In Korea, body language plays a big role in every day interactions. Korea's language is based off of Confucianism and has strong foundation for hierarchy. For example, one of my cultural presenations focused on meal and drinking etiquette in Korea. When beginning a meal, it is important to wait to be seated. Always wait for the oldest people to sit down before you take a seat at the table. Before eating, especially when you are a guest, it is also polite to say that you are looking forward to the meal (jalmukesumneda/I will eat well). This sentence is said with a bow with the head. Similar phrases such as "anyonghaseyo/hello (formal)" is also done with a bow with the head to signify respect. Any time you talk to someone older or respectful, possibly through rank or social status, always talk with the formal tense.

When refilling your drink, it is important to pour drinks for others first, especially those senior to you. If you are accepting a drink, accept the drink with both hands. When pouring drinks for elders, rest your free hand under your wrist of your pouring hand. Finally, when you are done eating your meal, it is important to thank the host for the meal (masegaemugusuyo/I ate well). Just like before, with a bow of the head. Make sure you do not leave leftovers! It is rude not to finish your plate! Also something to keep in mind, if there is a sign indicating not to tip, do not tip the waiters. It is considered rude in Korea to tip!

Other social linguistic aspects is that Koreans never point with their index finger, or signal someone to come over with the index finger. These kinds of motions are done for animals, for example, telling a dog to come over. Instead, one should use the whole hand to indicate a motion. When signalling a child, for example, to come over, use the palm (face down) in a sort of patting motion.

In Korean business culture, it is expected to show up on time. Just like American culture, it is okay to be late, but not often. However, if it involves more leisurely activities, there is no emphasis on being punctual. It is expected to be on time, but it is okay if you are not. The more important thing to address is accommodating the elders. If a party is held, it is okay to be late as long as there are enough seats to be distributed for the elders or people of honor.

There is a strange paradox in Korean time, where Koreans are generally late, but are always in a rush. Because of this, there is a running joke of being "on time" and being "Korean on time." Koreans are generally impatient due to the fact that they are often running behind schedule and do not show up on time. Interestingly enough, this may be the cause of the high rate of traffic accidents in Korea.

This attitude is reflected in the Korean language. There is a word in Korean, "ppali" which means "quickly." Korea has a "ppali ppali" culture and people are often seen holding their coffee cups before the coffee has finished dispensing and drinking their beverages before they have even paid for the item.

Also, in relation to business culture and meeting new people, Koreans consider it impolite to be touched by someone who is not a relative or close friend. Avoid eye contact between senior members.

Learning Korean has been a challenging, but memorable experience this semester. I originally chose to learn Korean because the Korean culture, as well as other cultures of minority, surrounded me as I grew up. I listened to all kinds of music from other languages – Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, and of course, Chinese. However, it was the Korean language that sustained my interest; its language and flow of words always intrigued me. The words sounded so beautiful in Korean ballads, but could also sound ugly when one was expressing anger. Its expressive nature interested me, and I often found myself using Korean music as accompaniment when studying for school. I had no idea what the singer was saying, and yet, I kept listening.

The self-directed learning program at the University of Richmond greatly helped me learn Korean. At the start of the semester, the FIRE model and other surveys helped me determine myself as a factual and visual learner. It is impossible to learn everything Korean in one semester: its alphabet, its words, grammar, and ever-expanding culture. With that in mind, the learning plan in addition to Sun Yoon, my Korean tutor, helped me structure my progress. It would be foolish to try to learn everything; I narrowed down the topics of focus. This was important because for the first time in a course, I was learning what I wanted to learn and I was guiding the direction. I was able to choose words and topics that applied to myself. Not only did this make learning Korean more personal, but it also allowed me to retain more information.

I would like to thank Sun Yoon for being there as a private tutor this semester. Without her help, I would have difficulty learning the language, especially in terms of speaking the language. I wanted to learn the foundations of writing, but speaking was my focus. She nit-picked at my pronunciation and made sure that I said every word correctly. It has been a good feeling this semester when I received compliments from other Korean speakers on campus, saying that I had a good pronunciation and sounded like a native Korean. I would not like it if I walked away this semester knowing that I had a Westernized-style of speaking Korean. From the learning the basics of the alphabet and how to say greetings and farewells, I am now able to have simple conversations. I can order food from a restaurant and even ask someone out on a date in Korean! It may not sound like much, but the Korean language is complex. I have been given countless messages from other peers, telling me to avoid Korean. They said things along the lines of “there are a million ways to say every word in Korean, why would you want to learn it?” Yes, learning Korean was hard; there are multiple ways to express feelings along with several tiers of informalities and formalities in its language. Thankfully, Sun was there to help me. It would be terrible for me to be caught in a situation using the wrong formal tense, and Sun helped me learn the depths of Korean culture.

