Hannam University, Daejeon, South Korea (Salma)

  

Again a new post about another exchange and yes this time again it's in South Korea!!! 

A student from AUI is sharing with us today her life experience during her Fall 2014 semester in Hannam University, in Daejeon, in South Korea.

Let's discover together how it was!! 

Hello everyone! My name is Salma and I am a Senior student at Al Akhawayn University. I am majoring in Marketing and minoring in Finance.

I went last Fall 2014 on an exchange semester through the bilateral program offered by OIP to my dream country: South Korea!! I went to Hannam University in Daejeon.

ABOUT HANNAM UNIVERSITY:

Hannam University (since 1956) is a Private Christian University located in the city Daejeon. The campus is huge and open to everyone. You can find coffee shops everywhere on campus, and since the campus is open, there are convenience stores, restaurants and snacks just right next to it so you can easily get what you need before heading to class. Also, as an exchange student, we actually study in the Linton Global College which is the building set for international, exchange students, as well as Korean students taking English classes.

The university is simply beautiful during Fall with all the colorful trees around campus, the mini-lake, the stadium/soccer field…The library is pretty big, though I did not use it often since everything is in Korean. I didn’t get to explore all of the campus, never bothered to do so actually, since I only cared about the Linton Global College, the soccer field, library, and the close colleges like the Law College. That is where the copy center (printing and stuff) and the book stationary (where you get books) are.

Another good aspect of the university is that the Center for International Relations provides us with a Buddy System. So I got one Korean Female student helping me with all the korean forms to fill, pay the insurance, get a check-up at the hospital, and we became friends. Though I call her Unni (Eonni) which means older sister in Korean as a form of respect, I spent almost all of my time with her, traveling, going out discovering Daejeon and so on.

LANGUAGE:

Well I’ll be honest, in Daejeon and Hannam University and even around the campus, you will not find people talking in English. Besides the exchange and international students, faculty, and some classmates at Linton Global College. If you don’t know some basic Korean, well that’s gonna be hard, to adjust at first. I love Korean and South Korea in general so I learned a bit just from watching their TV shows and series (a.k.a. K-dramas). I guess it should be fine if you hang out with your buddy, and other exchange students. 

In the shops, convenience stores and restaurants, there are most of the time menus in english, and some of the staff (mostly part time college students) do know some basic english. 

ABOUT ACADEMICS:

The classes are easier than at AUI, like seriously. 
I took 2 electives, one major course, and a common course: 

• "Contemporary World Cinema" - Amazing class, doing quizzes about movies, a research paper, and the prof is real cool and funny! I advise you to take this class and the other classes he teaches. 
• "Intro to World Music" 
• "International Finance" - most interesting class I had that semester, got A and enjoyed it very much.
• "Management Information System" 

INTERNATIONAL DORM:

This is where I lived all semester, it's very nice and cozy since there are koreans and most of the exchange/international students in it. Also, it's literally a 3 min walk to get to the Linton Global College where we have our classes. We have a gym, laundry room, talking room, reading room, lounge with microwaves and TV, and a lift. The managers at the dorm are suuuuuper nice! They give us even food sometimes and during the midterms and finals period, they went around the dorm distributing muffins and banana milk to everyone to cheer us up! I miss those days really. 

TRIPS:

The first group outing at the beginning of the semester, we organized ourselves as exchange and international students together and we went to Puri Park. A very beautiful and huge park, with a great lake running within it. There was a stationary shop to eat and get souvenirs. Statues in the upper part of the park. Anyways, it was such a great experience, we took pictures, laughed, and got to know each other. We even got to pedal in the duck boats. We finished real late and we freaked out that we missed the last bus. Thankfully, we got onto it on time and went back to Daejeon, had dinner at McDonald’s (tasted super good! I even thought it was healthy, at least way better than the one we have in Morocco). That was one hell of an amazing day! 

Other than the small outings with my friends, or when we gather as exchange and some international students from all over the world (USA, Colombia, Peru, Sweden, Morocco, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, along with Koreans) Yep that is some great diversity and it was simply amazing! Anyways, the Center for International Relations organized different outings besides the Orientation dinner, like going on a Sunday to “Walk Together” event held annually next to Daejeon Expo Bridge.

