I always wanted to go abroad because I wanted to experience different culture.  So when I got through Sookmyung Global Honors Program, I was so happy that I couldn’t breathe.  However, soon I had a lot of worries about going to Australia.  I wanted to challenge in foreign country, but I was so afraid about several things.  First, although my goal was improving English skill through this program, but I was shy to speak in English so I was worried about communication problem.  Second, it was first time to go abroad with no teachers or families.  I didn’t know about all of our school members.  It was same as go by myself.  In conclusion, this program was my big challenge.  I wrote a dairy before I leave Korea.  “After I read this journal, I hope I can laugh at this.” And after I came back to Korea, I felt silly that I wrote dairy like a coward. 

Adventuring into Nature and Culture

Melbourne is a city in the Australia.  It located in state Victoria.  Australia is southern hemisphere so I thought Melbourne would be very hot, but it was cool and windy.  It was changeable weather like four seasons in a day.  But I love this weather because the sky was very pretty and clear.  There are many parks and beautiful tourist attraction, so I could look around every day.  In the week time, I always went to tourist attractions like Great Ocean Roads and Phillip Island.  I could watch beautiful nature forests or shiny beach.  Ocean’s color was like emerald color which is different with Korea.  Also I could meet animals like kangaroo, koala, and penguins.  I was disappointed that not all of animals were cute, but it was interesting to meet them.  There was very different style city comparing with crowded city like Seoul.  Melbourne was relaxed and lovely city.  I studied in Deakin University in Melbourne.  I studied General English 6 course.  Every day I studied reading, speaking, writing and listening in English.  First time I was little bit disappointed in my class because there were many Asians.  Most of students were Korean or Japanese.  And class was not interesting. But I tried to gain anything, so I could gain a lot of things in the school.  First, I made lots of friends in the school.  I could be a friend with Korean and different nation friends.  We ate dinner together or went to the city together and walked around.  All of us speaking in English were not perfect, but we tried to communicate in English.  So I could speak in English every time.

Second, I could speak in English with confidence.  I know even now I’m not a good English speaker, but I finally knew why I have to study English in Melbourne.  It was fun for me to speak in English every day.  In Korea, I was shy to speak in English.  However in Melbourne, I wanted to speak more in English to communicate with friends and host family.  So I could improve to speak in English confidently.  In graduation, I did challenge to speak in front of many foreign students!  I couldn’t believe I did that.  I stayed at Australian family’s house. Luckily my host family was best.  I lived with married couple and a cute dog named Jessie. Val and Doug were so lovely and kind couple so I could enjoy wonderful Auzzie life. Especially Val was good at cooking so I could eat delicious meals every day. I could eat beef or lamb meat every dinner time. I need to go school in the daytime, I tried to eat dinner at home to stay with host family.  I always tried to talk in English after dinner, and we watched Australian TV programs together.  Although I couldn’t speak English fluently, Val and Doug tried to talk with me and teach lot of Australian cultures.  For example, they recommend to me to go to Australian Open tennis game.  I was not interested in tennis, but they wanted to go that event.  I was wondering why Australian loves tennis, so I decided to go Australian Open.  After I went to tennis game, I could understand why Australian loves tennis and I could talk with Val and Doug about tennis match.  The day before when I leave Australia, they suggested to have some drive, so I took a car with them and saw beautiful Yara River in the city.  Still I am keep in touch with my host family, and I love them.

The New Me

After Global Honors Program, I changed a little bit.  The best thing is I realized fun of studying English.  Of course I don’t like to study grammar or writing like difficult things, but I experienced advantage of using English.  I could speak to foreign friends in English, and I could know new information.  So I will study English more fun.  And another thing is I became an outgoing person.  Actually, I was very lazy students that I don’t want to go outside.  However, in Melbourne, I always carried a map to walk around because I didn’t want to waste 5 weeks.  So I could go exciting places like museum or library.  Although I got lost several time, but it was interesting experience to see new place.  I changed myself better way through Global Honors Program, I will keep going forward.