Yonsei University, South Korea

I am currently in South Korea at Yonsei University, a university that is in the top 3 within South Korea. Hence, everyone on campus holds pride and class. During orientation, they announced that there are about 940 students on exchange this semester. This makes me realize how lucky I am to have this opportunity to study and meet people from all over the world. Also, the campus is huge with aesthetically pleasing buildings, which makes the walk into classes enjoyable.

Yonsei offers many society clubs to allow Korean students and exchange students connect and feel welcomed. I have joined a couple, including Yonsei English Society (YES). YES is an extremely inclusive club that has many social activities, for example this semester they are doing a musical of La La Land which I will be apart of.  Furthermore, other clubs such as Mentor’s club is provided to divide exchange students into “cells”. These cells consists about 12 people, enabling the opportunity to meet people that are out of your social group.

Korea has this culture where each club goes on MT, which stands for Mentors Training. This is like going on camp, doing activities such as scavenger hunt and lots of drinking games. This is probably something I found most surprising. Korea has a huge drinking culture, where they casually drink almost everyday at dinner and social events. This means the night culture is huge. Hence walking on the streets at around 10pm shocks me to see so many lights and people on a weekday.

Moreover, the subjects I am studying are mostly related to my major back at home. However one interesting subject I’m studying is called Korean Popular culture. In this subject we listen to traditional and current Kpop music. I wasn’t really a fan of KPOP before exchange, but I think I will come back a huge KPOP fan. I am super excited for what the rest of the semester is going to bring and I can’t wait to share them when I am back!

Christina Park
Bachelor of Communication (Public Communication)
Yonsei University
South Korea

Australian Government New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant recipient.

For more information about the UTS Global Exchange program please visit: www.global-exchange.uts.edu.au