Seavmey, Friend from Cambodia

When I say 'friend' I mean both of Korean-term of 'friend' and real friend. 

Seavmey, or simplified as So-mae in Korean, is my same-age friend from Cambodia. I don't care about age as 1996line is not so easy to find but I didn't expect that the Korean term of 'friend' that [limitedly] define relationship of people with the same age could actually be meaningful until I talk to Seavmey and listened to her story. We have similar point of view and faced similar problems before coming to Korea.

I first talked to Seavmey on our first weeks about how much I love Cambodia and I know some people from Cambodia (and she happened to know some of them, too!) and asked her about my organization's branch in Cambodia that she also know about. But it wasn't until we became classmate for the summer semester that we started to know each other a lil better.

Seavmey came to Korea not because she likes K-pop. She came here for the scholarship opportunity. She had other scholarships in mind but KGSP-U was the first scholarship that opened after she graduated from highschool last year. She applied and eventually got selected.

When choosing major, she knew she wants to study Accounting. She put Kyung Hee University, Hanyang University and Ewha Womens University in her options and picked Kyung Hee University as her final choice.

Seavmey did not know any Korean when applying. But it didn't look that way once we started our Korean Language Program. She already knew hangeul and some words. I asked her about this and she said, "I studied from the book that they sent us. I wanted to study earlier, but only started reading the book 10 days before coming here."

A very productive 10 days, I'd say :))

But once you knew her in class, you'd know how hardworking Seavmey is. She is more than just smart, she is the ace :D

We are in the same club for fall semester!

When she first came, she wasn't so familiar with the high-rise buildings and basements as most of the buildings in her country don't have that. Also she doesn't like the small space (from restaurant to house; everything is cramped in normal-Korean space!)
So far, her biggest challenge is still the language. Although I said that Seavmey is a really good student, she still thinks "Korean pronunciation is really hard. I did what the teacher said by recording and listening to my own pronunciation to improve my pronunciation. It sounds weird yet I don't know how to improve it."

Another problem for her is to speak in real life situation and the progress of the materials from level 1 to level 2 to level 3 and so on, forcing the students to work and study hard to catch up. (Yeah I do feel the same way too!)

Fortunately, despite all the barriers, Seavmey is coping well with the rest of the stuff. She started to enjoy K-Pop. She loves her Korean life for its environment: the nature is nice, everything is in order (compared to our respective countries), the view is really pretty and the list of positive things goes on.

Some of the students from our Summer Class

Moving on from KGSP-talk, she shared me one thing that she regrets for: "The chance you didn't take, either because it was too late or because we didn't know the information"

Hearing that, I traveled back to my memories and indeed, there were too many opportunities that I missed. I regret for not starting to learn language and traditional dancing earlier. I regret for not knowing so many things at some point of my life.

She also added how our chance, at our time, was actually limited compared to present days. We didn't know much information because the access wasn't there. Yet our juniors can get that easily but somehow wasted it. As she said, "I strived to get recognition in high school so that I would be given more chance to do things."

That. is. so. true.
Chance and opportunity normally only given to the star of the batch and the rest of the students would never get the chance, although they might have the potential.

Pondering upon what she said, I feel truly grateful to be able to talk to her and discover the significance of what I (still) see as limited-and-way-too-conservative-definition of 'friend'. I am thankful that she agreed to share her story to me and my blog readers, as she thinks that "I am happy if I can motivate others"

Seavmey obviously can be the motivation for many aspiring students out there.

Meet Helen, Our KGSP-Doll!

The time to apply for KGSP Undergraduate 2016 is around the corner and I was thinking of featuring my friends' KGSP stories here to motivate applicants! The world should know how awesome our half year in Korea so far :)))

Now let's meet my first friend, Helen aka Yudith!

Yudith is our batch' second maknae as she was born in late 1997. When I first met her, I thought she was very quiet and sad but maybe she was just tired from her loooong journey from Peru to Korea. My impression changed as we were in the same class this semester and she turned out to be a very cute, attentive and caring classmate!

We call her Helen in class because Helen is much easier to pronounce and write in Korean. Her nickname are reporter/기사, because her close friends say she asks a lot of questions, and doll/인형 because she is so young and cute.

Let's find out what makes her brave herself out to depart the 2 days of super long and tiring flight from Lima, Peru to Seoul, Korea!

Yudith~! How did you apply for KGSP?
In my high school, there was a teacher that inform us about scholarship opportunities. At first, I was discouraged and pessimistic about it, thinking that Korea is really far, I will leave my family and many other reasons. But then my friend encouraged me by saying, "Asia is advanced in technology. So you can learn a lot from there and come back to Peru to improve things in this country"

That became my motivation of studying in Korea, to help my country in the future.


It's really nice to have such teacher to inform you about the scholarship ㅠㅠ did many people apply?
There were 3 students from our school applying for KGSP. We had 2 seniors before me that got chosen to be KGSP grantee too.


Ah your high school must be a really good high school~ How many people got interviewed in Peru?
There were 10 people, they selected 3 but in the end only 2 people were chosen as final grantee.


So what was the hardest part when applying for KGSP?
(without hesitation) Choosing the university and major! I first took the psychology test to determine my talent and field that suit me best. Based on the result, the teacher said I should take Industrial Engineering, Business etc. I decided to take Industrial Engineering as there are many jobs in that field in Peru.

Then I searched for the school. It was hard to find the information, whether to choose university in the capital or in other cities and many other factors to consider. In the end I chose SNU, Yonsei and one other university that I can't remember. Yonsei and that university accepted me. I picked Yonsei.


You said your expectation of how you saw Korea as an advanced country before coming here, but what was the thing that you didn't expect and shock you the most?
The language! At first I couldn't even pronounce Hangul. It was really stressful and confusing. Language was really hard.


But now you are really good, only in 6 months! Did you talk to fellow Spanish speaking friends? Do they have the same problem?
Yes yes, they do have the same problem with the letters and pronunciation.

(re: Yudith came with no Korean knowledge, but she passed TOPIK Level 2 in 5 months and coping up well in Level 2, she didn't seem to have problem in class. I think she studies really hard! :D)


Lastly, what is the best thing of being KGSP scholar so far?
Meeting people with diverse culture. Talking with people from Malaysia, Indonesia is really different with talking with people from Chile, Colombia etc. I really like to know and learn about different cultures and stories. It's really nice and interesting!


Fun facts: Yudith graduated from high school in December 2014 and left for Korea in February 2015. I said I envy her for being so young (17 years old!). She said, "No no no, it's not fun. I can't go to some places like jjimjilbang and other"
I can totally relate to this as I am 18 and I still got rejected when trying to access some services in Korea, like postpaid phone and internet banking in one particular bank because the legal age here is 19 (or 20 Korean age).

Also, Peru to Seoul is 16,296KM in distance and even the shortest possible routh would take 25 hours. But Yudith took flight from Lima to Seoul with long layover in Amsterdam, making it even more admirable for a 17 years old girl.

I then wrapped my fun morning 'kepo' session with Yudith. It's been only 6 months but she is totally immersed in Korean culture now. Her favorite Kpop group is Teen Top and she eats like Korean! I often meet her in Ewha's famous Kimbap stall and she also eats Kimchi really really well. She adapts really well and enjoys her life. She doesn't regret coming to Korea. :)))

Let me know if you have questions for Yudith! Oh, also let me know if you wanna hear stories from specific countries! Thank you~