Travel report South Korea, Seoul Korea University Business School Fall 2014

Transcription

1 Travel report South Korea, Seoul Korea University Business School Fall 2014 By: Antti Marimo, k87541 Aalto University School of Business

2 Korea University main building Introduction This report sums up my exchange semester in Seoul, South Korea studying at Korea University Business School. The semester started on the 1 st of September (orientation one week before) and ended on the 19 th of December. About Korea University Korea University is one the oldest and best universities in South Korea. It is one the prestigious S- K- Y universities (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei). One of the reasons I decided to apply for Korea University was the high quality of the school. Education is considered really important in Korea and everytime I told a Korean that I studied at KU they were really impressed. The students are really concerned about their GPA at least in the business school but still the atmosphere on campus is really good and relaxed. Preparing for the exchange Preparing for the exchange at Korea University wasn t the easiest one. KU wanted a quite a few documents and I had to visit the Finnish Student Health Service many times. Here is a list of all the required papers: 2

3 Official university transcript Certificate of health Certificate of personal insurance Recommendation letter from professor Copy of passport Certificate of financial status or government aid KU exchange contacted me for the first time really early in April (actually through our schools international studies office because I was the only student going to KU) so there was time to get all the documents. Some of them had to be snailmailed and some ed. As I mentioned, I had to visit the student s health service many times and the health certificate demanded the most work. All the other documents I received without a hassle really, thanks to international office and Teemu Malmi for the recommendation letter! The certificate of health demanded a tuberculin test and I had to take all the appropriate vaccines which are given in two phases + I had to see a doctor to test my sight and to sign the document. The nurses recommended taking vaccines for A and B hepatites and one for Japanese Encephalitis (take this if you wanna play it safe, it is not mandatory and the price is about 300 ). Because KU contacted me well in advance there was a lot of time to get all the documents so it really wasn t that bad. Of course besides these documents I had to apply for a visa (which went really smoothly, the embassy is at Erottaja) and a studyplan for Aalto. The exchange office at KU worked really well answering any questions I had. Housing The applyperiod for the on- campus housing was pretty late, I think in July. I applied for an on- campus single bedroom but I didn t get it and later found out it was almost a good thing. 3

4 Most of the buildings are quite new like CJ international house and had a cafeteria, a store, gym etc. but the dormitories are located on a huge hill and some students were complaining about the walk. I didn t meet anyone who had arranged their housing privately so everybody fitted either on or off- campus dormitories. After I received mail that I didn t fit in the on- campus dormitories the school suggested that I would apply for an off- campus option. There are a few big ones and they are located very near the campus (almost a better location than the on- campus dormitories). I stayed at Crimson house, which was right next to the university maingate and I had a five minutes walk to the Hyundai Motors hall where I had all my lectures. Also, Crimson house was cheaper at won per month and the rules weren t that strict. My room was super small like 8 squaremeter with a shared bathroom. The building is in decent condition and It was cleaned very often. In December some of the students complained that the rooms were too cold but I didn t have this problem really. The crimson house also has an awesome rooftop terrace which was a common pre- party hangout place. Arriving and orientation Finnair flies straight to Seoul and you can get the tickets pretty cheap if you book in advance, mine were 900 with a return flight from Singapore. Public transportation is one of the best in the world in Seoul so getting from Incheon to the university was really easy. I had some problems finding out when the orientation starts so I actually arrived at KU one day after the orientation had begun and due to the jetlag I wasn really able to participate on the second day either so I really can t tell much about that. What I heard there was some some basic schoolstuff, making an account for the learning environment and a campus tour. There were of course student parties and events rest of the week before the lectures began. The registering for the courses was in July if I remember correctly. The registration window opened about 4 a.m in Finnish time and I chose 6 courses and I received a slot for all of them. Later I dropped one of the courses but some exchange students had some problems to fit in and they had to spend the first week of school just going from professor and course 4

