Hello, my name is Do Kyung Na and I go by Erica. I was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived there whole my life. After middle school, I was transferred to American high school and the biggest obstacle I faced was my English because my English was not good enough for communicating or understanding lectures. Improving my English and learning American culture were hard, but I was able to learn the importance of having confidence and opening up.
I am enjoying my life at CUNY Baruch so far. Classes are interesting and professors are nice and passionate overall. My essay grades were not as good as I expected and there are a lot reading assignments I have to do, but it makes me realize that I am now getting advanced education which means it is quite different from high school; it makes me work harder.
I hope I can maintain my GPA high enough throughout my college life and I want to be involved in many extracurricular activities, but there is a problem, which is that my time management skill is poor. I am an all-nighter, definitely not a morning person so I tend to stay up until 4:30 a.m. then go to bed and wake up at 10:00 a.m. However, I think I will have to change my schedule a little bit because it is not working well as it used to back in high school and I want to improve my time management skill so I can work efficiently.
Hi Erica! I completely agree with your thoughts about how much work we’re getting in college. There is a lot of reading that I’m not accustomed to yet. I also agree with you about how important time management is. But here I am at 1am reading blogs haha.
I really enjoyed your speech in communications class; and I can see some elements from your speech evident in this blog post where you talked about having confidence.
Hey Erica,
I think you English is amazing. I wasn’t born here either, so I guess that’s something we both have in common. I feel like you’re going to do great in college, so don’t worry so much about it! 🙂
-Ken Ting
Erica,
Yes, you definitely need to fix your sleeping schedule! Sleep early and wake up early, our natural sleeping pattern that we benefit a lot from; you won’t regret it.
I also want to join many extracurricular activities but my problem is different than yours. I’m most likely going to lack the motivation to continue many of them. I’ll be happy if I end up committing myself to one of the clubs I joined.
Helen
Hello Erica,
LOL I am not an overachiever — I wish I was. I started the post on Sept. 12th but it was never finalized until Sept. 26th at 6:30AM.
4:30AM!!! That’s late (or early because it’s early in the morning). My max is 3:00AM.
And you did great in speech; for me, who was born in USA, I still have problem with English.
We can still talk about Korean dramas whenever we have free time, which you mentioned before is like none. I almost done with my list of Korean dramas, I need some recommendations!!!
Manna
Hey Erica,
Wow these posts have been so formal. Anyways, I find it amazing how you’re able to adapt to American culture through high school and know so many different languages. Baruch won’t be too hard for you, we’ll all work hard together! And of course, listen to Arashi.
Hey, Erica! Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure a lot of us don’t have the best time management skills…yet! I think it takes a lot of discipline to develop good time management skills, but it’s true that they definitely pay off in the end: less stress and more sleep. You can do it, we’re here for you! I also think you English is great, and I’m positive you will be able to accomplish all that you want to do at Baruch.
Daphne
Erica,
You seem to have learned English quite well. We have a writing center to help you with your essays if you would like some input and guidance. I am glad that you are dealing with this issue early in the semester.
It’s funny when you talk about your sleep schedule because I have a cousin who loves to stay up all night and do work and then sleep. She just started graduate school and had to change her schedule, something she wasn’t happy about. I have faith in you and am here to help you in any way I can!
Maria