BA Korean at SOAS: First Year (2022)

다행이다! 걱정하지 마세요, 선배! I'm sure you did well! Have you found out which university you're attending for the YA?

Yeah! I applied for sogang and got it! Our deadline is 2 weeks and everyone I think has already filled in their applications ㅠㅠ kyungeun wasn’t even aware we didn’t get our applications yet so I’m hoping it’ll be sorted through soon.

와,축하해요! 좋겠다~ I genuinely hope that your YA goes well and you have fun! When did you guys hear back about what university you'd be going to? The Korean department really isn't as organised as the Japanese department so I'm actually worried for next year because I'm planning on finding my own accommodation.

I have to say it was scary cos they were so slow! We thought It would be like feb or even March but they actually started doing stuff around really mid April. People applying to SNU had to do things earlier (btw if you put interest into SNU but don’t really wanna go there then don’t select it! If you choose it, you automatically can’t go anywhere else!) so yeah around April they had us rank the unis we wanna go to, and then slowly they started sending out emails saying we’re nominees. I think the sogang lot is the only lot without the applications yet. SNU people found out if they got in in the next two weeks.

I also ranked sogang first but literally up until the last day she was saying “I don’t think sogang is participating” so she had to place me in my fifth choice cos Everyone else who chose Korea etc had already been placed

Luckily at the last moment Sogang replied so I got to pick it! It was scary haha

Which uni do you plan on going to?

For a department with good professors, the Korean department is super disorganised ㅠ.ㅠ My friend in second-year Japanese found out which university she would be attending in early February, so to know that our department doesn't even have you register your choices until April is so crazy because that legit sooo last minute and barely gives you any time to find proper accommodation if you aren't staying in halls (which in Korea has so many restrictions and rules) ㅠ.ㅠ 진짜 미안해요! But I'm super glad to hear that you got into the university you wanted to attend!

I'm actually wanting to go to KU, but I'm a little worried that I won't get in because a lot of people in my class also want to go there, and I heard that there weren't a lot of spots. My plan was to put SNU second, Kyunghee third and Sogang fourth.

Tbf I think Japan just does their super early for some reason! Or yeah we’re just that slow ㅠㅠ don’t worry about accommodation though! Literally no one apart from me has their accommodation sorted haha. Cos so many places open around the time of arrival. If you don’t apply for SNU then you wont be able to put it down as a choice! It’ll go to the people who put it as their first. As for KU this year it had 10 spots! So you have good chances .

It's definitely an issue within the department ㅋㅋㅋ. A lot of Korean people I've met actually suggested KU or Yonsei over SNU, tbh, which really surprised me because it's literally the top university in Korea. Hopefully, I'll be able to land a spot at KU, though – it's genuinely the only university I want to go in Korea.

Truth be told, there are so many reasons for me to be worried about accommodation ㅠ.ㅠ I've always been a super organised person so I often worry over these things.

Genuinely wishing that you have an amazing year abroad and make amazing new memories! I'm super excited for you (:

@nenka222

hey (:

I hope you're having a good day? I was just wondering if you knew when your final semester abroad would end (like when you'd finally be able to go back home)? I know that term would start roughly in September time but I'm not sure if it would end in June or July. If you know, I'd really appreciate it! (:

According to my friend it’s may/June! It may differ per uni? But yeah either way I plan on coming back late July early august just to have a summer there but the term ends around may June

Exams

Wah, it’s really been three months since I last updated this thread, haha. Time genuinely has escaped me, and I’ve been so focused on getting through the final term of this academic year to really sit and update my experience at SOAS. Yesterday was my last exam for the year, and I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am to get some respite from the workload finally. We finished the academic year with a 3-hour writing exam, and let me tell you, no amount of preparation could have prepared me for the test we had to sit ㅠ.ㅠ The writing exam consists of 3 parts and is very reading-dense, so it’s definitely important to practice your reading well before the exam. The first part had 4 questions, the second had 3 questions, and the last part had 2 writing compositions that required a minimum of 150 words. It’s safe to say that everything I’d learned throughout the year magically left my brain the second I flipped that exam paper open, haha. But I’m optimistic that I’ve done well enough, and I’m proud of myself because I know that I gave it my all. It really didn’t hit me until I’d finished that paper how much I’ve improved in the last year. When I first started this course, I could barely get through a self-introduction in Korean, and now, I can hold decent conversations and talk about a plethora of topics. So while this course is difficult and requires a lot of willpower, it’s definitely super rewarding, and I absolutely don’t regret it.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand...

This year consisted of the following exams:

2 listening exams
2 speaking exams
1 writing exam

We took the second speaking exam on the 4th of May, less than two weeks before the very final exam, and to say that the structure confused me is an understatement. I have experience in studying languages in an academic setting and was expecting the speaking exam to follow a similar structure but was (rather unpleasantly) surprised to find out that the final Korean speaking exam would be a group exam rather than a solo one. The groups were chosen by the professors and made known to us only a few days before the exam, giving us only a short while to meet up with other members of our group to practice how we’d work together. To be honest, I was actually relatively happy with my group, and we managed to meet up twice before the exam to work together and come up with a structure that would work for us during the exam, no matter what theme of discussion was thrown at us. The speaking exam consisted of 2 tasks: one where you would choose a photo and spend 3-minutes talking about it with 2-minutes of prep time and the second where you and your group members would come together to choose one of the 4 topic themes and speak on that subject for 7-minutes. I definitely made myself nervous leading up to that exam, but I ended up settling down once we got in there and got started – plus, we had 이학경 선생님 as our examiner so that definitely made it much better.

Throughout the year, there was also a consistent stream of quizzes and speaking/writing assignments - of which all count as 20% of your overall grade under ‘continuous assignments’. Besides 2 quizzes that I forgot to do, I managed to stay pretty consistent in handing in all work on time and of rather good quality. But truth be told, it was really difficult to keep up with the Korean element of this degree when the East Asian Studies modules had back-to-back coursework that was rather time-consuming and long. And it was super important to also focus on these because the grade you earn on these modules is considered when your GPA is calculated for your Year Abroad application. So if you’re planning on taking this course, I’d definitely recommend staying on top of studying and working on your time-management skills if you want to avoid massive amounts of stress during the year.

If you have any questions, please DM me or leave a comment. Have a good day (:

Hi! Sorry, this might be off topic, but could i ask how you guys are studying Korean? Is it just through uni programs?

Congrats on finishing your exams!! That relief is like nothing else haha I hope you're able to get lots of rest over the summer -- it definitely used to take me time to relax into it without feeling like I should be studying all the time!

Hey! Yeah~ We study BA Korean at SOAS (: if you have any questions, let me know!

Oh cool! I've been studying Korean with Mallo Academy recently and I think I'm ready to put it to use... but I don't know how to join any Korean speaking communities or if there are any, for that matter..! Do you know if there are any in London that are quite popular, and would be welcoming for people like me?