Year Abroad in S. Korea: My Experience
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Arriving in Korea
I can't quite believe it but I'm writing this from our apartment in Korea! We arrived yesterday after 27hrs of travel and so we're now on our second day here, the only thing I have to say about it so far is it's SO HOT and humid, we're all dying a bit. Both days so far have been about 34C and up to 85% humidity... But it's a beautiful place and I'm excited to see more of it
Before we left, I paid the deposit and first semester of rent for my dorm (I added the price to the previous post where I listed costs) and got all my packing done. I stupidly left all my packing until 3 days before we left, so it was a bit of a mammoth task. It's harder than you would think trying to pack your whole life into 2 suitcases! I only took the 23kg bag allowed by the airline with a 10kg carry-on, but I had the luxury of being able to use space in my parents' suitcases since they're visiting with me for 2 weeks. They took most of my heavy stuff like shoes and books, but the friend I was travelling with went way overweight with her stuff. She had 36kg which was 13kg overweight and also over the absolute limit of 34kg, so she had to put some of her stuff in my case and paid the £125 fee (for Lufthansa). Honestly there's no way I would've been within in the limit if I'd had everything in my case, so if you have a lot of stuff it might be worth paying for an extra case if it's cheaper than the overweight fee. It tends to be especially expensive for intercontinental flights not going to North or South America.
I was also sent an invitation to join the SNU buddy programme and pick my buddy. Most universities have a buddy programme (I know for certain SNU and KU have one) where you are paired with a native Korean student for the semester. You and your buddy are then in a bigger group of buddies and exchange students and this essentially becomes your initial friendship group - they'll take you out for meals and go drinking together, there are lots of events held throughout the year, and they can help you with whatever you need help with. At SNU you sign up and get to pick from of a long list of 40 or so of buddies. It has their age, major, the languages they can speak, and a short profile they've written to help you decide who to choose. You then write your own profile so they can know a bit about you too. Each Korean buddy usually looks after 3-5 exchange students total so it's a nicely sized group to begin with. I personally chose a theory of music composition major and the other exchange students are both students from Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to meeting them at orientation! It cost 50,000 won for a semester but everyone I've spoken to really strongly recommends it as it can be quite intimidating to make friends in other ways and is difficult to find Korean friends unless you're very confident in your language skills.
On the day we left, we set off pretty early to go to Heathrow for our 9:30am flight. My friend and I took a non-direct flight which stopped off at Frankfurt as you can't get direct flights reimbursed by student finance, so my parents and sister took a later direct flight. We flew Lufthansa who were really good, they gave us plenty of snacks on the plane and their staff were great (although one flight attendant didn't like me asking to have my water bottle refilled when he brought round drinks for some reason?). We had a 4hr layover at Frankfurt which wasn't too bad, there were a lot of shops and cafes in the airport and it was a nice opportunity to stretch your legs. Our only other option was a 2hr layover which would've been very tight, and several of the Frankfurt flights that day had been delayed, although we luckily made up time on ours. Then we went straight from Frankfurt to Incheon which was a 10.5hr flight. It was rough, we didn't sleep much so we were exhausted when we arrived in Seoul at 11:30am. We then had to wait for my parents to arrive and took the metro to our Airbnb which is about 25mins away. All in all, it was a long day but definitely could've been worse!
That's all so far, the next thing I have coming up is the placement test and orientation on 28th August which means I need to get back to serious studying pretty soon... I also have to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office so hopefully that's not too much of a faff.
Wishing everyone the best of luck for A-Level results tomorrow! I hope you're all pleased with your grades but if not there's always a way to get to where you want to be regardless of your results <3 화이팅!!
I can't quite believe it but I'm writing this from our apartment in Korea! We arrived yesterday after 27hrs of travel and so we're now on our second day here, the only thing I have to say about it so far is it's SO HOT and humid, we're all dying a bit. Both days so far have been about 34C and up to 85% humidity... But it's a beautiful place and I'm excited to see more of it
Before we left, I paid the deposit and first semester of rent for my dorm (I added the price to the previous post where I listed costs) and got all my packing done. I stupidly left all my packing until 3 days before we left, so it was a bit of a mammoth task. It's harder than you would think trying to pack your whole life into 2 suitcases! I only took the 23kg bag allowed by the airline with a 10kg carry-on, but I had the luxury of being able to use space in my parents' suitcases since they're visiting with me for 2 weeks. They took most of my heavy stuff like shoes and books, but the friend I was travelling with went way overweight with her stuff. She had 36kg which was 13kg overweight and also over the absolute limit of 34kg, so she had to put some of her stuff in my case and paid the £125 fee (for Lufthansa). Honestly there's no way I would've been within in the limit if I'd had everything in my case, so if you have a lot of stuff it might be worth paying for an extra case if it's cheaper than the overweight fee. It tends to be especially expensive for intercontinental flights not going to North or South America.
I was also sent an invitation to join the SNU buddy programme and pick my buddy. Most universities have a buddy programme (I know for certain SNU and KU have one) where you are paired with a native Korean student for the semester. You and your buddy are then in a bigger group of buddies and exchange students and this essentially becomes your initial friendship group - they'll take you out for meals and go drinking together, there are lots of events held throughout the year, and they can help you with whatever you need help with. At SNU you sign up and get to pick from of a long list of 40 or so of buddies. It has their age, major, the languages they can speak, and a short profile they've written to help you decide who to choose. You then write your own profile so they can know a bit about you too. Each Korean buddy usually looks after 3-5 exchange students total so it's a nicely sized group to begin with. I personally chose a theory of music composition major and the other exchange students are both students from Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to meeting them at orientation! It cost 50,000 won for a semester but everyone I've spoken to really strongly recommends it as it can be quite intimidating to make friends in other ways and is difficult to find Korean friends unless you're very confident in your language skills.
On the day we left, we set off pretty early to go to Heathrow for our 9:30am flight. My friend and I took a non-direct flight which stopped off at Frankfurt as you can't get direct flights reimbursed by student finance, so my parents and sister took a later direct flight. We flew Lufthansa who were really good, they gave us plenty of snacks on the plane and their staff were great (although one flight attendant didn't like me asking to have my water bottle refilled when he brought round drinks for some reason?). We had a 4hr layover at Frankfurt which wasn't too bad, there were a lot of shops and cafes in the airport and it was a nice opportunity to stretch your legs. Our only other option was a 2hr layover which would've been very tight, and several of the Frankfurt flights that day had been delayed, although we luckily made up time on ours. Then we went straight from Frankfurt to Incheon which was a 10.5hr flight. It was rough, we didn't sleep much so we were exhausted when we arrived in Seoul at 11:30am. We then had to wait for my parents to arrive and took the metro to our Airbnb which is about 25mins away. All in all, it was a long day but definitely could've been worse!
That's all so far, the next thing I have coming up is the placement test and orientation on 28th August which means I need to get back to serious studying pretty soon... I also have to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office so hopefully that's not too much of a faff.
Wishing everyone the best of luck for A-Level results tomorrow! I hope you're all pleased with your grades but if not there's always a way to get to where you want to be regardless of your results <3 화이팅!!
Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by umbrellala
Arriving in Korea
I can't quite believe it but I'm writing this from our apartment in Korea! We arrived yesterday after 27hrs of travel and so we're now on our second day here, the only thing I have to say about it so far is it's SO HOT and humid, we're all dying a bit. Both days so far have been about 34C and up to 85% humidity... But it's a beautiful place and I'm excited to see more of it
Before we left, I paid the deposit and first semester of rent for my dorm (I added the price to the previous post where I listed costs) and got all my packing done. I stupidly left all my packing until 3 days before we left, so it was a bit of a mammoth task. It's harder than you would think trying to pack your whole life into 2 suitcases! I only took the 23kg bag allowed by the airline with a 10kg carry-on, but I had the luxury of being able to use space in my parents' suitcases since they're visiting with me for 2 weeks. They took most of my heavy stuff like shoes and books, but the friend I was travelling with went way overweight with her stuff. She had 36kg which was 13kg overweight and also over the absolute limit of 34kg, so she had to put some of her stuff in my case and paid the £125 fee (for Lufthansa). Honestly there's no way I would've been within in the limit if I'd had everything in my case, so if you have a lot of stuff it might be worth paying for an extra case if it's cheaper than the overweight fee. It tends to be especially expensive for intercontinental flights not going to North or South America.
I was also sent an invitation to join the SNU buddy programme and pick my buddy. Most universities have a buddy programme (I know for certain SNU and KU have one) where you are paired with a native Korean student for the semester. You and your buddy are then in a bigger group of buddies and exchange students and this essentially becomes your initial friendship group - they'll take you out for meals and go drinking together, there are lots of events held throughout the year, and they can help you with whatever you need help with. At SNU you sign up and get to pick from of a long list of 40 or so of buddies. It has their age, major, the languages they can speak, and a short profile they've written to help you decide who to choose. You then write your own profile so they can know a bit about you too. Each Korean buddy usually looks after 3-5 exchange students total so it's a nicely sized group to begin with. I personally chose a theory of music composition major and the other exchange students are both students from Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to meeting them at orientation! It cost 50,000 won for a semester but everyone I've spoken to really strongly recommends it as it can be quite intimidating to make friends in other ways and is difficult to find Korean friends unless you're very confident in your language skills.
