08 Dec Claire Franklin, MA Interpreting and Translation Student on Korean Pathway wins Third Place for Essay Competition!
Read Claire’s inspiring experience below!
Mia교수님 informed us of the competition on 3rd October 2023 as I believe the deadline for applications/submissions was extended to 13th October rather than 29th September. I read the poster and was interested in participating as I quite like the process of researching and writing essays. However, when I saw that I only had 10 days to write the essay, I was hesitant to apply. Despite my reservations, I went ahead and participated anyway as I already had a topic in mind and I wanted to express my thoughts on it.
In terms of writing the essay, I found it quite challenging to find relevant readings to support my ideas, as the concept of incorporating Korean culture into UK-based classrooms has not been extensively explored as of yet. However, eventually, I was able to piece together enough citations to support my work, as well as extend it in different areas with ideas I had not yet considered.
“If you’re a postgraduate like myself and completed a degree in something separate from your current studies, incorporating your previous knowledge into a topic really helps with this competition”
The award ceremony was initially quite intimidating and a lot more formal than I had anticipated. But once everyone had arrived and we all got chatting, the tension eased from my shoulders. We all shared a Korean luncheon together, followed by Ambassador Yeocheol Yoon giving an initial speech before handing out certificates and prizes to each of us. Afterwards, it was time for individual speeches to briefly describe our essays to the group. As a very socially anxious person, this was a difficult hurdle to overcome. However, it was, as always is the case, not as bad as I was expecting. I now consider this event as an effort to overcome a personal hurdle that I have struggled with for a long time, in addition to a recognition of my writing ability.
If you’re a postgraduate like myself and completed a degree in something separate from your current studies, incorporating your previous knowledge into a topic really helps with this competition. I was given several different broad topic areas to choose from, as well as the option to choose my own topic. Thus, I chose one of the given topics and added one of my own so that I could specialise my essay toward a certain niche. From there, it’s quite easy to get into the flow of the essay with your own interests being the main focus. And for those anxious students anticipating anything that could possibly go wrong and using it as an excuse to not participate, like myself, choose this event as the time to finally ignore those inner demons and face your obstacles head-on. It will all be fine in the end.