Seoul National University

Transcription

1 Seoul National University Travel Report Spring 2015 Student ID:

2 Seoul National University (SNU) is located in the southern Seoul by Gwanaksan Mountain, and is one of the three current partner universities alongside Yonsei University and Korea University. It is the leading university of Korea and one of the top ranked in Asia. I studied at SNU during the spring semester In this travel report will summarize my experiences regarding the preexchange preparations and the studies themselves. I will also write about free time opportunities and other information I consider useful. I hope the report helps those, who are either already accepted or considering an exchange at SNU or another Korean university. My experience was overall very positive. Preparing for the Exchange After receiving the notification of acceptance to the exchange program, it is good to start thinking about the preparations early. I had done a similar exchange as a part of my Bachelor s degree at a Canadian university, but I felt that the process of finalizing everything for SNU required slightly more effort. After the acceptance from the side of Aalto, the students are required to go through an application process directly to the host university according to the instructions given from SNU through Aalto International Student Services. Still, the acceptance from Aalto already means that the requirements are filled and if you complete everything following these instructions, the application is something that is neither difficult nor really time consuming. Application Form and the Recommendation Letters The first from SNU arrived September 23 rd. The included the instructions for application with the required documents being: filled application form, certificate of enrollment, official university transcript, two letters of recommendation from professors, a statement of purpose (small essay), copy of passport, and a picture to be attached to the application form. Out of these the two recommendation letters are the ones that require the most effort. I recommend that you start contacting the professors early so you know who to go to talk to, when the time is right. I was personally a bit worried about the recommendation letters at first, but getting them ended up being relatively simple. You can always ask your B.Sc. thesis instructor or the professors from the courses you have attended. Even if you do not have the closest relationship with your professors, you should not be worried. You can visit their office hours and ask, and most likely they are happy to help.

3 The deadline of application was 20 th of October, which left one month to put everything in order. The recommendation letters were to be mailed through traditional postal service, but otherwise the application process was supposed to be electronic. This time there were some technical difficulties, which meant that I ended up sending everything through old-fashioned mail. It is important to take this possibility into account and also the fact that the mail from Finland to Korea may take some time to arrive. Earlier you have things finished, the better. Housing I personally chose the campus housing from the graduate dormitories. The application process for the dormitory rooms started from December 8 th. I have heard both that the process works as first come first serve basis as well as this not being the case. If you want dormitory housing, you should just in case be up and awake at 10am Korean time (3am or 4am Finnish time depending on DST) on the application day. Everything happens online. If something does not work, try capitalizing the letters. The results were given on December 22 nd and the documentation submission and payment period was from January 5 th to 14 th. During this time the dormitory office required a copy of passport, medical certificate (from within 3 months) and measles vaccination report to be arrived. Note that the mailing and the payment may take some time during the Christmas holidays for example, so it is good to have things ready a bit earlier. The medical report requires chest x-ray proving that you do not have tuberculosis. Some difficulties were caused by the measles vaccination report, because the doctors and hospitals were reluctant to provide a stamped and signed document for a vaccination they had not personally given when I was a baby. Eventually I managed to get some kind of a document, which while not perfect, was sufficient. The good thing about dormitory housing is that it is cheap - around 230,000 or 200 per month for a shared room. In addition to the shared room, there is a possibility to get a private room for a bit higher price, but getting one is a bit more uncertain. It is not possible to apply for both types of rooms at the same time. The campus housing is also located at a walking distance from the classrooms, which is convenient. Unlike many Korean universities, there is no curfew and you may come in and out as you please. Entry of visitors is restricted, though. The other option of living outside of campus is more expensive, but the housing that the business school can help you get is located very close to campus and is not really a problem in this sense. Non-campus housing is

