Korean Studies w/ Japanese at Sheffield Uni 2017/2018

Hi!! I'll be coming to Sheffield just for Korean Studies, dont think i'd be able to handle dual honours omg

Hi,
Although I'm applying for 2018 entry to Universities, Two of my five choices are (so far) planned for the University of Sheffield both Korean studies and Korean with Japanese.
I'm applying or at least planning to apply for both as i'm not sure if i'll be able to cope with doing two languages at once or not and so I have given myself a choice

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what made them definitely choose to study these courses at Sheffield and what sort of careers they would expect to come out of this degree.

Overall, i'm still totally undecided as to where to actually go for Uni and what degree to pursue. Any advice would be great.

Thanks,

Hey! Those two were also in my five choices when I was applyung Of course, so far I can't speak for the course difficulty itself since I'm only going to study it starting from September, but I suppose it depends on the amount of effort you're willing to put into independent study and how well you can study languages.

I've only heard good things about the Korean courses at Sheffield, I loved the city when I went to visit, as well as felt like it was the right place for me when I went on the open days. It's for sure worth going to an open day if you have the chance, speak to the students and lecturers there, as it did help me personally decide if it was the right course for me. Going and seeing it for yourself will for sure help in making a decision

As for careers, who knows really! There's still a long time before I have to officially decide on one, but as for now I don't have one particular thing in mind. Translating, teaching maybe? I'd love to use the knowledge from my degree in media though, one way or another. But it just comes down to the opportunities available when I'm done with the degree It's another thing that would be worth asking about at an open day I'd say!

Hey there,
I'm about to go into my final year of EAS, but I did 2 1/2 years of Korean Studies before I switched. You honestly don't need to worry about which degree you choose as SEAS is quite flexible when it comes to changing your degree. For example, if you start off doing Korean with Japanese but find it too much you can drop Japanese within the first 3weeks, else you can drop it the next semester. Same for if you're doing straight Korean and find that too much you can just drop the language and do EAS like I did.
If you have any questions feel free to ask

Hi,
If you did 2 and a half years of Korean studies. What was the second year abroad like? What university did you study at and how was the experience in general? Although I look forward to the idea of the second year im also quite worried about it because I'm not sure if I'll be fluent enough or confident enough.
Thanks

The year abroad was amazing. I went to Sungkyunkwan University and the quality of teaching and support there was top notch. The experience, in general, can be emotionally draining to be quite honest with you. Whilst you're studying it's hard to make Korean friends as you just don't have much time outside of classes, and your classmates are predominantly Chinese, but even when you do manage to make friends, most Koreans tend to make their studies their top priority, so when they have spare time to see their friends, a foreigner who is leaving in x-number of months isn't exactly their top priority. I'm personally a bit of a loner anyway, so this didn't really get to me until the last few months, but if you're someone who needs regular social interaction then you really need to put yourself out there and meet as many people as possible.

As far as fluency and confidence goes, tbqh, when you first arrive, no matter how well you studied in first year, you're going to feel like you know nothing again. However, if you make sure to talk to native Koreans and practice your language a lot you will improve. Obviously that takes the confidence to make mistakes, but confidence is something no one but you can help yourself with really.

At the Korean university, do they speak some English in lessons like to explain words or phrases you don't understand or is it all totally in Korean. Also can you explain a bit (if you can) about the support that's in place when you studied abroad and what your lessons were like.
Thanks, I'm very curious about this course and want to know as much as I can before making my decisions to apply. At the moment this course is the top course out of my choices that I want to apply for.

The students at the Korean university are from a variety of countries, and the teachers can't take the time to learn and explain in every language. If you're REALLY stuck, you may get lucky and have a teacher or classmate that can explain in English, but this obviously isn't guaranteed.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'support' in this context? If you needed help there was an office for exchange students that you could go to, but I found that even there there was room for misunderstandings as the English wasn't perfect.

The lessons at SKKU were from 9-3/4 (depends how long of a lunch break they give you). The teachers speak entirely in Korean, but they do a lot of powerpoint presentations, draw pictures, and act vocabulary out in order to help you understand. Twice I had teachers that were moderately fluent in English, but they try not to let on as they want you to immerse yourself as much as possible. Sometimes you had different teachers for different classes (speaking, listening, reading & writing, vocab & expressions and... I forget the last one), usually between 2-4 different teachers depending on how many students are in your level for that semester. The levels range from 1-6 (easiest-hardest) and you're expected to enter at level 2 or 3, with many choosing to start at 2 even if they get into 3 as it allows you more time to familiarise yourself with the language and lesson structure before you need to actively learn new things. The teachers are amazing at tailoring their language to the level that they're teaching, often only using a grammar point after it's been taught so that their vocabulary grows at the same rate that yours does.