Major

Many Koreans are interested in Japanese culture because the two countries are very close geographically, and because they went through many historical experiences together. I was naturally interested in Japanese culture because I watched many Japanese dramas and animated movies since I was young. When I moved to the United States in high school, I made many Japanese friends who shared similar experiences adapting to American culture. They understood my shy and soft-speaking personality, which comes from the language barrier. Every time I felt discouraged, my Japanese friends always tried to support and encourage me to keep speaking English. They restored my confidence and prevented me from falling behind in my studies.

I've had several volunteer experiences, but visiting Estonia two years ago motivated me to become a teacher. I met people from many different countries: Spain, Italy, Korea, and Japan. During one month, we all lived together and tried to overcome cultural barriers while teaching English to Estonian children. Through this experience, I realized I enjoy teaching and encouraging kids to study. After work, we often visited tourist spots and talked about what we did in the past and our plans for the future. During these conversations, I expressed concern about my future to one of my Japanese friends. She suggested that I go to Japan and work with Korean-Japanese kids to teach Korean culture and language. I was intrigued by the idea and decided to go to Japan after completing my university degree.

Although I sometimes doubt my ability to teach children, after volunteering at Estonia I gained confidence. The assignment was to help Korean adoptees dealing with identity crises and the shame of being adopted. Our goal was to teach these children Korean culture and help them be proud of themselves. These children lost most memories about Korea and were raised by American parents in the United States. I was really touched by the parent's effort to learn other cultures to share with their adopted sons and daughters. I learned that there is no barrier to love and respect by others, despite cultural differences.

It is often seen that the adoptees witness embarrassing attitude from the members of the society. This provides impetus in making these adoptees shy and reluctant to participate in the social activities. The mankind prefers to have social circle and this is the need of humans to exert their ideas and creativity out. This is also ...