As such, there have been certain questions that I've gotten a lot since I've come home, so I thought that I would answer those here and write a bit more about university life in Seoul (from the exchange student perspective).
-Q: Were your classes in English or Korean?
A: My classes were entirely in English. Unless you count my Korean language class. Then, no. Although even that class was taught in English.
-Q: Did you make a lot of friends with your classmates?
A: Yes and no. While I made a lot of friends with other foreign students, I didn't make many Korean friends from my classes. It's partially a cultural thing and partly just general disinterest in a foreigner who is not white/black/hispanic/etc.
What I mean by cultural is that I noticed a specific attitude towards new people in these classes. Students didn't talk to students they didn't know. I'm used to the American thing where you can casually start talking to the person next to you (assuming they have no headphones in) and sooner or later become their friend. In Korea, it's different. Most people won't talk to strangers outside of the staff in a store or someone like that. In the classroom and in general, you wait to be introduced to someone before you talk to them. If a student in the class didn't know anyone in there, they wouldn't talk to anyone. They'd just stare into their phone until class started, and sometimes even after class started. I could continue talking about this cultural thing, but to keep this post from being 50 pages long, I'll stop here. I may continue this explanation later, though.
-Q: Were the classes different than classes at home?
A: Yes, for the most part. Of course their classes also consist of a professor giving a lecture, but their grading system is pretty drastically different from the US. For 4/5 of my classes, I only had one assignment: a group project. I also had usually two exams. That means your entire class grade is dependent upon two exams and one group project that is group graded, not individually graded. No pressure at all. Their grade system is generally based on either pass/fail or class ranking.
In a way it was nice to have no homework assignments. I mean, I had more free time than I knew what to do with most days (aka I ate a lot of food to fight boredom). However, it's rather intimidating to walk into an exam knowing that pretty much your entire class grade depends on this grade. Despite that, I survived and did better than I have in certain semesters at home. There must be something in the Seoul air.
-Q: Where did you stay while you were there?
A: I stayed in the CAU dormitory during the semester, and I stayed in a guesthouse afterwards.
-Q: What did you do for fun in your free time?
A: I ate. A lot. And pet a lot of cats. See my cat cafe post for more info on that. Living on campus definitely gave me a much more interesting social life than I was used to. I was able to knock on my friend's door who lived down the hall and ask if she wanted to go eat something together or go explore some place together. My roommate and I made a few 1AM runs to the McDonalds that was at the entrance of the dormitory.
I spent a lot of time just walking around. I saw a couple movies, sat in a few cafes, shopped at a few stores, but I spent a lot of time walking around. It is Seoul after all. When you live/travel in Seoul, you spend a lot of your time walking. Unless you're lucky enough to have a car and unlucky enough to have to sit through traffic, you're riding the subways, taking taxis, but mostly walking. It's just a given. But, walking has its perks. You get to see more of the city and more of the areas you're exploring. Plus, you gain good muscle in your legs. Win-win.
-Q: Was it hard living somewhere you didn't speak the language?
A: Yes and no? It's definitely hard being in an environment where you can't properly communicate. It can definitely be isolating at times when everyone around you is happily conversing, and you're sitting there wondering what in the world is going on. I spent a lot of time staring over people's heads waiting for someone to either say something in English or speak slowly enough in Korean that I could pick out what they were saying. At the same time, it's kind of a challenge to study harder and learn as much of the language as you can.
I would also say no because as much as it is isolating, it's also freeing. As a naturally introverted person, it was kind of nice to be in an atmosphere where I could just think. I couldn't understand what people were saying, so I could easily tune out the noise. It was like being alone in a room full of people, except in a good way.
-Q: How much Korean did you actually learn while you were there?
A: Well, to be honest, the Korean class I took was probably a bit too easy, but it was a beginner class that included people who couldn't read the Korean alphabet. Prior to leaving for Seoul, I could already read/write and speak a few words, so the first couple of weeks of class were wasted time for me. However, as the semester progressed, it was nice to learn the actual grammar rules I'd never been taught or been able to find good resources online for.
Overall, I would say that I during those 6 months I probably over doubled what I knew when I first landed in Seoul. It really is true that the fastest way to learn a language is immersion because you're forced to use the language to communicate. I know some people who got by in Korea only speaking English, but I would say that it really defeats the purpose of even going if you're not going to at least try to learn a bit of the language.
-Q: Would you ever want to live/move there?
A: When I was there, I would've told you no. I would've told you that I would like to visit again someday, but I would've firmly stated that, no, I would not live there. Now that I'm back at home, my answer is a little different. I can still firmly say that I wouldn't live there permanently. However, the idea of living there for a year or two is becoming more and more appealing. Possibly due to the fact that so many people I know are moving there or intend to move there in the next few years. Possibly because I'm restless for travel now that I'm back at home.
-Q: Did you meet any guys there?/So, are you dating anyone now?/Do you want to date a Korean guy?
A: Yes. I did, in fact meet guys. But no, I am not dating any of them. It's a very common thing for people to romanticize studying abroad. It seems like the perfect young adult novel: college girl goes off to some exotic place and meets some local guy and falls in love. However, while, yes, many of my friends met guys/girls and are now (hopefully) happily in relationships, that was not the case for me. I merely came home with a new plethora of friends, and I couldn't be happier for it, single or not.
-Q: What was your favorite food in Korea?
A: Hands down, dakgalbi. It's a dish consisting of rice cakes, chicken, cabbage, and a red (usually hot) paste-sauce. Sometimes it has other vegetables thrown in, but those are the base ingredients. It's best topped with a generous portion of cheese. Here's a photo so you can visually enjoy it.
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| Look at that....(This is before the cheese is melted) |
This post covers most of the questions that I've been asked a lot, but if there are other questions you have, I'll be happy to answer them! Just leave me comments (Facebook, this post, etc) or message me (either e-mail or Facebook). It's definitely much easier for me to write out my answers than stand there on the spot and explain because I feel like I won't be able to give an answer that fully encapsulates everything that happened or everything that I experienced.
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