South Korea is a great place to study… what a typical beginning. Does not match up with a to be storyteller and a journalist, right?

But it’s true – it is a great place to study. Whether you are an exchange student or a regular program one, you will be very happy to be here and not somewhere else.

I arrived to Korea as a result of the most fascinating coincidence in my life. As a “mature” student I was catching up with my education by doing two BA’s at one time – one of them in geography merged with biology (environmental protection track) and one of them in diplomacy, both on good private universities.
It was a professor of biology from, a researcher at Polish Academy of Sc iences, who approached me in the university corridor asking “Would you like to go to Korea?”.

I agreed on a haste as I usually do and I never ever regretted it. Although my first stay was just a lab job with all it’s limitations, as not a regular student I had some difficulties, already then I knew how it is to study here in Korea.

Food- excellent and affordable. For that price – 1500- 2500 KRW in Poland I would buy probably a coffee in Coffee Heaven but definately not a dinner. Coffee places, sandwich bars, sport facilities, all in affordable price. This is amazing!

The way campus is organized varies depending on the university, but there are several similarities.

At first fascilities are usually open 24/7 for usage, such as library, study rooms, PC labs, also dormitories are open 24/7 with no silly time limitations. This merged with food, student union buildings, sporting areas makes it very tempting to stay on campus for most of the time, as it is very convenient. A city in itself. Unlike in Europe where there are hardly any dormitories or campuses, or hardly any student communities packed in one area and really close to each other.

It is also easy to make Korean friends. They want to get closer, are open to the world, want to know about it as much as possible. Unlike many other Asian communities are not superficial or double faced, although of course they belong to different culture. They are shy, so do not expect that you will approach them in 1 hour.

For studying and living in Korea I would recommend joining language program. That’s where you make international friends usually, with whom you get wasted all the time or you try to know the country and it’s people a little bit.

Speaking of it, universities organize a lot of cultural events, both to explore Korea and both to get themselves know a little bit about the world. Two of them I have freshly in my memories, The International Food Festival at Seoul National University when I pretended French lady (:P) and The International Day at Ajou University where my team won the national performance part and we ended up in the newspapers.

The patient reader who made it up to this point probably know that the author of this article really likes Korea and arrived here again. Thankfully because of studying double degree I used another opportunity to come to Ajou University as an exchange student in EU grant for leadership in something which sounds very sophisticated. Ok, leadership in sustainable development.

Those who are ambitious will not be disappointed. On best Korean universities there will be plenty of opportunities to cooperate closely with professors and publish research papers in recognized international journals. Normally elsewhere students are ignored intellectually and are treated as capable only if they enter PhD degree ( I know it’s not very diplomatic remark, but it’s true, especially in Poland, where I come from).

The academic year starts in spring and finishes in winter. Semester is short and work intense, and holidays are eligible only for students in humanities. Although it always depends on a person and the mindset, but those in engineering usually treat they lab seminars as work assignment and they really spend long hours working. But it has it’s advantages – if you end up published in Elsevier, that’s worth it isn’t it?

This article is written from a perspective of a person who is generally hardworking and ambitious, but if you want to get wasted and have fun in Korea, you can. It’s full of clubs, bars, restaurants, discos, nurebangs, Korean ladies are beautiful and guys are nice. Ah, al,ost forgotten. It is the safest country in the world. No terrorism here and no subway bombings. And if you leave your wallet on subway, be sure you will get it back.

I have just accomplished my grant program in Korea. And I will be back soon for my PhD. If you think about studying anywhere in the world, study in Korea. It’s worth it.

- Aga

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About Aga:
Aga (Agnieszka Piasecka), came to South Korea from Poland at first to work as a research assistant at the School of Biology at Seoul National University in 2009 and later as an exchange student to Ajou University in the field of Social Science. She has been here for total time of almost 15  months. She also maintains a blog www.coastalasiaunrevealed.blogspot.com. To contact Aga you can mail her at [email protected]

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