Applying to Study Korean - My Experience

Hi! Thank you so much for uploading all of this information -- I was so clueless about studying Korean at SOAS until I came across your account! I had a few questions though - Assuming you know about a combined BA with Korean and another subject, I was thinking about doing Korean with Law because I think that I'd enjoy it the most so I really want to do it. However, when I was thinking about personal statements, I was wondering as to how I would incorporate Korean into it? Or do I need to at all because all the other Uni's that I'm applying too are for Law LLB. If you don't know then do you know where I could find this info or who I could ask because I cannot find many people with this specific degree combination! Thanks!!

My EPQ Topic
This post will be all about my own EPQ topic, what I researched, whether I thought it was worth it, and the conclusion of my research. If you’re not interested in the actual content of my EPQ, there will be another post soon about how to come up with an EPQ question, how I suggest you go about research, how to write it, things I wish I’d done differently and other general tips/advice that apply to anyone who’s decided to take it. But, this post will mostly be about the actual content of my research, so if you don’t really care about Korea-Japan relations then feel free to skip this post!

Just for some background:
> The exam board I was with was Edexcel although I’m sure the structure is similar to AQA’s
> I chose to write a dissertation
> The official title is the Level 3 Extended Project Qualification if you’re looking for grade boundaries or specifications
> The time period I was actively taking lessons and writing my EPQ was between July 2017 and March 2018 (so about 9 months)



My Question
My question was ‘How has the Japanese colonisation of Korea impacted South Korean political discourse?’. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a mouthful and sounds intimidating but I definitely took me a while to come up with it. At the time of starting the EPQ process and formulating our questions, I hadn’t yet decided what I wanted to study at uni. I was torn between Korean, Japanese with Korean, and International Relations so I wanted a question that could easily apply to all three and that I could include in personal statements for any of the applications if need be. Of course, I also wanted it to be something that I was genuinely interested in and wouldn’t mind reading and writing about for almost a year, so I began thinking about my question with all of this in mind.

Initially, my question was ‘How has the Japanese colonisation of Korea impacted South Korean political culture’ but anyone who’s studied politics knows that measuring political culture is almost impossible unless you have access to lots of opinion polls and political analysis, which is not really something you can get hold of easily, especially when you’re not living in the country and can’t translate/effectively search in the language. If you’re writing an EPQ for a Korean application, I’d highly recommend you look into an aspect of the culture (whether that be art, music, social change etc.), politics, or history since it can be quite hard to show your knowledge of these things in personal statements through other means, so your EPQ topic can do that for you.


My Research and Findings
Researching for an EPQ is a process. It takes a lot of preliminary research before you even get started and you never really stop researching until you’ve written your whole dissertation so it can feel like it’s never-ending, however I have to say that the research was the most enjoyable aspect of the EPQ for me. I didn’t massively enjoy the writing itself, but doing the reading was for the most part very interesting, and I didn’t mind putting the time aside to do my research. That’s how you know you’ve chosen a question that’s good for you!

Without going into too much detail, I focused on three main areas: the economy, democracy, and comfort women. My approach for each of these areas changed a little depending on the availability of sources and the extent of any prior knowledge I had, so for issues such as the economy and comfort women my starting point was current events (which I already knew the basics of), and then I attempted to draw parallels with the history of the colonisation. For democracy, I started by looking at the key events and movements during/as a result of the colonisation and then linked that the modern-day developments, so I kind of did it in the reverse order.

To cut a very long story (dissertation) short, I concluded that it wasn’t necessarily specific actions or policies that have most impacted the political discourse of South Korea, but rather it was the way the Japanese treated Koreans that led to more deep-rooted changes in mindset and outlook which inevitably impacted the politics of the country. If you’re interested in choosing a similar question or are generally curious about this topic, you can find my bibliography here. Please read the full message at the top of the bibliography!


Was it worth it?
Absolutely. It will be different for everyone and depends on your situation, but for me it was invaluable. Practically, it made sense to do it. It lowered my entry requirements by a grade and was probably the part of my personal statement that made me stand out the most. It’s relatively easy to get a good grade (as long as you put the hours in) so it looks good on any applications or CVs too. But beyond that, I really grew to love the research process and learning about my topic, and to be honest I do miss it a little bit. The stress and time pressures that came along with it were definitely not enjoyable, but it was rewarding and challenging in the best way possible. If you think you can handle the workload and think it will be beneficial to your application, I would 100% recommend doing an EPQ.





My mark was 48/54 (this is before exam board marking but after internal moderation, so my mark could change) which according to the 2017 grade boundaries is a high A, but my actual grade will depend on the 2018 boundaries. I will happily post my full EPQ and presentation slides after results day if you would like a set of examples to work from as there seems to be a distinct lack of good examples out there! If you’re starting your EPQ soon, really take your time choosing your question and enjoy the process


[Requested by @muntaha2001 PM me if you'd like a post on a specific topic!]