Ty'Anne Nelson
University of Pittsburgh | Bradford
Heinz Programming Area:Ty’Anne Nelson spent four weeks of her summer studying the Korean language, through a virtual program with ISA and Korea University. Through this program she was able to immerse herself into the Korean language and did everything she could to learn as much as possible in the short amount of time given and while all through ZOOM. Given the circumstances, all programs being made virtual for the 2021 year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she tried her best to stay focused even though a virtual program. The program, Beginning Korean, aims to set up students with little to no knowledge of the Korean language with the basics of conversation, vocabulary, and grammar. After taking the course the main goal is for the student to be able to navigate their way through day-to-day life in Korea.
Ty’Anne’s original plan when considering the Vira Heinz program was to connect her program with her major of Psychology by analyzing the new environment and culture around her. This now being hard to do, she took this opportunity to learn more about herself and how she handles various situations. Although different from what she imagined, Ty’Anne enjoyed her program and would like to visit South Korea one day to apply her knowledge.
CEE Title: The Importance of Learning a Second Language
My CEE was titled The Importance of Learning a New Language. The CEE concept was surrounded by the fact that many students at my university are not exposed to a language other than English in their daily lives, as well as the surrounding community. Unfortunately, there are only three language-based classes offered at my university. With this being said, my group and I knew that action needed to be taken. My group consisted of the University of Pittsburgh Bradford cohort and through our presentation, we hoped to encourage the audience to pick up a new language. In our presentation, we listed the many benefits of picking up a second language such as a better ability to focus and the ability to multitask. One key factor that was mentioned in the presentation was the growth of cultural knowledge. Because many people do not deal with languages other than English, they are also not exposed to many other cultures often. Widening your global competency is important because once you enter the real world, you are more susceptible to interacting with people of various cultures and ethnicities other than yours. Also included in our CEE were our own individual experiences abroad. Although our study abroad experience was virtual, there was still a heavy impact. Through sharing our individual international experiences, we wanted to show that even with the obstacles, we did not let that stop our desire to learn.