Yueyan Shi

Growing up in Jilin, a province in China that have significant ethnic minority populations, it allowed me to be able to communicate with friends from different ethnic backgrounds and stimulated my interests in digging into the fascinating history and cultures in Northeast Asia. With Yanbian, a Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin being majorly influenced by Korean culture due to its Korean migration history, my interest and discovery in Korean language and culture started early particularly. While slowly mastering my Korean language skill, I realized I wish to understand more about Korean language and culture, in a way that it deepens my understanding and connection with my community. Therefore, I continued my study on Korean language and culture in UBC. The experience of being a part of UBC Asian Studies Department was truly an important part of my experiences in Canada. I was able to learn from not only South Korean students, but many students from different cultural background who have their interests in Korea. It taught me with a more sophisticated understanding toward Korea and many other Asian communities.

I believe my journey in attempt to understand different Asian cultures, particular Korean, not only allowed me to be informed, but also helped me to be more mindful about my community and my own identity. After graduating from UBC, I wish to continue my study about Korean language and culture in Asia countries, hoping that it will provides me with a different perspective, and more possibilities in being able to contribute to the research and advocate of Korean language and culture.

Additionally, with an interest in Asian languages in general, I will be continuing my study in languages other than Korean. I was able to pick up some basic Japanese starting from middle school. I believe additional language skills would allow me to access more information and knowledge in the future.