Hi, I am currently looking for some comments and editings for my UC personal statement. Since my mother tongue is not English, if possible I would like you to correct some grammers as well. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Prompt:Describe the place you come from-for example, your family, community or school-and tell us how the world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
My Korean heritage
Being a third generation Korean immigrant born in Japan, I always enjoyed learning of my Korean heritage in a considerable amount of ways. Starting from when I was ten, I studied Korean as a second language besides using Japanese as a main language of my everyday life. My grandparents played an important role in cultivating my sense of identity in being Korean. They taught me how much they valued their ethnic traditions inherited from generation to generation. In an attempt to connect myself with my heritage, I also began to contribute to the community of ethnic Korean resides in Tokyo, and this activity later became the center of my life.
Throughout my high school life, I have been extremely involved in a Korean-Japanese history museum located in Shin Okubo, Tokyo-Tokyo's biggest Korean town. Since its founding, the Korean-Japanese museum has promoted the relationships between Japanese and ethnic Korean residents at a political and at an interpersonal in terms of understanding their mutual history. As a Japanese citizen of Korean ancestry, I have always been concerned about the political conflicts between the two countries I have felt most familiar. For the past three years, I have engaged in the storytelling activity at this museum and communicated with many people, including ethnic Korean students, right-winged activists, and normal Japanese citizens. With its unique environment, the Korean-Japanese museum offers various opportunities to learn the frictions in our history and makes me aware of the need to find out cooperative actions for this problems.
I have also gotten involved with their Cross-Cultural Understanding Programs, inviting tourists from both Japanese and Korean community. As a bilingual who speaks both Japanese and Korean, I have worked as a tour-guide and as an interpreter, and I explained the traditional cultures Korean residents retained over the years in Japan. In addition, tourists often asked me my own personal experience and perspectives because I was the only tour-guide of Korean descent. This experience allowed me to become more interested in my Korean heritage, reinforcing the meaning of my ancestral cultures for my life. Through the interaction with these tourists, I had the chance to come in close contact with and better understand Korean cultures as well as help teach Japanese history and cultures.
In 2015, I am going to the United States of America-a country where people and cultures from different part of the world coexist. I may confront many difficulties living in a new environment, meeting new people, using new languages, but I would like to keep my strong connection with both my Korean and Japanese heritage. Using my own knowledge and experiences, I hope to continue prompting the awareness of both Korean and Japanese cultures to the public in many ways.
