I am Caitlin, a student from UC Irvine who is studying abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea from August 22nd until December 22nd 2010 for Fall 2010 AND Spring 2011 (yes, I decided to extend)!
Goals of this blog?
- To be informational for those who are thinking of doing the same
- To keep family and friends in the loop of my life here
Whatever questions you may have, don’t hesitate to ask!
I went to Yonsei last year from September to December.
If you have any questions or need any help while you’re there.. just ask!!
Good luck and enjoy your time~~ I will be reading your blog
I’m sooooo jealous…
xxx K
Ohh, thank you so much! I hope you don’t mind if I send any questions I have to your email. : ) You must have had an amazing time!
Heyy! *^^*
My name is Caitlin to, same spelling lol!
I’m wondering how old you are? C:
Are you doing this through a school or university program, or just for fun?
I’m so envious of you!! I hope you have the best time you can!! C:
~Cait
Oh haha! Best way to spell it! ^^
I’m 20, and I’m doing this through my university (UC Irvine) so all the classes I take here will count for something back there.
Ah! That’s really awesome! (:
I would love to do something like this, I’m from New Zealand though. I’m not sure the university I wish to go to (once done w/ highschool) would offer something similar. I will certainly look into it now as it’s such an insperation to read your blog.
Hi! I’m also from California , Do you know if other School’s have that program too?
You are so lucky ;p
Yes, a lot of schools offer this program! But not every single one of course, so if you’re interested then you should ask your university about it! Good luck!
UC Irvine offers that?i didn’t know!For some reason,makes me wanna hurry up with HS and head on over!How’s the classes like?
Actually all the UCs offer this program! ^^ And other schools too, though I’m not sure exactly which ones. But yes I really recommend you study abroad!! It’s a great experience, wherever you choose to go. The classes are are okay, pretty similar to other university classes I’ve taken. As always there are really easy ones, and really hard ones, depending on the teacher and topic. Good luck with high school and apply to study abroad when you can! : )
What course are you taking?
I talk about my classes here: http://caitlininkorea.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/classes-have-begun/
Some were easy, some were hard… But I ended up passing everything. : )
Dear Caitlin,
I’m just gonna be straightforward with this, I was wondering if you would like to help me out a bit, my dream is to go to Korea for about a year,
but I´m a little stuck at the moment and I was wondering if I could ask you some advice, sugestions et cetera
I understand that you are busy at the moment, so just let me know when you have the time. I don’t know if you can see my email-adress like this, but please let me know if you can’t,
with love from Holland,
Lizzy
p.s I’m not gonna lie, i’ve found you through your fantastic Big Bang mv appearance, I’m terribly jalous ^^ but it also makes me believe in my dreams again
I’d be happy to help you! I don’t think I can see your email address, so any questions that you have, feel free to send to ***. : )
Glad I found your blog. I’m still so jealous of the whole High High mv. Still wishing I could have been there. Anyway I’m also from Cali, Nor Cal that is. What are you majoring in? I wanted to study abroad in South Korea also, but the school I will be attending(Sacramento State University) doesn’t offer South Korea as a country where students can study abroad, but my second option was San Francisco State and they offer it. I should research further to see what kind of majors can study abroad in Korea. How is your stay in Korea? Is it as beautiful as the Korean dramas and movies we Americans see online? Ah I’m so envious of you!
I loooove your blog<3
I'm planning to study at Yonsei's KLI from September 2011 to June 2012~
Sadly, I think you won't be in Seoul anymore…
I feel awkward asking this but…
I would like to ask you some advice about a few things if you don't mind?
My e-mail is sophieabd [AT] hotmail . com…
I hope you'll make entries about how it is to find an appartement in Seoul…
And that you'll have lots of fun during your next semester <3
ps: I'm sorry, my english is not that good… D; I'm french-canadian eheh…
Thanks so much, and of course you can ask me advice! I’ll send you an email! And don’t worry, your English was perfect. : )
hello again!!!
i just wanna ask what are u exactly studying in korea???? and what is the job u can get with this degree???
thanks
My major is Korean Literature & Culture, and… I have NO idea what I can do with this degree, haha. But I figure it’s pretty unique so it might catch people’s attention at least.
Hi i just happened to stumble by.. but i was just wondering are your classes in korean or english?
thanks so much
They are all in English. There is the option to take classes in Korean, of course, but most exchange students just take them in English. There’s a lot to choose from.
I’ve been following you all along your journey, but lost track for a couple months =/ I noticed when I came back to catch up, that your boyfriend’s blog is no longer linked and I never saved the address. It was interesting following him too! Did he stop?
Also, you are very good with money. I would be like 10k in debt by this point T.T
Oh yeahh haha he was not a good blogger. : P He made a few updates but basically completely stopped so I took off the link. However if you still want to go back to it, it’s richardisinjapan.wordpress.com
And thanks hehe, I try!
Awww, haha well that’s ok, at least he has a few good pictures up!
Btw, are you pretty fluent in Korean? Has being in Korea improved your skills or just been intimidating?
I’m not nearly fluent; I can read it pretty well, write it okay, but speaking and listening are suuuper hard for me. It’s definitely intimidating because when Koreans hear that I’ve studied it for 3 years, they expect me to be really good, but nooo. I mean, being here has allowed me to practice it more than I would have at home, so perhaps I’ve improved, but at the same time, I’m still surrounded by English, so I don’t think being here has made that much of a difference, haha. You really have to push yourself to practice every single day in order to improve.
