Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thebektionary]

I am serious about learning Korean and I don't find that learning on my own is doing me much good. I looked into the Yonsei program. It's 810,000 won for April-June. It's from 6:30pm-9:30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I've heard good things about this program.

I know some people who go to a Korean hagwon and pay about the same price (400,000 won a month) but they go four times a week for three hours a class. This sounds like better value for money, but if Yonsei is better quality instruction, I would rather go to Yonsei.

What does everyone think about this? Any advice?

[highstreet]

You're better off posting the name of the hagwon. Some Korean lang hagwons are great and some aren't. I don't know about night classes at Yonsei, but the morning classes are decent IMO, only if you're a complete beginner.

[thebektionary]

[stefanie1011]

Hello. I am also still deciding where to go. I really heard a lot of comments saying that Yonsei cover more vocab/grammer. I think if you are still a beginner, you may want to join Yonsei first and then you may change to another university after a few levels?

I heard that Sogang have more speaking practice though.

I have thought of going to Yonsei but as I have learn korean language before so I thought of going to other university which have both equal speaking and writing practice instead of one.

[pkang0202]

Yonsei recently revamped their entire Korean program this year.

The University programs are pretty expensive. You can learn Korean at places like Gangnam UCR for much cheaper than Yonsei or Sogang.

[spicy]

Depending on what you're doing, I'd say the uni programs are much more bang for the buck.

Back when I was studying at a hagwon (Seoul KLA in Gangnam), it was 400k/mo and 2hr/morning 5x a week. Took 3 months before my visa ended. I came back as a full time student studying at Ewha, and placed into level 2 (of 6). Back then, tuition was a bit cheaper, at 1.34mil/sem (10wks). It's since increased to 1.43mil/sem.

For that, you get twice as much instruction (20hrs/wk vs 10hrs/wk), a personal tutor (meet 12x a semester, though I'm not sure if the other universities offer this as well), and your classmates are also other dedicated students (at the hagwon, it was a mix of working people with working problems/time obligations). You might not think this really matters, but you learn probably almost as much from your classmates as you do from your teachers, though that's not saying that hagwon students are impossible to learn anything from, it'll just likely be less focused on the language.

A student visa is also handy, but if you're working, you won't really need one, I guess. However, having both worked here teaching English in the afternoon/evening while studying at a hagwon in the morning, versus the intensive course at the university as a full-time student, I'm pretty confident that it's virtually impossible to do both to any reasonably successful degree, unless you're an absolute animal.

Graduated this past Feb.

[HANGRY]