5 to another. In the end I didn t hear that anyone had problems with not getting enough courses or were forced to take courses they didn t like. My courses Already in Finland I decided I wanted to take marketing or management classes in Korea. I study accounting as my major in Aalto and taking the courses from one specific field at Korea University Business school seemed like the most rational thing to do. I ended up taking mostly marketing classes. There is A LOT to choose from at KU Business School and many courses are in English. Next is a short recap of my courses: Marketing strategy (UG, BUSS363, Tony Garrett, 6 ECTS) This course was pretty basic stuff about marketing strategy, some of the content was already familiar to me. Professor Garrett is a good lecturer and he used a lot of real life examples. The course had one big groupwork with presentation and a midterm exam plus of course a final exam. The course was pretty easy and after the midterm exam I didn t have to stress much about getting a bad grade. Product and brand management (UG, BUSS454, Tony Garrett, 6 ECTS) This course was also lectured by Professor Garrett. His courses seemed to be pretty popular and I can recommed them as well. The content of the course was really good and interesting. The professor used pretty much the same teaching methods as on the other course. I think this was the best course I had and really inspired me to study brands. I had only read the introduction to marketing course on my first year so after quite a few accounting courses this course gave a lot to me. 5

6 Internet marketing (UG, BUSS475, Janghyuk Lee, 6 ECTS) The course was a quite a strange one. On the first lecture the professor announced that this course doesn t have a structure at all. The topic itself was interesting but there wasn t that much content to study, I don t think I learned much on this course. The evaluation consisted of a company presentation, groupwork wich was presented, a quiz and participation so no final exam. IT innovation: Issues and trends (UG, BUSS412 Se- Joon Hong, 6 ECTS) This was probably my easiest course. The content was pretty much learning about innovations and what kind of things support innovating. There was one groupwork with a presentation and rest of the grade was final exam + participation. The best part of the course was actually the professor, he was a pretty funny guy and he told stories from his work and life in general. He had also been to Finland and knew a lot about our country so on the first lecture when he found out I was from Finland we already went through the Finnish Formula drivers and Winterwar. Almost every lecture he had some new fact about Finland that he wanted to discuss with me. International production, purchasing and R&D management (UG, BUSS333, Felix Reimann, 6 ECTS) The main focus on this course was on the purchasing part, many interesting cases and pretty good lectures. Some of the lectureslides were a little difficult to follow but the cases illustrated the themes really well. This was probably the most difficult course and closest to the courses we have at Aalto. Grading was based on 2 cases prepared and presented in groups, participation and final exam. As a conclusion I can say the courses were a lot easier at KU than at Aalto. Sometimes it felt we were going through the same stuff over and over again. Although the pointscale at KU is 6

7 harder (60 /100 pts needed to pass a course) it seemed that almost everyone got a B or an A. All of the courses had a mandatory attendance but I managed to schedule so that I only had superlong schooldays on Tuesday and Thursday. Also, when choosing the people for your teamwork you have to keep your head up. On two classes I was assigned to random teams with Koreans and there was some difficulties with their English abilities. Cost of living in South Korea The costs for living in Korea are relatively low. Some exchange students bought schoolbooks but I didn t and you don t really need to, in my experience. My biggest expenses were probably the rent and then food. The campus has many cafeterias and restaurants where you can eat as low as won (about 2 ) per meal. Since I didn t have any kind of kitchen at my dormitory I ate every meal at a restaurant/cafeteria. My favorite place was probably a cafeteria on campus that served typical Korean dishes for won. The area where Korea University is located is called Anam. It is basically just students so the prices at bars, restaurants and activities are really low, for example beer at a bar starts at won and you can eat really good with under won (about 7 ). 7