4 overall a bit less strict and provides more privacy. I think living outside of campus would have been better, but there are many, who I am sure would disagree. Visa Application I received the official acceptance letter after the Christmas holidays. After this it is important to start the visa application. Application happens through the Korean embassy in Finland. Their website has all the necessary information related to the documents. If you start the process at this point, you should be finished by the end of January, if you are applying for the spring semester. Some of the documents you can ask from the International Student Services. The documents proving personal finance for the stay can be done by providing the documents showing the student allowance and debt opportunities from Kela after doing the announcement of your move-out. You can also submit a transcript of your bank account showing you have balance. Note that if you want it in English you may need to order it separately, which could take some days. Everything should be official, signed (and stamped). After delivering the documents to the embassy it takes 1-2 weeks to receive the visa, which you can go and pick-up, but I have heard it is also possible to be mailed. Make sure that you have enough time on your student visa to stay in Korea for the time you want, possibly even after the semester is over. Alien Registration Card After arriving to Korea, you are required to complete the process of applying and receiving Alien Registration card from the immigration offices within 90 days of arrival. As far as I have understood, the time on the visa starts running from this issuance. Useful tip: make the visit well before the immigration office opens so you can pick up your queue number in advance and actually do not need to wait a long time. At least certificate of enrollment from SNU, passport, passport copy, passport pictures and cash were required for the application. They do have the opportunity to take pictures for fee at the immigration office, there is an ATM to make the payment, and they took the copy from my passport, when I submitted the application. Overall the whole process of preparing for the exchange semester may seem very official, and some documents may be difficult to acquire the way you want them. Still, even though I did not have everything perfectly stamped, there were no problems. Due to the issuance of the visa lasting a bit, I

5 would not buy plain tickets for earlier than late January, if you go for the spring semester. Remember to also submit the Learning Agreement and the course selections to Aalto before the exchange. Exchange Studies The semester in Korea started right in the beginning of March, and lasted until the middle of June. The studies may or may not be causing a lot of work depending on the courses you choose. The graduate level courses can be significantly more demanding in terms of workload than the undergraduate level courses. This should be kept in mind, because as a graduate student it is also possible to choose undergraduate courses. On the other hand, the graduate courses can be more interesting and rewarding. Relevant courses can be found from College of Business Administration (CBA) and Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS). Maximum of 6ECTS credits out of 24ECTS credits were possible to have as language or culture studies. One course is commonly 3 credits, which transfers to 6ECTS. This means that 3-4 courses should be somewhat relevant to a business degree. The grading is very generous based on what I have heard and experienced, so if you are interested in a good grade, you should do well just by doing and handing in every assignment. The registration for courses started January 23 rd. The early days were assigned for practice and were not real registration days. The real registration was on January 29 th or 30 th depending on the student ID being odd or even. You should be awake during the night in Finland, when the course registration is open, because the popular courses fill out very fast. You should make sure you are comfortable with the system that you get in to all the courses you want. During the time of registration it is impossible to search for the courses so make sure you have written down course codes for several interesting courses and put them on the wish-list of the registration website. Otherwise it might happen that you end up on courses that you do not actually want to participate. Additionally, it is still possible to switch around the choices during the first week of classes, so you can consider this option as well. I am happy with what the university had to offer for the semester. There are still some things I would do differently in the course selection, if I had a second chance. A lot of the success of the courses had to do with the professors. The variation in the courses held in English is a bit limited, so

6 it is worth reading other travel reports and the syllabi on the course selection website to get a good picture, what to choose International Negotiation, Cho Seung Ah, CBA, Graduate, 3 credits This was a course on negotiation that handled the topic on both theoretical and practical level. The class was held once a week and commonly had a small lecture and a class exercise. Based on the class exercise, there was a weekly write-up, where the exercise was needed to be analyzed and also tied to either a real life case or a personal experience. It was a bit dull and challenging to find the real life application every week, but otherwise the assignment was relatively simple. There was also an easy mid-term and final report, which was also to be based on a case or personal experience. The teacher was good, and the classes were interesting. If you are interested learning about negotiation, how to improve in it and what things to consider in a negotiation situations, I can recommend this course and lecturer Special Topics in Business Administration, Kwak Sung Hyun, CBA, Undergrad, 3 credits Most exchange students from the business school chose this class. The course did not require much work at all outside of simple group presentations, small mid-term exam and a short final report. There were interesting guest lectures by high level executives of Samsung and Otis Korea and from a GSIS professor. There was also a course dinner and a somewhat disappointing field trip. The professor was quite old and speaking off the microphone, therefore sometimes a bit difficult to understand. The way the course was structured, there were only a couple of times she actually lectured herself, though. If the course stays similar, it is an easy way to socialize with other exchange students and gain credits with little work. Otherwise it does not offer much Foreign Direct Investment, Yim Sohyun, GSIS, Graduate, 3 credits This was the course I thought was the most interesting but also the most demanding in terms of work. The course is organized as not only related to the theme of foreign direct investment, but also as a practice and guidance to thesis writing for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. The lectures were based on articles on motivations for investments to foreign markets and different entry mode selections,

