Year Abroad in S. Korea: My Experience

Is there any interpreters on TSR?

Oh also I was considering doing a small guide-thing on difficult language concepts? Things like particles, the different forms of future tense, honorific v. formal etc which can be really confusing at first and take a while to get the hang of. I thought it might be helpful for people self-teaching or in first year so let me know if that's something you'd be interested in

Hiya, thank you so much for writing this thread! I'm completing my first year at SOAS, studying Korean and politics. Was really curious about the year, abroad and what it entailed but couldn't find much info. Studying Korean fully online was definitely a challenge this year and at times I wanted to ain't but your thread has honestly revered my enthusiasm and excitement for the language and my year abroad! Also, I’d really be interested on a small guide on difficult language concepts >.<

Hey, I was just wondering, did you get sent back to the UK due to COVID? If so, was this due to your university's decision, or was it completely independent of them and only due to immigration restrictions changing because of COVID?
I'm supposed to be going on my year abroad in Japan this September, my host uni has said that we would only not be allowed to come to Japan if the current immigration restrictions remain and prevent us from entering the country, otherwise we would be able to come. This sounds a little too good to be true tbh so I just wanted to make sure. Surely there are gonna be more factors than the immigration restrictions :/

Hi!
I can't remember dates exactly, but around the end of Feb/start of March we were contacted by our UK university about the COVID situation. They said that the government was recommending that we come back to the UK due to the pandemic, however they stressed that this was not SOAS policy but was government policy and that they simply had an obligation to tell us we should come home on behalf of the government. They told us we were 100% within our rights to refuse the advice and stay in Korea, especially since COVID was actually getting worse in the UK than what it was in Korea, but that legally they had to tell us to come home in line with foreign office advice. Presumably this is due to legal issues around duty of care and the uni obviously can't be seen to encourage students to go against government advice as then they could be liable if we get stuck there etc. They also had to make us aware of the changes it would make to our insurance policy and stuff like that.

Basically, we were strongly advised to come home by our UK uni (at least this was the uni's official line, some lecturers spoke to us privately and agreed it was safer in Korea) but we could choose to stay if we wanted. I think all of us apart from one person stayed in Korea right until the end of our year abroad. Of course it's a little different now because there are legal restrictions on travel rather than just the guidelines that were around in early 2020. But, as far as I can tell, most UK universities are very keen to get their students on their year abroad and it is almost always government restrictions that dictate whether you can go or not, not the universities themselves. As for my uni in Korea, we were never contacted about being sent home. I think this was for a few reasons:
1) They can't keep tabs on the immigration advice for every student from every country in their uni
2) Once we had visas and residence cards, there is no way we can be forced to leave by our home government unless we were deported
3) Korea had no policies on forcing foreign residents to leave
They did, however, advise us about changing domestic policy regarding leaving and entering the country, for example there were changing immigration restrictions around the time of Lunar New Year and we were warned that if we did travel to China we may not be allowed back in. They also offered support to us if we did decide to leave permanently, but they never told us we had to leave the country.

TLDR; your Japanese uni is probably right and it will all depend on UK/Japan travel restrictions around the time you're due to leave Let me know if you have any other questions!

LYA Preparation Process
Quick note before we begin, I will now be including the tag list in each post so it’s easier to keep track of. I realise there is often quite a bit of discussion on this thread and it can be annoying to get notifications all the time so by using the tag list you can stop ‘watching’ the thread (the button is at the top of this page) and instead just get notifications for new posts. If you would like to be added or removed from the list please let me know

With that out of the way I think we’d better talk about the year abroad preparation process! Since our places were confirmed at the start of this month, everything has been a bit of a whirlwind with how much we’ve had to organise. It’s also been a very expensive month so I’ll get into costs later - it’s something we weren’t particularly prepared for and it’s obviously very important so hopefully this will be able to help you prepare properly.

The biggest task of all was the visa. I have to say the consulate’s website is pretty terrible and hard to navigate. But once I’d figured out what I was meant to be doing, I quickly realised just how much documentation you need to get together to be able to apply. The financial requirements in particular were a massive shock (if you receive less than £10,000 in maintenance loans per year you will have to provide a lot of extra documentation) and I was very lucky that what I needed was relatively easy to organise but that might not be the case for everyone, so PLEASE check well in advance! The list of criteria is here so make sure to read it very thoroughly before you apply. Once you have everything in line, you need to go into the consulate in London to hand in your documents. Frustratingly, they only quickly flick through them and then take your passport, visa application forms, passport photo, and Korean uni acceptance letter. According to the staff there they don’t need to see all your records if it’s a prestigious uni since they trust the unis’ processes, but of course it's best to have everything there. If all your documents are in line, you come back a week later to pick up your passport with the visa inside. If you live far away from London it might be a bit of a pain (and an expensive trip) to come all the way to the consulate so definitely make sure there’s nothing wrong with your application before you go. Also, very strangely, when you fill in the e-Form for the visa online, if you put British Subject for nationality it automatically puts your country of birth as British Subject rather than United Kingdom so watch out for that as I know a few people who made that mistake and had to go back to reapply!