One of the most interesting parts of learning Korean this semester was learning the culture behind the language. Korean is a contextual language, and therefore if the lines are literally taken out of context, they would not make sense. The phrases would be vague and the wrong message would be given. When speaking Korean, it is important to know the field: boundaries, hierarchy of speakers, formal/informal tenses, the speaking environment, and relationship with the other speaker. “Yes” does not always mean “yes” and “no” does not always mean no. With the help of the SDL program and Sun, I learned the social cues that were native to the language.

This semester, I knew and confirmed that it did not work to simply learn words from a list. The process seemed random and intangible. Diagrams, videos, and dialogues helped me the most. To supplement my Korean speak, I listened to YouTube videos, watched Korean television shows, and listened to the applications I downloaded onto my phone. For each, I carefully listened to their pronunciation of words and how those words were used in different contexts. It is still difficult for me to remember all the words, but for now, I use formal tenses most of the time just to be safe.

I believe that this semester has given me the tools required to continue my self-directed learning post-graduation. It is, no doubt, difficult to learn a new language; as a student, it is easy to forget new words learned because there are so many other classes to keep up with. I plan to take a gap year to recover, re-orient, and reset my priorities before I continue schooling. During that time, I hope to continue learning Korean with consistent practice.

I believe that I achieved most of my goals this semester. My plan was not to become fluent in reading and writing, but to be able to learn the foundations of how the writing system worked. In terms of speaking, that was my main focus. This semester might be one of the only chances I get to learn from a native Korean speaker, so learning how to speak properly was more important to me than learning how to read or write. As long as I know how the writing system works, I do not necessarily need to learn how to read everything because I can self-teach that in the future without the aid of a tutor.

I knew from that start that learning raw vocabulary would not work. It would be near impossible to just memorize words from a list. This semester I made an attempt to ensure that the majority of what I learned could be reapplied to my own life. I believe that applying words to specific memories help with memorizing words and phrases. I do not think I have remembered everything, but for those things I do remember, it will be difficult for me to forget.

One stumbling block I encountered was trying to learn double consonants/vowels of the alphabet as well as the two lines of numbers (Sino-Korean and Native-Korean). In terms of the alphabet, single consonants and vowels would make one sound, but then double consonants and vowels would make a completely new sound, which made it hard to remember. Think about having an alphabet of 24 vowels/consonants, and then having dozens of other sounds based on how you combine the vowels and consonants together. That is what made it difficult to learn.

In terms of numbers, it was difficult to learn two separate number systems: the Sino-Korean and Native Korean. The Sino-Korean number system was easier to learn because it was more in line with the American numbers. I could see a trend with the numbers, making it somewhat easier to memorize. However, for Native-Korean numbers, I felt like there was no trend, making each number totally unique. This reminds me of the major difficulty I had with learning Chinese. If you do not know a word, you just do not know it.

I overcame most of the stumbling blocks by pure memorization because I could not find a trend among the words. In the future, I plan to find easier ways to memorize those words I had stumbling blocks with. I found interesting cultural links such as how the writing system has Confucianism influences, but nothing that directly helped so far. In general, for the other parts of learning, I found that having everything in diagrams, pictures, and dialogues helped me learn most efficiently.

The most interesting part of this semester was self-guiding my learning experience. In the past with other languages, I found some chapters and subjects mundane because they did not apply to me. This semester I could choose my own topics and relate a majority of the words back to my own experiences, making the process more entertaining and less stressful.

I would not say that there was a least interesting part, but I found pronouncing words to be frustrating. I believe everyone suffers from frustration when learning a new language. I often felt emotions such as "my pronunciation sounds so Americanized," or "it doesn't sound smooth at all." However, I believe that I am slowly improving with more practice. That is why, this semester, I focused more on speaking than on writing.