7 among other things. There were no exams but weekly readings, two larger group presentations and a final report. The final report was in a format of an academic paper and was a research or case study on the topic of FDI. The lecturer was extremely good, and course was very interesting despite the higher workload Intermediate Korean 1, Seo Seung Wan, College of Humanities, Undergraduate, 3 credits College of Humanities offers normal Korean classes for all levels. I knew some Korean from earlier so I chose the intermediate level course. Still, the course was designed in a fashion that went through all levels of grammar up to the intermediate. I felt specifically the early part of the course to be very easy. Because it handles the grammar from the simplest things up, it is possible to follow the course even if the Korean level would not be specifically high. There were some students though that dropped the class. The speed of which grammar is gone through is quick so if someone is not familiar with the topics, it may require some more self-study. The teacher promised everyone a minimum of B grade for just attending every class. There were small essays or sentences needed to be written weekly. The course had a mid-term and a final exam, which both had a grammar and a vocabulary section. The vocabulary was based purely on a list of words not handled in class. It is important to notice that the elementary level Korean class is 2 credits, while the other levels are worth 3 credits (4ECTS vs. 6ECTS). The course I chose fit well to the exchange program, but if elementary Korean is selected, the remaining minimum of 1 credit (2ECTS) is would be needed to be found somewhere else. Prior to the exchange the Office of International Services also sent an informing that there are courses offered in the Korean Language Institute for a discount. There are both evening classes, which are less intensive, and regular program classes. The regular program has classes every weekday 4 hours at a time and corresponds to 12ECTS, but would require to additional 3 business degree related courses on top of it to be eligible for the exchange program of Aalto (maximum of 6ECTS of language studies is possible). I do not personally know much about the evening program. Nevertheless, the normal Korean classes from outside of the Korean Language Institute are good enough and I recommend them highly, although they put a larger emphasis on self-study due to limited class hours.

8 Free Time and Other Information The best reasons to choose Korea as an exchange destination are the culture, people and the free time opportunities. The Korean people are commonly very kind and welcoming to foreign people. As an exchange student you are staying for a longer period than a normal tourist so it is possible to dive deeper into the culture and experience even some more uncommon things with other exchange students and Korean students. Practical Things Seoul is a very large city, but also very spread out, which makes it feel quite spacious. The public transportation system is really good; the subway system reaches very far from the city center and you rarely need to wait a bus for a long time. The public transportation payments works largely with T-money card that can be recharged at convenience stores and at subway stations. Small downside is that the public transportation commonly stops running between 12 and 1 at midnight, but there are ridiculous amount of taxis around and they are also quite cheap to use. There are a lot of areas, where the use of Wi-Fi is possible. Many places may require you to enter a password that you find from the receipt. Still, it is worth getting a Korean prepaid SIM-card that you can purchase after staying in the country for a few days. I personally used Olleh prepaid, which for the data cost 16,500 (~ 13) for 1GB of 3G data (usable for one month) and additionally purchased normal call time on top of it. Unless your Korean is at a good level, it is easiest and least awkward to go with a Korean friend to the mobile operator store. Other option is to go to an Olleh shop at Hongdae subway station exit 9, where they offer English service at the second floor. With Olleh SIM-card you can use Olleh Wi-Fi in many places, including the subway, which means you are not always reliant on data. I never ran out of data, and the normal messaging apps do not consume it much even if you are a heavy user. After or before arriving Korea, it is worth downloading a Kakaotalk messaging application, because practically everyone from young to old uses it. If you do not have a smartphone, you should purchase one before arriving to Korea. Cost of living in Korea as an exchange student is relatively low for a person coming from Finland. Of course as an exchange student it is easy to go out a lot and especially in the beginning it is possible that individual payments in necessary things increase the cost of living momentarily. But overall it is possible to live in Korea with less spending than in Finland. Affordable campus dining and housing also make it possible to spend more money in other places. But if you want to spend a

