Even though I hate it, I'm getting to realize that I'm in Finland, back to my old life. I'm still every day re-living my awesome experience in Korea, my friends are probably getting really tired and angry when I'm always saying how much I miss Korea and how wonderful place (and cheap) it is :) Since this blog is replacing my exchange report, here are few tips for a future exchange student preparing to leave for Korea:
As a Finnish student you only need to apply for a single-entry visa even though you want to travel abroad during your stay in Korea. As long as you take care of the alien registration you can leave and enter the country for as long as the registration card is valid. However, I recommend you to check this fact from the embassy in case something changes. And yea, it takes time for the visa application to go through so do it right away when you get acceptance letter from Keimyung.
Last fall was exceptionally tricky with North Korea, but don't let it affect your decision. The two Koreas brawl from time to time, but international press exaggerates the situation a lot. In reality you couldn't tell that anything had happened. Koreans lived their lives and weren't too worried about the situation.
It takes more time to get things in order so be patient with taking care of small but vital things (bank, internet, cell). Because you're not in Finland :) Things tend to be a bit trickier and Koreans really don't bend the rules for any reasons.
This might be the most vital thing if you're going to Keimyung and are living in the dorm: Don't let the curfew get to you. It really sucks, but make friends with your floor leader and I'll guarantee that you'll be able to have fun :) And even if they threaten you with getting kicked out from the dorm, it's not possible ;) And when it comes to choosing the dorm, go with the International Learning & Residence Hall. I heard disgusting stuff about Keli House..
If you want to make your life in Korea a little bit easier, take the Korean language class even if you really don't want to..
Keep an open mind with food. And if you can't handle spicy food and don't eat meat you're in the wrong place. And it's worth playing Russian Roulette at least once with the food :)
Network as much as you can with Koreans. They know the most original places to go out, the best dishes and you'll get to know much more about Korea than just hanging out with other exchange students.
And finally: don't go to Korea if you only wanna study. Korea is really beautiful and it would be shame not to travel to different areas. And also, it's easy and relatively cheap to visit other Asian countries..
Even though it's a cliche: Exchange was the best time in my life with it's ups and downs. It's the best opportunity to live abroad, because it might not be possible after entering work life. Even though you might feel a sting for leaving Skinnarila or other tight student community, just go! I can almost guarantee, that if it's up to you: it's gonna be LEGEN.. wait for it.. DARY!
H
Friday 21 January 2011
Straight A's :)
Today I wen't to get my transcriptions from the International Office at LUT. Finished all my classes with A's :) Now the only thing left is to request my Korean classes to be accepted to my Finnish degree. This might be a whole lot easier if I'd gotten any syllabus for the classes in Korea, oops :).
Because I had basically completed my studies in Finland when I left for exchange, I didn't overload myself and only took classes that seemed appealing. In this text I'm going to focus on the classes I took.
Korean Language Practice:
Like the title, this class was meant for beginners in learning the Korean language. Course started with learning the Korean alphabet hangul which proved to be much easier than I thought. Our lovely young teacher took us through the basics from introducing one self to giving directions. At the end of semester I was able to do my shopping without difficulties and knew how to order basic dishes in restaurants. We had also a lot of fun in the class: one morning we made kimbap for breakfast. Our teacher Ji Young Kim proved to be teacher I liked best. Korean Language Practice was considered one of the obligatory classes for exchange students.
Introduction to Korean Culture:
This one was also considered one of the obligatory classes. You had to pick either class about culture or history. Since I really don't like history I chose culture which still proved to be all about history and nothing about contemporary Korea. And it was a huge disappointment!!! Professor Finch (englishman married to a korean) took us through Korean history, religion, literature, poetry, the Korean traditional singing art Pansori and ceramics. We had two lectures per week: first one was a traditional lecture with Finch introducing week's theme to us and the other lecture was discussion about our home reading. We also had to write two essays about our visits to a historical place in Korea and museum. This was the trickiest task for me :) Even though I defied Finch and modified the essays to a theme that was more appealing to me, I got good scores. And of course, Korean style, we had mid-term and final exams.