In the future, I want to continue my self-directed study on Korean. Consistent practice definitely is important and I feel that I have also made friendships with other peers and tutors to ensure safe and strong progress with the language. The SDL course at University of Richmond helped me immensely and gave me new perspectives and powerful resources to give me the jump that I needed!

Learning Plan

"I Can" Statements

1. I can read and say basic Korean words.

• Single consonants and vowels only.
• I cannot write.

2. I can conduct basic greetings, farewells, and introductions

• Formal and informal

3. I can give basic descriptions of identity

• Where I am from, age, what I do, what I am studying, hobbies

4. Talk about basic family

• I can tell how many parents and siblings I have
• Name each of my family members based on their honorifics (e.g. older brother, younger brother, etc.)

5. I can tell time, though it is not easy

• I know the Sino-Korean and Hangeul Korean basic numbers

6. Dating

• I can ask someone out on a date
• I can name basic items at the dinner table

7. I can order food from a restaurant

8. I can talk about my hobbies

• what I like to do and why

9. I can talk about basic weather

• good, sunny, cloudy, rainy

10. I can describe my home on a basic level

• size, color, what you might find in the yard

After reading the article, "Why Bilinguals Are Smarter," there are some things that I agree on, but there are other things that I am skeptical about.

I do not believe that being a bilingual directly makes someone smarter. Intelligence, in my opinion, is too difficult to measure. A carpenter, in educational terms, may seem unintelligent when compared to a scholar. However, when asked to build something in real-life, the carpenter may be able to build something better through experience. The scholar may know all the rules and physics to build to "perfect" system, but sometimes math does not consider all the variables (e.g. physics students are often given a questions that tell you to consider the problem in a frictionless environment to make the problem easier to solve). I know personally multiple people that are monolingual that are able to tackle situations better than I, a bilingual, can, and I know multiple people that are bilingual that are "smarter" than I am. From my experience learning in a math and chemistry statistics class, I know that statistics should be taken seriously, and all sources should be examined closely in the case that numbers, graphs, or charts are skewed to fit one's argument. Even though several studies are cited to support how bilinguals are smart, I do not believe that it necessarily makes them smarter than monolinguals.

I do, however, support that being bilingual may help battle Alzheimer's disease. Being bilingual may help keep more parts of the brain active in order to prevent the disease. Being bilingual may help one learn information more efficiently, such as a new language. For example, Japanese and Korean share some of the same words as Chinese words; however, the example where the 2009 study with Agnes Kovacs talking about how the bilingual baby was able to adapt better than the monolingual may raise skepticism. Everyone learns differently. One baby may be a more visual learner, where another requires repetition and audio aid.

The article raises interesting thoughts, but should be taken with a grain of salt.

This article gave me a new viewpoint on how languages can be maintained. In the case of the survival of Siletz Dee-ni, I found it fascinating and impressive that these people, who total to only five speakers left, have managed to create an online library to preserve the language. This reminds me of how Chinese has changed so much in the recent years. The article talks about how English, Spanish, and Mandarin are the "sweepstakes winners," but does not mention what happened to Chinese when Mandarin came into the mainstream. Simplified Chinese was created recently, and all Chinese-speaking countries were encouraged to abandon Traditional Chinese for the simplified version. China has fully adapted the Chinese language now and is pressuring others such as Taiwan to adapt the language. If Taiwan were to make the move, Traditional Chinese would be lost. This is a scary thought, as the majority of Chinese-speaking friends my age cannot read Traditional Chinese anymore and can only read Simplified. Even myself, I can crudely read traditional Chinese and can barely speak the language. I can understand the language, but I have difficulty speaking it.

Languages are not only lost from shifts in power, but from the immigration of families to other countries, for example Asian-Americans. Most Asian-Americans can only speak their mother language, and cannot write any of it. Imagine what would happen to their next generation of children, where the parents grew up speaking Chinese to their parents, but in general spoke English 90% of the time with friends and co-workers. Languages can be lost through the Westernization of cultures and I believe that all speakers of different languages should follow the example of the Siletz Dee-ni to preserve the language. If I had a database for learning Taiwanese online, it would be a great benefit to me in preserving my ancestry and culture.

Korean right now, is still popular enough to maintain itself as a language, but other languages should look to creating an online database.