On the day we left, we set off pretty early to go to Heathrow for our 9:30am flight. My friend and I took a non-direct flight which stopped off at Frankfurt as you can't get direct flights reimbursed by student finance, so my parents and sister took a later direct flight. We flew Lufthansa who were really good, they gave us plenty of snacks on the plane and their staff were great (although one flight attendant didn't like me asking to have my water bottle refilled when he brought round drinks for some reason?). We had a 4hr layover at Frankfurt which wasn't too bad, there were a lot of shops and cafes in the airport and it was a nice opportunity to stretch your legs. Our only other option was a 2hr layover which would've been very tight, and several of the Frankfurt flights that day had been delayed, although we luckily made up time on ours. Then we went straight from Frankfurt to Incheon which was a 10.5hr flight. It was rough, we didn't sleep much so we were exhausted when we arrived in Seoul at 11:30am. We then had to wait for my parents to arrive and took the metro to our Airbnb which is about 25mins away. All in all, it was a long day but definitely could've been worse!
That's all so far, the next thing I have coming up is the placement test and orientation on 28th August which means I need to get back to serious studying pretty soon... I also have to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office so hopefully that's not too much of a faff.
Wishing everyone the best of luck for A-Level results tomorrow! I hope you're all pleased with your grades but if not there's always a way to get to where you want to be regardless of your results <3 화이팅!!
I can't quite believe it but I'm writing this from our apartment in Korea! We arrived yesterday after 27hrs of travel and so we're now on our second day here, the only thing I have to say about it so far is it's SO HOT and humid, we're all dying a bit. Both days so far have been about 34C and up to 85% humidity... But it's a beautiful place and I'm excited to see more of it
Before we left, I paid the deposit and first semester of rent for my dorm (I added the price to the previous post where I listed costs) and got all my packing done. I stupidly left all my packing until 3 days before we left, so it was a bit of a mammoth task. It's harder than you would think trying to pack your whole life into 2 suitcases! I only took the 23kg bag allowed by the airline with a 10kg carry-on, but I had the luxury of being able to use space in my parents' suitcases since they're visiting with me for 2 weeks. They took most of my heavy stuff like shoes and books, but the friend I was travelling with went way overweight with her stuff. She had 36kg which was 13kg overweight and also over the absolute limit of 34kg, so she had to put some of her stuff in my case and paid the £125 fee (for Lufthansa). Honestly there's no way I would've been within in the limit if I'd had everything in my case, so if you have a lot of stuff it might be worth paying for an extra case if it's cheaper than the overweight fee. It tends to be especially expensive for intercontinental flights not going to North or South America.
I was also sent an invitation to join the SNU buddy programme and pick my buddy. Most universities have a buddy programme (I know for certain SNU and KU have one) where you are paired with a native Korean student for the semester. You and your buddy are then in a bigger group of buddies and exchange students and this essentially becomes your initial friendship group - they'll take you out for meals and go drinking together, there are lots of events held throughout the year, and they can help you with whatever you need help with. At SNU you sign up and get to pick from of a long list of 40 or so of buddies. It has their age, major, the languages they can speak, and a short profile they've written to help you decide who to choose. You then write your own profile so they can know a bit about you too. Each Korean buddy usually looks after 3-5 exchange students total so it's a nicely sized group to begin with. I personally chose a theory of music composition major and the other exchange students are both students from Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to meeting them at orientation! It cost 50,000 won for a semester but everyone I've spoken to really strongly recommends it as it can be quite intimidating to make friends in other ways and is difficult to find Korean friends unless you're very confident in your language skills.
On the day we left, we set off pretty early to go to Heathrow for our 9:30am flight. My friend and I took a non-direct flight which stopped off at Frankfurt as you can't get direct flights reimbursed by student finance, so my parents and sister took a later direct flight. We flew Lufthansa who were really good, they gave us plenty of snacks on the plane and their staff were great (although one flight attendant didn't like me asking to have my water bottle refilled when he brought round drinks for some reason?). We had a 4hr layover at Frankfurt which wasn't too bad, there were a lot of shops and cafes in the airport and it was a nice opportunity to stretch your legs. Our only other option was a 2hr layover which would've been very tight, and several of the Frankfurt flights that day had been delayed, although we luckily made up time on ours. Then we went straight from Frankfurt to Incheon which was a 10.5hr flight. It was rough, we didn't sleep much so we were exhausted when we arrived in Seoul at 11:30am. We then had to wait for my parents to arrive and took the metro to our Airbnb which is about 25mins away. All in all, it was a long day but definitely could've been worse!
That's all so far, the next thing I have coming up is the placement test and orientation on 28th August which means I need to get back to serious studying pretty soon... I also have to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office so hopefully that's not too much of a faff.
Wishing everyone the best of luck for A-Level results tomorrow! I hope you're all pleased with your grades but if not there's always a way to get to where you want to be regardless of your results <3 화이팅!!
Spoiler
Omg I’m genuinely so happy for you!! Enjoy and your time in korea and study well!
(edited 4 years ago)
How exciting!! Was thinking of you on Monday knowing you'd probably be on a flight 
Best of luck with your placement test!! x
Best of luck with your placement test!! x
Days late, but have fun!! Make the most of your trip 😃 Looking forward to updates, but only if you have the time
Original post by umbrellala
Hi! 안녕하세요!
I'm back for my third thread in this series (if you can call it that) about studying Korean at university. For those who haven't seen my previous threads, my name is Ella and I'm just about to start my second year studying BA Korean at SOAS, University of London. Well, more accurately I will be studying at Seoul National University (SNU) this year as part of a compulsory language year abroad. In this thread I will be documenting my year abroad including the preparation process, settling in, the difference between studying Korean at home and abroad, and what it's like to live in South Korea! Hopefully it will be useful for those of you studying languages at university, particularly non-European languages, and about how language years abroad work/what to expect. It should also be useful for people considering South Korea as their country of choice for non-compulsory study abroad programmes.
If you'd like more background information about studying Korean at uni, please refer to my two earlier threads
- Applying to Study Korean: My Experience documents the whole application process from deciding to study Korean to getting my place at SOAS. It's full of advice and guidance and even includes my full personal statement and EPQ resources
- Korean at SOAS: The First Year is (as the title suggest) my first year experience in a nutshell. It includes my thoughts on studying Korean at SOAS, how I handled workload, and FAQs on uni life in London, the BA Korean course, and the year abroad application
If you don't fancy scrolling through my older threads, these are my most asked about/useful/relevant posts:
- How to prepare for applying to study Korean at uni
- Personal statement example
- BA Korean course FAQ
- A word of caution for those planning to study Korean at SOAS
(I would recommend reading the full conversation between me and @Quick-use)
- Year abroad FAQ
- Statement of Purpose example
I have notifications on for all my main threads and usually reply to PMs within 24hrs, so if you have any questions related to any of my threads please don't hesitate to post a reply or send me a PM!
Hi! 안녕하세요!
I'm back for my third thread in this series (if you can call it that) about studying Korean at university. For those who haven't seen my previous threads, my name is Ella and I'm just about to start my second year studying BA Korean at SOAS, University of London. Well, more accurately I will be studying at Seoul National University (SNU) this year as part of a compulsory language year abroad. In this thread I will be documenting my year abroad including the preparation process, settling in, the difference between studying Korean at home and abroad, and what it's like to live in South Korea! Hopefully it will be useful for those of you studying languages at university, particularly non-European languages, and about how language years abroad work/what to expect. It should also be useful for people considering South Korea as their country of choice for non-compulsory study abroad programmes.
If you'd like more background information about studying Korean at uni, please refer to my two earlier threads
- Applying to Study Korean: My Experience documents the whole application process from deciding to study Korean to getting my place at SOAS. It's full of advice and guidance and even includes my full personal statement and EPQ resources
- Korean at SOAS: The First Year is (as the title suggest) my first year experience in a nutshell. It includes my thoughts on studying Korean at SOAS, how I handled workload, and FAQs on uni life in London, the BA Korean course, and the year abroad application
If you don't fancy scrolling through my older threads, these are my most asked about/useful/relevant posts:
- How to prepare for applying to study Korean at uni
- Personal statement example
- BA Korean course FAQ
- A word of caution for those planning to study Korean at SOAS
(I would recommend reading the full conversation between me and @Quick-use)
- Year abroad FAQ
- Statement of Purpose example
I have notifications on for all my main threads and usually reply to PMs within 24hrs, so if you have any questions related to any of my threads please don't hesitate to post a reply or send me a PM!
Spoiler
Hey I’d love to be added to the tag list
Original post by AyPapi
Hey I’d love to be added to the tag list
Done
Settling in at SNU
Hello! It’s been a while since the last time I posted and good god is there a lot to update you on… It’s been insanely hectic over the past few weeks so I haven’t really had a chance to properly come on here and write a post. So far it’s been a crazy experience, definitely a massive learning curve but it’s been a lot of fun too. This post will be a general round-up of what I’ve been up to and I’ll make more posts about the academics and social life another time. Still, if you have any specific questions you’re more than welcome to ask!
The first two weeks I was staying with my family and doing the usual touristy things. Stuff like Namsan tower, a load of palaces, Gangnam, and museums. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do all of it because the mixture of heat and humidity made me quite ill so I only managed to get out for about half of the days, but we still had an awesome time and I got to see a lot. We were staying a short walk from Hongik Uni station which is in Hongdae so the area was perfect for sightseeing. If you ever come to Korea as a tourist rather than a student it’s a fun area to be in so I’d definitely recommend it! It was nice to be able to show my parents where I’d be living for the next year and they had a really great trip too. It was also pretty helpful to have them help me with getting bedding and things like that which would’ve been quite a challenge by myself and the extra suitcase space was a godsend.
