From Texas to Missouri looking for new adventures

Midge moved to Springfield, MO from Crowberry, TX a couple years ago to join Missouri State University. She is pursuing a double major in Global Studies with a focus on languages and cultures, and Modern Languages with a focus on Korean. Before coming to Springfield, she served on the Navy for a time and later decided to quit her job and take her life in another direction; that’s how Midge decided to come back to school. In addition, she chose MSU because she heard that the university had a great global studies program. Later on, she decided to add the Korean major.

Passion for Asian culture

She has always been interested in languages and cultures, mostly Asian. Midge started to grow her interest when she was in high school thanks to Japanese anime (kind of like everybody gets into it she laughs). Then she discovered Korean culture shortly after. Midge started to like k pop and k dramas and eventually started to learn more about the culture. Her interest in Korea motivated her to start learning the language. Getting immersed in the Korean culture was something so much different than what she was raised with, so she wanted to learn more about it and how it worked.

The impact of learning a language

Midge mentions that learning a language has given her a new perspective on people, and events in her life. She feels like she can look at things from a new angle and take the language, culture, and ideas and apply them to different situations making her able to understand the situation from more than one perspective.  She mentions that she was raised in a very structured family and by learning a language she feels like she was able to push past conservative views.  She said that it’s liberating and challenging at the same time. Learning a new language has helped her to step outside of her box.

Putting learning into practice

Midge plans to study abroad next fall. When she comes back, she would like to get a certificate to teach English and then go back to Korea and teach English there for a couple of years, but eventually come back to the U.S. to be with her family. When she comes back, she would like to obtain a Master’s degree and teach Korean in the U.S.

Learning a language comes with more than just the language

“When you start learning a language, you just not learn the language, you learn the culture, history people and meet new people, make new friends.” She would recommend it not only for the language itself but for everything that comes with it. If she hadn’t started learning Korean and getting interested in the culture, she would never have moved here and met all the friend that she has. She has friends that support her all the time from Korea and all around the world. “Everybody should learn another language.”