Korean at SOAS: The First Year
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My thoughts on the course
For ease of reading, I’m romanising 연 선생님 as Yeon Seonsaengnim, 주 선생님 as Ju Seonsaengnim and 이 선생님 as Lee Seonsaengnim. Seonsaengnim means ’teacher’ in Korean and is use instead of Mr/Mrs/Miss etc.)
Lecturers
They’re all amazing! Each one of them has a different teaching style, which has its pros and cons. It means that you’re likely to have a teacher that you really click with and understand everything they’re teaching you, but if you struggle with certain teaching methods then you might end up doing some of the learning from that teacher by yourself. Luckily, I’ve found all 3 teachers’ styles pretty easy to understand, and they do teach things in a good amount of depth. Of course, there have been a few instances when I’ve come out of lessons and not felt 100% about what we were taught, but for the most part they make sure the class solidly understands a concept before they move on. Overall, they’re all great teachers and despite the speed of the course they do take the time to make sure we have a good grasp of everything we’re taught so that we’re able to do our homework and revise ourselves. My only criticism would be that sometimes they haven't communicated between each other as well as they perhaps could have, which has led us to skip some content accidentally, but that has always been fixed so it’s not too much of a problem.
Content
At this stage, it’s kind of difficult to comment on the content since I feel like I’d need hindsight to judge whether the content we’re learning right now is what we should be learning right now. However, I will say that the content we’ve learned so far has allowed us to advance pretty quickly to the point where we can say a good range of things. If you’re interested in what we learn specifically, feel free to look at the textbooks I’ve mentioned in the ’structure’ section.
Structure
The course follows two textbooks across the year (both co-written by Yeon Seonsaengnim which is pretty cool), the first is Elementary Korean and the second is Continuing Korean. Elementary Korean is used in the first term and Continuing is for the second term. If you want to see the contents and some of the lessons, you can find a PDF of Elementary Korean here, but if you’re taking Korean you really must buy the book. We use the textbooks in lessons and we’re not allowed laptops/iPads so if you want to buy them they’re cheapest here and here. They’re often on sale on amazon too.
*Side-note: if you want a textbook for self-study then these textbooks aren’t any good! You’re much better off using a TTMIK textbook
In terms of the actual lessons, we have 2 lessons a week with Ju Seonsaengnim, 2 lessons a week with Lee Seonsaengnim, and 1 lesson a week with Yeon Seonsaengnim. Ju Seonsaengnim teaches us speaking, listening and pronunciation, so we aren’t allowed to write in her lessons and focus on mainly speaking. We also tend to learn a lot of vocabulary in her lessons. In Ju Seonsaengnim’s lessons, we mostly learn grammar. There are a lot of writing exercises in her lessons, and whilst we do still have some exercises where we talk in Korean, the focus is always on grammar. For Yeon Seonsaengnim we usually consolidate what we learned in the week and do speaking practice. It is usually in his lessons that we work through the dialogues in the textbook and really solidify what we’d learned in the week.
Support
Before coming to SOAS, I was expecting the Korean teachers to be quite strict and imagined that it would be difficult to ask them for help. However, I’m glad to say that I was very wrong and whilst they do expect a lot from you, they are also extremely approachable and welcoming if you ever need to speak to them. I’ve had some personal issues which might impact my year abroad so I’ve had to have a few meetings with Ju and Lee Seonsaengnim, and both of them have been incredibly understanding and helpful. You really get the sense that they want what’s best for you and will happily help you out if you are struggling. It also helps to keep in mind that they are very familiar with the language-learning process through learning English, and they’ve seen many other students go through the same struggles. Although I thankfully haven’t had to ask them for academic support yet, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so.
Testing, homework, and workload
This is probably the section that most people are concerned about, and honestly I underestimated the pressure that this course puts on you. I think most people come into the course expecting it to be a lot of work, and that was actually one of the things I really appreciated about the SOAS open day in comparison to others - they were really up-front about how hard this course is. And it is hard! We get set homework every single lesson which usually takes an hour or so, and we have tests every Monday that we need to revise for. Bigger tests can take more than a week of preparation, and all of this being on top of the other modules you have. It is a lot of work. However, so far it’s been manageable. You definitely need discipline and determination to get through it (several people have already dropped out) but it’s not an outrageous amount of work. Your ability to juggle it with the rest of the things you need to do is difficult, but you will get the hang of it after a while.
So these are my thoughts on the course. It’s definitely a positive first impression and I’m hoping it continues to be as enjoyable as it has been so far!
