Prior to coming to Sogang I had little to no knowledge about the university except for it being ranked fourth, being conveniently located in Sinchon and being renowned for its language school. During my first week here, I heard from the Koreans here that Sogang had a reputation of being more structured like a high school than a university. Unlike back home, a bell rings signifying the start and end of a period with speakers located all over campus relaying music to comfort you as you walk to your next class. Rather than having lectures and tutorials, classes follow the standard 1 hour and 15 minute lecture twice a week. Instead of emphasising interaction, discussion and engaging with others, Sogang enforces an assigned seating policy where the seat you sit in on the first day of uni determines your seat for the rest of semester. Rather than fighting for your participation marks in class, you can sit in class without doing or saying anything and all you have to do is show up without being (too) late.
Despite my relentless complaining about UWA, I have never in my life been so grateful for recorded lectures, non-compulsory lectures and participation marks. I love how you can skip 20% of tutorials without losing participation points back home. Here you can only skip a total of 3 or 4 classes (depending on which subject) and after that you automatically fail (i.e. receive an FA). And on top of that, being late three times to class equates to an absence.
Despite all the negativity and strictness, I find that the marking here is a lot more lenient and easy. Sogang uses the A,B,C grade system where an A+ is 99+, A0 is 95-98, A- is 90-94 and so it goes. Naturally with my grades back home I was freaking out about how I’d even manage a passing grade of about 75. Yet, to my surprise I’m studying less here, putting in less effort and yet getting substantially higher marks! Furthermore, it’s as if referencing, using academic sources or conducting analytical research is not a thing here - which I’m not complaining about. Although I have noticed that Koreans here, take their group work so damn seriously. Group meetings after normal uni hours and on the weekend and signing a contract dictating your commitment to put forth effort in the assignment seems to be the norm here. 📚 📖
Nonetheless, university life here is so much more fun here. Everything is closer, open later, cheaper (generally) and more convenient. I dread thinking about the 19th of December when everyone will move out of the dorms and majority of the people here will return home. I wish we could go on forever and live in the moment, but reality’s a pain in the butt. I wish I could take all the close friends I made here back home with me, but I can’t ...
So I guess someday, somewhere we will all reunite and add to the endless unforgettable memories we managed to make in such a short amount of time. 😫 😢 😥 😊 🌂 ⛅️ 🌏
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