Andrea Boyd

The University of Adelaide, Australia
Exchange to Yeungnam University, Korea

About a year ago I approached The University of Adelaide International Office and said “Open mind – where can you send me in the world?” Andrew and Paula told me of the Cheung Kong Scholarship to Korea. There were 2 potential universities and no Australian had ever been to Yeungnam, which was then only for engineering majors. Perfect! I was a Mechatronics student and love being the first to take on a new challenge.

Settling here was quite smooth. Koreans are extremely welcoming. It was even easier for me as my cousin and his wife actually have been teaching in Cheonan for many years. I visited them before moving to campus in Gyeongsan and they very quickly brought me into the culture! My first meal was with chopsticks (I thought myself adept at these already, but steel ones take some skill augmentation!) On my second day, we went to a huge bath house. By the third day, I’d tasted and loved dried squid and danced the night away at an incredible nightclub with new friends. Even before coming, I loved Korean music. It’s so beautiful and powerful and quite embedded in the culture. I first went to a private singing room with just Koreans and when they sang it sounded so good, I thought “Sweet – the mic EQ’s everyone’s voice,” but when it came to my turn I found out, no, it was all them(!)

Yeungnam from the beginning was great, very different to an Australian system, but enjoyable. I moved into the dorms, where having myriads of friends and classmates around and walking to classes was so convenient! Everyone wondered if I would find it strange being the only female foreigner in the Mechanical Engineering Department. However, at home, it’s still pretty male dominated, half my course are international students from Asia and most of my professors are from overseas; so sitting in a classroom of Korean boys where the professor spoke English as a second language felt quite normal! All my classes were taught in English, even thought I was the only western foreigner. The professors were all completely fluent, the notes and textbooks were in English too and the standard of education very high. The first class, everyone was shocked to see me, then from the second, guys started chatting and I made great groups of friends in each subject.

I also surprised everyone by playing sport. Girls here are very girlish. They don’t do sport. My only disappointment was that there were no women’s basketball teams anywhere. I still joined one of the University Basketball Clubs (clubs are huge – there’s one for everything) and was able to play scratch matches with the boys. There was a multi-level stadium and also 12 outdoor courts, several soccer fields and a baseball field on campus. Also, we had a court right next to the dorms and many lakes. There’s a popular “foot volleyball” sport I’d never seen before too – great for Taekwando practise! I, of course, brought an Aussie Footy and taught the guys how to kick!

The Centre for International Programmes (CIP) at Yeungnam is great – very helpful and organises a buddy programme and many activities around classes. Their student volunteers take it quite seriously and go out of their way to assist. They also coordinate a Korean language programme. I was so grateful for this because, with all other classes being in English, my Korean progress would otherwise have been quite slow. This daily class made it easy to pick up Korean and make more friends. My classmates were from Indonesia, China, India, Egypt, Canada and Vietnam. The language was unlike any others I speak because its conjugations are based around respect and age, not declension or 1st/2nd/3rd person singular/plural. It was most useful to be taught this, from the most polite form downwards; good because I couldn’t offend any seniors, humorous because my friends laughed when I first spoke to them as if I was speaking to the queen(!).

After not long, I had a great routine. Yeungnam University classes daily, studying hard, having lunch with friends at the cafeteria, doing swimming training regularly at the downtown gym, going out Saturday nights, playing basketball with the guys and attending Church (in Korean!).

You can’t speak of Korea of course without mentioning the food! There are so many exquisite and unique dishes!! I loved the Korean style too, shoes off, cross-legged around a low table with central dishes, a million side dishes and everyone sharing with chopsticks. Pre-cut meats are typically cooked in front of you with a stove or grill embedded in the centre of the table, so it’s impeccably fresh. Every city has a food market as well as normal shops. So good. There are 3 Korean restaurants just in Adelaide that I will now be quite a frequent visitor to!

The technology in Korea is amazing. So many big international companies are Korean – Kia, Hyundai, Samsung, LG. PLC’s control most systems, every car has a GPS, mobile phones are 3G and up, little gadgets abound – I was a kid in a toy shop (or actually an engineer in an electronics hub) when visiting some of the big tech parks!!

Korea has a lot of traditional culture of course. Though not usually into museums, I loved visiting Independence Hall in Cheonan and the traditional villages in many towns, including Jeju-do, where friends and I spent the April long weekend. Koreans and public holidays – Australians are resourceful, but I take my hat off to Korea, where there were quasi-constant celebrations!

It’s a little tough for foreigners as you stand out physically and are a faux celebrity/object of attention all of the time. I didn’t notice the stares once into a normal routine and Koreans are genuinely nice and friendly all round. They’ll forgive you, because you’re foreign, when you do strange things, help you out and love to practise English. Also it’s really appreciated when you make an effort and use your Korean language, however little.

Some things when I arrived were so novel and now returning home, I’m going to be thinking, “Fork? Where’s my chopsticks?”, “Everything isn’t open 24hrs??”, and “What happened to the seaweed aisle??”

It might sometimes be difficult to overcome cultural differences, but if you are willing to open your mind and make good friends, then nothing will prevent you from truly enjoying yourself and getting the most of an exchange experience. If you have the chance to go abroad, don’t hesitate – you won’t regret it.

Yeungnam is really keen to have more Australian students. There are Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Scholarships available to apply for next year and the Director of the CIP at Yeungnam has other scholarships too for sister universities. I strongly encourage going for the scholarships, which are quite attainable. I thank the Cheung Kong Group so much for the amazing experience I’ve had here at Yeungnam University. Having previously lived in more than 20 countries, I thought I knew a lot of world culture, but Asia is completely different. I learnt so many new things, and not just from Koreans, but also from other international friends. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to live and study here and highly recommend taking a Korean exchange to all university students.

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