Hello!
My name is Madison (officially "Jae") Lee, and I am a fourth year English major in the College.
I am a present-focused English major -- this means that: though I know English was the right choice for me during my undergrad years, that it helped me grow as a student and as a whole person, that it has made my years at UVA so fruitful and wonderfully overwhelming; I had never imagined being an English major before first year, and that I won't be pursuing it in graduate studies.
Aside from presently-reveling in my English classes, I've been taking advantage of being an Echols scholar by taking as many "random" classes as possible, ranging from Statistics to Anthropology to Chemistry to Spanish to French to Chinese to Italian - a list whose heavy inclination for foreign languages wasn't an accident. I often took two or three language courses each semester, simply because I love this opportunity I have during my undergrad years to be able to study such a variety. It all started with an indecisive sophomore year in high school when I just couldn't decide between Spanish and French and so, decided to take both -- from there sprouted a desire to learn Italian (supplemented by my conviction that "I will live in Rome someday!"), then branched out to Mandarin Chinese, because I wanted to learn the language in which my native tongue, Korean, has its roots. On the horizon is German, which I'm convinced isn't as inevitably ugly as it's made out to be by the masses.
Despite this love of languages, I deliberately steered clear of Linguistics because I learned early on (in the inauspicious "Intro to Linguistics" course my first year) that it is the practice of language I love -- not the theory. I learn languages because of the side effect it tends to have in helping to create international, intercultural connections. Thinking about the roots of phonemes and morphemes is interesting, but...not enough.
And I got to practice the application of foreign language-learning in a big, big way last year, while I spent my third year abroad through working and studying internationally. I worked as a Student Ambassador of the USA Pavilion for the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, Korea, where I learned more about my own language and culture than I could have ever been prepared for (I was born in, then at age nine moved away from, South Korea). It was an incredible and mind-boggling experience -- to be a foreigner back in my "home" country, where, after over a decade of minority-hood in the states, I finally belonged. Physically, anyway.
Then I continued my stay in Korea with a semester in Seoul, at Korea University, getting a glimpse of life as an undergraduate student that I might have had - and would have considered completely "normal" - if my family had never moved to the states. After this, I traveled to Lyon, France where I spent the second half of my third year carefully studying French outdoor markets with my stomach and my wallet, and stretching the amount of conversation I could hold (bit by nasally bit) with locals until that breaking point of them noticing I wasn't actually French. Though completely adventurous, completely exciting, I can't say that all this was a completely good experience -- there were ups and downs, as my blog and diaries insist, but in the end, I am glad indeed for the whole experience, with all its moments of elation and all the painful lessons, too.
In this vein of international outlook and love of foreign languages, I am considering the field of translation -- though tentatively. I am also interested in social justice issues, particularly those concerning women and children. I recently began volunteering at the Shelter for Help in Emergency, which runs the domestic violence hotline and shelter for Charlottesville (and surrounding counties). These things are simultaneously vague and specific, I know, but in a way, I feel like I just haven't come across the exact title of my job yet. It's out there, and it might be in the form of something totally unexpected and over-hyphenated, and I just have to be vigilant and ready for it. The tricky part is figuring out how best to be preparing myself.
I am interested in this course because it seems exactly as widely-interested in undiscovered connections as I am. I love interdisciplinary studies, and my most fruitful semesters have been those that have included different courses with overlapping time periods or subjects, between which I have been able to make connections and new discoveries through the unexpected overlaps. Communication, after all, is the key to solving the most daunting of problems. I truly believe that when people come together to collaborate, to communicate fruitfully, beautiful things happen. And I can't help but note Lisa Spaar in your list of professors as someone I'm especially excited to see in this course -- she is my advisor, my go-to recommendation letter-writer, the reason for me being an English major today.
As to specific contributions that I could add to the course, I'll point to my penchant for blogging. I wonder if this platform could come in handy as a tool of documentation, visualization, and reflection.
I can be flexible to the changes of the course schedule and meeting times/locations - hurrah for a fourth year, low-load semester!
Thank you for your consideration. I am excited to hear from you!
