meowsica

just received the dreaded (NS). pretty devastated, especially since i also got word i wasn't offered another job 24 hours ago. waiting for two months and so much rejection in two days! congratulations to everyone with better news and i hope your fulbright experiences are incredibly fulfilling

i talked to my fulbright advisor this morning and he said it's fairly common for notifications to come out separately, but that hopefully research/grant decisions would be sent down soon! ack!

south korea applicant here with no email yet granted i didn't apply for an eta, but i'm very anxious and confused. congratulations to everybody who has heard positive news though

my typical day: 7am: it's a new dawn! a new day! enjoy these next two hours of peace. 9am: it begins! not-so-stealthily check your phone during classes, remain disappointed. 10am: email notifications start rolling in from activities, student bookstore, my grandma. give it up grandma! i'm not obsessively checking my inbox for you! 11am: reassure yourself that it's still early and today could still be The Day 12pm: notifications from other countries start rolling in. seethe in bitter jealousy. who wants to go to genovia/atlantis/etc anyway? 12:05pm: smile thru the bitterness and post a half-hearted 'congrats!' 1pm: now all these email notifications from student government and change.org are just mocking you 3pm: the day is winding down. your hope is slipping away. 3:15pm: stare at spreadsheets of past years, trying to determine some kind of pattern you missed the last 1200 times you did this 4:30pm: whine at your mom 4:35pm: mom hangs up on you, doesn't want to hear about it anymore 4:55pm: what if it comes in the last five minutes???!!! 5:00pm: (it didn't) rest of the evening: wonder if any notifications have ever come in past 5pm, do the things that life asks of you on a daily basis, and wait to do it all over again

congratulations, turkey acceptees!

congratulations to those who have heard this week! i'm so jealous (whines)

someone's annoyed that i won't stop texting her 24/7 about my as yet unknown acceptance status congratulations to all those who were accepted!!!!!!!! you now not only have a fulbright, but my unrepressed, seething jealousy

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!

i am! i started learning chinese first, so my chinese is much more advanced than my korean. i think it helps sometimes, because korean has some sino-influenced vocabulary that i can recognize here and there. but overall i wouldn't say it's too hard. i don't know much about japanese, but chinese and korean are hugely different in terms of grammar structures, pronunciation, writing systems, etc. so i don't find myself making mix ups too often! here's a couple of links that might be more useful for those learning asian languages, since duolingo/etc don't feature them yet: Memrise: focused solely on vocabulary memorization. really helpful for learning chinese characters, but for other languages too! Human Japanese ($): i've never used this but my friends/sister/etc. swear by their computer program & cell phone app. TalkToMeInKorean: obviously only for korean learners. they have free audio and text lessons, as well as a regularly-updated youtube channel. super, super helpful and easy to use. HelloTalk: a cell phone app that connects you with people from across the world and allows you to chat and language learn together! Lang-8: you write a journal entry in the language you're learning, and then native speakers correct it. then you return the favor for those learning english! Pleco: the very best chinese-english dictionary app available! it was my very best friend while i was abroad. A big ole' list of Asian language learning resources.

the program i applied for asks for one year of language study/a novice level. for me, the best way to improve my foreign language skills has always been immersion. i studied abroad in beijing and my mandarin improved leaps and bounds just because i was forced to use it (my program made us sign a language pledge). having friends my own age who were native mandarin speakers and could teach me slang & how to really say things, instead of just textbook phrases, was also great. i also tried really really hard to not be afraid to start conversations with people in mandarin. like on the bullet train to nanjing one weekend i spent the whole 4 hours stretching my chinese to its limits to talk to the guy sitting next to me. i think the only way to really improve is to get over the fear of being wrong and just chatter away as much as you can. i'll sometimes speak to myself in mandarin or korean, just to practice. adding a little alcohol into the situation if you dig that never hurts, either, because it makes you less nervous

left my first class of the day and checked my email. my heart skipped a beat when i saw a subject line containing 'fulbright' but alas it was just my campus advisor emailing about info sessions. so much tension.

graduate degree grant applicant, actually! but it's always nice to know others interested in korea, as well good luck to you too!!!! fingers crossed that we find out sooner rather than later.

the fact that belgium/luxembourg were notified today when in previous years they haven't found out until late march-early april (even may!) has upended my peaceful façade. i was all prepared to hold in the anxiety and obsessive e-mail checking for another couple of weeks at least, since my country (south korea) has a history of late march notification... now that's all in the trash. anything can happen. past record indicates nothing. my (admittedly fake) zen outlook has been disrupted. thanks a lot, fulbright. hmph!

Hi everyone! First time applying, senior in college graduating in May. I found out yesterday that i was recommended for my South Korea application (not for ETA or research, but for the Korean Studies Graduate Degree Grant). Super excited!!!! Now I need to begin the process of not getting my hopes up too high as I await the final decision... I also need to apply for said graduate degree!