Experience Report Yonsei University South Korea

E-mail: Claire.noorderhaven@gmail.com

Study Program: Organization Studies

Exchange semester: Fall

Academic year: 2016-2017

Host University: Yonsei University

Country: South Korea

I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Yonsei University’s main campus (Sinchon) is located in South Korea’s capital Seoul. Seoul is a huge

city in the north of south korea. The city is divided by a river in two areas; the lower area is called

Gangnam and is the more expensive part of the city. Yonsei is located in the upper part of the city

which has a lot of student areas. The campus is huge and has a bit of an American university vibe

(Korea has been influenced by the US a lot). The campus is actually located at the edge of a nature

reserve; Ansan mountain gives a great view over the campus and Sinchon. The restaurant in the

student union building has cheap and relatively good food (try the pizza). There’s a gym in the

international student dormitory and one on campus. Yonsei University is a larger than Tilburg

university with almost 40000 students. Yonsei is the oldest university in South Korea and is also one

of the most prestigious.

Seoul has so many things to see, you should obviously go to the famous palaces and Seoul Tower.

What I recommend most is the DMZ (demilitarised zone), it’s a very interesting experience. Trazy.com

offers cheap tours and restaurant reviews which can be quite useful. The city feels incredibly safe and

is actually quite clean. There are many free public toilets which are surprisingly most of the time also

quite clean. The public transport system works great and the English names of the stops are

announced in both the subway and most buses. The bus drivers drive like crazy though, like all the

traffic in Seoul (don’t try any jaywalking if you value your life). What I really enjoyed is that the shops

are all opened until 11 at night. The streets are very lively in the evening and even when there are a

lot of drunk people you feel very safe (Koreans drink a lot). In the mornings stores open a bit later in

comparison to the Netherlands, around 11 in the morning. It seems like Koreans just have a different

daily rhythm. A lot of things happen at night.

II PRACTICAL INFORMATION

I received my pre-arrival information through email and documents for the Visa in (late) spring. They

give you most information during orientation. The only difficulty for me was that I had to prove my

English proficiency because my study program is officially in Dutch. You have to hand in a TOEFL or

IELTS test result but doing either of these tests is extremely expensive. I asked the university whether

the test offered by Tilburg University was also accepted and they said yes, so you should keep this in

mind when your study program is in Dutch.

Visa procedure and arrival

For the Visa I went to the Korean embassy in Den Haag, you don’t need an appointment. They state

the documents you need to take with you to the embassy on their website. You can also use a Visa

application service from ANWB to avoid going to the embassy yourself but that is quite expensive.

Make copies of all the documents you received from Yonsei as you have to hand a few of them in

during the Visa application.

As far as I know there is no pick up service organised by Yonsei. However from the airport to the

dorms (SK Global and International House) was very easy. There was a direct bus between the

airport and a bus stop almost in front of the building.

The introduction provided by Yonsei was quite short and a bit lacking to be honest, but the

atmosphere was great and the students presenting the introduction wore Hanbok (Traditional Korean

attire). The international student association organised a party that night which was a great way to

meet people. You could register to get a mentor group but they apparently messed up organising the

groups because I got added to a group only halfway the semester and I met them only once. But

maybe they’ll be doing a better job next semester.

Housing

Yonsei has two different international student dormitories International House and SK Global, of which

the latter’s rooms have their own bathroom/shower. It’s on the edge of the campus and close to the

building where the Study Abroad Courses are given. The Korean Language Institute is connected to it,

this is where you have to go if you follow an Intensive Korean Language course.

The support in finding housing is minimal, which is very inconvenient as there is limited space in the

dormitories and therefore the registration for the dorms is extremely competitive. If you want a room in

the dormitories you should register the second it opens. Overall I liked living in the dorms; it’s very

easy to meet with your friends in the kitchen or one of the lounges. You are however not allowed to

drink in the dorms and you’re not allowed to go any of the rooms of the opposite gender. But that’s not

really a problem because you go out to eat and drink with friends anyway. If you fail to get a room in

the dormitories the housing office is of little use. However there’s a facebook page for Yonsei

exchange students where people are asking for roommates or post room offerings, there are also

goshiwons(guesthouse) where you can rent a room.

My living expenses were obviously a lot larger than in Tilburg. Although going out to eat is very cheap

in Seoul, you still spend quite a lot of money on food. Especially fruits and vegetables are expensive

so take some vitamin pills with you on exchange.

Academic Calendar

The semester has a midterm and finals just a week or so before Christmas. There’s a Korean holiday

Chuseok, which is around four days is October, but other than that there are no holidays. During

Chuseok I travelled to Busan, which is in the south of Korea. Busan has a very different ambience

than Seoul and has beaches and a lot of great seafood. The semester starts at September the 2nd.

Around the end of September there are the YonKo games, which you really must experience. Yonsei

University has an old rivalry with Korea University and they fight it out during two days of rugby,

football and basketball games.

Yonsei has a great international office which responds very quickly to emails. I personally never had

any problems so I don’t know really how their service was. But I heard from friends who did that they

were really helpful. Don’t hesitate to email them because their English is perfect and they always

answer extensively.

