Liberal Arts students embed themselves in Korean culture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Nearly 100 Penn State students spent their spring breaks traveling the globe through five College of the Liberal Arts embedded programs, which are Penn State courses taken on campus or online that include a short-term international travel component. The students saw the classroom come to life by visiting historical and cultural sites and interacting with local people.

Students enrolled in KOR 497 had the opportunity to travel to Seoul, South Korea, as part of the Immersive Korean Language and Culture Spanning Generations and Lifestyles embedded program in the College of the Liberal Arts. The trip, which was led by Jayoung Song, assistant professor of Korean and applied linguistics, and Lan Kim, associate teaching professor of Korean and coordinator of the Korean language program, allowed students to further their Korean language skills, try local South Korean customs and food and explore the city of Seoul.

For many students, the trip was a double win — it was their first experience being outside of the United States and was an opportunity for them to learn more about their Korean-related interests. Audrey Maier, a Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar double-majoring in Korean and international politics, utilized the trip as an international learning opportunity for her honors thesis.

“It is so important to have experiences abroad because it widens one’s perspective and results in an expanded worldview,” Maier said. “Through my education and coursework, I thought I knew just about everything there is to know about Korea, but going there led me to realize that the only way to truly understand another country is to immerse yourself in its culture and lifestyle.”

On the trip, students visited important cultural and historical landmarks in Seoul, such as the Gyeongbokgung Palace, often cited by Korean scholars as an ornate historical Korean architectural site nestled within a peninsula rich in Korean history. At the palace, students dressed in hanbok, a traditional South Korean garment. They also watched a Korean royal guard changing ceremony, which entailed “traditional music, marching palace guards and intricate weapon formations that ended in the exchange of keys between the oncoming and outgoing guards.”

Students also visited the Hannae Forest of Wisdom Library, a community center library in Seoul nestled in the middle of a small forest. Designed in 2017, the library has a unique architectural design that mixes natural wood and concrete-glass art. The library was “more than your normal library,” as it was a filming location for a popular K-Drama show.

Other locations the students traveled to included the National Hangeul Museum, the National Museum of Korea and the N Seoul Tower. Students also had the opportunity to travel to the demilitarized zone between South Korea and North Korea where students were able to look over the border between the two countries and see the literal separation of the two Koreas. While described as sad and heartbreaking by students, it gave them the chance to learn more about the historical context of the Korean War.

Outside of site visits, students on the trip also met elementary, high school and university students who lived in Seoul. They were paired with Korean language partners from a local Korean university, which allowed the Penn State students to practice their Korean language skills through casual conversation and connection. The language immersion also provided the opportunity for students to gain “enriching cultural understandings” from the global perspective of their language partner.

“I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to communicate very well with my partner, but after a few minutes I felt so comfortable,” Maier said. “This was my favorite experience during the trip because I was able to challenge my linguistic skills and hear about how my life is both so similar and so different from someone on the other side of the world.”

Students on the trip said they found their Korean language partners very welcoming and spent time with them during their free time after class meetings and trips. Kyra Yergin, a third-year student majoring in Korean and Asian studies, kept her connections with her language partners, whom she now considers her friends, close by during her free days.

“It was always so much fun hanging out with the partners,” Yergin said. “They showed me another side of Korea that was more so the everyday experience and places that students would go, such as noraebang [Korean karaoke], rather than the normal tourist-type places.” 

A free-day activity in which many students participated was trying local Korean food. A favorite among the group was Korean BBQ, particularly the dish samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly). Others opted to sample the wide variety of Korean desserts offered in the food markets in Seoul, such as songpyeon (rice cakes), bungeo-ppang (a fish-shaped sweet bread served with red bean paste), and bingsu (Korean shaved ice).

“I tried samgye-tang [ginseng chicken soup] for the first time and liked how healthy it was,” Yergin said. “My favorite dish from the entire trip, however, was the omurice I ate for dinner on the second day. It tasted amazing.”

Through traveling abroad, whether their focus was on history, language immersion or even simply the food, students viewed the trip as one they wished they could take again.

“Students not only honed their language skills but also developed cultural sensitivity,” Song said. “From students' daily journal entries, I could see how much they valued this opportunity and how it profoundly enriched their understanding of language and culture. It seemed that this experience not only heightened their motivation but also bolstered their confidence in language use. The most encouraging aspect gathered from students' feedback is their expressed desire to continue learning Korean. They showed their eagerness to maintain communication with their language partners and revisit the country. This enthusiasm highlights the enduring impact of the education abroad experience.”

“I have been fortunate to witness the students’ progress from novice Korean learners to more confident and adept speakers over the years,” Kim said. “Their dedication to immersing themselves in Korean language and culture during the trip underscores the essential role of immersive language learning and cultural understanding in achieving fluency in a foreign language. I believe that such opportunities not only enhance linguistic skills but also foster a deeper appreciation for sharing diverse cultures and perspectives, essential in navigating the global landscape of the 21st century.”

The trip was built upon what the students learned in KOR 497, which is taught by Song and Susan Strauss, professor of Asian studies, applied linguistics, education and linguistics. Funding for the course and a major portion of the international travel component came from an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Grant through the Department of Education.

“The grant was designed as a hybrid pedagogical experience that infuses discourse into language teaching and learning as a vehicle to enhance a deeper understanding of the meaning and crucial socio-cultural-historical-cognitive nuances in language use and pedagogy,” Strauss said. “It provided students with opportunities to travel and interact in the target language, guided by principled analysis of language and meaning beyond word level, sentence level, grammatical structure and memorized formulae.”

Students on the trip also had the opportunity to apply for enrichment funding through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network. The students used this financial support to pay for expenses such as trying new foods at restaurants or buying train tickets to travel to cities outside of Seoul.

For Tin Myat Khine, a third-year student double majoring in Korean and marketing, funding allowed her to pay for the critical need areas for the trip.

“The enrichment funding was great and paid for my food and the fare for public transportation in South Korea. It also allowed me to immerse myself in experiencing Korean culture for the first time,” Khine said.

Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network

The Career Enrichment Network empowers Liberal Arts students to explore, engage and define their career journey through diverse career development opportunities. Students can meet with a career coach to explore careers, internships, education abroad, research, the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentor Program and more. Through donor support, the Career Enrichment Network provides Liberal Arts students the opportunity to apply for funding to help support participation in many of these experiences.