Eventually I hope to work as a diplomat, and since French is spoken on nearly every continent in the world and is a major language at the United Nations, learning French is integral to achieving my career goals. To achieve this goal, I lived with a French family for my semester abroad. As a result, I spoke in French every single day. It was a challenging and terrifying experience in the beginning. Initially, I was embarrassed about my French accent and language abilities, but I learned that I could not allow my embarrassment to stop me from trying. Through constant effort, I felt my language ability improving daily. Because I didn’t allow my fear or embarrassment to stop me, I was able to freely converse with my family by the end of my study abroad experience. The process of improving my French was exhausting, but looking back, I am so happy that I didn’t give up. Remembering to push through embarrassment and persist is an important lesson that I will take back with me to my studies at Berkeley.
Eventually I hope to work as a diplomat and since French is spoken on nearly every continent in the world, and a major language at the United Nations, learning French is integral to achieving my career goals. I lived with a French family for my semester abroad and as a result, I spoke French every day. It was challenging and terrifying initially, but I learned not to allow my embarrassment to stop me from trying and my language ability improved daily. Remembering to persist is an important lesson that I will take back with me to my studies at Berkeley.