8 There is a lot of shopping posibilities in Seoul but all the western brands cost about the same as in Finland. You can get clothes pretty cheap in certain areas and there is a lot to choose from. Public transportation in Seoul is one of the best and it is really cheap as well. You can drive across the city for just over a 1000 won. Communicating is also pretty cheap, a prepaid simcard cost won and add a 1 GB data for another won. The main messaging app people use in Korea is called Kakaotalk (not available for windows phone) so data is good to have. In general, of course if you want you can spend a lot of money. Clubbing in Gangnam is really expensive and you can see Koreans in their early 20s rolling to clubs in Bentleys and Mercedes- benzs. If you go on a Thursday you will save your money. One could say that the price level depends on the area, places like Gangnam, Itaewon (foreigner district), Myeondong and Dongdaemun can be more expensive but university areas like Anam or the bigger one called Hongdae not so much. Free time Weather When I arrived in Seoul in late August the weather was really warm (+30c). The temperature stayed hot for the first few months, on the second half of November it started to turn colder. In December there was snow and during the night temperatures dropped close to - 8 c. Although the temperatures in November and December are similar to Finland, the weather is different. Days are high pressure, clear skies with sun and there wasn t that many rainy days. The days are also longer so it doesn t get dark that early. Organized events Seoul is a huge city and you will not get bored, there is always something to do. Also, the buddygroups organize many events. There is usually a weekly lunch and a dinner meeting, I 8

9 didn t go to these very much, only a few times but they were always nice gatherings. During the semester there are a few bigger events like sporting day, membership training (basically just overnight soju drinking) and hiking the Mount Bukhansan. Hiking is very popular in Korea and for me hiking the meter top of Bukhansan was one of the best experiences. Definitely one of the highlights of the semester are the annual Korea University vs. Yonsei games. It includes five different sports and the atmosphere at the matches was something I had never experienced before. At the ice- hockey match people were dancing and cheering on the stands even during the intermissions! The finale was the footballmatch played on the Seoul Olympic stadium. This year KU historically won the games 5-0 which was the first time ever with this score. The games are a really big deal for the schools, our hockeyteam hadn t won Yonsei in 15 years and the players were crying on the ice after the game. 9

10 Other activities There are many student parties and they are usually on Thursdays. The first months these were really nice because you can get to know new people and usually there was big pre- drinking together but later on they became a little boring. We later started going to parties where was only Koreans which turned out to be much more fun. Sporting facilities on campus are really good and there is an ice- hockeyrink, footballpitch and a few gyms. I bought a gymcard for three months with a ridiculous cost of won, the gym was pretty small but during the day it was pretty much empty. If you like shopping Seoul is a great place for that. There are a few areas just for shopping with 10 floor malls next to each other. Traveling I didn t really travel around South Korea that much. Popular destinations were Busan in the southern tip of Korea and Jeju island. I visited Sokcho which is on the east coast. Sokcho has a nice beach and you can hike there but that is about it, the city is really small and pretty 10

11 dead. I suggest you go during the summer months. Also, I made one weekend trip to Tokyo, which I can recommend to everyone. Final words I think Seoul is the perfect combination of an interesting, economically developed and safe megacity and original Asian culture and people. Also, the education is good so you can actually enhance your expertise and learn new things. If your main target is to learn English, Seoul isn t the best place for that. Younger people talk English pretty well but the rest of the population basically not at all. I was a little surprised about the level actually. Of course your English gets better communicating with other exchange students but it is not the same really since most are not native speakers. What I miss about Korea are the people and the city of Seoul. Koreans are very positive, warm and always polite, I didn t have any kind of difficulties fitting in, but being a tall blonde haired guy with blue eyes definitely gets you some stares on the subway J and some people even wanted to take selfies with me. I have to say I really liked Seoul as a city. It is huge with 25 million people in the metropolitan area there is always something to see or do there. In the late evening if you are bored at home you can just take the subway somewhere and the city is there for you. Most Koreans stay out in the city really late and it feels like the city comes alive during the evening, you don t get that in Helsinki. 11

12 View from the Seoul N tower facing east to the Han- river KU vs Yonsei baseball match 12

13 View on campus of the LG- Posco hall on the 19 th of December, my last day in Seoul. 13