Why did I choose to study Korean in Korea?

Personally, it was something that I have always wanted since I was in university. I took up a semester of Korean language classes when I was studying at the National University of Singapore and have always wanted to be on the student exchange programme to Korea. Nonetheless, I was not able to do so then and have always wanted to experience living abroad in Korea.

As such, I decided to work and save up to do my very own ‘student exchange’, albeit a little late. Furthermore, I feel that learning Korean in Korea allows me more exposure to the language and I have more opportunities to practise the language. However, that being said, it is still up to the individual to converse in Korean. This is especially so if there are friends around you who speak your native language. 

Why Sogang University?

My main objective of learning Korean in Korea is to be able to hold a conversation with Koreans. In the past, when interacting with Koreans, I always felt lacking when I was not able to communicate with them in Korean. Despite having learnt Korean before, I was still unable to express my thoughts well in Korean. As such, rather than writing/ reading, I decided to focus more on speaking and listening- hence my decision to enroll in Sogang University’s Korean Language Programme.

Here’s a quick overview of the lesson format that I have gone through (from Level 1-3; I was told that from Level 4 onwards it is slightly different).

9 – 9:50am: Writing 

9:50 – 10am: 10 min Break

10 – 10:50am: Speaking

10:50 – 11:10am: 20 min Break

11:10 – 12pm: Speaking

12 – 12:10pm: 10 min Break

12:10 – 1pm: Listening

As you can see, Sogang University’s curriculum places emphasis on speaking and even during the midterms and finals, there is an interview component. Much of the content in their textbooks consist of everyday dialogues and I thought that it was very applicable to my daily conversations in korea. 

In fact, from what I have heard from the teachers, there are students with TOPIK level 5 who are deemed to be unable to speak Korean well and placed in Level 1 or 2 after taking the placement test. From this, you can see how much emphasis Sogang University places on speaking- and that is the very reason why I chose them:)

However, depending on your learning objectives, there are other language courses by the other universities or even language institutions (Hakwons).

I know other students have opted for Korean language programme that focuses more on preparation for academic learning because upon completing their Korean language studies,  they wish to move on to undergraduate studies in a Korean University.

I hope that this sharing is useful to those considering to take a leap of faith to study Korean in Korea, particularly at Sogang University.

*Oh yeah, if you are someone who enjoys school events, I would highly recommend you to attend the autumn semester! The annual school festival for language students is held in autumn and it was definitely a fun day filled with food and activities! I will share more in my next post!:)