[Learning Korean] My first dream in Korean was a significant milestone.

By Pankaj Agrawal

When Samsung hired me in 2004 from IIT Kanpur, India for the GSP-SNU program, I did NOT even know how to say "Hi" in Korean. Today, I am very comfortable with the Korean language. I thought of sharing my point of view on learning Korean (or any foreign language for that matter).

Before knowing the “How” of learning a new language, it’s important to know the “Why?” (reason, motivation) of it. I was lucky to have identified many “Whys” very early on. The Big 3 motivations for me to learn Korean were/are as follows.

1. To be able to explain to Koreans that I am a vegetarian and that I don’t eat chicken, fish, seafood, ham, etc. and request them to prepare for me something that I could relish.
2. To be able to navigate through Korea on my own– I have been to almost every corner of Korea several times.
3. To differentiate myself (add foreign language skill as an asset to my professional portfolio) and to be able to do a good job in Samsung. Proficiency in Korean really expands your professional bandwidth and is certainly one of the many key enablers for success in Samsung. Overtime, I realized that if you speak Korean in Samsung, you can do wonders; and if you don’t speak Korean, “wonders” may happen to you.

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