Then I moved into an airbnb by myself for a week since the dormitory move-in day was the Saturday before semester began. I have to say this was a really strange week emotionally because I went from spending all day every day with my family to being totally by myself in a new area I didn’t know at all. In Hongdae there are a lot of tourists milling about and the shopkeepers speak relatively good English so if you get stuck with something they can help you out. When I moved to Shillim (which is much closer to SNU than Hongdae is) I didn’t see another foreign person the whole time I was there and I spoke exclusively in Korean everywhere I went. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s definitely overwhelming when you’re feeling a bit homesick and you just want to be understood rather than having to try to explain everything you want or need. But that week I also had my SNU Buddy orientation and a few days later my SNU official orientation which was such a good experience. I met so many people in such a short period of time so it was kind of intense but when you have a few SOAS friends to keep you grounded it makes it much easier.
On orientation day I had my placement test and I was placed in level 3 (a level higher than I needed or expected to be placed in). To be honest, I don’t think the way they do the placement test is the best. It’s much more heavily weighted towards written skills which, especially for SOAS students, isn’t what they should focus on in my opinion. Exchange students for the most part are more lacking in spoken skills so it’s confusing to me that they do it that way. So that led to me and one of my closest friends from SOAS having a less than enjoyable first week and being very frustrated and stressed. We both decided by the end of the week to go into level 2 instead and it was definitely the right decision because we’re both much happier now and have time to socialise which is nice!
Since then, the madness has continued and it’s maybe once a week that I get more than 30mins to myself in a day. With how active my SNU Buddy group is and how much homework I have to do, it’s a challenge to find a moment to take a breather but I’m loving it so much! In a lot of ways this year abroad so far has been everything I felt I was missing out on at SOAS. I’ve spoken before about how I decided to sacrifice some social aspects of uni by going to SOAS (which I absolutely do not regret in the slightest) but I couldn’t help feeling like I was missing out, since at heart I am someone who thrives on socialising and someone who needs to feel part of a group of friends in order to be happy. It’s not that I felt lonely at SOAS necessarily, it just felt like that part of my life was kind of unfulfilled and incomplete. Here I feel totally content and I’m having the best time! It's such a change from SOAS in almost every way, even the campus is as different as it could possibly be. It's absolutely huge and takes about 1hr30 to walk from one side to the other, it's on the side of a mountain so the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and it essentially functions as its own mini city with how many facilities are here. It's incredible!
I’m so excited to share the rest of this year with you all, and I hope everyone at freshers this week is having a great time too! Just as a heads up though, I have a lot on this week and mid-terms are next week so I'm going to be disappearing again for the most part over the next few weeks. Still, I will be keeping an eye on PMs and mentions so don't hesitate to ask me anything you're curious about
Hello! It’s been a while since the last time I posted and good god is there a lot to update you on… It’s been insanely hectic over the past few weeks so I haven’t really had a chance to properly come on here and write a post. So far it’s been a crazy experience, definitely a massive learning curve but it’s been a lot of fun too. This post will be a general round-up of what I’ve been up to and I’ll make more posts about the academics and social life another time. Still, if you have any specific questions you’re more than welcome to ask!
The first two weeks I was staying with my family and doing the usual touristy things. Stuff like Namsan tower, a load of palaces, Gangnam, and museums. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do all of it because the mixture of heat and humidity made me quite ill so I only managed to get out for about half of the days, but we still had an awesome time and I got to see a lot. We were staying a short walk from Hongik Uni station which is in Hongdae so the area was perfect for sightseeing. If you ever come to Korea as a tourist rather than a student it’s a fun area to be in so I’d definitely recommend it! It was nice to be able to show my parents where I’d be living for the next year and they had a really great trip too. It was also pretty helpful to have them help me with getting bedding and things like that which would’ve been quite a challenge by myself and the extra suitcase space was a godsend.
Then I moved into an airbnb by myself for a week since the dormitory move-in day was the Saturday before semester began. I have to say this was a really strange week emotionally because I went from spending all day every day with my family to being totally by myself in a new area I didn’t know at all. In Hongdae there are a lot of tourists milling about and the shopkeepers speak relatively good English so if you get stuck with something they can help you out. When I moved to Shillim (which is much closer to SNU than Hongdae is) I didn’t see another foreign person the whole time I was there and I spoke exclusively in Korean everywhere I went. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s definitely overwhelming when you’re feeling a bit homesick and you just want to be understood rather than having to try to explain everything you want or need. But that week I also had my SNU Buddy orientation and a few days later my SNU official orientation which was such a good experience. I met so many people in such a short period of time so it was kind of intense but when you have a few SOAS friends to keep you grounded it makes it much easier.
On orientation day I had my placement test and I was placed in level 3 (a level higher than I needed or expected to be placed in). To be honest, I don’t think the way they do the placement test is the best. It’s much more heavily weighted towards written skills which, especially for SOAS students, isn’t what they should focus on in my opinion. Exchange students for the most part are more lacking in spoken skills so it’s confusing to me that they do it that way. So that led to me and one of my closest friends from SOAS having a less than enjoyable first week and being very frustrated and stressed. We both decided by the end of the week to go into level 2 instead and it was definitely the right decision because we’re both much happier now and have time to socialise which is nice!
Since then, the madness has continued and it’s maybe once a week that I get more than 30mins to myself in a day. With how active my SNU Buddy group is and how much homework I have to do, it’s a challenge to find a moment to take a breather but I’m loving it so much! In a lot of ways this year abroad so far has been everything I felt I was missing out on at SOAS. I’ve spoken before about how I decided to sacrifice some social aspects of uni by going to SOAS (which I absolutely do not regret in the slightest) but I couldn’t help feeling like I was missing out, since at heart I am someone who thrives on socialising and someone who needs to feel part of a group of friends in order to be happy. It’s not that I felt lonely at SOAS necessarily, it just felt like that part of my life was kind of unfulfilled and incomplete. Here I feel totally content and I’m having the best time! It's such a change from SOAS in almost every way, even the campus is as different as it could possibly be. It's absolutely huge and takes about 1hr30 to walk from one side to the other, it's on the side of a mountain so the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and it essentially functions as its own mini city with how many facilities are here. It's incredible!
I’m so excited to share the rest of this year with you all, and I hope everyone at freshers this week is having a great time too! Just as a heads up though, I have a lot on this week and mid-terms are next week so I'm going to be disappearing again for the most part over the next few weeks. Still, I will be keeping an eye on PMs and mentions so don't hesitate to ask me anything you're curious about
Spoiler
Original post by mollypew013
How exciting!! Was thinking of you on Monday knowing you'd probably be on a flight Best of luck with your placement test!! x
Best of luck with your placement test!! xOriginal post by hypotrochoids
Days late, but have fun!! Make the most of your trip 😃 Looking forward to updates, but only if you have the time
Thank you both!! <3
Original post by umbrellala
Settling in at SNU
Hello! It’s been a while since the last time I posted and good god is there a lot to update you on… It’s been insanely hectic over the past few weeks so I haven’t really had a chance to properly come on here and write a post. So far it’s been a crazy experience, definitely a massive learning curve but it’s been a lot of fun too. This post will be a general round-up of what I’ve been up to and I’ll make more posts about the academics and social life another time. Still, if you have any specific questions you’re more than welcome to ask!
The first two weeks I was staying with my family and doing the usual touristy things. Stuff like Namsan tower, a load of palaces, Gangnam, and museums. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do all of it because the mixture of heat and humidity made me quite ill so I only managed to get out for about half of the days, but we still had an awesome time and I got to see a lot. We were staying a short walk from Hongik Uni station which is in Hongdae so the area was perfect for sightseeing. If you ever come to Korea as a tourist rather than a student it’s a fun area to be in so I’d definitely recommend it! It was nice to be able to show my parents where I’d be living for the next year and they had a really great trip too. It was also pretty helpful to have them help me with getting bedding and things like that which would’ve been quite a challenge by myself and the extra suitcase space was a godsend.
Then I moved into an airbnb by myself for a week since the dormitory move-in day was the Saturday before semester began. I have to say this was a really strange week emotionally because I went from spending all day every day with my family to being totally by myself in a new area I didn’t know at all. In Hongdae there are a lot of tourists milling about and the shopkeepers speak relatively good English so if you get stuck with something they can help you out. When I moved to Shillim (which is much closer to SNU than Hongdae is) I didn’t see another foreign person the whole time I was there and I spoke exclusively in Korean everywhere I went. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s definitely overwhelming when you’re feeling a bit homesick and you just want to be understood rather than having to try to explain everything you want or need. But that week I also had my SNU Buddy orientation and a few days later my SNU official orientation which was such a good experience. I met so many people in such a short period of time so it was kind of intense but when you have a few SOAS friends to keep you grounded it makes it much easier.
On orientation day I had my placement test and I was placed in level 3 (a level higher than I needed or expected to be placed in). To be honest, I don’t think the way they do the placement test is the best. It’s much more heavily weighted towards written skills which, especially for SOAS students, isn’t what they should focus on in my opinion. Exchange students for the most part are more lacking in spoken skills so it’s confusing to me that they do it that way. So that led to me and one of my closest friends from SOAS having a less than enjoyable first week and being very frustrated and stressed. We both decided by the end of the week to go into level 2 instead and it was definitely the right decision because we’re both much happier now and have time to socialise which is nice!
