I just finished taking my last final, and with that, my study abroad has come to an end! These past four months have been such an incredible experience, and I am so grateful for this opportunity. To the people I met, and friends I made, thank you for making this experience amazing.
Here’s a short summary of the classes I took: IEE3325 - Business & SocietyLike the course name, this class is about how business and society interact with each other. I learned about how to create and maintain a relationship between the business and its stakeholders, mixing technology, business and society, and more. Professor Pak is very knowledgeable and kind. This class was all international students, and he remembered where most of us came from, saying “Aloha,” and “Mahalo” to me. lol. Had a group case presentation and two exams (midterm & final) that were very straightforward. BIZ3135 - International Marketing (MKT381) 3135 was an interesting course, especially if you are interested in possibly doing business abroad. I felt like it was pretty similar to MGT342 (International Management) back at Shidler. You learn about the tasks of an international marketer (how to enter a market, marketing mix, etc.). The professor is very sweet and is the academic advisor for the basketball team, so he has likes to talk a lot about basketball! There were only three assignments, a CMO report, group presentation and paper on a company and a final exam. Overall, I definitely learned a lot from this class, but I do wish that it was more structured. The instructions for the assignment were pretty vague, so it was a bit difficult to gauge what was really wanted in the report and presentation. However, there were two things I really enjoyed about this class. One is that the TA video records all of the lectures, so it’s easy to go back and watch them all for review, which I really appreciated, especially when studying for the huge final exam. Second is that the class was 2/3 Korean students and 1/3 international students. At first it was a bit difficult to make friends since they were a bit shy, but I was able to be good friends with my group mates, and it was interesting to hear of their backgrounds and their perceptions on different topics. BIZ4183 - Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility (MGT Elective) This class was my most challenging class; however, I found it to be the most interesting and learned the most from this class. The first half of the class was focused on ethics, learning about different ethical views (like Deontology, Virtue ethics) and psychological pathways and the second half focused on CSR. This class was challenging since I didn’t know how complex ethics and CSR are. However, it made me realize how interested I actually am in CSR and how I would like to focus on it for my career. The professor is very kind and knowledgeable and encourages you to ask questions. This class had two presentations and two exams. If you have even the slightest interest in ethics and CSR, I definitely recommend this class to you! Here are some memorable moments of study abroad: Yonko Games
Public Transportation
TIPS: Make a Bucket List
Keep your finances in check
Bring the right clothes
Culture shock is definitely real
Have Fun!
Whether you are from UH, or have randomly stumbled upon my blog, I just want to say good luck to you during your time abroad. It is an amazing experience, and I hope that this blog has helped you, even in the tiniest bit!
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As the semester winds down, I've been busy meeting up with my groups for projects, studying for finals and trying to enjoy the rest of my time in Korea. I haven't been doing too much, so I decided to have this blog be about the must-have apps (in my opinion), you need for Korea! 1. KakaoTalkOut of all of my apps for Korea, this is my most used one. Before leaving, I downloaded it since I knew a lot of people use it to communicate but I thought that I would still do most of my communication through iMessage on the iPhone. I was wrong. Everyone uses KakaoTalk here, from high school students all the way to grandmas and grandpas. In Korea, you'll most likely have a group project, and I'm 99.99% sure you'll use KakaoTalk in order to communicate with your group mates. It is the easiest way to communicate since every one uses it and it allows you to easily send pictures, and files, like Word Docs. Same goes for different clubs that you might be joining. You can also send you location, which makes it easy when meeting up with your friends, send photos/videos/music, put up announcements, and more. There is also a version that you can download from the App Store to use KakaoTalk on your laptop (Mac and PC). There are tons of cute emoticons (KakaoFriends) that you can use as well! *If you fall in love with the KakaoFriends characters, don't worry, you can buy their merchandise basically everywhere! 2. Naver Maps/KakaoMapThese are two different apps, but both are for navigating. Naver Maps: I love Naver Maps! With this app, you'll get routes by car, walking, and public transportation. It also has a tracker, so you can see where you are as you continue on the route. They also give you multiple routes by least amount of walking, fastest, etc. Most of the time, I am traveling through public transportation and Naver Maps is a lifesaver! It'll give you multiple routes you can take via subway and bus and will give you alternative buses you can take. Another reason why I like to use this is because it gives you real-time updates on where the bus is at, so you know exactly when the bus will come (unlike Hawaii lol). Kakao Map: This is another navigation app, but I don't use it as much as Naver Maps. I like to keep it as a back-up just in case Naver Maps isn't working or to just double check that I am headed the right way, especially if I am headed somewhere far. Like Naver Maps, Kakao Map gives a real-time updates on the location of the bus, but it also tells you how crowded the bus is, which I find really cool. 3. MangoPlateUnfortunately, Yelp doesn't work in Korea :( Luckily there is a similar app that you can use, MangoPlate. MangoPlate is like Yelp, where you can look up different restaurants, get directions to them, and look and add photos and reviews. It has filters, so you can find restaurants that are within a specific price range or a specific type of food. The app is in both Korean and English, but majority of the reviews are in Korean. Nonetheless, it's easy to get an idea of the prices and the menu based on the pictures. You can also check-in at the places you've been to and make a list of places you want to go to. MangoPlate's editors have also compiled different lists that you can look at. For example: Best Places to Eat in Ewha and Best Places to Eat by Yonsei University. 