The Language Program at the SNU pt. 1

Some are surprised that I didn't go to Korea just for traveling and sightseeing, but in fact, my trip is mainly shaped by the language course that I longingly decided to take a long time ago. Friends who know me and watch me every day know that I have been diligently learning Korean for about 1.5 years on my own, mainly with the help of the books from "Talk to me in Korean (TTMIK)". What once started with K-Pop music, lyrics and K-Dramas spilled over into a huge passion for the Korean language and the culture to better understand it. Whoever travels to Korea does not necessarily have to be able to speak Korean, but reading the characters (Hangeul) is almost a must and makes things a lot easier. Anyone who has read my other posts will also know that English will not get you very far here either, so speaking the language is definitely an advantage if you don't want to be solely dependent on Google Translate. That's why I have decided to take a language course at the most famous university in Korea/Seoul, the Seoul National University (SNU).

The article is divided into two parts: first the beginnings - from the idea to the registration process to the notification of admission and in the second part the actual language course and how it works, what awaits you etc.

My original idea was to teach English in Korea. I overheard some friends doing this in Thailand and thought I could try the same thing in Korea. Unfortunately, this is not so easy. When I was taking a Hangeul course (Hangeul = the Korean writing system) at my university and talking to my teacher about it, she said that as a foreigner it was not so easy to work in Korea and that as a teacher there you actually needed training or some kind of proof . I had none of it. But in the end it was her who recommended a language course to me instead, namely at the SNU, since she did it there as well. She had my mind set and within the same day I gathered all the information I needed, combed through all the websites and then decided not to proceed until the time was right. And that was after I finally finished my bachelor thesis in March. From then on, I really got involved with the language course and the requirements I had to meet for it. SNU is considered the university in South Korea, apparently only the best, the smartest and the hardest-working go there. I might as well have chosen another university as so many other universities offer identical language courses for the same price, e.g. Ewha, Sogang, Yonsei etc. But I chose the SNU anyways.

The language course is offered by KLEC at SNU. You can find the website here: KLEC SNU
Four times a year you can register for different sessions according to the seasons: autumn, winter, spring and summer; And also at different course times, in the morning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or in the afternoon from 1.30 p.m. to 5.50 p.m. The registration deadlines for the sessions are always different. The 10-week course can be completed online or offline and you can also take part in three-week intensive courses or courses for expert learners. If you want to know more, you can simply check the website. I applied for the fall session, which runs from September 5th to November 11th. The registration period for this began in April of this year and that's exactly where I applied because I really wanted to go to the morning class and this was based on a first come first serve basis. A course consists of a maximum of 15 people.

To apply, I had to meet a few criteria and take care of a few things. Since I don't need a D-4 visa there wasn't much work I had to do. Nevertheless, I had to take care of an apostille, a certification document from a competent authority that states that my school or university certificate is officially and internationally approved; for around €25. Since I applied with my school certificate, I needed a pre-authentication from my school, which I had to get from the state school authority in my city - but this was free of charge. I actually got my apostille back by mail after three days. You can find the apostille application formula to fill out on the website of the responsible apostille office in your city. Now all that was missing was the certified/notarized translation of my certificate into English, for which I paid almost €80 at a translation agency. If you are enrolled at a university, you must also attach an overview of your achievements (status of your grades) in English. In addition, you have to hand in a current CV, a letter of motivation/statement of purpose max. 1 DIN-A 4 page, a copy of the current passport and pay processing fee of €40 when registering for the course.

For the language course for this year's fall session, I paid a sum of 1,730,000 KRW, the equivalent of almost 1350€ at the time. I chose the regular 10 week course as I was planning to use the full 90 days of my tourist visa anyway. After all, that's what I had saved up my money for for so long, so I wanted to stay in Korea for as long as possible. Then why don't I stay longer? There are several reasons for this. For a longer stay I need a visa, which would not only have meant more work, but I would either have had to have family in Korea, be enrolled at a university for a semester or work here. There is also a holiday visa or a work and travel visa, but I didn't feel ready for this. You can only apply for this visa once in your life and I would like to spend a whole year in Korea for this. But everything was too uncertain for me - would I find work in Korea? Would I be comfortable there? So it seemed easier to me to fly there for three months to get a first impression.

After almost three months of waiting, I finally got my letter of admission in July. So I made it into the SNU and I was ecstatic! In August, about two weeks before the start of the language course, we had to take the online test, in which you were assigned a Korean level on a scale of 1-6 and higher. This was followed a week later by an 8-minute interview via Zoom, where you had to answer questions. The final level was decided after this.

The online test had a maximum time frame of 70 minutes and could be completed within a week at a time that was convenient for you. Since it was supposed to be completed independently, I'm not sure if the time was checked at all, but I didn't want to take the risk either. The test was divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate and expert. Each level consisted of about 21 questions - mainly you had to fill in gaps and at the end answer questions in a box with your own Korean sentences. Caution: It is best to carry out the test on a device with a Korean keyboard! Listening was not queried at all. Level 1 was completely feasible for me and there were still some romanizations/translations used. From level two, there were no more romanizations and the grammar became very difficult, and the questions could hardly be understood - at least for me. I answered almost half of it and left level three completely blank. Here it is important to keep in mind that this test reflects only the current state of your level. It's not expected to do anything, nor is it a test/examination, and it's perfectly fine not to know something. Ultimately, it's about being truthfully assigned to your current level in order to get better from there.

I was very excited about the interview because speaking is very different from reading and writing. Of all things, hearing Korean is the hardest for me - Koreans mumble, speak quickly and very quietly. If you don't know the required vocabulary, you can quickly become helpless and hundreds of question marks will buzz in your head. I didn't know what to expect and tried to prepare sentences in advance. However, I had the bad luck that my questions were also divided into three blocks: beginner, intermediate and expert. Other than expected questions like "why do you come to Korea? What are your hobbies?" etc. I was first asked about the current time. Number systems - ok. But phew, when was the last time I used this? Anyone familiar with number systems in Korean knows that Koreans use two number systems: Korean and Chinese/Sino-Korean. The hour is expressed in Korean words, the minutes in Sino-Korean words. Luckily it was 10:47 a.m. for me! I know the number for 10 inside and out. If it had gotten the number 8 or 7, I would have had to think longer. The number 47 was fine too, because I'm more familiar with the Sino-Korean numbers than the Korean ones. But the problem is that the number three is similar to the number four. The number three translates as "sam" and the number four "sa". Out of sheer excitement, I made a mistake and accidentally said 37 instead of 47. There was a long silence until the teacher tried to draw my attention to the mistake and I didn't understand it at first. To my disappointment, I didn't understand the next two questions either - so the interview really didn't go well from my point of view.
My two German friends were luckier because they had to have a casual conversation about themselves, their hobbies and their parents' jobs. Things I could have talked about, too. Nevertheless, I made it to the second level, because the first one would have been far below my level. In the end, I ended up where I wanted to be and what I expected, so I'm satisfied.

From then on, I waited another week until the course finally started. A few days before the course starts you are added to a virtual classroom via Google. There, the teachers introduced themselves - three different ones just for my course (Monday one, Tuesday and Thursday another one, Wednesday and Friday another one again). All materials and homework are also uploaded there. In addition, we needed a total of four books for the entire semester - two student books A and B and the associated workbooks A and B. These can be bought together on the university campus or in a bookstore for the equivalent of about 70€.

And then you are ready for the language course!