My friend and I at a rice wine, Makgeolli, festival (I’m the blonde one)

Author: Sam Giudice | Majors: International Studies and Asian Studies

As someone who had studied abroad in high school, I knew that I wanted to study abroad in college as well. I previously studied abroad in Taiwan, and I have grown increasingly interested in East Asia since then which led me to South Korea. I am currently planning on applying to various masters’ programs for East Asian studies and will go on after to get a PhD in Anthropology. My time spent abroad only increased my interest in this part of the world, and also gave me the opportunity to practice doing in-person research on the subject I am researching. Also, I was able to learn Korean which will benefit me greatly in the future.  Due to Covid restrictions in South Korea my courses remained online throughout the year. Despite this, my professors still made every effort to continue making classes engaging and open. I was still able to participate in many class discussions and witness many different lectures. I did have the chance to attend a winter term intensive Korean course in person. This course drastically increased my Korean level and took me from basic to conversational. I can confidently say that this course was the hardest course I have ever taken. It was 25 hours a week of Korean class. I ended up testing into a higher level than I had initially anticipated, and the learning curve was rather steep, but now I know it was so worth it. My classes at Yonsei were very focused on Korea and Korean culture, while I have been able to take courses at the U of A on various other Asian countries it was great to be able to take classes focused on Korea. Additionally, since South Korea is the focus of my honors thesis it was great to get some very in-depth coverage over the topic of my thesis.

I absolutely loved Korean food. My favorite Korean food is 곱창, Gobchang, which, as gross as it sounds, is actually cow intestine. But it is so yummy! You grill it over some hot coals and cook it until it is super crispy, and after that it absolutely melts in your mouth. Another very fun thing I got to do is take a dance class from a K-Pop idol! I learned K-Pop dances from a guy in the band Triger 트리거 and it was an absolute blast. When my friend and I found out he was in a band we absolutely lost it.

I would 100% recommend this program to other students, especially Yonsei. While I do think the experience would have been better had I been able to attend in-person class, I still had a great time. One thing I wish I knew before hand is that there are really not very many courses available to study abroad students. Most of the more interesting English-taught classes were only available to full-time foreign students. The first thing I did when I got home was go see my horse! I missed him so much while I was away and being able to see him again was amazing. He recognized my car when I pulled up and it was very heartwarming.