In Berlin
In the '70s, my parents moved from South Korea to Berlin, where I was born. Growing up speaking both German and Korean, I have always been interested in language. I have taken 3 different approaches to language that have led me to 3 different cities/countries/continents so far.
My first approach to language was the study of contemporary German literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, where I graduated in 2007. I was fascinated by bilingual authors such as Herta Müller, the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, and José Olivier, who worked in German with German and accessed the language in creative new ways. In my Magister thesis, I looked at how experiences of alienation are expressed in the language of Herta Müller's novels and Heinrich Heine's poems.
My second approach to language was teaching German. This allowed me to grasp the depth and beauty of German on a deeper level. As part of my Teaching Certification in German as a Foreign Language from the Freie Universität Berlin, I had to teach abroad for one semester. It was during this first teaching experience in Seoul that I fell in love with teaching! In Berlin, I had various opportunities to explore and improve my teaching skills with culturally diverse classes at FUBiS (the summer program at the Freie Universität Berlin), HuWiSu (the summer and winter program at Humboldt Universität), and NYU Berlin. I describe my teaching experience in more detail here.
My third approach to language is a direct consequence of my passion for teaching. I became curious about the underlying mechanisms and representations of language acquisition and have been pursuing a dual-title Ph.D. in German Applied Linguistics and Language Science at Penn State since 2012. In my dissertation I investigated the acquisition of the asymmetric verb placement in German by Korean immigrants who came as so called "Gasrarbeiter" to Germany around the 1970s. My fascination for cultural intersections and how the constant contact affects language acquisition and maintenance led me to also explore heritage language speakers in the U.S.
My first approach to language was the study of contemporary German literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, where I graduated in 2007. I was fascinated by bilingual authors such as Herta Müller, the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, and José Olivier, who worked in German with German and accessed the language in creative new ways. In my Magister thesis, I looked at how experiences of alienation are expressed in the language of Herta Müller's novels and Heinrich Heine's poems.
My second approach to language was teaching German. This allowed me to grasp the depth and beauty of German on a deeper level. As part of my Teaching Certification in German as a Foreign Language from the Freie Universität Berlin, I had to teach abroad for one semester. It was during this first teaching experience in Seoul that I fell in love with teaching! In Berlin, I had various opportunities to explore and improve my teaching skills with culturally diverse classes at FUBiS (the summer program at the Freie Universität Berlin), HuWiSu (the summer and winter program at Humboldt Universität), and NYU Berlin. I describe my teaching experience in more detail here.
My third approach to language is a direct consequence of my passion for teaching. I became curious about the underlying mechanisms and representations of language acquisition and have been pursuing a dual-title Ph.D. in German Applied Linguistics and Language Science at Penn State since 2012. In my dissertation I investigated the acquisition of the asymmetric verb placement in German by Korean immigrants who came as so called "Gasrarbeiter" to Germany around the 1970s. My fascination for cultural intersections and how the constant contact affects language acquisition and maintenance led me to also explore heritage language speakers in the U.S.