Can someone check over my Study Abroad essay?

Others have already worked on correcting your text, but I think it's important that a few general things are pointed out. You write that you're using the language a lot, have been doing so for a long time, and want to get to a near native level. I'm sorry, but frankly I don't think you're anywhere near that right now.

The first couple of sentences are (in general) fine, apart from two (important!) things: gender and cases.

Mein persönliches Ziel, ist Leuten zu helfen, um einander besser zu verstehen. Aus diesem Grund möchte ich einen Abschluss in Germanistik bekommen. Hoffentlich werde ich in der Zukunft diesen Abschluss benutzen um eine Stelle als Übersetzer in einem Wechselkursprogramm oder einem multinationalen Konzern zu verdienen. Während traditionelle Lernmethoden wirksam sind, kann man so viel mehr durch das Eintauchen in die Kultur und Sprache eines Gebiets lernen. Im Alter von dreizehn reiste ich nach Europa und erlangte eine tiefe Wertschätzung für die vielfältigen Kulturen, die ich das Glück hatte zu erleben.

I get that this is very difficult to learn (I took Fench and Latin, so I know that learning all these endings by heart is a bitch). What I don't get is why you (or rather, almost everyone posting on this sub asking people to proofread their texts) don't simply use spell check to correct this while writing! You can instantly see if something is wrong and correct it yourself, which is much more useful than getting a corrected version from someone else. This is just wasting everybody's time.

Apart from that, there are several other problems. It seems to me that you wrote a text in English, and tried to translate it verbatim to German. This doesn't work. Phrases like "reaching an impasse", "challenging oneself", "citizen of the world" don't exist in German, Interpreter and Europe aren't German words, and your sentence structure is in large parts what one would use in English, not in German.

Now, you will find lots of people here willing to correct your text, and then you can hand in an almost perfect essay. As opposed to that, I'd suggest starting anew, trying to actually write something in German which adequatly represents the command you have over the language, then using grammar and spell check, and then asking somebody to read over it.

I just wanted to note, I really don't mean to discourage you. You mentioned above that you just recently started more advanced courses. Keep going - if you stay at a level you're comfortabel with, it's very easy to hit a plateau. Challenge yourself; read some more difficult books, maybe join a German forum or subreddit or something where you can actively practice.

/r/German Thread