International Management:
This was the only business course I took. Classes were about FDI and it's different theories and applications. Depending on the week, we had one or two lectures and the traditional mid- term and final exams. We also wrote an independent assignment about self chosen topic in the field of international competitiveness, basically it could have been about anything :) How ever, because being a finn, I was asked to write my assignment about Finland's national innovation system and Finnish competitiveness. The professor was all about Finland and in the end it started to be a bit tiring, he also asked if he could use my assignment in his own research about Finland's competitiveness :( And, if u have hard time with accents in pronouciating English, don't take this class :D
Cross-Cultural Communication:
The easiest class ever: The only task for foreigners was to show up in class and participate in discussion and help Koreans to prepare theis presentations about their home countries :) Korean students prepared presentations on various topics concerning contemporary Korean culture and the cultures of different nationalities that were represented in the class.
And finally my favourite... TAE-KWON-DO:
Like I probably mentioned earlier one of the reasons I chose Korea was Taekwondo. I tried to enroll in a Sparring class but since they didn't have found an instructor for the class I ended up to the same class with other exchange students. This was a class for total beginners and my friends were graduated from white belts to blue belts. Since I couldn't take part in classes of my own level, I was allowed to train higher level stuff with cute Korean black belted boys at the same time others were training basics. The grandmaster Lee Kyu Hyung was really inspiring and I'm so glad I got to learn right at the source of Taekwondo :)
And a little tip for students who wanna do as much studies in their own study field and wouldn't have time to take the "obligatory classes": there were few people who were able to skip these obligatory classes, if they didn't want to take them, all thanks to Chris Lee at the International Office :)
And BTW.. studying in Korea was a whole lot easier than in Finland, so I got to be stress-free for whole semester :)
Because I had basically completed my studies in Finland when I left for exchange, I didn't overload myself and only took classes that seemed appealing. In this text I'm going to focus on the classes I took.
Korean Language Practice:
Like the title, this class was meant for beginners in learning the Korean language. Course started with learning the Korean alphabet hangul which proved to be much easier than I thought. Our lovely young teacher took us through the basics from introducing one self to giving directions. At the end of semester I was able to do my shopping without difficulties and knew how to order basic dishes in restaurants. We had also a lot of fun in the class: one morning we made kimbap for breakfast. Our teacher Ji Young Kim proved to be teacher I liked best. Korean Language Practice was considered one of the obligatory classes for exchange students.
Introduction to Korean Culture:
This one was also considered one of the obligatory classes. You had to pick either class about culture or history. Since I really don't like history I chose culture which still proved to be all about history and nothing about contemporary Korea. And it was a huge disappointment!!! Professor Finch (englishman married to a korean) took us through Korean history, religion, literature, poetry, the Korean traditional singing art Pansori and ceramics. We had two lectures per week: first one was a traditional lecture with Finch introducing week's theme to us and the other lecture was discussion about our home reading. We also had to write two essays about our visits to a historical place in Korea and museum. This was the trickiest task for me :) Even though I defied Finch and modified the essays to a theme that was more appealing to me, I got good scores. And of course, Korean style, we had mid-term and final exams.
International Management:
This was the only business course I took. Classes were about FDI and it's different theories and applications. Depending on the week, we had one or two lectures and the traditional mid- term and final exams. We also wrote an independent assignment about self chosen topic in the field of international competitiveness, basically it could have been about anything :) How ever, because being a finn, I was asked to write my assignment about Finland's national innovation system and Finnish competitiveness. The professor was all about Finland and in the end it started to be a bit tiring, he also asked if he could use my assignment in his own research about Finland's competitiveness :( And, if u have hard time with accents in pronouciating English, don't take this class :D
Cross-Cultural Communication:
The easiest class ever: The only task for foreigners was to show up in class and participate in discussion and help Koreans to prepare theis presentations about their home countries :) Korean students prepared presentations on various topics concerning contemporary Korean culture and the cultures of different nationalities that were represented in the class.
And finally my favourite... TAE-KWON-DO:
Like I probably mentioned earlier one of the reasons I chose Korea was Taekwondo. I tried to enroll in a Sparring class but since they didn't have found an instructor for the class I ended up to the same class with other exchange students. This was a class for total beginners and my friends were graduated from white belts to blue belts. Since I couldn't take part in classes of my own level, I was allowed to train higher level stuff with cute Korean black belted boys at the same time others were training basics. The grandmaster Lee Kyu Hyung was really inspiring and I'm so glad I got to learn right at the source of Taekwondo :)
And a little tip for students who wanna do as much studies in their own study field and wouldn't have time to take the "obligatory classes": there were few people who were able to skip these obligatory classes, if they didn't want to take them, all thanks to Chris Lee at the International Office :)
And BTW.. studying in Korea was a whole lot easier than in Finland, so I got to be stress-free for whole semester :)
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