Experience report Lars König
ANR: 514541
Name: Lars Elyseüs Cornelis Paulus König
E-mail: l.e.c.p.konig@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester:
Fall 2014
Academic year: 2014/2015
Host University: Yonsei
Country: South Korea
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Yonsei University was founded in
Seoul by an American protestant
missionary in 1885 making it the oldest
university of Korea. The Christian
principles of its foundation can still be
found throughout the campus with a
modern church, chapel and rocks with
bible quotes carved in them which are
scattered throughout the campus and
lit by night. Most prominently the statue
of Mr. Underwood, the main founder,
can be found on the almost fairy tale
like Baroque-style old campus’
courtyard welcoming everyone who
visits Yonsei. The university is located
at the foot of one of the four guardian
hills of Korea’s capital Seoul, situating
it in the west centre of this 10 and a half
million inhabitants counting metropolis.
The hill in the backyard of the campus
allows you to escape the bustling city
life with a 45 minutes hike to the top One of the old campus' courtyards in autumn
after which you are rewarded with a
baffling view of the city that I could call
my home for four months. The international dorms were great and with the guys from my floor (the dorms
were gender split) who were mostly American I got to explore most of the surroundings and we went out
for dinner at least once per week.
The campus is simply huge and contains everything one needs to live there: restaurants, swimming
pool, cinema, (many) cafeteria’s, amphitheatre, sport facilities, parks, picturesque courtyards and many
young folks who are up for a chat and are interested in where you come from. The campus is located at
the Sinchon area of Seoul which is home to four universities and consequently has many bars, Korean
and Western style restaurants, tasty street food, noreabangs (karaoke places), dessert places, lots of
street musicians and each weekend a festival.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
I had no problems with my application and I received all the documents I needed to submit to the
embassy on time. The visa costs me 72 euro and it was made over a holiday I had in France. The only
problem I encountered was that at the Korean embassy they misspelled the German characters in my
name and my visa had to be redone, but with the Korean efficiency it was fixed in two hours without any
extra costs.
For my stay in Korea I had arranged dormitories on the campus which were rather convenient and at
the same price as my room here in Tilburg. Yonsei offered these together with the application form and
I could easily arrange them through an online application site. There were three options of which I took
the cheapest one which was a shared room, shared showers and restrooms. The other two options were
shared room with private shower and restroom or a single room with everything for your own. Although
sharing a room scared me a little bit at the start, actually having a roommate proofed to be a great
experience for you always have somebody to hang around with and actually having somebody in your
room makes you lots more productive. Although my roommates schedule was way different from mine,
it was never really a problem because we were respectful to each other sleep schedule.
Costs in Korea are way lower than those in the Netherlands, which consequently made me purchase
more luxury goods than what I would do back home. Since food from the supermarket almost equals
the prices of going out for dinner, I simply went out for food every night. Luckily there was lots to choice
from. From Korean BBQ, to Japanese cuisines and homemade hamburgers. Study books are really
cheap in Yonsei and are printed on the campus. Public transport in Seoul is top notch and not too
expansive using an electronic card for metro and bus. All in all I spend most of my money on food, since
I didn’t fancy going out for shopping as most of my peers did of supposedly cheaper prices than in our
home countries. I could finance this with the study finance I got from the Dutch government (including
money return from OV) and some extra money I got from my parents.
The school offered an introduction session with all the practical information we needed, with the
exception of a decent information on getting an alien registration card, but this could be figured out by
yourself eventually. I also got myself into the buddy program with whom we got out to dinners, a market
and a ferry tour on the Han River. Furthermore the Yonsei Global association (which also owns a Global
lounge on campus for meetings, studying and relaxation) organized extensive city tours during the first
week which included visiting the Nam Sam Tower (Radio and communication tower which includes an
observation deck situated on the southern guardian hill of Seoul) during the night, day tours to the Hanok
Village (Traditional Korean villages), National Museum, War Museum (very impressive) and the shrine
of the Kings. I was also a member of the Buddy program of the university which linked me and five other
students to a Korean student who would supposedly show us around in Seoul. In the end this program
wasn’t really a success and we only ended up going on an activity three times, however it was still fun.