9 lot of money, it is going to be an easy thing to do. Compared to many other destinations Seoul and Korea are relatively cheap, I think. Food Culture and Popular Areas Koreans spend a lot of their free times socializing with their friends and coworkers in cafes and restaurants, which means you will find them to be plenty around. There are various bars, karaoke rooms, PC-cafes, room cafes, DVD-rooms around every corner. Eating and drinking outside is quite cheap and tipping is not expected. Cooking in Korea is a bit difficult because of expensive food ingredients and small convenience stores being more common than supermarkets. Eating at a restaurant depending on the food commonly costs 5,000-10,000 (~ 4-8), but in a better meat restaurant it may go up to around 20,000 (~ 16). Cafeteria meals commonly cost 2,500-4,000. Alcohol is significant part of the food culture in Korea and lot of Koreans like to have their meals together with Soju, which is a clear alcoholic beverage with a taste bit similar to vodka. It is also available flavored. One reason for its popularity is its very low price and large availability. Drinking in exchange student events and other occasions is not forced, so if you are a non-drinker there is no need to be worried. There are several different types of traditional foods served in restaurants. Often one restaurant is specialized to a certain type of dish. A lot of different foods share similar tastes and spices with each other, with chili being popular spice. Many dishes are mild, but some can be very spicy. Difference with the Finnish culture is the fact that most dishes are shared with other people on the table. Therefore many restaurants are designed to serve food to a minimum of 2 people at a time. The food is almost always served together with free side dishes. Some dishes I personally enjoyed a lot and can recommend are Korean style fried chicken with beer (chimek, 치맥), soft rice cake in spicy sauce (tteokbokki, 떡볶이) and pig s feet (jokbal, 족발). There are many famous and popular areas for going out and enjoying night life. Hongdae or Hongik University station has many restaurants, bars and night clubs directed to young people. Gangnam is located relatively close to SNU and is famous for its more expensive nightclubs. Itaewon is known as the foreigner district of Seoul and is especially popular among U.S. soldiers. Perhaps a bit less foreign friendly but nice areas to explore near SNU during evenings are Kongik university station and Sillim.

10 SNU Buddy As an exchange student at SNU, the best thing to do is join the buddy program. Through the program you get assigned to a group of exchange students and Korean student buddies to spend time together and experience different things. Everyone in the program will get a personal buddy to share with couple other exchange students. The personal buddy can help you with any kinds of issues related to adapting to Korea. Nice thing about the buddy program is that the group of Korean and exchange students can grow really tight. I was lucky to get to a buddy group with consistently 5-6 events and meetings per week. Information about the program was sent by close to mid- February. Language It is easy to get by in Korea without knowing the language. In many stores and restaurants basic level English goes far. Most of the signs and public information is also available in English. Nevertheless many Korean people are still not very comfortable speaking other languages than Korean, which may come as a surprise. The Korean writing system is not much more complicated than the Latin-Roman alphabet and might be worth learning before the exchange to recognize names of places more easily and read restaurant menus among other things. There is plenty of free learning material online to learn the Korean alphabet. If you are more interested to learn the language before arriving, Helsingin Seudun Kesäyliopisto (Helsinki Summer University), offers beginner level Korean classes over the summer with the sign-ups starting in spring. There is also a possibility take Korean classes in Korea before the semester. Korean courses are offered by larger universities (SNU, Yonsei, Korea University, Sogang, Ehwa) as well as private academies. If you arrive for the spring semester, you should note that due to visa issuance, the earliest date to arrive is likely around the end of January. I did the Helsinki Summer University courses as well as a 3-week program in Yonsei before the semester, and can recommend them both. If you enjoy learning languages, exchange is a great opportunity for it. Knowing Korean a bit helps to get more out of the experience. It is probably one of the easiest Asian languages and learning it was something I thought was really interesting and rewarding.

11 Final Comments For me the exchange experience at SNU was really positive. SNU is a top Asian university with a massive campus and with a course selection that makes it possible to learn about Korean business and politics. I would not have chosen my exchange destination any differently. The difference to the other partner university, Yonsei, is that the campus is a bit further from the city center and closer to the nature. Due to public transportation and availability of affordable taxies this is not really an issue though, even in the case you are a person looking to spend your nights out. By joining the buddy program, it is possible to experience Seoul and Korea to the fullest extent and make good friendships with locals and other exchange students. I had been on an exchange once before, so there was not really any shock excluding the initial jet lag. Still, in my opinion the Korean culture is not too shocking for someone coming from Finland. Respect towards others, especially for older people is important. Korea is very safe country to stay in and the people are very welcoming to foreigners. I was able to meet several foreign students during my exchange semester and there was no one who was disappointed to the country or to their experiences, but there were a lot of people who thought the complete opposite. One of the things that I have learned from my exchange semesters is to adapt to new environments better. Being away from friends and family at a completely different time zone means that it is easier to grow more independent. Getting to know more people from different countries does not only make you learn new things about their cultures but also about your own. The exchange in Korea gives you first-hand experience of the country and culture with very interesting historical background and rapid economic growth. Korea is a very unique country with several amazing things to offer for an exchange student.

12 Army style stew, Budae-jjigae (부대찌개) restaurant near SNU subway station Yeouido Island (여의도) during the cherry blossom season