#study abroad experience

[studying-in-yellow]

01.23.19 // One leg of the flight down, I’m currently in the middle of a four hour layover. I feel like I need someone to pinch me so I know that this is real. Next leg is the eight hour flight over the Atlantic and then a full day settled into London life. More updates to come!!

[ifindus]

how that one party ended up going

[studiesbytrophyfish]

Hi! Is it super expensive to study in Korea? I’ve seen that they check for how much you have in your account before being allowed to enter for school. I would love to study in Korea, but I don’t have savings, I just get a certain amount each month due to personal reasons. It’s definitely enough to live off of! Just not in a huge lump sum.. would that be a disadvantage?

hello friendly neighborhood anon! i hope you’re having a good day! 

so this is tricky question to answer lol. you are correct that in order to study abroad in korea and obtain the proper visa, you must prove that you have a certain amount of money in the bank. for me when i went last year, i had to prove that either myself or an immediate family member (so in my case my mom) had $7,000 in the bank. so they just need a bank statement with those figures as a part of the visa process. i’m not sure what happens if you don’t have someone able to show that you have that money in the bank somewhere. also, i’m not sure if $7,000 is the standard or if it differs depending on the school. 

this is something not usually talked about in the going abroad experience so i’m super glad you asked this question!

now on the flipside, my tuition for the semester was $3,000! this is super duper cheap compared to my school’s price which was around $24,0000 a semester. so along with the apartment i stayed in and my roundtrip flight my whole semester was around $6,000 and some change. i was lucky enough that my loans covered everything for me except my plane ticket. 

i was also living off $500 a month as my living expenses, so i could do some shopping but i could also go out to eat and party. my bigger expenses really came around the holidays because i was bringing gifts home but i got my apartment deposit back and that was an extra $500 in my pocket lol (let’s just say i had a really great time at the kakao friends store that day) my school recommended that living off $1000 a month was the standard but there are ways to be frugal in seoul, especially when you’re not living on campus. 

if you would like, i could do a more in depth post on how to live frugally in seoul while still having fun. i can also cover the perks of not living in a dorm while studying abroad in korea. :3 

[studiesbytrophyfish]

hi tara! hope you’re liking our little koreanblr corner of the internet :) i read you studied at sogang u. last year and i’m very interested in how that went for you, since i’m making plans to study there soon-ish (if i can get my korean to a good enough level and a scholarship, fingers crossed 🤞🏻) but since i won’t visit korean before i have to make a decision, i want to know the experience of someone who has been there! i am posting this as a question so everyone benefits from the answer :)

hello! sorry for the delay in my response, i was celebrating my friend’s birthday yesterday. studying at sogang was great! the classes were challenging and i had to do a lot of self-teaching through the process. (mostly my java and unity classes) i took all my classes in english while over there so i had a very mixed group of classmates from both korea and all over the world. be prepared for a lot of group projects where sometimes you may get lost in translation with your group mates. also be open to students being a variety of ages because that was something i picked up on while there, especially your male korean classmates as some of them have already done their military service making them a little older. if you’re taking korean classes while you’re there, you will be in a very very very good program. honestly, sogang is top notch when it comes to teaching korean and there’s so many people on campus willing to help you learn.

i would say the most fun i had while studying at sogang was participating in all of the hug events. hug is the club on campus that brings together the korean students and foreigners there. i would definitely recommend paying the membership fee at the start of the semester since it covers all of the events so you don’t have to chip in out of pocket each time and there’s a lot of events. (it’s like $30USD) and try to go to as many events as possible and definitely go to MT! that’s how i got close to so many people.

also definitely go to the festivals on campus! i was lucky enough to see dean, bewhy, and epik high perform at sogang besides seeing them at other concerts in seoul. really immerse yourself in the student life because it will reward you with so many experiences and friends.

making friends was also fairly easy! i made it a little harder on myself by living off campus near seoul station as opposed to living in gonzaga (the dorms for the foreigners). i would say live on campus if you’re afraid of not being able to make friends, but i promise you, you will definitely make a lot of lifelong friends. also bring something comfy to put on your bed because beds over there are super duper firm.

now, you should also prepare yourself to walk uphill a lot! campus isn’t huge, it’s about a 15 minute walk to get across but you do have to climb up some very high mountain-esque hills. honestly, every day is leg day in seoul. but what’s great about the placement of campus is that you’re a 20 minute walk away from hongdae if you don’t feel like taking the metro one stop and there’s great shopping in the sinchon and ewha areas. you’re also down the road from ewha and not super far from yonsei so it’s a super college student friendly area.