For ease of reading, I’m romanising 연 선생님 as Yeon Seonsaengnim, 주 선생님 as Ju Seonsaengnim and 이 선생님 as Lee Seonsaengnim. Seonsaengnim means ’teacher’ in Korean and is use instead of Mr/Mrs/Miss etc.)
Lecturers
They’re all amazing! Each one of them has a different teaching style, which has its pros and cons. It means that you’re likely to have a teacher that you really click with and understand everything they’re teaching you, but if you struggle with certain teaching methods then you might end up doing some of the learning from that teacher by yourself. Luckily, I’ve found all 3 teachers’ styles pretty easy to understand, and they do teach things in a good amount of depth. Of course, there have been a few instances when I’ve come out of lessons and not felt 100% about what we were taught, but for the most part they make sure the class solidly understands a concept before they move on. Overall, they’re all great teachers and despite the speed of the course they do take the time to make sure we have a good grasp of everything we’re taught so that we’re able to do our homework and revise ourselves. My only criticism would be that sometimes they haven't communicated between each other as well as they perhaps could have, which has led us to skip some content accidentally, but that has always been fixed so it’s not too much of a problem.
Content
At this stage, it’s kind of difficult to comment on the content since I feel like I’d need hindsight to judge whether the content we’re learning right now is what we should be learning right now. However, I will say that the content we’ve learned so far has allowed us to advance pretty quickly to the point where we can say a good range of things. If you’re interested in what we learn specifically, feel free to look at the textbooks I’ve mentioned in the ’structure’ section.
Structure
The course follows two textbooks across the year (both co-written by Yeon Seonsaengnim which is pretty cool), the first is Elementary Korean and the second is Continuing Korean. Elementary Korean is used in the first term and Continuing is for the second term. If you want to see the contents and some of the lessons, you can find a PDF of Elementary Korean here, but if you’re taking Korean you really must buy the book. We use the textbooks in lessons and we’re not allowed laptops/iPads so if you want to buy them they’re cheapest here and here. They’re often on sale on amazon too.
*Side-note: if you want a textbook for self-study then these textbooks aren’t any good! You’re much better off using a TTMIK textbook
In terms of the actual lessons, we have 2 lessons a week with Ju Seonsaengnim, 2 lessons a week with Lee Seonsaengnim, and 1 lesson a week with Yeon Seonsaengnim. Ju Seonsaengnim teaches us speaking, listening and pronunciation, so we aren’t allowed to write in her lessons and focus on mainly speaking. We also tend to learn a lot of vocabulary in her lessons. In Ju Seonsaengnim’s lessons, we mostly learn grammar. There are a lot of writing exercises in her lessons, and whilst we do still have some exercises where we talk in Korean, the focus is always on grammar. For Yeon Seonsaengnim we usually consolidate what we learned in the week and do speaking practice. It is usually in his lessons that we work through the dialogues in the textbook and really solidify what we’d learned in the week.
Support
Before coming to SOAS, I was expecting the Korean teachers to be quite strict and imagined that it would be difficult to ask them for help. However, I’m glad to say that I was very wrong and whilst they do expect a lot from you, they are also extremely approachable and welcoming if you ever need to speak to them. I’ve had some personal issues which might impact my year abroad so I’ve had to have a few meetings with Ju and Lee Seonsaengnim, and both of them have been incredibly understanding and helpful. You really get the sense that they want what’s best for you and will happily help you out if you are struggling. It also helps to keep in mind that they are very familiar with the language-learning process through learning English, and they’ve seen many other students go through the same struggles. Although I thankfully haven’t had to ask them for academic support yet, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so.
Testing, homework, and workload
This is probably the section that most people are concerned about, and honestly I underestimated the pressure that this course puts on you. I think most people come into the course expecting it to be a lot of work, and that was actually one of the things I really appreciated about the SOAS open day in comparison to others - they were really up-front about how hard this course is. And it is hard! We get set homework every single lesson which usually takes an hour or so, and we have tests every Monday that we need to revise for. Bigger tests can take more than a week of preparation, and all of this being on top of the other modules you have. It is a lot of work. However, so far it’s been manageable. You definitely need discipline and determination to get through it (several people have already dropped out) but it’s not an outrageous amount of work. Your ability to juggle it with the rest of the things you need to do is difficult, but you will get the hang of it after a while.
So these are my thoughts on the course. It’s definitely a positive first impression and I’m hoping it continues to be as enjoyable as it has been so far!
