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Sogang Korean Course for Waygookin
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Mashimaro



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 7:36 pm    Post subject: Sogang Korean Course for Waygookin Reply with quote

I'm thinking about taking a course at Sogang University and I just wanted to see if anyone had anything to say about the courses there. I've been using the learning content on their website for a while now and they seem pretty well organised. I guess one important question is how much it costs and have people found they improved alot?
Any comments on other courses are welcome too, I am looking for a focus on useful conversational korean rather than alot of grammar pr writing.

Cheers & thanks in advance


The online website is here.edited June 16, 2004 by kangnamdragon


Last edited by Mashimaro on Tue May 27, 2003 7:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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kimcheeking
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PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have two friends who have taken the classes and they both say it is great. If you want to know more you should send a pm to The Beaver.
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gang ah jee



Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

funny - i'm planning on enrolling for the october session

a few people i talked to have recommended sogang over yonsei.
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Tiger Beer



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I studied at SOGANG for 10 weeks.. i also really looked at Yonsei, Ehwa, and a couple others..

I chose Sogang because its mostly conversationally oriented.. whereas i heard Yonsei and others are very grammar oriented.. i also heard that alot of yonsei students know all kinds of detailed korean stuff but sometimes have no idea how to actually speak korean.. (kind of like some of the koreans who teach english here).. - having said that though.. if you can use your knowledge from Yonsei, etc.. maybe u have a girlfriend or something.. its probably the best education-wise..

Sogang is all conversation.. but.. this was my experience.. i was there 4 hours a day for 10 weeks and i was so overwhelmed.. i knew how to read/write korean characters.. and now maybe a few dozen phrases before going in.. so kind of a basis.. but i was very overwhelmed with how much information we were getting in a very short time.. everyday there were entire new conversations and dialogs and whole new sets of vocabularly to learn.. if you can't keep up on it on a daily basis.. you will fall far far behind extremely quickly!! so make sure you have alot of free time to absorb and study what you learn!!

I did fairly well the first few weeks.. then the middle few weeks i couldn't keep on top of it anymore.. and the last few weeks were so overwhelming that ultimately i dropped out maybe the 9th week because i really didn't want to face the exam at the end..

All in all though.. its a great course.. i like the books.. and it is extremely useful korean that you would use on a day-to-day basis.. if you know another foreign language (are language-literate) and have some strong korean basics.. you might do well the entire course.. but be warned.. its ALOT of work!! I mean i studied every night for hours and hours and hours.. but unfortunately i spent most of my time just memorizing vocabarly words rather then the whole dialogs/discussions that we'd be using the next day.. kind of overwhelming..

on the plus side.. its 9am-1pm.. or you can pay less and study 10am-1pm.. its around 1 million won (maybe more now)? and its a great social environment.. i was the only native-english speaker in my class.. half were from japan (half of those were korean-japanese), and the others were from china, taiwan, mongolia, turkey, and portugal.. nice mix of people!!

Also, most things that no one knows are described in english.. which is a great advantage to us.. particularly compared to the mongolian and turkish guys in my class which didn't know any english - actually they were basically learning korean and english at the same time..

The other thing.. Japanese students will walk circles around everyone else.. next being the chinese and mongolian students.. but japanese will pick up phrase and every phrase with incredible ease (although they can't pronunce all the syllables - they don't have the consonant ending sound on syllables).. but they will appear to be speaking fluent korean almost on the first day which gets annoying around week 3 or 4.. its kind of like english-speakers studying spanish.. half of the words are so familiar, etc.
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the_beaver



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 9:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't bother to PM me, I'll let it out here.

Yonsei is great if you have an insomnia problem. . . I studied in Yonsei's A program to level 5 (didn't quite make it to the end of that level) and I've never worked so hard to stay awake. Overall the teachers were good, but the textbook and study style -- ugh! If you're the kind of person who tends towards a logical/analytical approach to a language then you'll fit into Yonsei's grammar/vocabulary style.

Few people actually learn effectively this way, so that's where Yonsei's B program (a mere shadow, I'm given to understand, of Sogang's program) and Sogang come in.

I'm presently studying in Sogang at level 5 and it's an adventure in enjoyable, task-based, communicative learning. Getting up and going to school everyday is fun (of course, that depends on your classmates and teachers, but, as any off-center language student will try to do, I've molded the class to suit me).

In Yonsei my development after level 1 was hard to detect, but at Sogang I can feel improvement daily. While it really depends on your study preferences as to which school you will think is better, I personally recommend Sogang over Yonsei -- no contest at all.

I don't know about Yonsei's tuition, but Sogang is running around 1,290,000 for the four-hour a day semester, and 1,1350,000 for the three-hour a day semester. Go for the four-hour because it's not that much more and it's a nice, comfortable way to start your day and to incorporate writing into your learning.
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FierceInvalid



Joined: 16 Mar 2003

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quick question to those taking the uni courses: are you guys actually teaching full time in the evenings as well as studying four hours in the morning, or have you scaled back on teaching, or stopped entirely to study for a while? Doing both properly sounds like it would be extremely exhausting. I do one of the 2 hour per day courses and a relaxed teaching schedule, and my days are still pretty full.
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Tiger Beer



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2003 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

FierceInvalid wrote:
Quick question to those taking the uni courses: are you guys actually teaching full time in the evenings as well as studying four hours in the morning, or have you scaled back on teaching, or stopped entirely to study for a while? Doing both properly sounds like it would be extremely exhausting. I do one of the 2 hour per day courses and a relaxed teaching schedule, and my days are still pretty full.
during my 10 weeks at sogang, i couldn't teach fulltime too.. i think it would be impossible because it really takes ALOT out of you.. as does teaching..
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the_beaver



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 12:55 am    Post subject: nope Reply with quote

When I study Korean I usually don't have another job, but in the past I've pulled a 20-hour work week and studied Korean full time. Of the two, I much prefer not working (who doesn't) while studying.
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sid



Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Location: Berkshire, England

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do these places do rolling one-month courses or do you have to enrol at the start of the semester?
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Tiger Beer



Joined: 07 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sid wrote:
Do these places do rolling one-month courses or do you have to enrol at the start of the semester?
semester.. like being at university more or less.. Sogang was 10 weeks each session..
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periwinkle



Joined: 08 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2003 2:30 am    Post subject: winter enrollment Reply with quote

do you guys know when they have a winter class? I have vacation in Jnauary and February, and I really need to take the class. Thanks!!
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the_beaver



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2003 3:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sogang doesn't have its new calendar out yet (coming soon), but I think you'd need to study until mid-March in the winter semester.
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mrroboto



Joined: 29 Mar 2003

PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2003 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My contract ends in september, could I sign up and get something like a student visa? Not eligible to work, but able to live in korea for longer than my tourist visa, get an ARC card, etc? I want to study full time, but I could never do it while maintaining hagwon hours...
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sid



Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Location: Berkshire, England

PostPosted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 8:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So... has gang ah jee or anyone else enrolled for the next term at Sogang? I delayed too long and they have just informed me that the course is full. Sad
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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 9:27 pm    Post subject: yes Reply with quote

Is there an e-mail address I can contact them at? Or some detailed instructions of exactly where to go at the campus? I want to investigate right now, and I am a little pressed for time. I am thinking when I sign my next contract, I will try to work somewhere close to Sogang. 1/2 hour at the most. 3-4 hours plus teaching plus over an hour on the subway will really take it out of you.
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