I was having difficulty learning how to tell time in Korean, so I created a learning activity to teach another peer how to tell time.

The outline in the activity involves first establishing the structure of telling time. You must have morning/afternoon, the hour, and then the minute. The hour is counted with the native Korean numbers and the minute is counted by Sino-Korean numbers.

I explained this activity to a non-Korean language learner as well as a peer in the same language (Christy). I believe that this activity helped everyone. It was difficult to remember all of the numbers, especially the native Korean words, which seemed to not follow a specific trend like Sino-Korean did, but if there was anything to take away from the activity, everyone learned the structure of telling time. If we were given a chart of the native- and Sino- Korean numbers, we would be able to tell time with proper structure.

Because telling time was also a difficulty for me, this can also be treated as an artifact (#5).

• The task I was working on was learning how to tell time better. I was having difficulty remembering the structure as well as all of the numbers. Knowing all of the Hangeul/native Korean numbers was difficult and frustrating because I could not find a specific trend or pattern to remember those numbers.
• I strategy I used to better learn was to use this opportunity to combine an artifact with a learning activity. I figured that if I could explain the structure to another person, it would help me to learn better.
• Overall, I believe that it was much better than simply reading off of a textbook. The first attempt using that strategy was ineffective. With this new strategy of creating a learning activity to teach someone else, I found it much more effective.
• In the short term, I want to be able to tell time with the aid of a chart with all of the numbers. In the long-term, I want to be able to tell time without the aid of a number chart. For now, I need to use the chart because there are two separate numbers systems used just to tell time.

Note: I thought I had posted this previously, but could not find it in my blog posts, so I am posting it again.

From my preliminary research on possible resources the library can offer, I found several:

1: Mango Languages

I believe that this resource will be useful for me to learn Korean. It is a language learning application for the phone that offers one several phrases with audio to help with pronunciation. I like how it offers multiple lessons to the student to be able to learn phrases, sentences, and grammar for several topics. However, it is missing some foundational things such as the Korean alphabet and basic numbers. Because of this I am suggesting...

2. Hangeul101, a phone application that offers Korean alphabet and basic numbers.

3. I found a Korean textbook online that is free and offers just as much as a full textbook for any other language.

http://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1yv0nd/free_korean_textbooks_over_900_pages_pdf_and/

I am new to Korean, and our school does not have many resources, so I am suggesting this as another learning source. It has hundreds of pages that I will use to create self-guided lessons.

"...document (a) your goals and tasks for weeks 4 and 5..."

Goals for Week 4/5

• Learned vocabulary for utensils and things you might see at a Korean buffet

• Learn how to describe self (Identity)

Tasks:

Week 4

• Practiced the vocabulary on actual objects

  • We had plates, utensils, and food set up at a long table and we practiced saying and recalling the vocabulary with Sun (tutor)

• Took notes on activity and what we learned

• 1) Tutor named off a list of items on the table, 2) worked through each word and origin of the words, 3) Worked with Christy to find ways to better remember each of the words

Week 5

• Learned how to describe self (Identity)

• Name, age, location

• Talked about culture with Sun (tutor)

• 1) Internet, looked up words that applied to us, 2) Worked with language partner to chain together the words into sentences, 3) Took turns to introduce ourselves during a tutoring session

Key: 1) Resource, 2) How you worked with language partner, 3) Activities you found most effective

Evaluation of progress:

I believe that I was successful in learning how to describe self. I am able to introduce myself formally, and give my age and hometown. In terms of learning all of the vocabulary, I found it fairly manageable because all of the words applied to myself. However, it was more difficult to work on my goals for week 4, which was to learn the vocabulary of utensils and objects in a Korean buffet. Those words did not necessarily apply to me as an identity, so that is why they were harder. I think that through more practice, it will be easier to recall these words. For now, I have met the learning goal of being able to describe identity, but I only have partial success with describing food and objects at the table.

First two parts are copied and pasted from my first artifact blog post. Third part is evaluation.

Reflection:

• The current task I am working on is trying to memorize the proper names for each of my family members. There are informal ways to mention people, though.
• My strategy was to create a family tree style diagram to help me better visualize all the words I had to memorize for my direct family. What is important to note is that there are different words for members on the father's and mother's side.
• I believe that the strategy was effective because I am a visual learner, and this helped me learn the words quicker than if I just tried to memorize everything straight from a list.
• Because this was successful, I will build upon this and try to learn more through diagrams in the future.
• I tried this strategy because previous surveys concluded that I was a visual learner.