(edited 5 years ago)
A Review of Dinwiddy House
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). The black marks were professionally cleaned from the carpet, but oddly they left it until the last 2 months to do that. A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing so every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past, but by now I'm used to it and honestly it doesn't bug me that much anymore. It's not ideal, but I don't mind it.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with. It's also something that seems to happen in halls at many universities based on my friends' experiences so it's nothing specific to Dinwiddy.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you actually like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing special.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so we definitely didn't draw the short straw.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
**(July 2019) I've just read through this and tweaked a few bits because this all around sounds more negative than I intended it to. Dinwiddy did have its ups and downs but I've left with fond memories and I already miss it! So please don't let this put you off too much, if you do end up staying there you will miss it and wish you could stay there for longer
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). The black marks were professionally cleaned from the carpet, but oddly they left it until the last 2 months to do that. A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing so every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past, but by now I'm used to it and honestly it doesn't bug me that much anymore. It's not ideal, but I don't mind it.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with. It's also something that seems to happen in halls at many universities based on my friends' experiences so it's nothing specific to Dinwiddy.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you actually like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing special.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so we definitely didn't draw the short straw.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
**(July 2019) I've just read through this and tweaked a few bits because this all around sounds more negative than I intended it to. Dinwiddy did have its ups and downs but I've left with fond memories and I already miss it! So please don't let this put you off too much, if you do end up staying there you will miss it and wish you could stay there for longer
Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by umbrellala
A Review of Dinwiddy House
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the truly awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing. Around every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. At this point, I’ve got the muscle memory to turn it on with my elbow but god is it annoying. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you do like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing grand or impressive.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so I guess we were lucky.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the truly awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing. Around every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. At this point, I’ve got the muscle memory to turn it on with my elbow but god is it annoying. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you do like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing grand or impressive.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so I guess we were lucky.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
Spoiler
Thank you so much more taking the time to make this thorough review! It's very helpful. I think choosing my accommodation option is going to be the hardest thing!
Original post by umbrellala
A Review of Dinwiddy House
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the truly awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing. Around every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. At this point, I’ve got the muscle memory to turn it on with my elbow but god is it annoying. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you do like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing grand or impressive.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so I guess we were lucky.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
Accommodation in London is kind of difficult… it’s all quite expensive and it can be hard to find somewhere you actually like. This year, I’m staying in Dinwiddy which is the only SOAS accommodation in London. There are other halls that are intercollegiate (ie. students from a range of London unis can rent rooms there) in the area that I know are somewhat popular, but Dinwiddy is the most popular for SOAS students without a doubt. It’s definitely a good idea to properly research all your options and consider commuting from home if that’s an option for you too. This will be my personal opinion of Dinwiddy based on the relatively short time I’ve been there so far. Of course, remember everyone will have their own individual experiences!
Price and Location
Dinwiddy is currently £163 per week, which is pretty good (from what I’ve heard from my friends, their accommodation costs around £120-£140 a week in other parts of the country). As far as I’m aware, it’s one of the cheapest accommodations in London considering that all rooms are en suite and the area is so central. It’s on the same road as King’s Cross and a 5-10min walk from the station. From SOAS, it’s a 20-25min walk which is not too bad. There are other halls that are closer to SOAS, but then you have the toss-up of being further from the station. For me, the location is absolutely ideal. You could take the tube into SOAS, but that ends up taking about 20mins in total anyway, so it’s a bit of a waste of money to do it that way.
My Room
Not going to lie, my room isn’t the best. When I arrived, it smelled of cigarettes and damp and was very stuffy. It didn’t help that the window wouldn’t open either. My sink had a crack so big that water went straight through it and the walls had black marks, pieces of tape left behind, and chunks of wallpaper missing. The carpet had some weird black marks on it that felt like spilt wax. The mattress is way too soft, to the point that there’s no support at all so my shoulders crack about 10 times a day and my back is often sore. So not great. Luckily, I did eventually open the window (or, more accurately, it dislodged itself and flew open in the middle of the night) and my sink was replaced within a few weeks without me having to ask specifically (they must’ve read the itinerary you have to fill in on move-in day). A plug-in air freshener did the trick with the horrid smell but my shoulders are still dodgy and the walls are incredibly ugly. I will say that most people didn’t seem to have this much of a problem. We can all agree on the horrid move-in day smell, and some people also had the mysterious carpet marks but the mattress, window, and sink are specific to me.
One thing that everyone at Dinwiddy can bond over is the truly awful showers. First of all, hardly any water comes out. I have to stand under it for about 2mins just to get my hair fully wet. Second of all, and this is the big issue, it’s on a timer system. You know how the taps at school or in public toilets turn off after about 10 seconds? Our showers do the same thing. Around every 20s, you have to turn around and press the button again. At this point, I’ve got the muscle memory to turn it on with my elbow but god is it annoying. Long showers are well and truly a thing of the past.