Since then, the madness has continued and it’s maybe once a week that I get more than 30mins to myself in a day. With how active my SNU Buddy group is and how much homework I have to do, it’s a challenge to find a moment to take a breather but I’m loving it so much! In a lot of ways this year abroad so far has been everything I felt I was missing out on at SOAS. I’ve spoken before about how I decided to sacrifice some social aspects of uni by going to SOAS (which I absolutely do not regret in the slightest) but I couldn’t help feeling like I was missing out, since at heart I am someone who thrives on socialising and someone who needs to feel part of a group of friends in order to be happy. It’s not that I felt lonely at SOAS necessarily, it just felt like that part of my life was kind of unfulfilled and incomplete. Here I feel totally content and I’m having the best time! It's such a change from SOAS in almost every way, even the campus is as different as it could possibly be. It's absolutely huge and takes about 1hr30 to walk from one side to the other, it's on the side of a mountain so the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and it essentially functions as its own mini city with how many facilities are here. It's incredible!
I’m so excited to share the rest of this year with you all, and I hope everyone at freshers this week is having a great time too! Just as a heads up though, I have a lot on this week and mid-terms are next week so I'm going to be disappearing again for the most part over the next few weeks. Still, I will be keeping an eye on PMs and mentions so don't hesitate to ask me anything you're curious about
Hello! It’s been a while since the last time I posted and good god is there a lot to update you on… It’s been insanely hectic over the past few weeks so I haven’t really had a chance to properly come on here and write a post. So far it’s been a crazy experience, definitely a massive learning curve but it’s been a lot of fun too. This post will be a general round-up of what I’ve been up to and I’ll make more posts about the academics and social life another time. Still, if you have any specific questions you’re more than welcome to ask!
The first two weeks I was staying with my family and doing the usual touristy things. Stuff like Namsan tower, a load of palaces, Gangnam, and museums. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do all of it because the mixture of heat and humidity made me quite ill so I only managed to get out for about half of the days, but we still had an awesome time and I got to see a lot. We were staying a short walk from Hongik Uni station which is in Hongdae so the area was perfect for sightseeing. If you ever come to Korea as a tourist rather than a student it’s a fun area to be in so I’d definitely recommend it! It was nice to be able to show my parents where I’d be living for the next year and they had a really great trip too. It was also pretty helpful to have them help me with getting bedding and things like that which would’ve been quite a challenge by myself and the extra suitcase space was a godsend.
Then I moved into an airbnb by myself for a week since the dormitory move-in day was the Saturday before semester began. I have to say this was a really strange week emotionally because I went from spending all day every day with my family to being totally by myself in a new area I didn’t know at all. In Hongdae there are a lot of tourists milling about and the shopkeepers speak relatively good English so if you get stuck with something they can help you out. When I moved to Shillim (which is much closer to SNU than Hongdae is) I didn’t see another foreign person the whole time I was there and I spoke exclusively in Korean everywhere I went. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s definitely overwhelming when you’re feeling a bit homesick and you just want to be understood rather than having to try to explain everything you want or need. But that week I also had my SNU Buddy orientation and a few days later my SNU official orientation which was such a good experience. I met so many people in such a short period of time so it was kind of intense but when you have a few SOAS friends to keep you grounded it makes it much easier.
On orientation day I had my placement test and I was placed in level 3 (a level higher than I needed or expected to be placed in). To be honest, I don’t think the way they do the placement test is the best. It’s much more heavily weighted towards written skills which, especially for SOAS students, isn’t what they should focus on in my opinion. Exchange students for the most part are more lacking in spoken skills so it’s confusing to me that they do it that way. So that led to me and one of my closest friends from SOAS having a less than enjoyable first week and being very frustrated and stressed. We both decided by the end of the week to go into level 2 instead and it was definitely the right decision because we’re both much happier now and have time to socialise which is nice!
Since then, the madness has continued and it’s maybe once a week that I get more than 30mins to myself in a day. With how active my SNU Buddy group is and how much homework I have to do, it’s a challenge to find a moment to take a breather but I’m loving it so much! In a lot of ways this year abroad so far has been everything I felt I was missing out on at SOAS. I’ve spoken before about how I decided to sacrifice some social aspects of uni by going to SOAS (which I absolutely do not regret in the slightest) but I couldn’t help feeling like I was missing out, since at heart I am someone who thrives on socialising and someone who needs to feel part of a group of friends in order to be happy. It’s not that I felt lonely at SOAS necessarily, it just felt like that part of my life was kind of unfulfilled and incomplete. Here I feel totally content and I’m having the best time! It's such a change from SOAS in almost every way, even the campus is as different as it could possibly be. It's absolutely huge and takes about 1hr30 to walk from one side to the other, it's on the side of a mountain so the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and it essentially functions as its own mini city with how many facilities are here. It's incredible!
I’m so excited to share the rest of this year with you all, and I hope everyone at freshers this week is having a great time too! Just as a heads up though, I have a lot on this week and mid-terms are next week so I'm going to be disappearing again for the most part over the next few weeks. Still, I will be keeping an eye on PMs and mentions so don't hesitate to ask me anything you're curious about
Spoiler
Ugh this all sounds so exciting!! I'm so glad everything has gone fairly smoothly so far, and that you're having a great time <3
Please do keep us updated with your news - it's rlly helpful to hear a bit about it from someone in such a similar situation to me, as well as being able to follow along on your journey
Midterms
Good news everyone, midterms are over! I had my reading, writing, and listening exams on Friday and today I had my speaking exam, but before I get into the boring academic stuff I'll update you all on what I've been up to over the past two weeks
On Wednesday 25th my roommate and I had our roommate interview. For this, we filled out an agreement form about how often we'll clean, who'll do what, which costs we will share etc. which sounds very serious and formal but it was really useful. The RAs (resident assistants) came and spoke to us very briefly and brought stroopwafels and chocolates which was nice! On Thursday we had our weekly buddy pub trip and it was one of the girls' birthdays so we went to Paris Baguette on the way there to pick up a cake. Then on 28th me and a SOAS friend who also goes to SNU went to the KB Rapbeat Festival in Seoul Land. We bought the tickets through Trazy a few weeks ago which is a website that gives massive discounts to foreigners! The tickets usually cost around £120 but we only paid £50 each! There were a few different stages and loads of artists to see but we saw Sam Kim, DEAN, DPR Live, Zico, Zion.T and loads of others. Definitely worth the money if any of you get the chance to go. Last Monday I did my presentation which was on hobbies so it was pretty easy to write and I was happy with how it went too. Then for the rest of last week I just studied so I had to miss some buddy events unfortunately. It was kind of dull and I started to miss home a little... I've been so busy that there hasn't been a chance for everything to sink in but now it's getting colder I realised I won't be home for Christmas and it hit me how long a year really is. There's no way to gauge how long that feels until you're actually here experiencing it so that's been weird. Anyway, I went for lunch with some of my classmates on Friday and on Saturday we went down to the Han River to watch the firework festival. Coincidentally, 'firework' is one of my favourite words in Korean because it's 불꽃놀이 which literally means 'playing fire flowers'! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people sat on picnic blankets in Yeouido Park in the freezing cold watching the display and it was really good fun. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant and had hotpot which was very fitting for the cold weather. On Sunday it was a lot of cramming for the exam today and now it's Monday!
Now for everyone interested in the academic stuff, this is how the exams were set out. We went into a proper exam room to sit the exam but it was surprisingly relaxed. We first sat the reading exam, then the listening, and finally the writing. The reading exam was much easier than the SOAS exam structure because it's all multiple choice rather than having an essay section. There were only a few words I didn't recognise and I felt happy with how I did. One question structure was quite difficult where you had to pick the appropriate clause to fit a blank space and I wasn't particularly confident in my answer for that one. The listening structure was in some ways more difficult than at SOAS. There's simple multiple choice at the start where you select which picture fits the dialogue but then it gets more difficult. They play a question or the first section of a dialogue and then play 4 responses and you have to pick the most appropriate response. Sometimes it's quite obvious and other times it's quite nuanced. The written exam was almost a totally different structure to SOAS and had one section where you had to add the missing particles to a passage, one section where you had to fill in the most appropriate adjective/frequency indictor (?) from a selection, and a section where you were given a question and you had to complete the conversation using a given grammar pattern. The last two parts were one short written exercise based on a prompt and then a more open 'essay' question (only 10 sentences long). Overall I probably found the listening most challenging but I felt okay about them all.
For the speaking test, you are given all the information you could want about what's in the exam, including key topics you should revise, which is so vastly different to SOAS. The first part was on pronunciation so we were given a list of 10 sentences which had irregular pronunciations to read aloud. In part 2 they asked us around 10 questions and then gave us a grammar pattern to use in each answer. They only had to be one sentence answers using that grammar. Part 3 was an improvised role-play. Mine was a conversation at a post office asking for a package to be sent abroad. In part 4 the examiner asked us an open question and we had to give a reply of more than 5 sentences using as much grammar as possible. In the final section we were given a storyboard (which we had seen before) and we had to make a story based on the storyboard, again using as much grammar as possible. The overall grade for speaking was combined with our marks for the presentation and the weekly/bi-weekly role-plays in class
We actually got our grades back today and I got 90.6% so I'm over the moon! Now we're moving on to our second textbook so there's plenty more studying ahead unfortunately... but I'm glad I can relax for a few days and we have Wednesday off because it's Hangeul Day which is a national holiday Hope everyone who's starting first year is having a good first few weeks!!
