Over the past few weeks, Rosie Click and Sareena Dubey interviewed Georgetown History graduate students about their summer experiences. The first interview about summer teaching experiences was published last week. The next two Footnote posts will feature more interviews about summer experiences in language learning and research. This interview features Georgetown History PhD students Ethan Weisbaum and Ethan Barkalow, and MAGIC student Oscar Yu, who talked to us about participating in summer language learning programs. 

Tell us about your summer!

Ethan Weisbaum: I spent my summer in Madison, Wisconsin, with the South Asian summer language institute, one of the main centers for intensive South Asian language learning in the country. I did an eight week intensive Hindi language course: I spoke in Hindi for four or five hours a day, wrote essays about topics I picked, and gave presentations in Hindi. I got to work on those hard skills that you have to have to do the PhD. 

Ethan Barkalow: I did an intensive Korean language immersion program in the city of Gwangju, [South Korea], which is in the southwest– a very hot and humid climate. The program was seven weeks long. I arrived at the end of June, and got back in the middle of August. It also involved staying with a local student at the university, and the program set me up with a language partner. I had lots of opportunities inside and outside of the classroom to improve my Korean, which I’m going to use for my dissertation. It was a great opportunity!

Oscar Yu: I went to Middlebury College in Vermont for a two month intensive Japanese language program. Although it was intensive and exhausting at times, I learned a lot and appreciate my experience at Middlebury. I also traveled to Japan over the summer to visit the National Diet Library which has a huge archive of materials I needed for my capstone project.

How did you get funding?

EW: I paid for the program through a FLAS (Foreign Language Area Scholarship) [fellowship]. I applied through the University of Wisconsin because Georgetown didn’t offer [FLAS Hindi scholarships]. I made sure that the program that I applied to offered me some options. I wrote some essays, got some recommendations, and [FLAS] gave me a $2500 stipend and paid for the classes. In Madison, that [$2500] went a lot further than it would have here [in DC].

EB: I applied to a few outside funding sources and got funded through the State Department Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). [It] is a great program that fully funds your travel and gives you a good stipend. The program is also hands-on. The only downside is that it [supports] a limited number of languages, so you have to be studying one of the languages on the list. It was good to have the support of such a strong and noteworthy institution such as the State Department; the name association is not something to neglect either.

OY: I applied for the Georgetown History Department grant, which helped me fund this experience in part. Unfortunately, it did not cover the sum entirely, so some of it was out of pocket. 

If you could give advice to graduate students earlier in the program about pursuing summer opportunities what would it be? 

OY: Generally, my advice on pursuing summer language studies for beginners would be to cultivate interest in that language and the cultures it permeates. Studying language is such a beautiful thing–you immerse yourself into that culture and think about it constantly. Find a way to build interest whether that is listening to music, playing video games, or watching shows. 

EB: To anyone who is thinking about using the summer for language study: it’s a good time to do it. As PhD students, we have a scholarship to take languages at GU, [but] it can be kinda burdensome because we’re still expected to [take] our normal course load. Many of us, from our second year on, are expected to TA or do other service to the university. Talk to your advisors [to] have a clear sense of what is expected of you and what kinds of language skills you need. And start researching early–at least nine months or up to a year [in advance]. The CLS that I did [had a] deadline in November for the next summer. Reach out to people who have been to the locations you are interested in going to and ask them what it was like. The CLS program for Korean was great for cultural and speaking immersion, but it didn’t necessarily have direct ways to work on my reading skills–it wasn’t a focus of my program, so I had to supplement with my own reading practice outside the program.

Thinking beyond just language for the summer: think about what kinds of tasks for research, language study, and the program [that] you’d like to accomplish. But also make sure you take time to rest and recharge! The semesters are so demanding that it’s important that you take time to take a breather.

EW: Don’t psych yourself out by trying to do everything, because to me, that feels like a recipe for burnout. You just had a very intense year, I imagine, adjusting to the MA or PhD program, so find something that enables you to work on hard skills early on, like your language skills. If you have the ability to get a research grant, that’s great, go do that. [And] don’t stress yourself out trying to read everything you ever wanted to read for school, because you’ll be getting plenty of that when you get back. 

Another thing: start thinking early on in the fall semester about what you want to do [during the summer break]. Consult with your advisor [to] make sure that [you’re aware of] any opportunities in the summer that might have deadlines in December. There’s going to be a time in the spring where some [deadlines] have already passed, and you might have missed a good opportunity. 

What’s your best memory/favorite thing about your experience/biggest takeaway? 

EW: It’s very corny, but I met a lot of cool people who are working on interesting things in my field, and it was really nice just to get to hang out with them. It felt like summer camp!

OY: I met many amazing friends! There were also so many cool activities that incorporated Japanese culture. There was a summer festival where participants wore kimono and could try many different delicious foods like takoyaki. I think that was the most memorable experience. 

EB: I was able to take a quick weekend trip to a city nearby where I was living. My dissertation project is about the Japanese in colonial Korea, [and] I was able to visit a former colonial port. Before going on research fieldwork, being in a place that is relevant to my research was really important to me. On top of that, I had the chance to travel with the Korean friends that I made. [This] was really special and not an opportunity to take lightly. For those of us who study a place very far from the US, or far from where we grew up, it’s really important to not just study the history of the place, but to get to know people who live there now and make those connections.

Image: Ethan Barkalow, Learning Korean in Gwangju, 2023

Ethan Barkalow joined the History PhD program in 2022. His interests include the environmental history of modern Japan and Korea, with a focus on coastal areas and fisheries. His dissertation project investigates environmental and social changes in the coastal communities of imperial Japan and colonial Korea. His work highlights the interdependence between marine industries, labor, and fisheries science across the Japanese archipelago and Korean peninsula. He also explores how Japanese imperialism shaped the coastlines of the East Asia region. As an undergraduate, Ethan paired his interest in environmental history to his studies of East Asia. He earned his B.A. from Bowdoin College in 2018 with a major in History and Environmental Studies and a minor in Japanese. After living in Japan for two years teaching English at elementary schools, Ethan received an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Yale University in 2022.

Ethan Weisbaum is a second-year Ph.D. student in the History Department at Georgetown University. His research focuses on the history of global capitalism, particularly the financialization of corporate risk as it pertains to industrial and environmental disasters in India since the 19th century. Ethan received his B.A. in History at the University of Maryland, College Park. He previously worked for the Center for Study of Responsive Law, a consumer rights non-profit based in DC.

Zhenhao (Oscar) Yu is a second-year master’s student in the Global, International, and Comparative History program. His research interests involve pre-modern East Asian science and ideas, particularly maritime trade routes, printing techniques, and scholar networks. As part of his research, Oscar is also learning how to apply digital humanities.