By Maya Kostov
Have you ever wanted to go explore the world before college, learn a foreign language, experience a new culture and make new friends from all the way around the world, and do it all for free?
Well, Tempe Prep alum, Abby Everding, has been doing exactly that and is loving every second of it. Abby got the chance to visit South Korea in the summer of 2016 and that’s when she started really learning the language, through a program called the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y). The program is run through the State Department and allows many American high school students to travel to a foreign country for a summer or academic year and learn a new language such as Korean, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and many others.
Abby decided to study abroad mainly because it could help her make “significant progress in the Korean language as well as develop more self-confidence and independence skills before college,” she says. Abby applied online, and a month after completing the application, she was told that she was a semi-finalist. Then she had an interview with NSLI-Y volunteers, and was informed in early April that she was accepted to the program. So, Abby took a gap year before starting at Northwestern University and spent 9 months going to school in South Korea.
While in Korea, Abby stayed with a host family and attended both an all girl’s Korean high school and Korean language classes. On a typical day, she would wake up early, get ready and take the metro to school. At school, she had to take classes all in Korean, and three days a week she would get to leave school early with other NSLI-Y students and take an inter-city bus to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, to attend a 4 hour-long intensive Korean language class. After class, she would usually get some free time to hang out with friends and then would head home, eat dinner, and finish her homework.
Luckily for Abby, she got to witness multiple major political events. She got to watch the live broadcast of the first ever summit between the North and South Korean leaders, and she says it was “absolutely surreal.” She also had the chance to experience all kinds of Olympics-related events. Apart from her schooling, Abby also learned how to play a Korean traditional instrument called a haegeum, also known as the Korean fiddle. Abby received many chances to go on cultural expeditions and learn a lot about Korean culture and history.
She also greatly improved her Korean throughout the course of her school year. In the beginning of the year, she really depended upon a girl in her class named Chaeyoon, as she was her only classmate that was fluent in English. Abby says, “I felt I was a burden to her and worked hard to learn Korean and made extreme language gains especially during winter break in between my first and second semester.” When she returned to school in the second semester, she could converse naturally in Korean and no longer had to depend on Chaeyoon. She states that she was “finally able to really connect with my classmates and form deep friendships with them.”
Among the expeditions she took to learn more about Korean history, Abby was able to take a trip with her high school class to Suwon Fortress. She and Chaeyoon were the only students who hiked the countless stairs of the fortress, and Abby says she did it all while “conversing in rapid Korean over various topics ranging from Buddhist superstition to diplomatic relations with the North.” At the top there was a breathtakingly view of gorgeous Suwon City.
Abby calls NSLI-Y the most transformative experience of her life so far, and will continue to keep up her Korean. Although Abby struggled a bit with achieving fluency in Korean, she says, “This experience perfectly encapsulated and mirrored my journey with the Korean language and blossoming friendships during my time abroad!”