In the end I did decide to apply to the SNU dormitories so I have also been sorting out the application for that. The online application really isn’t difficult at all but you also need to have a health certificate completed. The two things you need for your health certificate is proof that you’ve had two doses of the MMR vaccination (I believe they also accept the singular measles vaccination) and a negative-result tuberculosis screening. If you’ve already had the MMR vaccination then you just need to get the records from your GP but you do need to book in to have a TB screening. There are two options; chest x-ray or PPD test. Both have to be paid for but the x-ray is slightly cheaper. I believe the x-ray is around £75 (but that will depend on your local healthcare provider) and PPD is £90. I chose to go with the PPD test because the x-ray required a referral from your GP and my local GP surgery has a 2-3 week wait for appointments so I never would’ve had it all completed in time. The PPD test is done in travel clinics but you’re only eligible for this test if you haven’t been vaccinated against TB. It’s not commonplace these days but check just in case! I had mine done at the London Vaccination Clinic in Kings Cross. They did the PPD test, I came back 2 days later to have the results recorded and brought my vaccination history with me. They did the test for £90 with a £10 admin fee and filled out my certificate for me. It actually worked out a similar price to getting the x-ray because my local surgery wanted to charge £35 for filling out the certificate and they said it would’ve taken 2 weeks! So very glad I did it privately at a clinic instead.

I have also booked my flights and organised accommodation for the time between when I arrive and when the dorm move-in day is since it’s on 1st September, which is after my placement exam. Other than that I’ve been trying to meet up with my friends as much as possible and see family before I head off! It’s only 2 weeks to go now so everything is getting very real, very exciting and very scary

Here’s the breakdown of the costs so far:
SNU Application
New passport = £75
Applicants for other universities (definitely KU and maybe Sogang) need a health certificate for the university application, but they are not as comprehensive as the dorm health certificates so will most likely just be the admin fee of £25-£35ish

Visa
Notarisation of documents = approx. £75*
Visa cost = £160
Return travel costs to London x2 = £40

Dorms
PPD test £90+£10 admin fee = £100
Return travel costs to London x2 = £40
Deposit = 100,000 won (around £70 as of 8/19)
First semester of rent = 906,000 won (around £610 as of 8/19)**
--> deposit and first semester of rent due at the start of August

Flights
Open return = £790***

Short-term accommodation
Airbnb (9 days) = £350


TOTAL = just over £2300

*Notarisation is only need for people who are using a parental affidavit as proof of meeting the financial requirements
**This depends massively on the dormitory building you are allocated. I was allocated one of the most expensive dorm buildings but there are much cheaper options
***You can find flights cheaper if you book them before your place has been confirmed, I just wasn't willing to risk it! You may be eligible to have the flight cost reimbursed through student finance, however you must still pay the first £300

Hiii, did you need the X-ray and stuff for when you were applying for the accommodation or did you submit it after the application??

Hey,

Did you have to pay for the first term of dorms prior to receiving your maintenance loan? (Ie from your own money?) or did you receive it earlier than normal to cover the cost?

If I remember rightly they've now moved to a monthly payment system, but no we didn't get our loan until after the first payment. It's the same as with accommodation in the UK, at least for Dinwiddy at SOAS we had to pay the first term of rent before we got our loan

Monthly payments for the year abroad or monthly payments for even when you’re doing the first two years in England?

In Korea we had monthly payments and the UK we pay in 3 instalments. Obviously this only applies to SNU and SOAS respectively, it changes uni by uni

This thread is really interesting (: I’ll be going to Leeds in September to study Italian and Japanese and my year abroad in Japanese will be in my second year so it’s nice to see the perspective of a student who went somewhere further than Europe, lol.

Hii, what did you do about finances? like did you get a different card to use in Korea or did you just use something like Monzo??

You have to set up a Korean bank account in order to pay dorm fees, make online purchases, get a phone contract, and to be able to withdraw cash at most cash machines - in other words, a Korean bank account is absolutely essential! I did take my Revolut card but there weren't many places I could use it and I was never able to withdraw cash at any cash machine, it was similar for normal visas/mastercards from traditional UK banks. My traditional bank card was more reliable at cash machines and shops (still pretty patchy though) but of course you need to pay international fees. The way I did it was use my Revolut/Monzo to transfer money from my UK account to my Korean account without fees, so it's still handy to have, but not practical for everyday use. Your university should help you set up your bank account, but even if they don't it's not difficult to do

If you created the bank account, does that mean you were also provided with a card to use in Korea?

Yep, not much point having a bank account with no card to spend the money with!