Anastasia Lamothe, '21, Harvard Summer School in Seoul Program
Since this was my first real time travelling abroad, going into this summer, I was scared. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the courses, or with being in a new country. However, I don’t regret going to South Korea. I learned so much both inside and outside the classroom.
Every weekday for the whole summer, I had an intensive Korean language class, followed by a one month long course on the history of post-war Korea as seen through film. Even though I had fewer classes than I did on campus, since we were learning so much in such a short amount of time, I found that my brain often felt stretched with information at the end of the day. However, it was so satisfying to see how quickly my understand of each subject grew. By the end of the summer, I could hold a conversation with my professor almost completely in Korean! Plus, I had the chance to think about Korea’s history with the world in depth, as well as make connections as to how Korea’s history has impacted its modern culture. I think that’s incredible!
Even though I had two classes that counted towards my GPA, I felt like I had three courses, because there was so much to learn outside of the classroom as well. Exploring Seoul, I could really put what I had learned in the classroom to use. Going on excursions on my own, I could speak a little bit better to the natives with each passing day. I could get the hang of newly learned phrases by practicing them with natives after class. The film history class allowed me to make notes of what traditional aspects continued through Confucian cultures, and what aspects disappeared from everyday life, or were just remnants of the past. While Korea is extremely urban, just like my hometown of Boston, the way that people interact with each other is very different, and it was refreshing to learn so much about a new culture in such a short amount of time. It also helped that through the film history course, we had weekly field trips to historical sites of Seoul. The field trips helped to provide crucial background information, and I’m glad that these trips were integrated into the course syllabus. I think that they really helped to ingrain in my brain the history that we learned in class. I think that these field trips are what I’ll remember the longest, because they provided a chance to combine everything from inside the classroom into a real life setting.
Having come back home, I don’t think that I’ll forget my summer experience anytime soon. Reverse culture shock has definitely been real, but I think it just shows how much Korea came to be a home away from home for me. While I learned so much academic material, I also learned a lot about myself: how I deal with being in a completely new situation, how I think, my beliefs, and so much more. These are definitely lessons that I will carry with my for the rest of my life.
This exceptional experience would not have been possible without the help of the Rockefeller family. My family would not have been able to afford this trip without taking out a lot of loans, which means that I probably would have never had the chance to go to Seoul otherwise. I learned so much this summer, and I will continue to learn Korean and about myself, so that I can give back, like how you were able to give to me. I can’t express my gratitude enough.