Korean Job Discussion Forums

[taobenli]

Hello-

I've posted a little about this before but I'm looking for some more advice. I am planning to go to Korea next summer and study from late June till mid September or so. I will have completed second-year Korean by then and want to do a program where I will learn as much Korean as possible (I'm a grad student in the U.S.). I think it would be interesting to go somewhere besides Seoul because it would be different, and I might learn more Korean (less people speak English). But I'm having trouble finding good programs. I would like a program that meets 4-5 hours a day (full-time study). So:

1) Does anyone know any good intensive summer language programs outside of Seoul?
2) If I do study in Seoul, what is the best place to study (from what you've heard or from personal experience)? Yonsei and Seoul National are the two that are always mentioned- I've heard that Yonsei summer classes are filled with heritage students, and that Seoul National's teaching style is dry and more grammar-based than conversation-based. I would really like a program that combines speaking, comprehension, writing and reading well. What about places like Ehwa, Sogang or Korea University?

I really appreciate your feedback!

Bonnie

[SuperHero]

In Seoul you want to go to Ewha Womens University (men are accepted) or Sogang - both programs are very communicative with excellent teachers. Avoid Yonsei unless you like drilling and repeating and focusing on old antiquated teaching methodology.

[Css]

[ThisCharmingMan]

[qwunk89]

Does anyone know if you can purchase the Sogang study books without actually taking the course?

[Css]

[Css]

[dzeisons]

the best judge of the course is to go to a bookstore beforehand (provided you are in korea) and check out the korean language textbooks printed by the unis offering courses. they're pretty abyssmal- i used yonsei textbooks in a course -they're 'drill and kill'. one guy in the class at one point told the teacher he didn't understand something but the teacvher just kept saying "say it say it!". Although this particular course used the yonsei textbook, it wasn't at yonsei, so maybe teachers there supplement it with a lot of their own material. the only book worthwhile is sogang (still not 'good' but light years ahead of any other korean language books). i bought one of their course books at the kyobo in seoul for self study and it is CLT.

[little mixed girl]

well, i think i'm in a similar position as you. i took 2 yrs of korean at my university and i went to korea for the yonsei summer program this summer and last summer.

the good:
about 2.5hrs, 4 days of the week of korean class.
friendly teachers. the class is almost all in korean.

the bad:
the classes are full of korean-americans who are not motivated to learn the grammar and think they can get an easy A cuz they can carry on a crappy convo in korean.
the class is almost ALL in korean. the book doesn't have the greatest examples. almost no opportunity to practice korean outside of the class.

in 2003 when i did the program there was probably 15-20 non-koreans in the WHOLE summer program. at first i didn't really care, but it turns out that california korean-americans seem to be really stuck up. and a LARGE portion of the students come from the UC system and the UC people get lots of perks that us 'regular' folks didn't get.
for example last yr there was an opportunity to go to the soccer 'peace cup'. the UC people got a 10,000won (like $10) discount on tickets.

a lot of the girls can be very stuck up and cliquish. last year especially you would find people that would talk exclusively to each other in their crappy korean and flash around dirty looks. non-koreans CONSTANTLY got asked 'what are u doing here for?' or variations on that question.

this past summer i thought was a lot better because there were more non-koreans in the program. but still, there were the cliquish people, girls on my floor who i knew were better in english than korean, but would insist on talking in korean to each other in korean. and that's how they get better with their korean, but the non-koreans basically can't improve.

there's also the feeling that many korean-americans seemed to have which was that non-koreans going to korea could be 'wannabees' or even that some seem mad or offended that non-koreans are in the program.

wow this is getting long.

ehhh... going out on the street and trying to use korean can be hard. for me it was a toss-up. if i talked with people on the street in korea they'd either answer in rapid korean or in english.

i think all/most of the korean language programs in korea (and the states too) are geared toward korean-americans that have some background knowledge of the language. usually people that can get by with speaking, but have awful spelling and grammar.
so most of the programs focus heavily on grammar/writing and not so much on speaking.
that's how my korean lang program in the states was set up. so i came to yonsei with better grammar/writing than the people in my class, but poor speaking skills.

i'd say go for the yonsei thing. perhaps it gets better with each passing year...
the experience is good, but just be aware of the stuff i said.
there are nice people that are in the program, but there's a lotta 'hello kitties' and 'rainbowen' s.o.bs....

[seoulmon]

I say learn on your own. Find something you enjoy watching or listening to or reading. Then sit down and crack the code. To be honest, and I think 99% of the Korean speakers (who started from scratch) will say the same thing. That is, to learn Korean you really need to figure it out on your own.

About the Korean Americans, I have to agree. Although I don't think they're any different than most Americans, they're really not into studying.

Oh and one more thing, get a girlfriend.

[Mashimaro]

[the_beaver]

Sogang rocks. I'm going back during my winter vacation.

[Cedar]

[casey's moon]

I studied at Seoul National University (SNU) language program and loved it. There are rumours that it is dry, but I didn't find that to be true at all. From what I've heard, Sogang is probably the best for conversation, but if you're interested in academic and conversational Korean I strongly recommend SNU. The downside of SNU is if you mostly want conversation -- you might feel bogged down by the reading and writing... however, the most valuable thing about studying in any of these programs is being around other students who are studying Korean and having people to practice with who know your limitations!!! Unlike Yonsei, SNU is not filled with too many Americans (Korean-American or otherwise) and like Sogang, filled with lots of people who don't speak English -- which is perfect for practicing Korean!

As for just studying on your own -- well that's great too, but it won't give you the same results in the same amount of time -- in my case, not even close.

Good luck!

[taobenli]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I think I've made the decision not to go with Yonsei- my teacher said the same thing, that classes are filled with lazy Korean-Americans (not trying to be racist here- I just get annoyed very quickly by lazy people in my classes). Sogang or SNU both sound good.

Casey's Moon, could you give me more information about the SNU program? What were the teachers like? My university has an exchange with SNU so it could be the easist one to do. I do intend to go on for a PhD where academic Korean will be important, so it might be better for me than Sogang.

I was looking for a study program run by an organization similar to Princeton-in-Beijing, but there was only Penn-in-Seoul, a cultural program with no language component. Korea language study just hasn't reached that level of popularity yet...

I'd still be interested to hear from anyone who has studied at a good, intensive Korean program somewhere other than Seoul. I care far less about the "name-brand" of the university (like Yonsei) than I do about the actual quality of instruction. I saw this program, and it looks interesting, but is quite short: http://www.aks.ac.kr/english/board/news_read.asp?num=16.

Is there anyone on this board who has done Korea University's program?

Thanks again, everyone!

Bonnie