Hi Caitlin!!
First of all, thank you SOOO much for setting up this blog!! It made me feel SOO much more at ease about studying abroad in South Korea, which I plan to do for the next school year!
I also go to UCI!
So I’ll also be going through the EAP program and after seeing all your blog posts, I am superr excited!!!
Is it ok if I email you some questions to ask? I have sooo many questions, like who picks you up from the airport? And did you have to apply for any scholarships to afford the program? How much spending money do you think I should bring for the whole year? How is it like living in the dorms??
I’m sorry for all the questions but I’m just really curious and I would really like to get the knowledge from someone who has actually gone to Korea to study abroad.
Thanks soo much!!
Aw I’m so glad this is useful to you! Yay! ^^ And go UCI!
Of course you may email me questions! Actually, I can see your email so I’ll send my answers to your questions and if you have any more, feel free to ask!
Hi again!!!
i want to ask you if there is any arab people in UIC????(i’m arabian)
and if you have a degree from Yonsei is it easy to get a job like if you have an american degree????(keeping in mind that yonsei is one of the top 200 universities in the world)
Yes, I have seen Arab people here! You won’t be the only one, don’t worry.
I’m not sure about how easy it would be to get a job. It’s true that it is one of the top universities, but it also would depend on your grades and your major and what type of job you are looking for. It always depends!
Hello!
Firstly I have to say I had fun reading through your entries – I found your blog lurking around soompi, trying to find tips to survive in Korea. I’m going by myself this May, and I’m really really intimidated. I have some questions – how much is it to travel by subway? Is the system really complicated? Is Korea relatively safe?
And uhm, …I was wondering if… uhm… it is possible to bring me out for a day? I know it is too much to ask, but I’m just kinda afraid – it’s my first time going Korea, and my first time going alone. If it isn’t possible then I’m so terribly sorry for asking!
Thank you very much ;~;
Don’t be intimidated! It’s not bad at all. The subway is quite easy to follow – there’s even English translations for every stop. And it’s really cheap. The base rate for one way is 900 won (about 75 cents) but if you’re traveling quite far (above 30 minutes or so) the rate slowly goes up, but not by much. And yes Korea seems to be quite safe! There’s usually always people around, even late at night. I once walked home alone for 45 minutes at 3AM and nothing happened to me… (though I still wouldn’t recommend that, heh)
Depending on when you’re going to be here in May, I think I could do that! I’ll email you.
Hello there!
I just wanted to say because of your blog, I am considering studying abroad! I also found your blog through a bigbang fan website a while ago and your blog is very interesting =D Sorry if is sound like a stalker lol.
Anyway, I am going to attend UCI this upcoming fall of 2011 =D Sorry but I’m going to bombard you with some questions D: I was wondering when would be a good time to study abroad? Also, I’m about confused about the credits stuff (sorry I’m a noob). If your major is not “Chinese Studies” or “Spanish” could you still study abroad and get credits? I was just wondering because my friend is planning to major in engineering but she wants to go to Korea her second year.
Thanks in advanced and good luck on your second semester =D
Hi! I’m glad the blog has been interesting! ^^
No worries, ask as many questions as you’d like! Academics-wise, the best time to study abroad is in fall, because you only miss out on fall quarter at UCI and can return and still do the two other quarters afterward! If you study in spring, you miss out on both winter and spring quarters at UCI (of course, that’s not a big problem if you’re pretty sure you can graduate on time anyway). Or, studying abroad for a whole year is great too, because one semester was not long enough for me.
As for credits, you can pretty much study abroad with any major and still get credits for it! As long as there are classes available that correspond to the classes required for your major, they will transfer over to UCI, and if they don’t automatically, you can petition for them to count by comparing the similarities between the Yonsei class you take and the UCI class you think it should count as.
Hope this helped!
Hi Caitlinn!!!
))
:D:D ive been looking up for good blogs everywhere; just to get a little insight as to how life would be there in Yonsei 
so THANKS! 
againn, as everybody up there have said, thanks for setting up this blogg!!
anyhoots im planning to study abroad in Yonsei in 2012 spring; and ive got my subjects all sorted out and everything..
just one thing, ive studied korean language quite abit and watch a wholee bunchhh of korean dramas and variety shows; but i cant quite converse comfortably in korean. that said, would it be really difficult to blend with the koreans?
as you said international students like us would most prolly take all classes in English so unless we make the effort to SPEAK, its quite difficult to improve our korean language but you know.. did you have any troubles mixing with all the students ?
please feel free to reply to my email (im pretty sure u could see my email adress)
sorry if its such a silly question -.-
anyways all the best!
By blend with Koreans, do you mean mingling with them/making friends with them? Well, no matter what your Korean skill level is, it’s definitely possible to make friends with Koreans! This is only because so many of them speak English, and many of them are very willing to practice their English with foreigners. You just have to make the effort to meet them by signing up for language exchange or other clubs. And of course, if you’re confident enough, you can practice your Korean with them which will help you improve if you use it enough. Koreans are always up for listening to foreigners practice their Korean!