Good news everyone, midterms are over! I had my reading, writing, and listening exams on Friday and today I had my speaking exam, but before I get into the boring academic stuff I'll update you all on what I've been up to over the past two weeks
On Wednesday 25th my roommate and I had our roommate interview. For this, we filled out an agreement form about how often we'll clean, who'll do what, which costs we will share etc. which sounds very serious and formal but it was really useful. The RAs (resident assistants) came and spoke to us very briefly and brought stroopwafels and chocolates which was nice! On Thursday we had our weekly buddy pub trip and it was one of the girls' birthdays so we went to Paris Baguette on the way there to pick up a cake. Then on 28th me and a SOAS friend who also goes to SNU went to the KB Rapbeat Festival in Seoul Land. We bought the tickets through Trazy a few weeks ago which is a website that gives massive discounts to foreigners! The tickets usually cost around £120 but we only paid £50 each! There were a few different stages and loads of artists to see but we saw Sam Kim, DEAN, DPR Live, Zico, Zion.T and loads of others. Definitely worth the money if any of you get the chance to go. Last Monday I did my presentation which was on hobbies so it was pretty easy to write and I was happy with how it went too. Then for the rest of last week I just studied so I had to miss some buddy events unfortunately. It was kind of dull and I started to miss home a little... I've been so busy that there hasn't been a chance for everything to sink in but now it's getting colder I realised I won't be home for Christmas and it hit me how long a year really is. There's no way to gauge how long that feels until you're actually here experiencing it so that's been weird. Anyway, I went for lunch with some of my classmates on Friday and on Saturday we went down to the Han River to watch the firework festival. Coincidentally, 'firework' is one of my favourite words in Korean because it's 불꽃놀이 which literally means 'playing fire flowers'! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people sat on picnic blankets in Yeouido Park in the freezing cold watching the display and it was really good fun. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant and had hotpot which was very fitting for the cold weather. On Sunday it was a lot of cramming for the exam today and now it's Monday!
Now for everyone interested in the academic stuff, this is how the exams were set out. We went into a proper exam room to sit the exam but it was surprisingly relaxed. We first sat the reading exam, then the listening, and finally the writing. The reading exam was much easier than the SOAS exam structure because it's all multiple choice rather than having an essay section. There were only a few words I didn't recognise and I felt happy with how I did. One question structure was quite difficult where you had to pick the appropriate clause to fit a blank space and I wasn't particularly confident in my answer for that one. The listening structure was in some ways more difficult than at SOAS. There's simple multiple choice at the start where you select which picture fits the dialogue but then it gets more difficult. They play a question or the first section of a dialogue and then play 4 responses and you have to pick the most appropriate response. Sometimes it's quite obvious and other times it's quite nuanced. The written exam was almost a totally different structure to SOAS and had one section where you had to add the missing particles to a passage, one section where you had to fill in the most appropriate adjective/frequency indictor (?) from a selection, and a section where you were given a question and you had to complete the conversation using a given grammar pattern. The last two parts were one short written exercise based on a prompt and then a more open 'essay' question (only 10 sentences long). Overall I probably found the listening most challenging but I felt okay about them all.
For the speaking test, you are given all the information you could want about what's in the exam, including key topics you should revise, which is so vastly different to SOAS. The first part was on pronunciation so we were given a list of 10 sentences which had irregular pronunciations to read aloud. In part 2 they asked us around 10 questions and then gave us a grammar pattern to use in each answer. They only had to be one sentence answers using that grammar. Part 3 was an improvised role-play. Mine was a conversation at a post office asking for a package to be sent abroad. In part 4 the examiner asked us an open question and we had to give a reply of more than 5 sentences using as much grammar as possible. In the final section we were given a storyboard (which we had seen before) and we had to make a story based on the storyboard, again using as much grammar as possible. The overall grade for speaking was combined with our marks for the presentation and the weekly/bi-weekly role-plays in class
We actually got our grades back today and I got 90.6% so I'm over the moon! Now we're moving on to our second textbook so there's plenty more studying ahead unfortunately... but I'm glad I can relax for a few days and we have Wednesday off because it's Hangeul Day which is a national holiday
Hope everyone who's starting first year is having a good first few weeks!!Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by umbrellala
Midterms
Good news everyone, midterms are over! I had my reading, writing, and listening exams on Friday and today I had my speaking exam, but before I get into the boring academic stuff I'll update you all on what I've been up to over the past two weeks
On Wednesday 25th my roommate and I had our roommate interview. For this, we filled out an agreement form about how often we'll clean, who'll do what, which costs we will share etc. which sounds very serious and formal but it was really useful. The RAs (resident assistants) came and spoke to us very briefly and brought stroopwafels and chocolates which was nice! On Thursday we had our weekly buddy pub trip and it was one fo the girls' birthdays so we went to Paris Baguette on the way there to pick up a cake. Then on 28th me and a SOAS friend who also goes to SNU went to the KB Rapbeat Festival in Seoul Land. We bought the tickets through Trazy a few weeks ago which is a website that gives massive discounts to foreigners! The tickets usually cost around £120 but we only paid £50 each! There were a few different stages and loads of artists to see but we saw Sam Kim, DEAN, DPR Live, Zico, Zion.T and loads of others. Definitely worth the money if any of you get the chance to go. Last Monday I did my presentation which was on hobbies so it was pretty easy to write and I was happy with how it went too. Then for the rest of last week I just studied so I had to miss some buddy events unfortunately. It was kind of dull and I started to mis home a little... I've been so busy that there hasn't been a chance for everything to sink in but now it's getting colder I realised I won't be home for Christmas and it hit me how long a year really is. There's no way to gauge how long that feels until you're actually here experiencing it so that's been weird. Anyway, I went for lunch with some of my classmates on Friday and on Saturday we went down to the Han River to watch the firework festival. Coincidentally, 'firework' is one of my favourite words in Korean because it's 불꽃놀이 which literally means 'playing fire flowers'! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people sat on picnic blankets in Yeouido Park in the freezing cold watching the display and it was really good fun. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant and had hotpot which was very fitting for the cold weather. On Sunday it was a lot of cramming for the exam today and now it's Monday!
Now for everyone interested in the academic stuff, this is how the exams were set out. We went into a proper exam room to sit the exam but it was surprisingly relaxed. We first sat the reading exam, then the listening, and finally the writing. The reading exam was much easier than the SOAS exam structure is because it's all multiple choice rather than having an essay section. There were only a few words I didn't recognise and I felt happy with how I did. One question structure was quite difficult where you had to pick the appropriate clause to fit a blank space and I wasn't particularly confident in my answer for that one. The listening structure was in some ways more difficult than in SOAS. There's simple multiple choice at the start where you select which picture fits the dialogue but then it gets more difficult. They play a question or the first section of a dialogue and then play 4 responses and you have to pick the most appropriate response. Sometimes it's quite obvious and other times it's quite nuanced. The written exam was almost a totally different structure to SOAS and had one section where you had to add the missing particles to a passage, one section where you had to fill in the most appropriate adjective/frequency indictor (?) from a selection, and a section where you were given a question and you had to complete the conversation using a given grammar pattern. The last two parts were a short written exercise based on a prompt and then a more open 'essay' question (only 10 sentences long). Overall I probably found the listening most challenging but I felt okay about them all.
For the speaking test, you are given all the information you could want about what's in the exam, including key topics you should revise which is so vastly different to SOAS. The first part was on pronunciation so we were given a list of 10 sentences which had irregular pronunciations to read aloud. In part 2 they asked us around 10 questions and then gave us a grammar pattern to use in each answer. They only had to be one sentence answers using that grammar. Part 3 was an improvised role-play. Mine was a conversation at a post office asking for a package to be sent abroad. In part 4 the examiner asked us an open question and we had to give a reply of more than 5 sentences using as much grammar as possible. In the final section we were given a storyboard (which we had seen before) and we had to make a story based on the storyboard, again using as much grammar as possible. The overall grade for speaking was combined with our marks for the presentation and the weekly/bi-weekly role-plays in class
We actually got our grades back today and I got 90.6% so I'm over the moon! Now we're moving on to our second textbook so there's plenty more studying ahead unfortunately... but I'm glad I can relax for a few days and we have Wednesday off because it's Hangeul Day which is a national holiday Hope everyone who's starting first year is having a good first few weeks!!
Good news everyone, midterms are over! I had my reading, writing, and listening exams on Friday and today I had my speaking exam, but before I get into the boring academic stuff I'll update you all on what I've been up to over the past two weeks
On Wednesday 25th my roommate and I had our roommate interview. For this, we filled out an agreement form about how often we'll clean, who'll do what, which costs we will share etc. which sounds very serious and formal but it was really useful. The RAs (resident assistants) came and spoke to us very briefly and brought stroopwafels and chocolates which was nice! On Thursday we had our weekly buddy pub trip and it was one fo the girls' birthdays so we went to Paris Baguette on the way there to pick up a cake. Then on 28th me and a SOAS friend who also goes to SNU went to the KB Rapbeat Festival in Seoul Land. We bought the tickets through Trazy a few weeks ago which is a website that gives massive discounts to foreigners! The tickets usually cost around £120 but we only paid £50 each! There were a few different stages and loads of artists to see but we saw Sam Kim, DEAN, DPR Live, Zico, Zion.T and loads of others. Definitely worth the money if any of you get the chance to go. Last Monday I did my presentation which was on hobbies so it was pretty easy to write and I was happy with how it went too. Then for the rest of last week I just studied so I had to miss some buddy events unfortunately. It was kind of dull and I started to mis home a little... I've been so busy that there hasn't been a chance for everything to sink in but now it's getting colder I realised I won't be home for Christmas and it hit me how long a year really is. There's no way to gauge how long that feels until you're actually here experiencing it so that's been weird. Anyway, I went for lunch with some of my classmates on Friday and on Saturday we went down to the Han River to watch the firework festival. Coincidentally, 'firework' is one of my favourite words in Korean because it's 불꽃놀이 which literally means 'playing fire flowers'! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people sat on picnic blankets in Yeouido Park in the freezing cold watching the display and it was really good fun. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant and had hotpot which was very fitting for the cold weather. On Sunday it was a lot of cramming for the exam today and now it's Monday!