Also, we went to Jeonju Hanok Village. It was a one night- 2 days trip. Absolutely memorable…

I went to Seoul a couple of times, celebrated my birthday there, had Moroccan food in a Arabian Restaurant in Itaewon (big district which has all foreigners gathered there and pretty much all the countries' restaurants)

I went with my Buddy to Daejeon's Museum, to the Hanbat Arboretum, Daejeon Expo Park, had picnics, went to Eunhaen-dong in the center of Daejeon (Big Shopping and cultural center like Myeongdong in Seoul) and many others.

So see all of Daejeon with the O world (theme park), go to Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, and why not to Jeju Island!! Just plan well and manage your time to make the best of your exchange life :D

NORAEBANG AND NIGHT CLUBS:

The Korean Culture is known also for Noraebang, to explain it I'll simply say it's Karaoke (thought this word comes from Japan). So, yeah I went many times to Noraebang, it's real fun. I sing like...like...yeah you don't wanna hear me sing. But I assure you it is a lot of fun, there are all sorts of songs you can pick, korean, japanese, american...

Koreans drink a lot, dance a lot... Yep they party a lot! If during the day, they are very formal and working diligently. The youth at night goes wild!! 

In Seoul, precisely in Hongdae, Gangnam, and Itaewon, the night clubs are just...phenomenal! (Check some videos on youtube)

MAJOR INFO:

• The University gathers all exchange students and picks them up from the Incheon International Airport.

• Side story: We thought (my friend and I) that they left without us because the flight was kinda late, so we exchanged our USD to korean won, bought tickets, and took a bus like big young adults, and later a cab to the university. Yeah, that was fun and kinda thrilling (language barriers with the taxi driver etc...) In the end, we were the first exchange students to get there. The rest were still waiting for us at the airport to pick us up. Did I mention Incheon and Daejon are like 2 hours or so, far from each other and that it was about 9pm when we got into our dorm? Yep. Imagine the others. Hahahaha didn't know whether to feel bad or not. Anyways, make sure to wait for them ok at the E gate if I recall. They'll wait for sure, believe me.

• When I left Morocco, I brought with me around 1000 USD in cash I think? And in my international card I had about 2000 USD or so. Believe it or not it was more than enough for me and I had money left in the card) 

• Of course, I exchanged all that cash I had into Korean Won since that's the currency there.

• The thing is when you pay the home university all the fees (tuition, housing, meals etc…) your card meal is supposed to be filled with about 700 USD. I actually got 1 000 USD in that card so I used it mainly. It was a debit card to retrieve money from the ATMs, used also as a student ID, and of course you can buy with it on campus and outside like a normal card).

• The CIR helped us open a Korean account there. As I said all that money was enough for me, I managed to eat as much as I needed and wanted, paid the insurance, rented blankets at the Dorm, filled my bus card, paid for cabs, went to Seoul for 2 or 3 trips etc...

• I think I regret not managing my time better to travel a whole lot more like to Busan, and Seoul more, Incheon, Gimpo, and other cities. So my advice is plan your trips ahead of time, with the budget needed and so on, and DISCOVER!! Enjoy to the max!! One semester is not even enough to see all of Daejeon or Seoul.

• Also, if you find courses for Spring Semester, you can extend your stay there to make it a One year exchange. Make sure to find the classes you need to take ok? And Spring semester is totally amazing. I had a friend in Hannam there last Spring, the beauty during that time of the year leaves you speechless.

• Don’t worry too much about the language or culture shock, just know a few facts before going and a few words too (or learn when you get there), and yeah just be respectful. Korean culture has a lot of formality in their everyday life. So be respectful to older people and new people you meet, and step by step you’ll get familiar. Really no stress! Just hang out with fellow exchange and friends you’ll make there.

• Plus, with the Buddy System you have a Korean student to help you out throughout the semester. I traveled to Seoul with my buddy, her boyfriend, and her sibling. So depending on the situation, you can make that buddy of yours your friend or even best friend.

Rex.D at Hannam University Fall Festival (Concert)

                               Eunhaeng-dong at Night, Daejeon center

Eunhaeng-dong 

Namsan Tower, Seoul

Breathtaking View from Namsan Tower 

Thank you Salma for your post!! We hope everyone enjoyed some information about Hannam University, the life there, and what to expect :)

                                      Stay tuned for the next exchange life experience...!