I didn’t take any languages course because I figured that studying a language intensively for four
months after which I would never use it again would be rather useless. However learning how to read
the Korean script called Hangul is supposedly not so difficult for it is phonetic script. Still I didn’t study
it myself which I somewhat regret right now, so definitely try to study it yourself once you are there!
Nevertheless it is absolutely not required to know the language to get around in Korea. Unlike Japan,
most Koreans have some decent knowledge on the English language, even though they generally
don’t know how to speak it. Ordering food is not really a problem, I usually just pointed at the pictures
of the food that I wanted, or I would be pleasantly surprised by the dish they would serve for me.
One tip I have to give is that you have to go on exchange without any expectations, this allows you to
be amazed by all the things that cross your path while in a new country. How can your hand be filled if
you filled it yourself already? I therefore wasn’t really culture shocked, for all the experiences I had I
took it as they were. Korea is nevertheless a world apart from the Dutch culture I am used to. In Korea
people are very hard working and study is especially important. Most Koreans I met didn’t really had a
hobby because their study was so time consuming, something I found rather unpleasant and
inefficient. Age is a very important factor in interactions, for the Korean culture is very hierarchical
which is even reflected in their language. The senior of a group is followed without question, but this
also puts a lot of pressure on him or her. Questioning authority is not tolerated, which makes decision
making clear but ineffective if the senior makes mistakes. One deterred part of the Korea culture I
really couldn’t stand was the importance of once looks. Looking good is generally regarded as more
important than your talents. About 20% of all girls have gone under plastic surgery before they are 20
years old.
KOREA EXPERIENCE
One asset of studying at Yonsei is that you are practically studying at the Harvard of Korea and every
person you meet on the street or even outside of Seoul will look at you with great admiration once you
tell them you are a student there. Also you reap the benefits from this status in your curricula having
classes from important figures in Korean business, academics or politics and with guest lectures from
prominent figures. During my stay there was a guest lecture I could freely attend by the prime minister
of Finland on education for example. One of the most memorable experiences of my stay at Yonsei was
the so called YonKo-Games which take place in October. This is a huge sports event in which the
university sport teams of Yonsei University and Korea University (the Yale of Korea you might say)
compete at the Olympic stadium of Seoul. The sight of a stadium filled in blue (Yonsei) and red (KU)
colours and thousands of students cheering for their teams with an enthusiasm unseen in any other
place in the world will not leave me any time soon.
Going to Korea gave me the great opportunity to
see more of East Asia. Before going to Korea I
took a flight to Tokyo, Japan, and from there
hitchhiked all the way to Fukuoka to take the ferry
to Busan and travel to Seoul, making stops at
Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. Even
though Japan is expensive (unless you hitchhike
and couchsurf like I did) it is a country one simply
has to have visited once in their lifetime! The
people, nature and culture are absolutely beautiful
and intriguing. For me it made Korea pale in
comparison for the time that I studied at Yonsei.
Luckily Korea redeemed itself when I went
hitchhiking for two weeks through the country
after my semester was over. The beauty of
travelling through Korea after the semester was
that I got to learn a lot about the Korean history
and the people which made the places I was
allowed to visit, from the 9th century temples in
Gyeongju to the UN cemetery in Busan, a lot of
sense. During this winter trip I was allowed to The 9th century Buddhist temple of Bulguk-sa situated in Gyeongju, the capital
meet many more amazing people and discover of Korea during the Silla dynasty. This temple is now on the UNESCO world
new things about Korea as well, such as spending heritage list.
a weekend with the monks at a Buddhist temple,
spend a night at a jinjibang (sauna) and hike up one of the national parks. The magic of travelling never
is about the places you visit but lies in the people you meet and in Korea you will definitely meet a lot of
special people that will make being there all the worthwhile.
I am very happy that I did the DMZ tour to the border
between North and South Korea at the Joint Security
Area which left a deep impression on me. Knowing that
only 40 kilometres from the city I lived was a military
power that is still technically at war with South Korea that
is only being withheld by an 8 kilometre strip of land
covered by barbwire and landmines made my stay here
rather surreal.
At the Joint Security Area on the border between North and
South Korea
But now all the standard talks aside, my
stay in Korea had a life-changing impact
for one single reason: God. Coming to
Korea I wanted to grow in two things,
academically and spiritually. Little did I
understand that by growing spiritually
one can achieve all other things. At
Yonsei I joined the campus ministry
called Emmaus which consisted out of a
group of people who were eager to talk
about, but especially experience, God.
