New Friends – New Perspectives!

So earlier this week, I was studying at a table at Doe Library.

While I was studying, an Asian girl came and sat across from me. Later, an Asian guy came and sat next to her, and they started talking in an Asian language (I could tell it wasn’t Korean). Out of curiosity, I asked them afterwards if they were Japanese. I’m currently taking History of Art R1B, which is a reading and composition class. The theme of the class, set by the GSI, is Japanese art (my GSI’s Japanese). Thus, I wanted to start a conversation about Japanese art, and whether they knew artists like Takashi Murakami. However, they told me that they were actually speaking Mandarin, and that they were graduate students from Hong Kong. I asked them more about their background, and why they were studying at Berkeley. I knew that many international students studied here during the summer, but I never found the reason why they weren’t studying elsewhere, like at another UC or private university. I learned that the reason is that for them, their home school provides the connection to the school in the States, so they don’t make the choice (maybe I missed something here, but that’s what I recall). The other reason is, well, Berkeley’s a pretty good school hehe. Berkeley offers a lot of classes in different areas, so international students from all majors find Cal to be a good fit.

I had to leave for class, but before I headed for the exit, I asked them if they wanted to grab lunch sometime later this week. They were up for it. Off I went.

Yesterday, I met up with the guy, named Jackson, at Sather Gate sometime around noon, and we walked down Sproul Plaza. The girl couldn’t make it because she was busy with a paper =(. Anyways, so I decided to show Jackson to a restaurant in the Asian Ghetto (yes that’s the nickname for an area near campus that has a lot of Asian restaurants), named Gypsy’s (which is a bomb Italian restaurant). Of course, I inquired whether or not he had a large appetite, because let me tell you, their calzones are ginormous! We both ordered the combo calzone and sat at a table. We talked about school, about his experience at Berkeley compared to the University of Hong Kong, etc.

When I learned that he had studied abroad at France for a semester, my curiosity was whetted. I asked him about his experience, and he responded “It was amazing!” I found out that he was a French Language major in addition to Linguistics. Then it hit me – since I will be minoring in Korean Language, it would be a great opportunity if I could study abroad in Korea for a semester, to really practice the language on a daily basis. True, most people would choose to study abroad in a country they’ve never been to, but I’ve only been to Korea a few times in my life so far, and each time was only for like two weeks. In my opinion, one should know his/her culture really well before studying another culture. In other words, I should master Korean, being a Korean American, before I really push to become trilingual. It would also be great to see my relatives in Korea.

One of my main concerns initially whenever I considered becoming a foreign exchange student was the separation from my friends that would entail. I told Jackson this, and he laughed it off. “It’s the 21st century! You’ve got Facebook, Skype, email. You can talk to them anytime you want!” I couldn’t agree more, and I shook my head for worrying about this “implication”. Hahaha.

So I’m giving a lot of thought to the possibility of studying abroad in Korea, perhaps in my third year. All of this is happening because I started up a conversation with some random guy at Doe Library one afternoon. Isn’t it amazing how things work out? Refer to my post on June 30 for highly related content.

Say “hello” to people you’ve never met before. Learn from them. Your life will change as a result.

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