Now for everyone interested in the academic stuff, this is how the exams were set out. We went into a proper exam room to sit the exam but it was surprisingly relaxed. We first sat the reading exam, then the listening, and finally the writing. The reading exam was much easier than the SOAS exam structure is because it's all multiple choice rather than having an essay section. There were only a few words I didn't recognise and I felt happy with how I did. One question structure was quite difficult where you had to pick the appropriate clause to fit a blank space and I wasn't particularly confident in my answer for that one. The listening structure was in some ways more difficult than in SOAS. There's simple multiple choice at the start where you select which picture fits the dialogue but then it gets more difficult. They play a question or the first section of a dialogue and then play 4 responses and you have to pick the most appropriate response. Sometimes it's quite obvious and other times it's quite nuanced. The written exam was almost a totally different structure to SOAS and had one section where you had to add the missing particles to a passage, one section where you had to fill in the most appropriate adjective/frequency indictor (?) from a selection, and a section where you were given a question and you had to complete the conversation using a given grammar pattern. The last two parts were a short written exercise based on a prompt and then a more open 'essay' question (only 10 sentences long). Overall I probably found the listening most challenging but I felt okay about them all.
For the speaking test, you are given all the information you could want about what's in the exam, including key topics you should revise which is so vastly different to SOAS. The first part was on pronunciation so we were given a list of 10 sentences which had irregular pronunciations to read aloud. In part 2 they asked us around 10 questions and then gave us a grammar pattern to use in each answer. They only had to be one sentence answers using that grammar. Part 3 was an improvised role-play. Mine was a conversation at a post office asking for a package to be sent abroad. In part 4 the examiner asked us an open question and we had to give a reply of more than 5 sentences using as much grammar as possible. In the final section we were given a storyboard (which we had seen before) and we had to make a story based on the storyboard, again using as much grammar as possible. The overall grade for speaking was combined with our marks for the presentation and the weekly/bi-weekly role-plays in class
We actually got our grades back today and I got 90.6% so I'm over the moon! Now we're moving on to our second textbook so there's plenty more studying ahead unfortunately... but I'm glad I can relax for a few days and we have Wednesday off because it's Hangeul Day which is a national holiday
Hope everyone who's starting first year is having a good first few weeks!!Spoiler
OMG congratulations!! You really deserved such a good grade, I'm so happy for you <3
It sounds like you're having so many amazing experiences, but I hope you know that homesicknesses is totally normal. Even though I'm just a lil first-year and I'm still in the UK, I'm starting to get the same feeling now I've been away from home for a couple of weeks and it really can be quite hard - you can always message me if you wanted to chat to someone who's feeling a similar way, even if it is on a smaller scale x
Best of luck with the start of your next textbook!! I'm sure everything will go smoothly, and do keep us updated
Original post by mollypew013
OMG congratulations!! You really deserved such a good grade, I'm so happy for you <3
It sounds like you're having so many amazing experiences, but I hope you know that homesicknesses is totally normal. Even though I'm just a lil first-year and I'm still in the UK, I'm starting to get the same feeling now I've been away from home for a couple of weeks and it really can be quite hard - you can always message me if you wanted to chat to someone who's feeling a similar way, even if it is on a smaller scale x
Best of luck with the start of your next textbook!! I'm sure everything will go smoothly, and do keep us updated
It sounds like you're having so many amazing experiences, but I hope you know that homesicknesses is totally normal. Even though I'm just a lil first-year and I'm still in the UK, I'm starting to get the same feeling now I've been away from home for a couple of weeks and it really can be quite hard - you can always message me if you wanted to chat to someone who's feeling a similar way, even if it is on a smaller scale x
Best of luck with the start of your next textbook!! I'm sure everything will go smoothly, and do keep us updated
Thank you!! Luckily all the homesickness I've had so far has been very mild and brief so it's pretty easy to handle, thank you for the offer and you're of course welcome to message me any time too <3 There's only a few weeks left until reading week right? Honestly you'll probably go home and be desperate to get back to London after a few days, once I was used to my own routine in halls I absolutely hated living at home and having to work around everyone else's schedules haha even during summer it took me about 2 weeks to get back into the swing of things at home!
I totally understand and can relate when you think about how a year is long when you're away from home since that's my situation now being an International and seeing all my home friends being able to go home over the weekend whenever they feel they need to, but I'm sure before you know it the academic year is over and you'll be back in London! (and you will be wishing you can stay longer in Korea) Hope you will have a blast there!
The End of Semester One
I have absolutely no clue how first semester is already over. I’m pretty sure someone’s speeding up time because it’s unfair how quickly this year is going already. But I survived finals! And I finished the semester with a score of 92% which is an absolute dream come true. There’s so much that’s happened since I last wrote on here so I’ll just stick to the things that stick out most in my mind…
First of all, my homesickness has totally vanished thankfully. It only lasted a week or two and now I’m honestly dreading going back home since time is flying by so fast. A few SOAS people have gone home during the break but I couldn’t imagine doing the same, it feels much too early to be going back. I’m still not particularly looking forward to Christmas but now that the decorations are going up (and are absolutely stunning) and it’s suddenly turned wintery I’m getting more into the Christmas spirit, and I’ll most likely spend the day with some SOAS friends since they have their own apartment. Even though I won’t be with my family I think it’ll be quite special to spend it with friends here. I really feel like I’ve become more independent here, which is obviously a bit of a given since I physically can’t go home, but I realised that even in London I did end up calling my mum quite often and asking her random things I needed help with. I saw her pretty much weekly or fortnightly for lunch too, I do kind of miss that but being in a position where I can’t even call my parents for most hours of the day let alone meet up with them not only forces me to work things out on my own but makes me feel like so much more of my own person. It was scary at first but it’s satisfying to see the difference in myself.
The earliest thing that springs to mind is the trip we went on to Seoraksan. Almost everyone from our class hired a minibus and driver together and we took the bus over to the East coast (actually very near Gangneung which I’ve already visited) and then we hiked up Seoraksan! Well, not all the way, we just went to the waterfall there but it was absolutely breathtaking and quite the hike as it was. It’s been so lovely to do stuff with my class as I know a lot of other classes aren’t as tight-knit as ours is. It’s a shame that we’ll all have to restart with new classes in just 2 weeks! As for finals, they were on the 7th and 8th of November in almost an identical format to the mid-terms, so if you’re interested in what the structure was like then please look at my last post. My speaking exam was a bit of a mess in all honesty, my strong points were the opposite of my strong points in my mid terms and the improvised sections were way weaker in my finals. Luckily all the sections average out so it came out to a similar score. I did marginally worse in most of my exams (usually by 1 point or less) but I got full marks on my reading exam which really brought my grade up! Almost straight after finals I had to start packing because a little while back my friend and I booked a trip to Osaka in Japan, so from the 10th to the 15th we stayed in Osaka and visited Kyoto for two days. It was a crazy trip and to be honest a little disorientating. I think my brain thought I was moving again and it threw me totally off but after the first day or so I had so much fun and it was an awesome trip! The only downside was that it was EXPENSIVE. I didn’t know it was possible to spend that much in 5 days. But here we are, and my bank account is looking extremely sad.
On Monday I met up with a friend from class and did some shopping in Hongdae. I was desperate for some big fluffy jumpers since the temperature has dropped so much (there was a low of -5C just a few days ago) and managed to find some for super cheap in a little market sale. We had the best food, I tried Halal Guys for the first time and it was nice to know I could find that kind of food here if I wanted to, and we went to a cheesecake cafe opposite that literally had a mini rollercoaster sculpture-thing than ran through the cafe… Madness. After that I jumped on the subway and met my buddy group at Lotte World in Jamsil which is a small theme park with rollercoasters and rides and stuff like that. We were all absolutely freezing and going on super fast rollercoasters when the wind is ice cold is not the best idea. Neither is going on a log flume and getting totally soaked, but we got through it! And it was surprisingly cheap, I got a discount through my Korean bank so it was only W23,000 (approx. £15). Yesterday I met up with another friend who strangely enough I met through twitter after she saw me tweet about the typhoon months ago and had seen my tweets about getting into SNU so we’ve been friends since then! The world is so much smaller than I thought it was haha. We went on a bit of a trek to go to a cafe we’d seen all over Instagram and it was absolutely stunning. We chatted there for hours and ended up going back to Gangnam to get a snack and then headed home.
That’s everything of note that I can think of right now! Today I’ve done nothing interesting, just paid my dorm fee for staying over the winter break. The big things coming up are the SNU Buddy Fall farewell next week and the start of level 3 (again)… All very scary. I also may or may not be going on a trip with a Buddy friend to Jeonju but we’ll see whether that pans out or not.