Something that did bother me at the start was noise. My room backs onto the courtyard so all the noise echoes up and I can hear conversations like they are right outside my door. That can get a little loud when people are drinking and playing music outside. But, I got used to it relatively quickly so it’s fine now. For the most part people are respectful of noise anyway, especially on weeknights. I’m also the last room in my flat, so on one side I have my flatmate’s room and on the other side is someone from the next flat. For some reason, the room connecting to the next flat is incredibly thin and I can hear absolutely everything they do. I can hear her cough, her phone notifications, her alarm in the morning… It’s still something that’s annoying, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with.
You’re probably asking, is there anything you do like about your room? Apart from the fact that it’s my room and my home now… not really. It’s fine. It does the job. I appreciate the fact that it’s relatively big compared to a lot of my friends at other unis, but it’s nothing grand or impressive.
My Flat
The flat as a whole is actually pretty nice. There are 5 of us in our flat and we all get on well. None of us are best friends or super close, but we will occasionally host flat parties together and we’ll chat about our days if we’re in the kitchen at the same time. The kitchen is a good size with a table that can easily fit all of us at once. We have a good amount of cupboards, two fridges, and a freezer so we’re not tight on space for our stuff either. It gets cleaned weekly and our bin is emptied twice a week which is so nice. I do wish there was some sort of living room set up or somewhere to just chill because the kitchen is a little uninviting, but I’m not complaining with what we have. We have enough space in the kitchen to host 15-20 people so it’s plenty. I know some people have much smaller kitchens than us, so I guess we were lucky.
Staff, Management, and Security
All you have to do is look at the Dinwiddy group chat to see daily complaints about Sanctuary Students (the company that owns Dinwiddy). I personally haven’t had any issues with the receptionists, but I know people who have had issues with the cleaners and security in particular. The security has been abysmal as of late which led to a scary incident in one of the blocks late at night (I believe it’s now under investigation so I won’t go into detail). Luckily, they seem to have been stepping it up lately but the security guards have a terrible track record and are known to be quite rude and aggressive, as well as doing their job terribly. The management also isn’t popular as we’ve had a few days across the past 3 weeks where there’s been no hot water, and a ridiculous amount of false fire alarms at ungodly hours of the morning/night which have caused a lot of anxiety and frustration. All in all, it’s not great.
Community
This is where Dinwiddy majorly redeems itself. I’ve spoken to a few people that aren’t at Dinwiddy and they say that socialising is really hard without the community that comes with Dinwiddy. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make friends outside of your flat, because none of my close friends are my flatmates. However, being at Dinwiddy has some huge advantages. First of all, you can walk to and from uni together, which might seem small but it ends up adding a lot of time that you can chat and get to know people. Secondly, flat parties tend to be more popular here since going out is so expensive. Of course, you can still go to flat parties if you’re not at Dinwiddy but getting there and getting back can be a pain, and sometimes a whole flat might go to something together so it might be difficult to get invited in the first place. On top of that, being at Dinwiddy makes it really easy to meet people, whether that’s your flatmates, people on your floor, whilst you’re doing the laundry, joining in with people’s pre-drinks in the courtyard, playing cards in the common room… It really is the hub for SOAS first years. One of the girls in my class who’s at intercollegiate halls, which has hundreds of students, is one of only 4 SOAS students there. So, honestly, if I had to choose again I would probably still choose Dinwiddy just because of how important the community is for first years.
That's my personal review of Dinwiddy so far. Would I recommend it? 'Recommend' is a strong word... for me, I think it's the best option. It's pretty good value for money and the social aspect well outweighs the issues I've had with it. It's totally comfortable to live in, the issues I've had don't usually impact my day-to-day, and I would never want to move. Of course, it's hard to have a rounded view without having lived in other halls, but from what I've heard from other people, Dinwiddy is the best option.
Spoiler
Thank you so much for typing this out! Assuming I get in, I'm going to try visit London soon-ish and request tours of a few different accommodations to have a look myself. Have you thought about a mattress topper for your bed? Might help a bit!
Original post by hypotrochoids
Thank you so much for typing this out! Assuming I get in, I'm going to try visit London soon-ish and request tours of a few different accommodations to have a look myself. Have you thought about a mattress topper for your bed? Might help a bit!
No problem! I've been meaning to buy a mattress topper for the longest time but I'm a bit reluctant to spend the money haha. Tours would definitely be a good idea, they run tours of Dinwiddy on the SOAS open days too. If you ever need someone to show you around I'd be happy to help
Original post by umbrellala
No problem! I've been meaning to buy a mattress topper for the longest time but I'm a bit reluctant to spend the money haha. Tours would definitely be a good idea, they run tours of Dinwiddy on the SOAS open days too. If you ever need someone to show you around I'd be happy to help
Your back might thank you for it, I honestly get grumpy if mine is sore, lol. Awesome, thank you, I might take you up on that!
