Essays
My Experience in Korea
Yuki Tanikawa (Faculty of Economics, 4th Year)
I went to Seoul from August 4th to September 1st, 2010, to study Korean. I had 2 major reasons why I wanted to study in Seoul. One, I wanted to test myself and see how much I could communicate with the locals. I also wanted to improve my skills. Two, I wanted to learn more about the culture, customs, and the outlooks of Korean people. Ifve been to Korea a few times before but I only visited popular sightseeing areas and met up friends.
My experience in Korea left with me 3 impressions. First of all, there were many Korean people who could speak Japanese. I thought there would only be people who spoke Japanese in popular sightseeing areas such as Myeong-dong, but there were actually a lot of fluent people outside of the tourist attractions. I was also surprised to find a ton of Japanese reference books, which included contents of everyday conversations, grammer, and etc. But the number of English, Chinese, German books could not compare with the number of Japanese books. I could tell how devoted Korea was towards education.
Secondly, I was shocked how there were many homeless people. I saw them in downtown (especially near Seoul station), begging for food at the station stairways, inside the trains, and at the dining hall in the city selling gum and candy. But unlike Japan, the homeless werenft all old people. There were many people in their 20s and 30s. The increasing number of the homeless and youngsters have become a social problem in Korea.
Lastly, the people were very welcoming. One time I got lost on my way to language school and a person came out of nowhere and helped me find my way. There was another time when I was on my way home to Japan, and I was having a difficult time carrying two of my suitcases. But some stranger helped me carry them downstairs and I was absolutely relieved.
These were only a few examples of the warmth of Korean people that I experienced.
Even though it was only a short period of time, I feel like I got to see a whole different view of Korea. I now understand that itfs difficult to realize the real beauty of foreign countries just by going there for a trip.
Jongmyo, World Heritage in Seoul
