As a student studying Linguistics, I discovered that I needed a Language Other than English(LOE) as part of my credit requirements. Being a Nigerian— everyone learns or has had to learn French at a point in their lives, and I was not exempted, in fact, I learned it for about 10 years of my life— And it was only logical that I pick French; I live in Canada, after all.

“It was almost like a path was being orchestrated for me.”

– Sandra.

I didn’t choose the most logical route however, I picked Korean. It was almost like a path was being orchestrated for me because a few weeks before I picked this language, one of my Canadian college floormates told me that she had discovered the university had a Korean Language department and so for her language requirement, she was currently taking the course and she loved it. As someone who loves languages, I quickly filed away this knowledge for future use.

So why Korean?

Being introduced to South Korea in high school through an all-time fan-favorite classic, Boys Over Flowers, to getting deeply immersed in the variety entertainment world of Korea through Sunday family night favorite, Running Man, I might as well be a K-drama connoisseur(cheeky huh?!).

If you ask nicely, I could recommend some of my favorite Korean dramas and variety shows for you to watch(haha)!

So I guess my answer would be that I love learning languages and my 16-year-old self met Korea and fell in love with her culture(which I found had a few similarities to what I was used to growing up—A blog sometime in the future maybe?), food, drama & music. This gave me a thirst for adventure.

Another thing learning Korean gave me is friendship. I would say aside from my nuclear family, the closest bond I formed with others was due to our common interest in South Korea and I am extremely grateful for this.

Learning Korean helped me deal with the crippling stage fright I was struggling with. My friends Lillian and Carolyn were dancers especially to K-pop and occasionally, I would join them to dance while they practiced in the dance rooms. When the Korean department hosted events, my girls would always perform and this was inspiring.

My first participation in the Korean Pop competition held by the Korean Language department of the university in collaboration with the Korean Consulate in British Columbia, was to conquer stage fright. Cajoling my friend, Aristotle ( a master of keys!) into playing for me, I performed a mash-up of Kpop classics: Big Bang-Bae Bae, Chanyeol & Punch- Stay with me (Goblin OST) and 2NE1- Come back home. I didn’t rank.

However, I came back 2 years later for the same competition with a solo song which had sparked something in me the first time I heard it in the Korean drama; Dream High.

This song is, ‘A Goose’ Dream by Insooni (인순이- 거위의 꿈)’; I ranked first with a few of Ajummas and Ajhussis coming up to me to tell me that I had touched their soul and taken them back in time. This was not only great to hear as a foreigner singing in Korean, but as the only black girl that was in the singing competition!

It challenged me to do more. Try whatever I was curious about. I mean you only live once anyway, right?! Now, I live everyday doing anything I want to do and even when I don’t have the means, I put it on my bucket list for the future.

Challenge: That thing you’ve always wanted to do, do it! Time waits for no one and you’ll only get older anyway so why not do it while you have the energy. If you can’t afford it, put it on a bucket list and work towards it. You’ve got this!

Find my cover of A Goose’ Dream by clicking on the link.

See you next time, Starlights!