A young woman from Kingsburg is about to embark on her third year of teaching English in a foreign country, learning more about the world than many people do in a lifetime.

On Aug. 16, 24-year-old Elizabeth Anderson will board a plane to Mokpo, South Korea, back to the tiny studio apartment behind the high school where she teaches that she has come to think of as home.

When the opportunity first presented itself two years ago, she had little idea of what she was getting into. But the way her face lights up as she talks about her journey makes it clear that her uncertainty has been transformed into a clarity as to where she was meant to be.

The daughter of Craig and Ruth Anderson, she grew up in Kingsburg and graduated from Kingsburg High in 2001. During her four years at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian liberal arts college in Southern California, Anderson spent a semester studying at Oxford University in England and traveled to Australia on a missions trip. She graduated from APU in 2005 with a psychology degree and summa cum laude honors.

She was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, a program that offers opportunities for people to conduct career-launching study and research abroad. The program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.

Anderson chose Korea because the opportunities there focused on teaching as opposed to research.

Unclear as to what to do with her newly earned psychology degree and without clear career goals in place, becoming an English teacher in a foreign country seemed like the perfect chance to do something different.

"I feel like my roots and foundation here [in Kingsburg] made it possible for me to be brave enough to go," she said.

Two months after graduating from college, Anderson boarded a plane to Korea, where she began a one-month orientation that taught her basic Korean sounds and their writing system before she was sent into her own classroom.

Korean students typically begin learning English during middle school, so they have had several years of exposure before they get to Anderson's level. She has 30 students in each of her eight classes of first and second year high school students. Her job is to teach her students conversational English and to build their confidence speaking it.

In teaching her native language, she developed a grasp of conversational Korean which she said she can understand better than she can actually speak. Much of the time Anderson feels as much like a student as those she is there to teach.

"I'm there to learn from my students as much as I'm there to teach them," she said. "I feel like every day there can be progress."

She is the only American at her school, so she had little choice but to integrate into a culture very different from her own.

"Sometimes I forget that I don't look like everyone else, but on a bad day it can be isolating," she said.

Wanting to get as much as she could from the experience, Anderson chose to immerse herself in the Korean way of life as much as she could.

She developed such a taste for Korean food that she now prefers it over American food, but eating it presented a challenge at first, because she was determined to give up the fork in exchange for chopsticks.

When asked what a normal day involves, she said that she eats breakfast with other teachers and students at school every morning, and then explained with a laugh that she brushes her teeth.

"Everyone brushes their teeth together after every meal," she said. "It's the perfect conversation opportunity. It's just normal."

Compared to their American counterparts, Korean students spend a tremendous amount of time at school. Classes last until 5 p.m., and for the next two hours students take classes in whatever subjects they need extra help with. They eat dinner at school from 7 to 8 p.m., and that is followed by self-study that sometimes lasts until as late as 11 p.m. or midnight. The advanced students live in an on-campus dorm.

Anderson said that because college admission is based solely on grades and scores on an entrance exam similar to the SAT, high school students are under a great deal of pressure to perform academically. Extracurricular activities and community service have no bearing on the college admissions process. She said that while the amount of time they devote to their studies seems unfair to her, it is what the students expect, so they rarely complain.

"Their work ethic is hugely different," Anderson said. "Even though it's imposed by the system, they take it with grace."

Because they seldom have free time to enjoy, seeing a movie on the weekend or getting ice cream with friends is a big deal.

"They appreciate the small things, the things that we take for granted," Anderson said.

Anderson described the Korean people as being "so hospitable and genuinely friendly and caring."

This third trip to Korea will be the last that Anderson can take under the Fulbright program, which pays for one round-trip plane ticket, room and board, and a modest salary.

When the school year ends next July, she will be faced with having to decide whether to return to the States or make Korea her new home.

"There's this whole other world that's opened up to me, and I don't want to just forget that," she said.

At this point, she is okay with not knowing what the future will bring.

Once of the greatest lessons Anderson has learned through this experience is how much Americans have to be thankful for.

"We have it good here. I've learned to appreciate the freedom and relaxation time," she said. "I appreciate so much more and have realized how great this community and my family is."

Wherever life takes her, Anderson will carry with her the experiences that are very much influencing the person she is becoming and forming a path toward her future.

"I feel like for the rest of my life I want to somehow stay connected to Korea," Anderson said. "I do feel like God has led me there and is taking care of me there."

Aug. 8, 2007