Through their services and retreat I got
to experience a positive transformation
in my view on life and on myself. This
allowed me to overcome obstacles I
always deemed to be unconquerable
and to have control in areas of my life
that I couldn’t think of before. This
enabled me to take on the study load
without a problem and do more things,
Performance at the Gyeongbokgung Palace of Seoul for the Dutch King and Queen (I am
especially also for others. I helped
the guy with the beard below the Queen)
people who were struggling with
problems of their own, without any
second thoughts I fed homeless people (which was recorded by a friend who keeps a VLOG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-7wndVQzoY ) and by putting trust upon God (it’s a long story) I
eventually was allowed to perform for the Dutch King and Queen at the Gyeongbokgung palace on their
state visit to Korea. It is a little bit hard to explain all the lessons I’ve learned in this experience report
and how significant these were in my life, but I hope this will give a chance for those who read this to
broaden their view on what an exchange can mean to you. It can most definitely be more than just
meeting new people, partying and seeing new places!
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
I followed my courses in English and I didn’t take any language courses. I took two courses in
Anthropology, one specialized in Globalisation and one in Human Rights, because I wanted to expand
my knowledge in this particular field. Besides that I took one course on traditional Korean society and
modernisation because I was interested in how the Korean society came to be as it is today. My last
course was one on community welfare, because this gives an insight into how to practically improve
parts of society. I could really recommend the course on Anthropology and Human Rights because the
readings were of a high quality and I truly felt like I learned a new thing every week. For example the
ideas on how Neoliberal political rationality could turn citizens into self-managing agents that turns all
aspects of their being into commodities.
The academic level is about the same as of Tilburg University for the fourth year courses I took and
slightly lower for all the other courses. Most academic texts I had to read were international, so that
wasn’t that much different from what I have to read at home. For the human rights course we had class
presentations followed by class discussions, the final grade was based on your presentation, class
participation and paper. For the globalisation course we had class presentations followed by a lecture,
the final grade was made up from a group paper and final exam. Community welfare and Korean society
classes were all classic lectures for which you were graded with an exam. I had no close relationship
with any lecturer, but the lecturer of human rights. She took us for dinner at the end of the semester at
which we could have some nice colloquial conversations.
The university library is centrally located on the campus and accessible using your university card. There
aren’t many computers, but most people use their laptops anyway so there is always a spot available.
There were also many public computers scattered around the campus for printing, although I used them
quite often to check my e-mail or look something up.
Description of Courses
Please list all courses you have taken at a partner university in the form below:
 Course title and code
 Course level (BA/MA)
 Prerequisites, if any
 Form of exam
 ECTS credits you have obtained in total:
 Comments: Relevance, Difficult/easy, Practical/theoretical, Enrolment problems
Course name:
Prereq.
Exam
Traditional Korean Society & Modernization (IEE3121)None Written
Community Welfare & Practice (SOW3123) None
Written
Global Issues from Anthropological Perspective (ANT4107)Written
Special topics in Anthropology(ANT3115)2 subjects in SS Paper
Major
Approved as
Exchange
Common
Community Welfare Common
Anthropology
Common
Anthropology
Common
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Tips for the future students:
 Would you recommend an exchange period?
Hell yes! It’s one of the most impressive experiences of your life!
 Would you recommend your host university?
Absolutely, it’s one of the best universities in Korea, or Asia for that matter and just the campus is an
inspiration in itself. The courses are interesting and you get lectures from interesting and renowned
professors.
 What should prospective students absolutely not forget before going on exchange?
Have an open mind and don’t plan too much. You will meet awesome people with whom you will be
discovering Seoul. Relax and enjoy!
 How can they better prepare before going on exchange to this destination?
Learn how to read Hangul, it makes your stay a lot easier. I wouldn’t recommend to take an intensive
language course, but it is just very useful and it makes you feel more part of the society.
 Was there anything you should have arranged before departure that you haven’t?
Check if my mobile phone could receive Korean signals. I practically wasn’t reachable during my time
in Korea because my phone didn’t work and I don’t want to contribute to war, child labour and the
depletion of the Earth’s resources (http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals) by
buying a new phone there.
Contact details:
I am more than willing to answer questions by prospective exchange students to Korea.
larskong@hotmail.com