I received a Critical Language Scholarship for Korean language to go to Busan, South Korea.

Back in October 2023, I had a crazy idea. The CLS application had just come out, and I had seen that the language I had previously done, and was an alternate for in 2023, was no longer being offered as a part of the CLS program. I was devastated to see that, and spent about two weeks mourning that possibility.

Then I thought about it again, and made a spontaneous decision to reapply for a completely different region and language. I had previously done the high school version of the Critical Language Scholarship, NSLI-Y, in Korean, which made me eligible despite me not having formally studied Korean in over five years at that point.

So I submitted an application last minute, and never ever expected to actually get the scholarship. I kept joking that I had applied as a meme, and that if I got it, I was going to turn it down for a Fulbright.

March rolled around, and I was shocked to find out I actually got it. After freaking out and talking to everyone and anyone, I ended up saying yes. I was seriously considering turning it down, especially after I landed both a Fulbright and a Boren a month later.

In May I started packing, and on June 16, 2024, I boarded a flight at Dulles Airport to San Francisco to meet my other CLS Korean cohort members.

Here’s what I thought about the program, especially as someone who has now done two different Critical Language Scholarships! I’m going to be making this a little series on my blog, as we traveled a bit as well.

Immersion is one of the best ways to learn quickly.

Having done multiple of these programs at this point, if you want to really get good at learning a language, especially one as difficult as Korean, going in-country is seriously going to help you.

On the CLS Korean program for Busan, we had class every week day for three hours, then language partners and Korean roommates. That meant you were constantly turned on to Korean mode, which is exhausting, but so much worth it.

I found myself learning more outside of the classroom than inside of it. Class was really for reinforcing grammar and by practicing speeches and presentations (we had to do multiple presentations on our trips!), but when I was with my incredible language partner and roommate I learned more slang and random words.

Spoken Korean is wildly different than what we learn in the classroom, so by being in-country, I felt like I was rapidly progressing. I was pretty comfortable speaking by the end of the program.

It’s also really about the tight relationships you make.

As I mentioned before, you get a Korean language partner and a roommate on the CLS Busan program at Pusan National University. We lived in the hotel for two weeks as the dorms were prepared, then moved into the dorms the third weekend of our CLS program.

I absolutely adored both my roommate and language partner. My language partner was older like me (my CLS program skewered younger), and we would call ourselves eating partners—we were both really into food. We had a lot of adventures throughout the city.

My roommate I spent a lot of time with too. I would invite her to events with other CLS friends, and she got to know everyone too. From going to karaoke to cafe hopping, I really feel like I had a bond with my roommate in the end, despite my Korean level not being the greatest.

Unfortunately, our year there were not enough roommates, so half the people had a roommate in the hotel, then they switched for the dorms. I had no roommate for the hotel, but had a roommate in the dorms. We also got to meet our roommate’s families as a part of our roommate mission.

My CLS cohort was also full of some incredible people. We had a lot of kind and nice people that remained relatively drama free throughout the course of the program. There are definitely lifelong friendships I’ve made here.

The travel weekends are also really flexible! Exploring is so much fun.

So for CLS Korean Busan in 2024, we had two travel weekends. The Gwangju cohort had four, but we originally had three and one was taken away so we could move into the dorms.

During my two travel weekends, I flew out of the local airport to Jeju-do, which was an incredible trip. I went with four other CLS Busan friends, and we roamed the island over the course of two days.

My second travel weekend in August I went to visit my host family from NSLI-Y in Seoul/Anyang. This trip was mainly catching up with local friends and the host family, which I had such a great time doing.

In addition to this, you have a lot of free time on the program to just roam around Busan. I got to know the city really well, and it’s pretty accessible. It’s just super annoying to navigate because most things are over an hour from Pusan National University.

One of our cultural trips was an overnight stay to a martial-arts based Buddhist temple in Gyeongju, which was such an interesting experience.

You’ll also learn a lot about the culture and Korean people.

The CLS program certainly packed in a lot of cultural activities for our cohort, and we did things like traditional Korean drumming, cooking, a physics lecture, and an event with NIIED.

Between the constant exposure with language partners, roommates, and these events, I felt like we learned so much about Korea. Although I had a similar program before, I felt my appreciation for the penninsula country growing so much more as the program went on.

If you ever have questions about the program, feel free to contact me. As someone who crossed over from an Indic based CLS in India into the Korean program, I felt like I could compare in a way that was different compared to my other cohort members.

Overall, I did feel like I got better at Korean for sure. Nothing beats immersion for me.

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