In this blog post, we explore how longstanding reading experience can be a persuasive motivator for applying to the Department of English Language and Literature. Discover the connection between literary sensibilities and major fit.
Write about your academic experiences and impressions
Playing to your strengths, not your weaknesses in application and memorization
I’ve always been good at memorization, so I didn’t have much trouble with memorization-based subjects like social studies, science, and language arts. The problem, however, was math. Although math was less challenging for me because I chose a liberal arts major, it was still the biggest factor that dragged down my grades. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t overcome math. People around me told me to seek help, like tutoring, but I wanted to conquer math on my own because I thought the best way to learn was to do it on my own. So I went through a lot of trial and error, and as a result, I found a way to study that played to my strengths.
Instead of lacking application, I came up with something that I was good at memorizing. So I bought a very thick math book and memorized the different ways of solving the problems in it, so that when I came across a problem like this, I would use this formula to solve it, and I would memorize it with the understanding that these are the types of application problems. As my grades improved, the different methods I learned from memorizing started to make sense to me, and I was able to apply the formulas I knew to solve new problems. I started with memorization, but with hard work, I became an “application” person, something that had eluded me throughout high school. As my math grades improved, I started to enjoy math, so I studied more consistently and eventually got the math grades I wanted.
I believe that conquering math through memorization was a worthwhile endeavor that helped me realize that playing to my strengths and working from them can eventually lead to good results.
Write about your main intramural activities and impressions
Being active in a reading club to create a dream library
My dream is to create the most beautiful library in the world. Ever since I was a child, I loved books, and I was intrigued by the countless stories hidden in them. I also admired and loved books because they gave me peace of mind and allowed me to escape my daily routine and experience new worlds. Therefore, I have always participated in reading clubs at my local library and reading clubs at my school since elementary school, and I enjoyed reading and discussing books together. However, my reading club activities in high school were especially meaningful because I was able to see what it means to “take action” directly, and that brought me closer to my dream of creating a beautiful library.
My school is an old school, so the facilities were worn out, and the library in particular had a lot of water leaks and books that were tattered because they hadn’t been looked after for a long time, and there were a lot of books with torn covers because they hadn’t been touched, which is rare for older books. I started a reading club there, and I couldn’t stand to see the library being neglected like this, so I organized a library revitalization campaign as part of my reading club activities. We all took time out of our studies to participate in the library revitalization campaign. My friends and I set up zones and started to take out the books in each zone one by one and take care of them. We also took money out of our pockets and used it to buy tape and rice wrappers for the books, and we started to take care of them by hand. When we saw so many books, we wondered, “When will we finish, will we be able to finish?” But when the books we took care of started to pile up one by one, we felt an intense sense of pride, and we couldn’t stop. And the way people looked at us was changing. At first, there were many people who said that we were wasting our time, and even our teachers said that it was a waste of time, but then they started to support our efforts, and our teachers collected money to support our activities. As the Save the Library movement gained attention in the school, the reading club itself grew very large, and the number of friends who joined us grew as well. Thanks to these changes, we were able to complete 7 out of 10 sections, and now the juniors are continuing the activities we started. This activity made me feel very proud and gave me a lot of courage as it made me believe that small efforts can change the situation. I would like to continue to live my life and pioneer with this attitude.
Examples of caring, sharing, and cooperation and what I learned
Yelling in front of people for the first time in my life
I’ve never been a big fan of public speaking, but when I was a freshman in high school, I found myself yelling in front of people for the first time, something I couldn’t have imagined. It happened while playing the lead role in a festival play.
At my school, every year at the festival, the freshmen perform a play and the sophomores perform a dance. And traditionally, the lead in the freshman play is chosen by lot, which means that anyone could have been the lead in the play. That’s what happened to me. I was chosen as the main character. At first, I was scared, I didn’t think it was possible, I didn’t think I could do it because I had never been in front of people before, I didn’t think I had the confidence to do it, but I had to do it because it was a school tradition, and I did it, and I realized that being in front of people is a product of collaboration, of caring, of sharing. I thought that acting was just about getting in front of people and acting, but it’s the collaboration of many people who prepare the props, who prepare the costumes, who teach the actors how to act that makes an actor. It was only by caring, only by sharing each other’s joys and sorrows, only by sharing your own.
After practicing together, caring for each other, and working together, we were able to finish the play with rave reviews that said we were the first grade to ever put on a play that came together so well. I, too, performed the play without a single mistake or nervousness. Playing the lead role in the play made me realize how important the process of practicing together, staying up all night, working hard, and giving to each other is, and that with cooperation, we can overcome any difficulties.
Motivation and preparation for a career plan
Books that steadied me when I was faltering
I decided to major in Korean language and literature when I came across Forrest Carter’s ‘The Days When My Heart Was Warm’ and Soon-won Hwang’s ‘The Poisonous Old Man’. ‘The Days When My Heart Was Warm’ is a book that literally melts the time and the source of the author’s soul that warmed his heart. Reading that book helped me to stabilize my heart, which had been shaken so many times because I didn’t know what to do, and I was able to put my heart into my work, into the role I was supposed to play, thinking that this moment is the most beautiful time. Also, ‘The Poisonous Old Man’ was a book that made me cry because it was a very tragic novel, but I also felt ‘cathartic’ because I could relate to the feelings of an old man who had lived such a hard and stubborn life. It was also a book that helped me to release my emotions by making me cry, especially when my emotions were at a loss. I was comforted and calmed by these two books, and I was amazed at how much they changed my life. I became deeply moved by literature, and I realized that I wanted to do something with it, and I wanted to learn more about it. As a Korean language and literature major at your school, I want to learn more about the amazing literature in Korea, and I want to help more people discover works that can change their lives.