A day in the life
I'm back! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I apologise for not updating in so long - I had a lot of exams before the break and deadlines as soon as I got back too so it's been pretty hectic.
Before I applied, one of the things I really wish I could’ve had was a ‘day in the life’ post or YouTube video, so here’s mine! Please see my earlier posts for a breakdown of what modules I take, because the modules you choose will have a big impact on how much work you have. For me, my international relations (IR) module is pretty reading-heavy so keep that in mind. It’s also worth mentioning that I had already done my Korean homework that was due the next day, so I’d usually be doing that on a Monday too. I just (incredibly) had the foresight to get it done in advance for once!
As a bit of a disclaimer, my Mondays tend to be much busier than other days because I have my IR lectures on a Friday and our reading guides are only put online on a Sunday. My tutorials are then on a Tuesday so I usually end up having to do all my readings on a Sunday/Monday. Other days of the week are much less IR-based and I will definitely do another one of these that is slightly more representative!
---------------
7:30am Wake up and get ready. I always have a little scroll through twitter and instagram before I get up (who doesn’t) even if the light from the screen hurts my eyes. It’s hard to get up when it’s so dark in the mornings, which isn’t helped by the fact that I’ve got blackout curtains! I never have time to eat breakfast so I just grab a banana on the way out and meet a friend to walk to uni at about 8:30.
9-11am Korean language tutorial. Today we learned a new grammar point of -아/-어/-해 봐요 and the usage of -아요 and -아해요 with sensory verbs.
11am-1pm IR readings. These take up a significant chunk of my time, and I was silly enough to not get some of my readings done on Sunday. I hadn’t looked at quite how much we’d been given (around 100 pages) and have my tutorial on Tuesday mornings, so had to get it all done in one day. This week’s lecture was on historical materialisms (Marxism) so all the readings were pretty dense. I did them in one of my favourite parts of SOAS with a friend and ate my little packed lunch whilst I was at it.
1-3pm Korean society and culture lecture. This is one of my compulsory modules and to be honest today’s wasn’t the most interesting… it was about demographics and the family unit. It was essentially a human geography lecture, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just not my cup of tea.
3-5pm Popped into the SU shop for a coffee and a chocolate chip cookie, then headed to the library to continue my IR reading. It was getting hard to stay awake since I hadn’t slept well and floor B of the library (where all the little study desks with lamps are) gets super warm, but I got quite a lot done.
5-6pm Met a friend for coffee (more coffee!!) at a cafe just around the corner from SOAS. We had a good catch-up about what happened over Christmas and what was going on at her uni (she goes to UCL and we met through a UCL Korean Society event. Go to SOAS and other UoL societies, you’ll meet some cool people!). Then I walked home.
6:30pm Finally got back to the flat after a pretty exhausting day. Honestly just wanted to get into my pyjamas and watch YouTube but that wasn’t really an option.
6:30-8pm Let myself chill out for a little bit on my bed, caught up with the news and replied to messages. Had a scroll through social media, watched some study with mes to get myself in the mood for MORE reading and eventually hauled myself into the kitchen.
8-9pm Ate my dinner which was left over spicy fried rice (it was amazing even if I do say so myself) and a yoghurt and banana. I’m not obsessed with bananas I promise, they’re just starting to go overripe and they need to be eaten haha
9pm-12am You’ve guessed it - more reading. Started to lose the will to live so made my computer speak it out loud to me whilst I read. Otherwise I probably would’ve given up completely. I didn’t end up finishing my reading so I downloaded it as an audio to listen to on the way to my tutorial the next morning because if nothing else I pride myself on being exceptionally lazy and still managing to do my work (even if it is just the bare minimum).
12-12:45am Got ready for bed and read a few pages of a book. I’ve found recently that if I sit on my phone for too long my brain can’t stop thinking and I find it really hard to sleep, so I’ve been trying to read an actual physical book (you don’t understand how much of an achievement that is for me haha). The book I’m reading right now is The Gender Games by Juno Dawson. I’ve only just started reading it so I don’t have any properly formed opinions on it yet, but so far so good! Then at long last I went to sleep.
Hopefully that was somewhat entertaining! As always throw something in the replies if you have any questions or send me a PM any time
I'm back! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I apologise for not updating in so long - I had a lot of exams before the break and deadlines as soon as I got back too so it's been pretty hectic.
