South Korea study application
Hi, I am Aigerim and applying for GKS via uni track
Please give your thoughts and advice. Thanks
In January of 2020, I enrolled on six weeks' online course organized by the University of Leicester Applied Linguistics and TESOL and specially made me fascinated in Applied Linguistics. I am very keen on continuing to study in English Linguistics especially do research in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. My long term goal is to become an expert to teach Linguistics at University in my motherland.
Languages have always been played a big role and still driving me throughout my entire life, also make me a person who I am now. Russian, English and German were the strongest side from my secondary school which connected me directly to persuaded my associate program in teaching foreign languages.
I hold a Bachelor degree with a major in English Education in 2011 with a GPA of 2.96 out of 4.0 and it was an honourable achievement at my previous university. I was a confident, creative and hard-working student who was into participating in the amount of debates competitions organized by university annually which deeply increased my critical, communication skills, built up team bonding. and collaboration with other participants.
In 2010, I started teaching English during my last year at university to help my parents with education fee and also it was a great opportunity to master my teaching skills. At Vesko English school I taught to learners with elementary level and after having some skills and proper knowledge of methods in teaching English I did some volunteering during a month in summer to young learners, what increased my strong connection with students and I was so proud of myself that I was doing something as important as meaningful in my life.
After completing my degree, I started thinking about getting my first international experience abroad and advanced my speaking skills, I took a gap year. As a person who was inspired about exploring different cultures and fond of being around children, I travelled to the UK as an au pair in 2012 in winter. As an au-pair, I have built a deep bond with my host family by whom I was sincerely loved. I looked after the 6-year bilingual boy with whom I have spent most of the time experiencing using English in early childhood education and It was also absolutely unforgettable life skills still teaching me how to work and live in a different culture and developed me professionally and personally.
One of my summertime days in London, I was invited to the cultural event to Korean centre and which was the first impression on Korean language, music traditional dress and instruments. After having a great experience of living in England and my big curiosity intended me to travel to Korea for the first time in autumn of that year as a tourist to expand my cultural heritage and carry on exploring one of attracting Asian countries.
Korea amazed me so deeply, touched with its culture and traditions, tremendously different and unique but the most impressive one was the Korean mother tongue. I still remember that touching moment, our tour guide gave us some basic phrases in Korean and lovely song about three bears which we sang and danced together while we were travelling around Seoul. She told us in Korea music is going with movements and it was how I have fallen by Korean music and beautiful language at first sight.
In 2017 I have successfully passed the 120 hour TEFL course served by TEFL Academy and it aimed to get my first international teaching position in Amata wittaya school in Thailand. I taught to primary schoolchildren Spoken English from June to September of 2017. I have participated in plenty of different cultural events, and school activities provided by the school also helping to volunteer with organizations cooperating with Thai colleagues and school staff. I also loved teaching English to old people who works on the territory of the school during Sundays and they taught me some Thai language. I am still keeping touch with most of my students on Facebook and something I will never forget that I have made some long-distance friendship with Thailand.
Experiencing somewhere like Thailand has influenced my teaching in my hometown and made me fully prepared to handle huge classes and learned a lot about teaching English as EFL and what is to be a foreign teacher. At my current teaching position at Talent language school, I teach English, Kazakh and Russian as a foreign language and currently teaching IELTS after having 25 hour IELTS teacher training workshop provided by British Council On March 2020 and plenty of my students passed the IELTS with score 7 and higher.
Among my current IELTS students, I am teaching one of the female student who has been studied by an exchange program in Korea and she extremely inspired me to continue my master in Korea and beginning learning Korean seriously. Because of a lockdown situation, I started Korean last spring by myself using Sejong books and due to watching Korean shows and dramas about a couple of years mastered my skills in listening and speaking dramatically and it was easy for me getting level 2 at my current workplace.
My decision studying in South Korea is not only being fluent in Korean and getting desire score TOPIK 6 level but also because of XXX University. XXX University is the one place for me where educate outstanding leaders and achieve my goals especially with technologies of using new teaching methods, techniques and also, its curriculum in my major focusing on conducting own researches, presentations, discussions and more about applied linguistics what differences and similarities between Korean and English. All of this fascinating knowledge cannot be provided in my country due to lack of equipment and materials and it is one of the reasons to study here as well.
Regarding all my valuable knowledge and experience, I have already had strongly motivated me to apply for Government Korean Scholarship and I believe as a teacher who wants to serve better to the nation and my curiosity limitless about gaining new knowledge, I am taking this chance with a huge responsibility to study in XX via GKS program will be next huge international achievement which I will successfully bring in Kazakhstan where I am happy to continue to educate competent generation as an honourable scholar..
Thank you, Aigerim JankushikovaHolt Educational Consultant - / 14,835 
4783 You have a stronger connection with the UK presented in this essay than a relationship and interest in Korea. The Korean interest is flimsy, shallow, and not convincingly portrayed, regardless of your TOPIK score. Although that will definitely help your application. Somehow though, it sounds more like you took the test only because you knew that learning Hangul is a requirement for the scholars and you were hedging your bets. You are not truly interested in learning linguistics in Korea as far as I can tell. You just want to study in a different country other than the UK, which would be the more logical choice for you to continue your studies at, given your educational history.
The lackluster Korean relationship is more of a concern to me because you do not solidly defend and convince the reader that your desire to study sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics actually has anything to do with Korea. What has Korea accomplished in this field that has convinced you that it is time to study these masters courses in Korea rather than continuing your studies in the UK? The strong UK focus and the concentration on teaching in English, rather than a truly multifaceted interest in linguistics are, what I believe, to be the weakest points of this essay.
Hello! I think your essay is great. The only problem is that you want to study English in Korea. Why? From my personal experience, I got some people who got rejected for this major. Because it is not easy to give an answer " why don't you want to study in UK or America" If you just tell its because you want to learn Korean, then that's not a good reason. Nobody will invest 3 years of your studies for you to learn Korean. They will probably give you suggestions to come for Language Education with your own money. Another weak point is, how your study will benefit Korea? You want to teach in your motherland, good point. And then? Why should Korea do that for you, does Korea has any profit from it? If you can state these reasons, then it might look a bit more logical
technology
@Holt
Thank you a lot Holt! Please.ease give your suggestion or maybe I need to consider about another essay or my major?
Just so you know the requirements for the personal statement have changed as follows!
- Motivations with which you apply for this program
- Family and Education background
- Significant experiences you have had; risks you have taken and achievements you have made, persons or events that have had a significant influence on you
- Extracurricular activities such as club activities, community service activities or work experiences
- If applicable, describe awards you have received, publications you have made, or skills you have acquired, etc.
I think you should organize and add some information needed now. Also, try to expand more why Korea is your only option. What has Korea achieved in what area and what you want to achieve there and that is only possible there.
Good luck!
