Mikaela Phang
Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia, Korean Language Study Abroad
Introduction
Hi! My name is Mikaela. I was born and raised in New Zealand, but my parents are from Singapore, where most of my family lives. At UoA, I am studying a BA in Communication and Japanese and a Diploma in Languages, where my main focus is the Korean language.
I applied for this PMSA programme because I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and experience living in a foreign country where I didn’t completely understand or speak the language. I have studied Korean at university for two years, but I felt like this opportunity would allow me to improve both my language skills and my general communication ability while trying to navigate this new culture and language.
I am most excited about gaining a deeper understanding of Korean culture and people, making new friends, and seeing how I grow overall as a person over the next three months. Through this experience, I hope to attain knowledge that I can bring back and share with my community back home and become someone capable of building bonds and increasing understanding between New Zealand and Asia in the future.
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Happy New Year! 🎊
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season wherever you are. By the time this blog post goes up, it will have officially been 4 weeks in Korea! Out of 12 weeks, that’s already one-third! Time is going by so fast. For us in Korea, there were no breaks over…Continue…
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Weeks 1 & 2: Settling in and Chilling in Seoul (literally) ❄️
After a seemingly never-ending row of flight delays and a couple of hours stuck at Auckland Airport, the eleven of us on the programme were able to get on the plane, and we were welcomed by the Korean Air SUPER M safety video. The flight was 12 hours, and while I have gone on other…Continue…