Before I applied, one of the things I really wish I could’ve had was a ‘day in the life’ post or YouTube video, so here’s mine! Please see my earlier posts for a breakdown of what modules I take, because the modules you choose will have a big impact on how much work you have. For me, my international relations (IR) module is pretty reading-heavy so keep that in mind. It’s also worth mentioning that I had already done my Korean homework that was due the next day, so I’d usually be doing that on a Monday too. I just (incredibly) had the foresight to get it done in advance for once!
As a bit of a disclaimer, my Mondays tend to be much busier than other days because I have my IR lectures on a Friday and our reading guides are only put online on a Sunday. My tutorials are then on a Tuesday so I usually end up having to do all my readings on a Sunday/Monday. Other days of the week are much less IR-based and I will definitely do another one of these that is slightly more representative!
---------------
7:30am Wake up and get ready. I always have a little scroll through twitter and instagram before I get up (who doesn’t) even if the light from the screen hurts my eyes. It’s hard to get up when it’s so dark in the mornings, which isn’t helped by the fact that I’ve got blackout curtains! I never have time to eat breakfast so I just grab a banana on the way out and meet a friend to walk to uni at about 8:30.
9-11am Korean language tutorial. Today we learned a new grammar point of -아/-어/-해 봐요 and the usage of -아요 and -아해요 with sensory verbs.
11am-1pm IR readings. These take up a significant chunk of my time, and I was silly enough to not get some of my readings done on Sunday. I hadn’t looked at quite how much we’d been given (around 100 pages) and have my tutorial on Tuesday mornings, so had to get it all done in one day. This week’s lecture was on historical materialisms (Marxism) so all the readings were pretty dense. I did them in one of my favourite parts of SOAS with a friend and ate my little packed lunch whilst I was at it.
1-3pm Korean society and culture lecture. This is one of my compulsory modules and to be honest today’s wasn’t the most interesting… it was about demographics and the family unit. It was essentially a human geography lecture, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just not my cup of tea.
3-5pm Popped into the SU shop for a coffee and a chocolate chip cookie, then headed to the library to continue my IR reading. It was getting hard to stay awake since I hadn’t slept well and floor B of the library (where all the little study desks with lamps are) gets super warm, but I got quite a lot done.
5-6pm Met a friend for coffee (more coffee!!) at a cafe just around the corner from SOAS. We had a good catch-up about what happened over Christmas and what was going on at her uni (she goes to UCL and we met through a UCL Korean Society event. Go to SOAS and other UoL societies, you’ll meet some cool people!). Then I walked home.
6:30pm Finally got back to the flat after a pretty exhausting day. Honestly just wanted to get into my pyjamas and watch YouTube but that wasn’t really an option.
6:30-8pm Let myself chill out for a little bit on my bed, caught up with the news and replied to messages. Had a scroll through social media, watched some study with mes to get myself in the mood for MORE reading and eventually hauled myself into the kitchen.
8-9pm Ate my dinner which was left over spicy fried rice (it was amazing even if I do say so myself) and a yoghurt and banana. I’m not obsessed with bananas I promise, they’re just starting to go overripe and they need to be eaten haha
9pm-12am You’ve guessed it - more reading. Started to lose the will to live so made my computer speak it out loud to me whilst I read. Otherwise I probably would’ve given up completely. I didn’t end up finishing my reading so I downloaded it as an audio to listen to on the way to my tutorial the next morning because if nothing else I pride myself on being exceptionally lazy and still managing to do my work (even if it is just the bare minimum).
12-12:45am Got ready for bed and read a few pages of a book. I’ve found recently that if I sit on my phone for too long my brain can’t stop thinking and I find it really hard to sleep, so I’ve been trying to read an actual physical book (you don’t understand how much of an achievement that is for me haha). The book I’m reading right now is The Gender Games by Juno Dawson. I’ve only just started reading it so I don’t have any properly formed opinions on it yet, but so far so good! Then at long last I went to sleep.
Hopefully that was somewhat entertaining! As always throw something in the replies if you have any questions or send me a PM any time
(edited 5 years ago)
Really curious but since SOAS is part of the University of London, are you able to join other UoL’s societies, even if you’re not a student of that university? Or is the benefit just being able to attend UoL’s events? (Since you mentioned meeting your friend through a UCL Korean Society Event.) Thanks!
But great update, hope you had fun over Christmas break.
But great update, hope you had fun over Christmas break.
Original post by Mynxas
Really curious but since SOAS is part of the University of London, are you able to join other UoL’s societies, even if you’re not a student of that university? Or is the benefit just being able to attend UoL’s events? (Since you mentioned meeting your friend through a UCL Korean Society Event.) Thanks!
But great update, hope you had fun over Christmas break.
But great update, hope you had fun over Christmas break.