Other aspects:

• I think I had some emotions of enthusiasm because the structure of family names were similar to that of Korean. So it was understandable when there were words for "grandfather on father's side."
• This was a successful experience because the words were manageable and I was able to learn the words without too much difficulty.
• In the short term, I want to learn how to address everyone formally. In the long-term, I could learn some words on how to address family members informally.

Evaluation:

I decided to create a family tree because, after I took the early surveys at the beginning of the semester, I found that I was a visual learner. From past experience, I found that it was easier for me to organize everything visually and to learn different aspects of a topic in a compartmentalized form. With the family tree, it allows me to learn each tier of the family and their formal names in an organized fashion.

Learning things in a diagram format is easier than trying to learn everything directly from a list.

In this dialogue, the girl is asking out a guy. She has a shy personality, and the boy is impatient and a bit of a rascal.

Girl: Excuse me

Korean Karaoke

This is a Karaoke that Christy and I sang recently at an event on campus. We are singing "Byul" from the 200 Pounds Beauty soundtrack.

• During this task, we are working on pronunciation and learning how to read the alphabet. I still have difficulties with reading at a decent speed because characters can be combined to create new sounds. In other words, Korean has a general list of vowels and consonants, but those vowels and consonants create new sounds when combined, almost like a secondary alphabet of double vowels and double consonants.
• I believe that this learning strategy is effective because it will help me be more familiar with the Korean alphabet and how the words roll off the tongue.
• I feel slightly frustrated because it is difficult to sound like a native Korean. My words sound forced and awkward, whereas a native Korean sounds fluent and relaxed.
• However, I believe that this experience was helpful. In the short-term, I want to pronounce words better, but in the long-term I want to become faster at reading.

Ordering food from a restaurant

Christy and I did a combined dialogue to practice together.

Allan: Restaurant

Christy: Customer

Dialogue:

Customer (A): Hello?

Restaurant (B): This is a Chinese restaurant. What is your name?

A: My name is Christy.

B: What do you want to order?

A: Please give me cooked beef and marinated beef for delivery.

B: What is your phone number?

A: *says phone number*

B: Okay, understood.

• During this task, we were working on learning how to order food from a restaurant.
• We hope to accomplish the ability to pronounce words more fluently and know how the Korean culture works. Dialogue is all formal because the conversation is between two strangers.
• I believe that this is an effective strategy because it applies vocabulary and phrases into a real-life application.
• During the process of this task, I was excited to use the words. There is no point in learning vocabulary that one will never use.
• I believe that this is effective as a learning strategy because the words are in a dialogue.
• In the short-term, I want to be able to memorize this structure of sentences, but in the long-term I believe that it is important to know how to choose how you want the food to be prepared (e.g. extra salt, less sauce, etc.)

Knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. In fact, knowing the Korean language history, I feel, is almost required. Korea's language is divided into three parts: 1) Romanized Western words, 2) Hanja (the Chinese-influenced Sino-Korean), and 3) Hangeul (native Korean words). Knowing the Korean language history will tell of how the language evolved from Hanja and progressed to Hangeul.

In addition, some words use different parts of the Korean language. Telling time, for example, uses Hangeul for the hour and Hanja for the minute. I found this website helpful: http://www.omniglot.com/language/numbers/korean.htm

Even though I do not remember how to write Chinese as well as I used to, knowing that Korean language has Chinese influence has helped me learn the language. Many words in Korean sound similar to Chinese, but have been modified for independence purposes. However, because of this, I am able to learn words easier.

I also learned that the Korean language has some Confucianism roots. Confucianism emphasizes hierarchy, which explains the reasoning for why honor, pride, and respect are emphasized so much in the Korean language. There are multiple ways to say different phrases. You can say "komawo," or "komawoyo," "kahmsahamnida," and many other words, just to say "thank you." The difference is that each variation has a higher or lower level of respect. With this knowledge in mind, it is not unusual to tell your age when first meeting someone in Korea. Koreans "like" to know your age so that they know how to address you. Learning why you say different things in Korean will help you "reason" and know when to use certain phrases.