Culture and Language

Personally I didn’t experience culture shock at all. Korea and Seoul specifically is very modern, safe

and English descriptions are everywhere. The small setbacks that I experienced were something I

could laugh about afterwards. Besides, there are a lot of exchange students in the same situation so

you’ll probably discover the city together with people who don’t know anything about Korea either. It’s

not difficult at all to get around in Seoul without speaking the language. I did follow the intensive

language course, which is two hours a day. You’ll learn really quickly and you can put the things you

learn into practice easily; like reading the names of busstops. It’s something you have to get used to

at first but you can get very far just with pointing and smiling. There are always people that can be

unfriendly towards you, as a Caucasian or western person in general you will stick out. However,

most Korean people act very friendly towards you, even when their English is not that good.

Especially in areas that where there are few tourists. What I learned about Koreans is not that they

are necessarily more polite than say Dutch people; they just have a different form of politeness, like

handing and receiving things with two hands. They won’t hold the door for you or things like that, but

they will do anything to help when you ask directions. There’s a really strong ingroup outgroup thing

going on in Korean society. If you don’t belong to the group you’ll be almost invisible. As a foreigner

however you’re a bit of exception, you’re often excused when getting the Korean customs wrong.

Koreans have a different perception on personal space; you’ll notice people walking past you much

closer than in the Netherlands where people try to keep at least half a meter distance from other

people. Also the hierarchy system works extremely different, older people can get away with a lot of

stuff younger people don’t. It’s really interesting to see Ajumma’s(title for older women) elbowing their

way into the subway for example. If you dare sit on one of the special seats in the subway for

pregnant women or the elderly they’ll they you to get up, both foreigners and regular younger Koreans.

But honestly it’s just really an interesting experience, and you learn a lot from seeing how other

societies function. It puts the Dutch culture in a different perspective. I noticed for example that we are

very punctual. The best advice I can give is to not take things too personal, just go with the flow and

you’ll be fine. What I noticed is that I was easily able to do a lot of stuff which I thought I wouldn’t be

able to beforehand. Such as living on the other side of the world in a different time zone and living

with a roommate. Just throw yourself into the experience and try to see the bad things that happen

and homesickness in a different perspective, all the other exchange students go through the same

thing.

Among the exchange students there are a lot of Kpop fans that came to korea to be closer to their

idols. The entertainment industry in korea is absolutely huge and you’ll hear Kpop everywhere, often

constantly the same song. But that’s obviously part of the charm.

III ACADEMIC INFORMATION

The study abroad courses that I followed were easier than what I’m used to at Tilburg. However there

are a lot more assignments. The teaching style is mostly theoretical and for the exams it’s more

important to remember the concepts than understand them. In one course the whole class started a

discussion with the professor because one of the midterm questions didn’t make sense, but she didn’t

budge and refused to remove the question, no matter what kind argument we gave. I do feel that the

study abroad courses were a bit less organised than the regular courses, grading was often vague

and sometimes very subjective. The regular courses are however a lot harder apparently and better

organised. All the courses I followed were bachelor level courses.

Course Prere

quisit

es

Exam EC

TS

Comments

Introduction to

management

information

systems

IEE3356-01

None (the

teacher does

expect you

something

about

coding,

which half of

the class

didn’t)

Written,

presentation,

assignments

6 A lot of assignments. Really interesting

course but the professor sometimes

overestimated what the class

understood and didn’t adjust his

teaching method to this. But he put a

lot of work in this course and really

wanted to teach us. At the end of the

course he took us out for Korean BBQ

and paid for the whole class

Principles of

Marketing

IEE2060-01

None Written and

discussion (which

wasn’t really a

discussion but more

her asking questions

and the group

answering them)

6 A nice course if you want to learn a bit

about marketing. It’s not a difficult

course if you spend enough attention

during the lectures.

I’m quite happy with this course but it’s

not outstanding.

Traditional

Korean Society

& modernization

IEE3121-01

none Paper and written 6 Very interesting course material about

Korean society. You really understand

the Korean way of thinking so much

better after this course. The lectures

are horrible though, the professors

English is difficult to understand and

he’s quite chaotic. However, because

of what you learn and the reading

material you have to read, this course

was worth the trouble for me and I

really liked it.

Korean Intensive

Language

Course

KLI1001-02

None Speaking, writing,

pronounciation and

listening

(we had four exams

during midterms and

finals for this course,

a bit stressful)

12 This course was oftentimes difficult as I

had class for two hours every day,

however my teachers and classmates

were really nice and we had loads of

fun together. The pace is fast but it’s

not that difficult to follow.The teachers

speak only the bare minimum of

English which makes it hard at the

beginning but helps later on. Overall

I’m really glad I did this course as it is

also another way to get to know

Korean culture and it gives so much

satisfaction when you understand a

few sentences and words that you hear

around you.

1 Dog Café

2 Korean Language class

3 Wearing Hanbok (traditional Korean attire)