Yes I believe you can join other UoL societies. For Korean society all we needed to do was join the facebook page but for societies where you need to 'officially' join I'm pretty sure anyone from a UoL uni can join. There might be exceptions but as far as I know you can join any. My friend at UCL also does one of her modules at SOAS so you can mix-and-match your modules across UoL unis too
They're quite interconnected so that's definitely an advantage!Year Abroad Briefing
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
Original post by umbrellala
Year Abroad Briefing
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
Do you go abroad in the second year? Isnt that a bit early?
Original post by ajj2000
Do you go abroad in the second year? Isnt that a bit early?
Yes we do. That sounds like quite a loaded question haha I don't have any control over when we go on our year abroad so it doesn't really matter what I think. But I assume you're using Japanese as a reference point - Japanese in an exception for East Asian languages in that the year abroad is in year 3. Both Chinese and Korean have their year abroad in year 2 (at least at SOAS and Sheffield). When I spoke to a professor at Sheffield uni he said that there isn't any particular advantage to going in third year, and he wasn't sure why they were structured differently. It just means that a different stage of your learning will be done abroad, so in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't make much difference. You'll still reach the same level of fluency if you do it in year 2. So in short I don't think it's too early, but either way they're not going to be changing the course structure any time soon.
Original post by umbrellala
Year Abroad Briefing
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
Are you excited? Do you know where you're going yet?
Original post by hypotrochoids
Are you excited? Do you know where you're going yet?
I am excited! Also quite scared and overwhelmed with how much has to be done before we get to go, but definitely excited. No, we have to register our interest for a university after reading week and if there are enough spaces then we can begin applications.
Original post by umbrellala
Year Abroad Briefing
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
It's been another incredibly hectic few weeks, the work load keeps getting more intense but I have to say I keep falling more and more in love with the language side of my course. It's now getting to that scary time of year where we have to start thinking about the year abroad! We had our official briefing yesterday and I've been in contact with a few third years to get a better idea of how to organise things. Rather than typing out how everything works (although I might upload more detailed info about it once I have time) it might be easier for me to answer any questions you have about the year abroad. Ask absolutely anything you're curious about and don't worry about asking too many questions! The more the better
What unis in korea did soas offer this time round? And how are you going to decide what uni to apply for?
Original post by muntaha2001
What unis in korea did soas offer this time round? And how are you going to decide what uni to apply for?
This year they offered Seoul National, Korea, Hankuk and Sogang universities.
The courses don't differ massively, some universities have different focuses (on conversation or writing for example) and they're all prestigious unis, so for me it's more about student life. In some ways I feel like by going to SOAS I've sacrificed the 'normal' student experience so I'm definitely most focused on having something like that in Korea! At the moment it's between SNU and KU but I think I'll go for KU because the social life is better and SNU's application process is more difficult.
It sounds very exciting! Good luck for your application, hope you get your choice : )
Year Abroad Choice
I'm back with news! And a big change of plans... but first I should probably explain a little bit about how our applications work. After the briefing, the LYA (language year abroad) convenor, Lee Sonsaengim, sends out an email with an online form. On the form, you are asked to rank the 4 universities (SNU, Korea Uni, Sogang, and Hankuk Uni) in order of preference. We were given just over a week to make the decision, which to be honest didn't really feel like enough, but we'd all had it on our minds for a while so most people already knew where they wanted to go. As for me, I was 100% set on KU before the briefing, but at the briefing Lee Songsaengnim made the application process for SNU sound a lot less intimidating than I had expected. I'd heard through the grapevine that to get into SNU you needed to sit an extra entrance exam, and there was no way I was going to do that. But, that turned out to be just a rumour, and it looked like a much more attractive option. That's not to say that the application isn't hard - it's definitely much harder than the other unis - but it didn't look impossible.
The day before the deadline, I sent in my form with my choices which were:
1. KU
2. SNU
3. Sogang
4. Hankuk
Lee Sonsaengnim then looks at everyone's choices, and tries to appoint everyone to their first choice. However, there is a lot of competition for the universities so people with high grades get priority. SNU is also a bit of a special case because it is known to be very academically rigorous (it's literally the best university in Korea, and 63rd in the whole world) so only a few select students are allowed to apply. In reality, me putting SNU second was pretty pointless because if I wasn't given KU there was no way I was going to get SNU. I sent off my form on a Thursday and waited to get the reply.
It was that Sunday I was sitting at home, getting ready to head back to London after reading week, and I got an email in my inbox from Lee Songsaengnim. The subject of the email was something to do with the LYA options, but I thought it was a bit early to be giving everyone their choices. I opened the email, and to my surprise she was emailing to tell me she thought my grades were good enough to apply to SNU and that I should consider it. She gave me until Monday (the next day) to tell her whether I wanted to change my first choice, and that whichever university I chose I would be allowed to apply for.