Note: I forgot to write in the Romanized word for "father," which is "abeoji."

Reflection:

• The current task I am working on is trying to memorize the proper names for each of my family members. There are informal ways to mention people, though.
• My strategy was to create a family tree style diagram to help me better visualize all the words I had to memorize for my direct family. What is important to note is that there are different words for members on the father's and mother's side.
• I believe that the strategy was effective because I am a visual learner, and this helped me learn the words quicker than if I just tried to memorize everything straight from a list.
• Because this was successful, I will build upon this and try to learn more through diagrams in the future.
• I tried this strategy because previous surveys concluded that I was a visual learner.

Other aspects:

• I think I had some emotions of enthusiasm because the structure of family names were similar to that of Korean. So it was understandable when there were words for "grandfather on father's side."
• This was a successful experience because the words were manageable and I was able to learn the words without too much difficulty.
• In the short term, I want to learn how to address everyone formally. In the long-term, I could learn some words on how to address family members informally.

These weekly summaries reflect on my learning and my work with my language partner, with 1) resources used, 2) how I worked with my tutor, and 3) activities I found most effective

Weekly%20Review%20Peng.docx

http://prezi.com/3pans_qrmsn2/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

by Allan Peng and Christy Buranaamorn

The reading on cultural competence was interesting and the ideas were similar to my approach to the Korean language. It is important to learn the vocabulary, but it is also important to be educated in the "social, culture, and cognitive characteristics of communication."

Grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence are all important to the functional aspects of communication. The last two, sociolinguistic and strategic competence, I believe , should have more emphasis. This way, we will better understand the "rules" that govern our conversations. The section discussing conversation analysis brings up questions such as the rules to initiate, terminate, and avoid topics -- interrupt, correct, and seek clarification. 

If one learns social cues, this may come in handy, especially because Korean is a contextual language. Words are understood based on the situation, so sometimes it may be unwise to take words literally. Misinterpretation and miscommunication may result. 

For example, when an elder offers a gift of food, denying the gift should not be taken lightly. When you deny a gift, it is seen more as a rejection and act of disrespect. These cues pass on to the language. Koreans may not always be direct in their language. "Yes" is not necessarily "yes," and Koreans try to avoid saying "no." Therefore, it is important to try and avoid asking "yes" or "no" questions. When asking if someone can meet at the start of the week, it is better to ask, "When is the earliest you can meet?" rather than, "Can you meet on Monday?"

It is important to learn the ins and outs of the Korean language culture in order to avoid awkward encounters with others.

refPaper2.docx

Attached is Reflection Paper #2.

Upon watching the Culture Shock video, I realize the greater challenges that other international students [who do not natively speak English] have to take. At the University of Richmond, the majority of courses, excluding foreign languages, are taken in English. The entire city is in English, and you can get by with just knowing English. An international student at UR would need to learn English, which is to them a foreign language, and take all the courses at the University in that language. That means that not only does the international student have to know the ins and outs of his science class, but he also needs to understand the parallel English words associated to the subject. Other than English, I would not be able to learn about another subject in Chinese or Korean.

If I were studying abroad in Korea, there would be no "time out." If I am trying to buy food from a market, I can't tell everyone to stop speaking Korean and switch to English. I need to know all the Korean equivalents of words I want to say in order to survive. In some ways, not knowing is what will cause the frustration and feelings of loneliness. In addition to being required to know the native language of the country, you must also know the culture. Actions that are accepted and expected in America may be totally different from that of Korea. "What's up" in America represents a casual "hello," but in other countries may be an invitation to sit down and discuss.

From this situation, I now understand why sometimes it is easier to just stick with peers who speak the same language as you do. It is a common complaint on our campus that international students just stick together and "do not" want to associate with the American students. However, as described by one of the international students in Culture Shock, it is only because it is a more comfortable environment and they often feel embarrassed for speaking to us in non-fluent English. When one experiences culture shock, the video describes an individual experience homesickness and frustration. I believe that is why when you finally meet someone who can speak the same language as you do, it is an oasis, a safety hub where you can take a breath and recuperate from culture shock.

It is difficult being an international student, and I can now see why Australia or any other native English-speaking country is a heavily sought after location for UR students to study abroad.