tireless efforts and perseverance
Graduating with a GPA of 3.72/4.0 and receiving scholarships in 6 out of 8 semesters, many people think I am a natural intelligence person but I am not. Everything I have acquired until today is due to my tireless efforts and perseverance.
In reality, my family's educational background is not good while my father completed high school and my mother just completed middle school. I sometimes apprehend their incapability when they cannot guide me on my educational path but by chance, it matured my self-direction from an early age. The only thing they can do is work hard to build an all-sided opportunity for me to study. Appreciating those efforts, I couldn't help but try much less to upset them. Consequently, despite failing the university exam once and instead enroll in a lower university, I determined to study afresh to get into my aspiring school. It was not easy when I concurrently studied university programs and reviewed high school knowledge. The pressure of retaking the university plus the multifariousness of knowledge at the same time made me exhausted. After all, my efforts were not betrayed me. Owing to believing in myself, I was capable of enrolling in my aspiring university for the second time, so although I went through an exceedingly stressful time, I still had no regrets.
Nevertheless, this is not my final destination. Entering a new stage, I have to begin again to bring about and progressively strengthen my values in a new environment. When being a Junior, I had an opportunity to teach Vietnamese to Vietnamese Language and Culture Department's Koreans. While only providing some fundamental instruction, I spent countless time building up the lesson plan, and gradually the more I went through, the more I had a preference for this extracurricular activity. These classes have gradually created a closer bond for me and Korean as well as Korean culture moreover, they intensively sparked my fascination for foreign language teaching and provided a nurturing environment that made my values assigned. At the same time, to be satisfactory for my passion and to be more active in knowledge accumulating, I also run a language instruction Instagram page. This account not only accommodates bilingual subtitles but is also regularly updated so that it has hooked several Korean and Vietnamese followers to learn foreign languages.
On an intellectual level, the multitudinous linguistic theories through university subjects opened my eyes and became a well-founded commencement for undertaking this Applied Linguistics field. Appertaining the point of articulation theory peculiarity have synthesized in Phonetics, I made an inquiry dealing with the pronunciation of the syllables that are composed of /ong/ and /ung/ in Vietnamese and Korean to elucidate that the difference in point of articulation may be the root of learners' mispronunciation. When Korean pronounce /ong/ and /ung/, they have adhered to the mindset in the mother tongue and pronounce them as closed syllables even though there are round syllables in Vietnamese. Acknowledging this mistake, learners thought that just a microscopic adjustment could make effectively improve their pronunciation. That's when I gradually figured out what Applied Linguistics was but to apply linguistic theories to teach Vietnamese to Koreans, I necessarily established my Korean background. Even if Korean is not my major and I have to sacrifice innumerable time for my specialized subjects, this cannot abandon my ambition because the more knowledge I acquire, the more appropriate direction I make concrete. To continue exploring my interest in Applied Linguistics, in 4th year, I proceeded with an undergraduate thesis based on comparing the Korean and Vietnamese grammar similarities and differences with an eye toward a proposal to improve and overcome mistakes for foreign language learners. This material is remarkably appreciated and place confidence in the comparative method as a practical direction for foreign language teaching. Since then, I have realized the point of compass I require to aim for is Korea where is not only placed in the 3rd Most Educated Country in the World by OECD but can provide modern and various Applied Linguistics teaching methods, researches, presentations that cannot be provided in my country due to lack of equipment and materials.
Furthermore, my research on teaching Vietnamese to foreigners has obtained the First Prize in the National Scientific Research Competition. Through this, with every experience I possess, I clear that what I have achieved is not only an award, a degree but also a high determination, self-belief as well as teamwork-belief, and most importantly, constant perseverance. All of these grow the skills my passions have provided me are life-long and irreplaceable. This topic honorably participated in a report at International Scientific Conference. Despite still having many limitations, I have collected multiple criticism and orientation from private and international language professors, which could eventually be an exceeding thing that makes me devote to my true path.
Without necessarily overlooking the indispensable role of science technology, I was convinced by Ludwig Wittgenstein's idea that "the limits of my language mean the limits of my world.". Linguistic not only connects people to people but also cultures and cultures, times and times that is why linguistic is the most effective way to make a society better. I envision myself not as a linguistic genius or a gifted language teacher, but rather as a perseverance and indefatigable student with a unique perspective that can only be derived from my experiences. Regarding my values, I have already had strongly motivated me to apply for Government Korean Scholarship as it gives me the motivation to pursue my long-term goal that is to become a Linguistics expert teacher. I hope to use this scholarship in applying for a study abroad program, where I can learn about other cultures' customs while conducting research there.