It would be safe to say the news threw me into a bit of a panic. The possibility of applying to SNU had crossed my mind, but honestly I hadn't looked into it much because I thought it would be too much of a risk. If we're not successful in our applications, there's no plan B; we just have to stay in the UK for another year, perhaps take a leave of absence, maybe even change degree titles. So there's a lot at stake. She'd only given me 24hrs to make a decision, so I decided to stay at home a bit longer and really research SNU as an option. Luckily my new flatmate is on a one-semester exchange from SNU, so I asked her loads of questions once I was back and I eventually made the decision to confirm SNU!
I will now be one of about 10 students applying to SNU, which is significantly more than previous years (usually only 2 or 3 people went) which is exciting but means I have a lot of pressure to keep my grades high. It's also a little intimidating because no one from my class or that I'm close with is applying to SNU, but I'm sure it'll all pan out okay. Now that we've got to start thinking about accommodation and things like that, it's definitely getting a bit overwhelming and I'm incredibly nervous but also excited to finally be out there
I'm back with news! And a big change of plans... but first I should probably explain a little bit about how our applications work. After the briefing, the LYA (language year abroad) convenor, Lee Sonsaengim, sends out an email with an online form. On the form, you are asked to rank the 4 universities (SNU, Korea Uni, Sogang, and Hankuk Uni) in order of preference. We were given just over a week to make the decision, which to be honest didn't really feel like enough, but we'd all had it on our minds for a while so most people already knew where they wanted to go. As for me, I was 100% set on KU before the briefing, but at the briefing Lee Songsaengnim made the application process for SNU sound a lot less intimidating than I had expected. I'd heard through the grapevine that to get into SNU you needed to sit an extra entrance exam, and there was no way I was going to do that. But, that turned out to be just a rumour, and it looked like a much more attractive option. That's not to say that the application isn't hard - it's definitely much harder than the other unis - but it didn't look impossible.
The day before the deadline, I sent in my form with my choices which were:
1. KU
2. SNU
3. Sogang
4. Hankuk
Lee Sonsaengnim then looks at everyone's choices, and tries to appoint everyone to their first choice. However, there is a lot of competition for the universities so people with high grades get priority. SNU is also a bit of a special case because it is known to be very academically rigorous (it's literally the best university in Korea, and 63rd in the whole world) so only a few select students are allowed to apply. In reality, me putting SNU second was pretty pointless because if I wasn't given KU there was no way I was going to get SNU. I sent off my form on a Thursday and waited to get the reply.
It was that Sunday I was sitting at home, getting ready to head back to London after reading week, and I got an email in my inbox from Lee Songsaengnim. The subject of the email was something to do with the LYA options, but I thought it was a bit early to be giving everyone their choices. I opened the email, and to my surprise she was emailing to tell me she thought my grades were good enough to apply to SNU and that I should consider it. She gave me until Monday (the next day) to tell her whether I wanted to change my first choice, and that whichever university I chose I would be allowed to apply for.
It would be safe to say the news threw me into a bit of a panic. The possibility of applying to SNU had crossed my mind, but honestly I hadn't looked into it much because I thought it would be too much of a risk. If we're not successful in our applications, there's no plan B; we just have to stay in the UK for another year, perhaps take a leave of absence, maybe even change degree titles. So there's a lot at stake. She'd only given me 24hrs to make a decision, so I decided to stay at home a bit longer and really research SNU as an option. Luckily my new flatmate is on a one-semester exchange from SNU, so I asked her loads of questions once I was back and I eventually made the decision to confirm SNU!
I will now be one of about 10 students applying to SNU, which is significantly more than previous years (usually only 2 or 3 people went) which is exciting but means I have a lot of pressure to keep my grades high. It's also a little intimidating because no one from my class or that I'm close with is applying to SNU, but I'm sure it'll all pan out okay. Now that we've got to start thinking about accommodation and things like that, it's definitely getting a bit overwhelming and I'm incredibly nervous but also excited to finally be out there
(edited 5 years ago)
Hey! You made a good choice. For international kids (even if you are korean) imo SNU would be a good choice! I mean KU is great too but I also personally prefer SNU. I hope you get it!
Original post by batter mix
Hey! You made a good choice. For international kids (even if you are korean) imo SNU would be a good choice! I mean KU is great too but I also personally prefer SNU. I hope you get it!
Thank you! My flatmate said KU was more international since SNU is a public uni, so more Koreans go there, but since I'm trying to improve my language above anything else SNU seemed like the better choice.
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