also explore, explore, explore! there are honestly so many wonderful places to see near campus and around seoul. that was my favorite thing to do after class. i would get out and walk over to hongdae usually taking a different route each time just to see what i could find. 

also places you should definitely go while on campus is this little restaurant in the plaza called kim ga ne. it’s run by these lovely older korean women who are always very pleased when foreigners try their best to order in korean. they have the best kimbap and definitely order the chicken bokkumbap.

honestly, everyone is so kind at sogang. they really like to embrace their foreign students and have them feel just as part of sogang as the koreans. also if you want to watch a cute little campus tour, you should totally watch my friend, 용현’s tour of campus. i shall link it here! he’s a member of hug and incredibly nice and made korea super fun. 

oh boy, this post is getting long. if you want, i can probably start doing a post series about different aspects of studying and living in korea because there’s really so much to talk about. i hope this helps and i hope you have a wonderful time at sogang! i miss it so much!

[studiesbytrophyfish]

youth culture: a trophyfish perspective

hello everyone! tara here with a request from the lovely @cool-notes. so i’m here today to talk about the youth culture in korea. now a disclaimer before i continue with this: i’m most definitely not korean in anyway so please do not take this as gospel. i was merely a visitor in their culture for a semester of school and tried to take in as much as i could as a foreigner. so this will mostly cover things i experienced and noticed while i was there

now onto the post! i feel like i was a little bit on the older side being a senior in college at the time and the second oldest of my friend group and the oldest in my clubbing trio. i was still 21 then so maybe i just think i’m lowkey old lol (i’ll be 23 in january)

the culture surrounding college students in seoul is very study focused. everyone was very much motivated to do well in school and very meticulous about how much time they would spend with friends and with their studies. many of the koreans i had class with and were friends with kept very neat schedules. if you want to hangout, definitely make sure they have room in their schedule. there was rarely ever a time where someone would have to cancel on you either, so be sure to be ready to meetup with them.

now don’t get me wrong, they sure know how to party in seoul but school and work is what you encounter during the daytime. you will see so many people about campus with their books, studying hard either solo or with one other person. you will find bigger groups out on the green or in cafes.

something you will also notice about young folk in korea are the crazy amount of couples. dating is very popular over there so don’t be shocked to see couples roaming about with either very well coordinated or matching outfits. seriously, they are everywhere. so much so you question the validity of relationships because it just seems trendy to be dating. at least that’s how it felt for me as an outsider looking in. i was also very, very, very single and still am... also there are just so many places in seoul that could easily double as date night spots. 

what ties so much of the youth culture though is food. you will definitely see restaurants and cafes with groups of friends sharing a couple rounds of drinks and great meals. this is where people really get close to each other. so much is shared between friends as they play drinking games. lots of drinking games. what is really great is that everyone really takes care of each other in these situations and drinking is very different from how we view it here in the states. people don’t drink to get totally wasted, they drink to socialize and to feel a nice buzz. granted, i have gotten totally wasted with koreans before but it was definitely not planned lol i believe the only time we ever planned to get totally wasted was during mt. the entire hug club went out into the countryside and stayed in a large house, had bbq, and drank a ton because there was nothing else to do but drink and chat. 

now when people aren’t preoccupied with studies and work, the partying commences! clubbing was also a big part of the youth culture while i was there. as soon as thursday night rolls around, you will find koreans going out, drinking, and dancing the night away in clubs and bars. now i’d say be wary as a foreigner going clubbing because you will definitely have people trying to creep on you because you’re not korean. also, if you are going to some of the more popular spots you will have people dancing up on you and touching you because you will be packed like sardines at times. koreans go just as hard partying as they do studying. 

also everyone is just very stylish and good looking (or i’m just a sucker for well dressed dudes lololol) which made me have to put in some effort lol 

i feel like there is so much more i could add to this, yet this has gotten quite long. if anyone has any specific questions about these aspects of being young in korea, please feel free to ask. i hungout with a very mixed group of people so i probably have some not average experiences but man oh man was korea great.

[storiesworthtellingwiththesteel]

Maria's Study Abroad Experience: A Year Abroad in America

Join us as Maria, a foreign exchange student from Spain, shares her incredible study abroad experience in this heartfelt interview with host Cate Steel. From cultural exchange stories to international friendships, Maria's journey is truly inspiring. Check out our youtube channel for more interesting videos.

[mystudydestinationblog-blog]

How to Have a Safe Study Abroad Experience?

Read this post to know some really simple yet very effective measures that will ensure you a pleasant and safe study abroad experience.

[publicationacquiringliiu]

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