Hope everyone’s doing well! And there must be another year of students applying to unis at the moment too, I feel so old. Good luck to all of you <3
I have absolutely no clue how first semester is already over. I’m pretty sure someone’s speeding up time because it’s unfair how quickly this year is going already. But I survived finals! And I finished the semester with a score of 92% which is an absolute dream come true. There’s so much that’s happened since I last wrote on here so I’ll just stick to the things that stick out most in my mind…
First of all, my homesickness has totally vanished thankfully. It only lasted a week or two and now I’m honestly dreading going back home since time is flying by so fast. A few SOAS people have gone home during the break but I couldn’t imagine doing the same, it feels much too early to be going back. I’m still not particularly looking forward to Christmas but now that the decorations are going up (and are absolutely stunning) and it’s suddenly turned wintery I’m getting more into the Christmas spirit, and I’ll most likely spend the day with some SOAS friends since they have their own apartment. Even though I won’t be with my family I think it’ll be quite special to spend it with friends here. I really feel like I’ve become more independent here, which is obviously a bit of a given since I physically can’t go home, but I realised that even in London I did end up calling my mum quite often and asking her random things I needed help with. I saw her pretty much weekly or fortnightly for lunch too, I do kind of miss that but being in a position where I can’t even call my parents for most hours of the day let alone meet up with them not only forces me to work things out on my own but makes me feel like so much more of my own person. It was scary at first but it’s satisfying to see the difference in myself.
The earliest thing that springs to mind is the trip we went on to Seoraksan. Almost everyone from our class hired a minibus and driver together and we took the bus over to the East coast (actually very near Gangneung which I’ve already visited) and then we hiked up Seoraksan! Well, not all the way, we just went to the waterfall there but it was absolutely breathtaking and quite the hike as it was. It’s been so lovely to do stuff with my class as I know a lot of other classes aren’t as tight-knit as ours is. It’s a shame that we’ll all have to restart with new classes in just 2 weeks! As for finals, they were on the 7th and 8th of November in almost an identical format to the mid-terms, so if you’re interested in what the structure was like then please look at my last post. My speaking exam was a bit of a mess in all honesty, my strong points were the opposite of my strong points in my mid terms and the improvised sections were way weaker in my finals. Luckily all the sections average out so it came out to a similar score. I did marginally worse in most of my exams (usually by 1 point or less) but I got full marks on my reading exam which really brought my grade up! Almost straight after finals I had to start packing because a little while back my friend and I booked a trip to Osaka in Japan, so from the 10th to the 15th we stayed in Osaka and visited Kyoto for two days. It was a crazy trip and to be honest a little disorientating. I think my brain thought I was moving again and it threw me totally off but after the first day or so I had so much fun and it was an awesome trip! The only downside was that it was EXPENSIVE. I didn’t know it was possible to spend that much in 5 days. But here we are, and my bank account is looking extremely sad.
On Monday I met up with a friend from class and did some shopping in Hongdae. I was desperate for some big fluffy jumpers since the temperature has dropped so much (there was a low of -5C just a few days ago) and managed to find some for super cheap in a little market sale. We had the best food, I tried Halal Guys for the first time and it was nice to know I could find that kind of food here if I wanted to, and we went to a cheesecake cafe opposite that literally had a mini rollercoaster sculpture-thing than ran through the cafe… Madness. After that I jumped on the subway and met my buddy group at Lotte World in Jamsil which is a small theme park with rollercoasters and rides and stuff like that. We were all absolutely freezing and going on super fast rollercoasters when the wind is ice cold is not the best idea. Neither is going on a log flume and getting totally soaked, but we got through it! And it was surprisingly cheap, I got a discount through my Korean bank so it was only W23,000 (approx. £15). Yesterday I met up with another friend who strangely enough I met through twitter after she saw me tweet about the typhoon months ago and had seen my tweets about getting into SNU so we’ve been friends since then! The world is so much smaller than I thought it was haha. We went on a bit of a trek to go to a cafe we’d seen all over Instagram and it was absolutely stunning. We chatted there for hours and ended up going back to Gangnam to get a snack and then headed home.
That’s everything of note that I can think of right now! Today I’ve done nothing interesting, just paid my dorm fee for staying over the winter break. The big things coming up are the SNU Buddy Fall farewell next week and the start of level 3 (again)… All very scary. I also may or may not be going on a trip with a Buddy friend to Jeonju but we’ll see whether that pans out or not.
Hope everyone’s doing well! And there must be another year of students applying to unis at the moment too, I feel so old. Good luck to all of you <3
Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by umbrellala
We went on a bit of a trek to go to a cafe we’d seen all over Instagram and it was absolutely stunning. We chatted there for hours and ended up going back to Gangnam to get a snack and then headed home.
Was it Cafe 239-20? I've seen that online looaads and really want to go there when I'm in Seoul. Looks beyond gorgeous.
Original post by Nebu72
Was it Cafe 239-20? I've seen that online looaads and really want to go there when I'm in Seoul. Looks beyond gorgeous.
No it was Smeltz! It's beautiful but I would imagine it's not as special during winter since the best thing about Smeltz is the view of the forest. Cafe 239-20 looks really cool too, definitely on my bucket list
Starting Level 3
How has it only been 2 weeks since my last post? Japan feels like it was years ago, and time is only going faster and faster.
The last week of the break was absolutely crazy, mostly because our buddy group put on a load of events so we could make the most of our last few times properly together. At the start of the week we rented a party room (which is maybe the coolest business idea ever - it’s basically a mini apartment you rent for one night solely for the purpose of parties) and drank and played games, ordered chicken and pizza, and took a load of photos together. A few days later, we saw Frozen 2 together and then went to a damotori which is like if a bar and a club had a baby… very difficult to explain but very fun. The day after that we had our final Thursday pub gathering and the day after that we had the farewell ceremony and then the pub again so it was a very boozy week. The farewell ceremony was so lovely, we were given photos from the photoshoot we’d done together the week prior and were given a shot glass with the SNU logo on the bottom. Throughout the ceremony people made speeches, there was a talent show, they showed us photos and videos of events throughout the year, and of course there were lots of goodbyes. Our lovely group leader was part of two performances where they danced to Kpop songs and it might be one of the cutest things I’ve ever watched haha we also gave him a parting gift and a cake and then went to celebrate! The end of that week felt like a weird dream, I was waking up at 3pm every day, leaving the dorms at 6pm and coming back home at 5am for three days straight so I was truly shattered by the end of it all.
On the last Sunday before semester started I met up with one of my good friends from SOAS who goes to Korea University and had a good catch-up. We were saying how glad we were that everyone from SOAS is doing so well in Korea and really thriving in the uni environment here. Everyone’s come out of their shells and grown so much and it’s lovely to see. There are quite a few Sheffield students at KU so it was interesting talking about the difference, too. Most Korean students in the UK have heard the rumour that Sheffield students are not as well treated as SOAS students, but I was surprised when she said it was true. Well, not that Sheffield students are badly treated but just that SOAS students are preferred over others. The Korean teachers’ reactions when a student says they’re from SOAS vs Sheffield are supposedly quite different. I’ve also noticed that SNU professors are impressed when I say I go to SOAS, and I think that’s because SOAS professors have done a lot of well-regarded research at SNU and KU so they have really strong connections here. Almost every Korean professor I’ve spoken to knows Yeon Seonsaegnim by name. She also told me that all but one Sheffield student was put in level 1 after the placement test so their teachers had to ask the university to move them which is a little confusing because I’d heard Sheffield’s speaking teaching was good… All in all it was a little sad to hear how Sheffield students aren’t as appreciated as SOAS students but it did confirm a lot of rumours I’d heard. It seems reputation really is everything here unfortunately.
On a brighter note, we had our first proper snow! It’s been crazy cold recently, this week it was -10C when I was walking to school so we’ve all been having to wrap up warm. The snow didn’t really settle but it was quite heavy and really beautiful to see. I also started level 3 which honestly isn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. I was terrified that I would have the same experience as I did at the start of last semester, but it’s been much better than I thought. More than anything, I think the structure of classes and the only-speaking-Korean thing is what’s hardest to get used to, so since I’m over that initial shock it’s much easier. That’s not to say the content is easy because it isn’t, but it’s nice to know what I’m doing a bit. Although my SOAS friends going into level 4 are not having so much of a smooth transition…
Hope everyone’s doing well and as always I’m here to answer any of your questions!
How has it only been 2 weeks since my last post? Japan feels like it was years ago, and time is only going faster and faster.
The last week of the break was absolutely crazy, mostly because our buddy group put on a load of events so we could make the most of our last few times properly together. At the start of the week we rented a party room (which is maybe the coolest business idea ever - it’s basically a mini apartment you rent for one night solely for the purpose of parties) and drank and played games, ordered chicken and pizza, and took a load of photos together. A few days later, we saw Frozen 2 together and then went to a damotori which is like if a bar and a club had a baby… very difficult to explain but very fun. The day after that we had our final Thursday pub gathering and the day after that we had the farewell ceremony and then the pub again so it was a very boozy week. The farewell ceremony was so lovely, we were given photos from the photoshoot we’d done together the week prior and were given a shot glass with the SNU logo on the bottom. Throughout the ceremony people made speeches, there was a talent show, they showed us photos and videos of events throughout the year, and of course there were lots of goodbyes. Our lovely group leader was part of two performances where they danced to Kpop songs and it might be one of the cutest things I’ve ever watched haha we also gave him a parting gift and a cake and then went to celebrate! The end of that week felt like a weird dream, I was waking up at 3pm every day, leaving the dorms at 6pm and coming back home at 5am for three days straight so I was truly shattered by the end of it all.
