My stay at the Excellence Center in Halle

I am a 20 year old guy with a South Korean nationality. My cultural background, however, is a mix of Latino, African, North American(USA), and east Asian. This is because I spent my school years traveling from continent to continent, following my Father’s work; born in Dubai, started pre-school in Florida, then Georgia(USA), California, S.Korea, Cameroon, and Chile, where I started and finished my high school. Now I live in the great state of Bremen, North-West Germany, where I am majoring in Computer Science with a minor in psychology.
My family was not the picture-perfect asian family. On the outside, both my parents were self-made, born into poverty but each found their way to become middle-class providers. But within our walls, arguments and family feuds were a constant. At one point, my sister, who is three years older than I, took charge of my growth, and I thank her every day of my life for her; if not for her, I would not be here today. My friends in high school were not the most caring nor the kindest people. I look back at those years and think if I had found a better group of people, I would not have been feeling so down for such a long time. When I got to college, things stayed the same. Same kind of friends, same kinds of activities, and so forth. But in the summer of 2022, I traveled. For the first time in my life, I traveled because I wanted to, and not because I was following my Father’s life or anyone else’s. I met people with extraordinary stories; from refugees escaping a war ravaging country to people who were kicked out of college for burning their dorms down. I heard their stories, told them mine, and I learned a lot about respecting and dealing with people.
In Halle, I joined the Excellence Center and met so many amazing people. I taught for the first time in my life. I had to re-learn English grammar, I had forgotten that things that came naturally for me had actual words for it; like prepositions and adverbs and conjunctions. I did not feel comfortable with the idea of teaching people anything, but I wanted to try it because of that exact reason. If I had not taught this summer, I doubt I would have ever done it in my life, and I am thankful for the people who made it possible for me to try new and uncomfortable things.
I learned German with Max. The first few classes were confusing and too fast-paced but towards the end, many people had left back to their home countries, and the class structure changed to a more small-talk oriented dialogue based class, which I enjoyed much more. I learned more in my last 3 classes than I did in the first “all”.
I met people who I took a lot from. Whether it was about immigration policies and perspectives of actual refugees or experiences of adoption. I listened to their stories and it has shaped my view of the world.
The Excellence Center is what you make of it. If your focus is to meet new people and learn a new language on the side, you can do that. If you want to learn a language intensively and meet new people on the side, you can do that too. There is no one holding your hand telling you what to do next, which was perfect for me because I am a bit spontaneous.
Halle is an extremely small city for me. Having lived in the capitals of all the countries I’ve been in, I did not know what to expect of Halle. But the experience of waving to people you know on the way to a restaurant or to teach a student is an amazing feeling.