Language school sharing
ㅇㅜㅣ
8 hours ago
After planning for ages, I finally made up my mind to come study at a Korean language institute!
When applying, if you already know when you need to start submitting documents,
I recommend starting the process three to four weeks in advance, don’t be like me... I thought Creatrip would handle it for me (wishful thinking).
It wasn’t until two weeks before submission that I realized I had to prepare everything myself... notarizing the graduation certificate takes the longest, remember that～～
After applying successfully, before the semester starts you still have to take a placement test, with a written test and an interview. I was super nervous, because I hadn’t studied Korean in ages.
Before the test I looked it up online, and people said if you don’t know something, don’t write anything, so it won’t affect the teacher’s judgment, so I left everything I couldn’t do blank.
They also said if you want to get placed into Level 3, you should write the essay at the end. I’m not sure if writing it guarantees Level 3,
but since I wanted to be in Level 3, I just pushed through and wrote it ><
The speaking part was kind of like chatting. The teacher asked you some questions, and some were related to the written test.
Later the teacher said that I knew what I knew, but my basics were a bit weak, and my speaking sounded kind of strange, but I still got into the Level 3 I wanted!
When the semester started, I realized I was the only new student in our class, everyone else had moved up from Level 2 QQ
And because I honestly don’t remember Level 1 and 2 grammar that well, or I know the grammar point but I’m not sure what should go in front of it,
and I’m also not great at telling adjectives and verbs apart, but that seems pretty important in grammar, so I probably need to review on my own.
I feel like the course moves pretty fast, we finish about one lesson every 2 to 3 days, and there’s a quiz every three lessons.
I didn’t do any extra studying, I just followed the teacher’s schedule and did the homework every day,
but it’s easy to forget earlier grammar, so I still recommend reviewing.
University of Seoul’s listening, speaking, reading, and writing are pretty well balanced. Personally, I wish there were a bit more speaking (but maybe that’s just my issue).
There’s also a language buddy program, I think it’s one Korean person to three (or five) language institute students. I didn’t apply, but if you want to practice speaking, you can apply, I kind of regretted not doing it later...
Also, University of Seoul has a rule that you can’t be absent for more than 40 hours, if you go over, you have to withdraw. Someone in our class skipped a lot early on and later had no choice but to start coming (?), so don’t think language school is super easy XD
As for living expenses, maybe because I live in a more rural area (?) and don’t socialize much,
other than going to cafés to do homework, I don’t have many big expenses, and I eat at the school cafeteria a lot.
It comes out to about 400,000 to 600,000 KRW for three months (not including housing). For housing I stay in a goshiwon, about 130,000 KRW per month.
But my goshiwon room is relatively big, so I feel like it’s acceptable.
I asked a classmate, and there are lots of goshiwons around Hoegi, so there should be plenty of options～
Oh right, after my first day of class I was going to buy textbooks, but when I checked my inbox I found out that if you apply through Creatrip, they give you the textbooks for free,
so I saved some money right away XDD (but you still have to buy the workbook!)
After actually starting classes, at first I felt really stressed out,
but the teacher’s classes were pretty fun, and the explanations were also very clear.
After a while I got more used to it, and the stress got smaller too.
And even though you have to wake up early in the morning, it’s only a half day, so if you have time in the afternoon you can still go out and explore～
That’s it, hope this helps as a reference for everyone.