On the last Sunday before semester started I met up with one of my good friends from SOAS who goes to Korea University and had a good catch-up. We were saying how glad we were that everyone from SOAS is doing so well in Korea and really thriving in the uni environment here. Everyone’s come out of their shells and grown so much and it’s lovely to see. There are quite a few Sheffield students at KU so it was interesting talking about the difference, too. Most Korean students in the UK have heard the rumour that Sheffield students are not as well treated as SOAS students, but I was surprised when she said it was true. Well, not that Sheffield students are badly treated but just that SOAS students are preferred over others. The Korean teachers’ reactions when a student says they’re from SOAS vs Sheffield are supposedly quite different. I’ve also noticed that SNU professors are impressed when I say I go to SOAS, and I think that’s because SOAS professors have done a lot of well-regarded research at SNU and KU so they have really strong connections here. Almost every Korean professor I’ve spoken to knows Yeon Seonsaegnim by name. She also told me that all but one Sheffield student was put in level 1 after the placement test so their teachers had to ask the university to move them which is a little confusing because I’d heard Sheffield’s speaking teaching was good… All in all it was a little sad to hear how Sheffield students aren’t as appreciated as SOAS students but it did confirm a lot of rumours I’d heard. It seems reputation really is everything here unfortunately.
On a brighter note, we had our first proper snow! It’s been crazy cold recently, this week it was -10C when I was walking to school so we’ve all been having to wrap up warm. The snow didn’t really settle but it was quite heavy and really beautiful to see. I also started level 3 which honestly isn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. I was terrified that I would have the same experience as I did at the start of last semester, but it’s been much better than I thought. More than anything, I think the structure of classes and the only-speaking-Korean thing is what’s hardest to get used to, so since I’m over that initial shock it’s much easier. That’s not to say the content is easy because it isn’t, but it’s nice to know what I’m doing a bit. Although my SOAS friends going into level 4 are not having so much of a smooth transition…
Hope everyone’s doing well and as always I’m here to answer any of your questions!
Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by nabilahhh
Hi,
I hope you’re enjoying studying korean and korea. What is your favourite streetfood/meal and do you think korea is expensive compared to where you can’t from?
I hope you’re enjoying studying korean and korea. What is your favourite streetfood/meal and do you think korea is expensive compared to where you can’t from?
I am thank you! My favourite street food is probably 호떡 (hotteok) and my favourite meal is 닭갈비 (dakgalbi) especially with lots of cheese and 김말이튀김 (gimmari). I would say it's cheaper simply due to the fact that dormitories have very low rent, but living costs are about the same. That's because my lifestyle is very different than it is back home. Each individual thing is for the most part less expensive but I spend money much more often here because I'm out and about socialising and exploring in the city several times a week so it's more difficult to budget and easier to spend without thinking about it
Halfway point
Hello!! It's been a while so I apologise but we're now coming up to the halfway point of my time in Korea - how terrifying is that?? It's been just over 5 months since I came here. I plan to head home early July so that's pretty much slap bang in the middle of my year abroad. Not sure quite how I feel about that but here we are.
Midterms happened, the structure was slightly different from level 2, making it much more improvised but the skeleton of the test was the same so I'm not going to go into detail and bore you all to death. However, I thought it might be useful to show some of the content from the exam. In one section you're given 3 topics, 2 of which you have to prepare 2 minute (15 sentence) presentations on and you will be randomly given a topic out of the 2 you prepared for. Since it's not the actual answers to the exam questions I feel like it's alright to share. Bear in mind I've purposely tried to keep these presentations pretty simple so they're easy to memorise, it's definitely not my best work composition-wise but it does use some of the main grammar and gets the job done. I've written them up here with translations if you're curious. If it's helpful I can upload the presentations I prepared for level 2 for comparison later on.
Since my last post, life has been crazy. The pace and workload of level 3 is quite hectic, in fact the other SOAS people in level 4 at SNU say level 3 has been the hardest so far. The content is much more nuanced, complicated, and full of very specific rules and it's a challenge to get your head around sometimes. It's not unmanageable but it's definitely difficult. Since SNU Buddy ended in November (if I remember rightly? or early December), I've been so beyond thankful for the time it's freed up as I'm struggling to keep up a good social life without the extra events. I don't think I'd be able to handle it if all that stuff was going on too. At the same time, it's been a shock going from having quite a big group of friends and always having things to do to having to scale back a lot on the social part of my life and having all of my buddy friends go home. I've also discovered I'm more of a social butterfly than I thought I was and spending all my time with one person (no matter how much I love them) does drive me round the bend a bit. I've had to focus a lot more on my mental health and try to find ways to keep myself grounded, especially since some difficult things have been going on at home so there's been a lot to juggle.
I have in fact decided to visit home in February! I didn't plan to go home at all during the year, but after I spoke to a few friends who had studied abroad before they said that February-time is always difficult because you've already missed the Christmas season, it's dark in the evenings, the weather is pretty grim and the amount of time you've been away from home starts to properly hit you. And now that it's coming round to Feb I can totally see what they were saying. One of my closest friends at home also unfortunately became very sick over New Years, now I'm very glad I booked my flights so I can visit her in hospital. I've packed the two weeks full of visiting friends and family and I plan to spend a day or two enjoying London which I'm looking forward to. If I don't keep myself busy I think I'll struggle being away from the busyness of life here in Seoul which is why I plan to do so much! And I'm planning to be quite strict on myself language-wise. Even when we went to Japan I felt myself regressing so I'm planning to force myself to only listen to Korean music, podcasts, and watch only Korean TV and YouTube. That should be enough to keep me ticking over. I'll be doing a LOT of driving too, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to immerse myself for a couple of hours at a time.
Oh also I signed up for Hanja class (which is the Chinese characters a lot of Korean vocabulary derives from). It cost I think around 80-100,000W for 8 weeks, we have 1hr classes twice a week and get through 12 characters a lesson so it's fast-paced for sure. It's been super useful so far and although having another set of midterms and finals is stressful I think it's been worth it.
I've got a very hectic few weeks coming up in the run-up to finals in 3 weeks time - a presentation, two writing assessments, my hanja finals, two role-play assessments... There's been loads more that's happened but I'll have to leave it here and get back to you all in Feb! Hopefully everyone who's applied for SOAS has had their offers by now, I know they've been particularly slow this year. Congrats to everyone who got their offers and keep an eye on the SOAS website for when the Insight Day applications open!
Hello!! It's been a while so I apologise but we're now coming up to the halfway point of my time in Korea - how terrifying is that?? It's been just over 5 months since I came here. I plan to head home early July so that's pretty much slap bang in the middle of my year abroad. Not sure quite how I feel about that but here we are.
Midterms happened, the structure was slightly different from level 2, making it much more improvised but the skeleton of the test was the same so I'm not going to go into detail and bore you all to death. However, I thought it might be useful to show some of the content from the exam. In one section you're given 3 topics, 2 of which you have to prepare 2 minute (15 sentence) presentations on and you will be randomly given a topic out of the 2 you prepared for. Since it's not the actual answers to the exam questions I feel like it's alright to share. Bear in mind I've purposely tried to keep these presentations pretty simple so they're easy to memorise, it's definitely not my best work composition-wise but it does use some of the main grammar and gets the job done. I've written them up here with translations if you're curious. If it's helpful I can upload the presentations I prepared for level 2 for comparison later on.
Since my last post, life has been crazy. The pace and workload of level 3 is quite hectic, in fact the other SOAS people in level 4 at SNU say level 3 has been the hardest so far. The content is much more nuanced, complicated, and full of very specific rules and it's a challenge to get your head around sometimes. It's not unmanageable but it's definitely difficult. Since SNU Buddy ended in November (if I remember rightly? or early December), I've been so beyond thankful for the time it's freed up as I'm struggling to keep up a good social life without the extra events. I don't think I'd be able to handle it if all that stuff was going on too. At the same time, it's been a shock going from having quite a big group of friends and always having things to do to having to scale back a lot on the social part of my life and having all of my buddy friends go home. I've also discovered I'm more of a social butterfly than I thought I was and spending all my time with one person (no matter how much I love them) does drive me round the bend a bit. I've had to focus a lot more on my mental health and try to find ways to keep myself grounded, especially since some difficult things have been going on at home so there's been a lot to juggle.
I have in fact decided to visit home in February! I didn't plan to go home at all during the year, but after I spoke to a few friends who had studied abroad before they said that February-time is always difficult because you've already missed the Christmas season, it's dark in the evenings, the weather is pretty grim and the amount of time you've been away from home starts to properly hit you. And now that it's coming round to Feb I can totally see what they were saying. One of my closest friends at home also unfortunately became very sick over New Years, now I'm very glad I booked my flights so I can visit her in hospital. I've packed the two weeks full of visiting friends and family and I plan to spend a day or two enjoying London which I'm looking forward to. If I don't keep myself busy I think I'll struggle being away from the busyness of life here in Seoul which is why I plan to do so much! And I'm planning to be quite strict on myself language-wise. Even when we went to Japan I felt myself regressing so I'm planning to force myself to only listen to Korean music, podcasts, and watch only Korean TV and YouTube. That should be enough to keep me ticking over. I'll be doing a LOT of driving too, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to immerse myself for a couple of hours at a time.
Oh also I signed up for Hanja class (which is the Chinese characters a lot of Korean vocabulary derives from). It cost I think around 80-100,000W for 8 weeks, we have 1hr classes twice a week and get through 12 characters a lesson so it's fast-paced for sure. It's been super useful so far and although having another set of midterms and finals is stressful I think it's been worth it.
I've got a very hectic few weeks coming up in the run-up to finals in 3 weeks time - a presentation, two writing assessments, my hanja finals, two role-play assessments... There's been loads more that's happened but I'll have to leave it here and get back to you all in Feb! Hopefully everyone who's applied for SOAS has had their offers by now, I know they've been particularly slow this year. Congrats to everyone who got their offers and keep an eye on the SOAS website for when the Insight Day applications open!
Spoiler
(edited 4 years ago)
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