Hello!
My name is Madison (officially "Jae") Lee, and I am a fourth year English major in the College.
I am a present-focused English major -- this means that: though I know English was the right choice for me during my undergrad years, that it helped me grow as a student and as a whole person, that it has made my years at UVA so fruitful and wonderfully overwhelming; I had never imagined being an English major before first year, and that I won't be pursuing it in graduate studies.
Aside from presently-reveling in my English classes, I've been taking advantage of being an Echols scholar by taking as many "random" classes as possible, ranging from Statistics to Anthropology to Chemistry to Spanish to French to Chinese to Italian - a list whose heavy inclination for foreign languages wasn't an accident. I often took two or three language courses each semester, simply because I love this opportunity I have during my undergrad years to be able to study such a variety. It all started with an indecisive sophomore year in high school when I just couldn't decide between Spanish and French and so, decided to take both -- from there sprouted a desire to learn Italian (supplemented by my conviction that "I will live in Rome someday!"), then branched out to Mandarin Chinese, because I wanted to learn the language in which my native tongue, Korean, has its roots. On the horizon is German, which I'm convinced isn't as inevitably ugly as it's made out to be by the masses.
Despite this love of languages, I deliberately steered clear of Linguistics because I learned early on (in the inauspicious "Intro to Linguistics" course my first year) that it is the practice of language I love -- not the theory. I learn languages because of the side effect it tends to have in helping to create international, intercultural connections. Thinking about the roots of phonemes and morphemes is interesting, but...not enough.
And I got to practice the application of foreign language-learning in a big, big way last year, while I spent my third year abroad through working and studying internationally. I worked as a Student Ambassador of the USA Pavilion for the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, Korea, where I learned more about my own language and culture than I could have ever been prepared for (I was born in, then at age nine moved away from, South Korea). It was an incredible and mind-boggling experience -- to be a foreigner back in my "home" country, where, after over a decade of minority-hood in the states, I finally belonged. Physically, anyway.
Then I continued my stay in Korea with a semester in Seoul, at Korea University, getting a glimpse of life as an undergraduate student that I might have had - and would have considered completely "normal" - if my family had never moved to the states. After this, I traveled to Lyon, France where I spent the second half of my third year carefully studying French outdoor markets with my stomach and my wallet, and stretching the amount of conversation I could hold (bit by nasally bit) with locals until that breaking point of them noticing I wasn't actually French. Though completely adventurous, completely exciting, I can't say that all this was a completely good experience -- there were ups and downs, as my blog and diaries insist, but in the end, I am glad indeed for the whole experience, with all its moments of elation and all the painful lessons, too.
In this vein of international outlook and love of foreign languages, I am considering the field of translation -- though tentatively. I am also interested in social justice issues, particularly those concerning women and children. I recently began volunteering at the Shelter for Help in Emergency, which runs the domestic violence hotline and shelter for Charlottesville (and surrounding counties). These things are simultaneously vague and specific, I know, but in a way, I feel like I just haven't come across the exact title of my job yet. It's out there, and it might be in the form of something totally unexpected and over-hyphenated, and I just have to be vigilant and ready for it. The tricky part is figuring out how best to be preparing myself.
I am interested in this course because it seems exactly as widely-interested in undiscovered connections as I am. I love interdisciplinary studies, and my most fruitful semesters have been those that have included different courses with overlapping time periods or subjects, between which I have been able to make connections and new discoveries through the unexpected overlaps. Communication, after all, is the key to solving the most daunting of problems. I truly believe that when people come together to collaborate, to communicate fruitfully, beautiful things happen. And I can't help but note Lisa Spaar in your list of professors as someone I'm especially excited to see in this course -- she is my advisor, my go-to recommendation letter-writer, the reason for me being an English major today.
As to specific contributions that I could add to the course, I'll point to my penchant for blogging. I wonder if this platform could come in handy as a tool of documentation, visualization, and reflection.
I can be flexible to the changes of the course schedule and meeting times/locations - hurrah for a fourth year, low-load semester!
Thank you for your consideration. I am excited to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment