Whereas English and Hindi were mandatory in the school and college I attended so I became very much fluent in four languages at a very young age. I always wanted to learn Korean, but I could not find a language institute at my locality and hence I decided to teach myself Korean during weekends using sites like: Korean101.com and HowtoStudyKorean.com as I was busy with studies on weekdays. These websites helped me a lot with framing sentences, grammar, reading and vocabulary. Besides that, I have completed an online course FIRST STEP KOREAN offered by YONSEI UNIVERSITY through coursera and hence learning the Korean is going to be bit easier for me. My medium of instruction was English throughout my schooling and college, so I believe that though I am not fluent as native speaker I am pretty good with English language but due to my family's financial status I could not afford the fee for IELTS exam. I solely relied on English newspapers and novels for improving my language. And I have also won outstanding entry in international essay writing competition twice which really increased my confidence with English language.

As Korean language is required for my course and as a commerce student, I believe that to have a better career in commerce related field apart from good numerical and analytical skills one must possess both problem solving and leadership quality for which communication is required. So, I will completely spend the first two semesters in mastering Korean. It is my dream to speak Korean fluently If I get accepted for this scholarship, I will really put full effort in learning the language by being attentive in class and clarifying doubts with language trainer regularly and I also plan to mingle with native speakers and learn to speak better Korean. During my stay I would also like to explore the culture and traditions of Korea for which I would like to enrol in language and culture clubs. As for English if I get accepted, I believe I could meet lot of native English speakers by interacting with them I will improve my accent.

The focus of the language learning study plan is on Hangul and English. So the reference to the native dialects of India are irrelevant in this case. Yes, it shows your ability to learn languages from an early age, but, it is irrelevant to the prompt that asks you to focus a presentation on how you will better develop your Hangul and English skills. Even though English is one of the major languages spoken in India, it is important that you continue to hone your skills in the language while in Korea. Do not assume that your English proficiency will be more than sufficient for the course you will be studying. There is a reason why you are being asked to explain how you are furthering your English and Hangul studies before you come to Korea, this will show a dedication to learning on your part and, an ability to be socially interactive with all the students, whether they speak Hangul or not. So do not focus on just Hangul learning in the presentation. Balance it out. There is no need to mention the IELTS test in this presentation. It is the TOPIK test that will matter the most. Think about how you will develop your learning for both languages. Winning the international essay writing competition is irrelevant to the discussion. Do not make it appear that your English learning and usage is perfect, when you already admitted to having problems. You are changing the topic. You need to focus on language learning. The reviewer does not care for your awards, that is not a requirement in this discussion.

Hello!
There are some things that you do not need to put in this part of the Statement of Purpose, such as the first four lines. You do not have to talk about your language context in your country, that is something you can briefly explain on your Personal Statement instead. You should concentrate more on presenting the text as a structured language learning plan, explaining how you are going to improve your level before and after the GKS. As a tip, you can put your ideas in order of time.

I would not start the second paragraph with ''As Korean language is required for my course and as a commerce student'', it sounds like you have to learn Korean only because it is mandatory, not because you are interested in it.

You can follow the advices you got a few days ago, and you'll be all set :)