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A New Korea-graphy - Angela Weihan

Published: 17 June 2022

Why did I choose Korea? I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to challenge myself greatly. Most of all, I hoped to grow as a person.

A New Korea-graphy

They say, learn to dance in the rain (or maybe, the snow?).

^{Seoul National University Campus on a Winter’s Day}

The Beginnings

Why did I choose Korea? I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to challenge myself greatly. I wanted to have the experience of being in a country with a vastly different culture from that of my family’s and Glasgow’s. I wanted to experience the education that has been deemed one of the most challenging and demanding in the world. Most of all, I hoped to grow as a person.

Way before the GoAbroad applications had opened, I did my research on Korea, the education system, as well as the ‘specialties’ of each university. Being a Computing Science and Music student meant that I had to look for a university that would allow me to pursue both Engineering and Arts at the same time. Seoul National University fitted the bill perfectly with their liberal arts-based curriculum that gives students many courses to choose from, with almost no restrictions!

Before I knew it, the 6th of August came, and I found myself at the Singapore Changi Airport departure gates. Sadly, I was alone with no friends or family because the airport was not accessible to non-travelers due to the Covid-19 regulations. I boarded the plane at about 1.30am, watched some movies, and undramatically entered the arrival gates of Incheon Airport at 8.30am on the same day. I was kept in quarantine for 14 days before I could declare… 드디어 서울에 도착했어! (I have finally reached Seoul!)

Settling In

My first greatest challenge was accommodation. Despite being an international student, I had not managed to get into the campus dormitories and had to look for a place near campus. Communication with landlords in Korean, trying to find out the legitimacy of an offer and figuring out what kind of houses I wanted to live in was extremely difficult. However, after a week of intense research, I was thankfully able to find a house and 2 other flatmates to live with.

My second greatest challenge was culture. It is in the Korean culture to have great respect for seniors in university and (pretty much) everyone else older than oneself. Different kinds of sentence-endings are conjugated with each word to reflect the respect one has for an elder. I found it extremely difficult to switch between the different levels of speaking-formality and felt embarrassed whenever I had to be corrected for my wrong use of speech. Thankfully, all my professors and seniors are kind and understanding! Koreans are also extremely hard workers, and students are expected to show up on time to every single lecture (and can even get marked down for absences!), and group meetings might be as early as 6.30am, or as late as 12am. These are definitely things I have never experienced before in Glasgow! I must really say though, that the people I meet are so driven, I constantly feel motivated to give my best and to strive for excellence.

Unique Experiences

I was extremely excited to take courses that I wouldn’t have been able to take in Glasgow. One memorable course would be the Smart City Global Convergence course, where we study about the use of IoT, radars and other smart technologies that are being used to enhance the quality of living in Korea, as well as other parts of the world. I was most invigorated by the weekly lectures, where we got to hear from many guest lecturers on interesting applications of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and technologies in general, such as digital twins and network infrastructures. A memorable experience was certainly riding the Professor’s autonomous Tesla from the university’s Siheung campus to Gwanak campus! Seeing something I had studied about come alive left me in awe.

View of a Tesla dashboard as the car drives down a road in Korea

^{Riding in the Professor's Tesla}

Another unique opportunity that truly shaped my education experience was the university’s mission to expose undergraduate students to research. I did a research internship during my winter break with Professor Xuan Truong Nguyen, where I researched Optical Music Recognition, a counterpart of the more acclaimed Optical Character Recognition. It was indeed thrilling to see such connections between my two tremendously disparate subjects of study. It was also an honour to be awarded a prize for that research in the 2022 Semiconductor Innovation Festival! I was truly very thankful to have been given this opportunity, and for the guidance of my professor.

Angela Weihan receiving an award at the POLARIS SIF 2022 Award Ceremony