4. Google TranslateI remember being in Japanese class in high school, and getting in trouble for using Google Translate and was told to never use it since it's not accurate. That's probably still true, but Google Translate really helps when trying to understand words. You might not be able to understand the full sentence, but you can get the key words and try to put it together to make sense. If you can read in Korean, you can just type the word or write it out to get the meaning. If not, you can use the camera mode or take a picture and swipe on which words you would like translated. 5. Yonsei AppsThere are a bunch of apps that Yonsei has developed for its students, but there are two that I would recommend you to get. Y-Attend: Sometimes for attendance, your professor will require you to mark your own attendance with your student ID card. All of the rooms in the business building have a small machine by the doors of the room (Not completely sure about the other buildings, but I'm pretty sure they have them as well). To account your attendance, all you have to do is scan your card on the pad. You can do this, or you can mark yourself in through the Y-Attend app. Once downloaded, all you have to do is sign in with your student ID and password and the app should automatically mark you as present, via bluetooth. This app makes checking in a lot easier, and is a lifesaver when I sometimes forget my ID card in my dorm room. mY-Seat 2: This app is a little bit more confusing since it's only in Korean (but thanks to Google Translate, I've been able to figure it out!). This app is to reserve seats in the library. After logging in with your student ID, you can see all of the seats available to use in both libraries on each floor. From there, you can reserve the certain seat you would like to use. If you are confused about this app, you can ask the library concierge on the 1st floor of the Central Library. They may not speak English, but they really try their best to help! Update: This app is also in English! You just have to click on the settings gear icon on the top right corner and you can change it to English. (I found out 3 months late lol) These are some of the apps that I found really helpful during my study abroad here in Korea. I hope that you find these helpful as well!
I took a train to Busan, and luckily did not run into any zombies! At the beginning of November, my parents, and aunty and uncle came to visit Korea. Their trip worked out really well, especially when they came at a time where I was feeling really homesick and going through culture shock (Will talk about later). For their trip, they planned on spending a week in Busan and a week and a half in Seoul. I decided to meet them in Busan and spend the weekend. I visited Busan last year during my trip to Korea, and was very excited to go again!
It's the middle of the semester meaning that midterms are upon us, fam.
At Yonsei, there is a midterm period of about a week (10/17-23). During this time, most classes are cancelled for you to study, and you only attend classes when you have your exam. Out of my three classes, two didn't have class while one did, so it really depends on your teacher. I had two midterms, one for BIZ4183 (Ethics and CSR) and IEE3325 (Business and Society). BIZ4183 was scheduled on Monday, the 22nd. This exam was composed of multiple choice questions, true/false questions, and scenarios/cases. It covered four chapters, as well as our professor's own psychological approach method. This exam was a little more difficult than I expected, but I am still waiting back to get my results. IEE3325 was a week later, on the 29th. This exam was multiple choice and true/false questions. This exam covered ten chapters, which was pretty daunting to me; however, I found this exam to be easier than I expected. Update: I got my tests back and am pretty happy with my results! One of, if not the most exciting things about studying abroad at Yonsei during the fall semester is the YonKo Games! The YonKo Games refers to the sports competition between Yonsei and Korea University, two of the best universities in the country. This competition goes back to the 1920s and is still a huge part of the school's culture. The two schools compete in five sports: baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby and ice hockey over the span of two days. Besides the sports, cheering is an integral part of the YonKo Games. Both schools have their own cheerleaders, who dance and lead the audience in cheers. Entry to baseball, rugby, and soccer are free but tickets are required for ice hockey and basketball. I wanted to go to as many games as possible, but ice hockey and basketball especially. I heard that tickets for these two are really difficult for students to get, especially international students, which is one of the reasons why I joined the Mentors Club. At the beginning of the semester, they mentioned that they would be able to get tickets for us if we joined. Unfortunately, a couple of days before the YonKo Games, I received a message that they were not able to get any tickets for us, so it was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, I was definitely excited to watch the other sports and cheer! Everland!Let's start this blog post off on a happy note - EVERLAND! Coming back from Jeju on the 24th, I still had two more free days until school started again. Thinking that most people would be going back to their hometowns, my friends and I thought that it would be go to Everland since it wouldn't be crowded. We were wrong. It was really crowded that day, but nonetheless very fun! Getting to Everland
Everland is far from Yonsei - about two hours away. I first took the 470 bus from the Ewha Women's University Back Gate (only a five minute walk away from the dorms) and got off at the Sinbundang Line in Gangnam. From there, I took the 5002 bus straight to Everland. Just be warned that the 5002 bus can get super crowded. (It was definitely not a fun bus ride, but still better than the one I took in Jeju) It's a two-story, coach bus, and it was so crowded that we were either standing or sitting on the stairs. The 5002 bus dropped us off at a large bus stop area. From there, we took a free Everland shuttle to the actual park. There was a long line to get onto the shuttles, but they are continuously running that we only waited about 10 minutes to get on one. For weeks 5 & 6, I will have two parts for the blog. Part 1 is about my Chuseok holiday in Jeju!
Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays in Korea. It's Korea's version of our Thanksgiving holiday, where people go back to their hometowns and spend time relaxing with their families. (you can read more about it here). This year, Chuseok was from Sunday, September 23rd to Tuesday, September 25th. Since this is the only time in the semester where we get four days off, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Jeju. My friends were originally planning on going out of the country for Chuseok; however, since I had already applied for my ARC, I wasn't able to leave the country. Because of this, our trip to Jeju was very sudden. It was the week before Chuseok and I was looking for flights to Jeju. I told Annie and that night we ended up booking our tickets. We scheduled our flights to fly out on Thursday, September 21st and come back on Monday, September 24th. We chose these dates for the price and availability. Since people go back to their hometowns or go on vacation during Chuseok, the flights on Friday (22nd) and Tuesday (25th) were all sold out or were ridiculously expensive. Luckily, Thursday still had flights and we don't have class on Fridays so it worked out well. We booked the flight through Jeju Air and in total, it only cost about $95. (This is expensive for a typical flight to Jeju as one way usually costs around $25 but considering we were going during Chuseok and it was only the week before, I think it was a good price) Week 3 and 4 are over! These past two weeks have mainly been me adjusting to my classes, exploring more of Seoul and getting ready for my trip to Jeju. Here are some of my highlights from this past weeks. Insadong - September 14, 2018 One of my favorite things about my class schedule is that I do not have classes on Fridays, which gives me more time to go out and explore Seoul. Luckily my other friends, Pono and Annie also have no classes on Friday so we decided to go to Insadong for the day. Insadong is a very popular tourist destination that is known for its traditional goods and various art galleries. At Insadong, we first decided to eat some mandoo at a very popular restaurant. We got a set of nine various mandoo, and my personal favorite was the fried mandoo. It was so good! We then decided to walk through the different alleys and stumbled upon this small Korean restaurant. We ordered a steamed egg and a seafood pancake. Overall, it was pretty good. After eating we decided to walk around ssamzigil, the famous spiral walk-way plaza in Insadong. It was filled with super cute shops and interesting art work. Definitely a must see in Insadong. Insadong is probably one of my favorite places I have been to since arriving here. I love how it is a mix of traditional and modern shops and atmosphere. I think it is awesome how they write all store names in Hangul, even though it may be an American brand like Starbucks. Week one is officially over! This post will cover some of my highlights from 8/27-9/4.
Orientation - August 27, 2018 On Friday, August 27th, I had two orientations to attend to. The first was the housing orientation at 9:30am. It was about 10 minutes long and went over basic rules about living at SK Global and in Korea. The second orientation was for all exchange students studying at Yonsei. The orientation first started off with a traditional Korean performance by one of the student clubs, which was pretty cool. The orientation then continued on with various speakers talking about academics at Yonsei, the library, student/campus life and lastly, clubs that we are able to join. Out of all the clubs, I found the volunteering club, called Global Angels to be the most interesting. Keep reading to see how club sign-ups went. Overall, the orientation was about two hours and I found it to be very informative and helpful. On Tuesday, August 21st, I jumped on a plane and headed to South Korea for the semester with two other Freeman Scholars, Annie and Pono. We flew with Korean Air and departed at 1:25pm (HST) and arrived at Incheon Airport at around 6:00pm (Korean time). Our move-in date for the dorms was on August 24th, so we decided to fly in a couple of days earlier to settle down a bit before moving in. For these days, we decided to stay at an Airbnb, one that I highly recommend, especially if you are going to be studying at Yonsei. I highly recommend this airbnb for 3 reasons:
After checking into our airbnb, we decided to walk around the Hongdae area. It was a Wednesday but there was still so many people out and about! It was a bit late, so we ended up going to the convenience store to eat. Still very good (and cheap)! The next day we decided to go to Myeongdong. At Myeongdong, we were able to exchange our money, shop around, and eat Isaac Toast, one of my favorite breakfast places! The next day, the 24th, we were able to move into the dorms. Annie and I decided to take a taxi from our airbnb to the dorms, which only cost $6. The check-in process was very simple, we just handed our passports and our TB test and was able to get our room keys. The dorms are really nice and I love how it has air conditioning, especially in this hot, muggy weather! Stay tuned for more about the dorms because I will be making another post dedicated to them. The rest of the days have just been us exploring and relaxing. The food has been delicious and the shopping is great! Check out the gallery below to see some of the food and sights I have experienced so far! Lastly, here are some of my initial tips since arriving:
Make sure to check out some of the foods/sights I have seen since arriving in Korea! Till next time! |
About Me
Hi! My name is Keri Kawatachi and I am an upcoming senior at the University of Hawaii. I am pursuing degrees in Human Resource Management and International Business, and will be studying at Yonsei University in South Korea during the Fall 2018 semester. Follow me and my adventures in Korea!
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