Study Abroad Guide
For Fontys ICT
After waiting a whole semester, in August 2021 I was finally able to go to South Korea for my minor abroad at Dongguk University. Having my own place for the first time in my life. Luckily, I was able to share my house with two other students from Fontys, making my stay a lot more comfortable. I would therefor recommend going with people from Fontys or people you know, because you have always someone to help you and go through the same stuff as you are to get some support, since no one will understand it more than they do. Sadly, due to COVID, we weren’t able to have classes at university and everything was online, which was a big bummer since you couldn’t really get to know classmates or teachers that well. I did have some contact with some students, but it was a minimum.
In comparison to the Netherlands, there are a lot of different experiences in Seoul, Korea. For example, you could go to restaurants until late in the night or drink some coffee with friends until very late. People tend to enjoy time with friends more in the evenings in ways other than going to clubs or bars. Since I am not an avid enjoyer of going to clubs and all I was very surprised how much there was to do without alcohol ‘needed’, even though you do miss quite some things when you don’t go out or drink, but I didn’t mind that. I do want to warn that some Koreans are very iffy on foreigners and will say or even do some things that are quite rude, but most of them are quite accepting and helpful, so don’t let those few ruin your experience. We for example weren’t allowed in some restaurants since we were foreigners, but because of that we found another amazing place we ended up going to several times. Also going out for food is cheaper sometimes than cooking dinner yourself as basic cooking ingredients can be surprisingly expensive in Korea.
I would really recommend going to historic places like temples and palaces. They are incredibly beautiful, and you can get to know a lot about Korean history in these places. Dongguk gave me a possibility to experience life in a Buddhist temple for a day, since the school is Buddhist, and I would certainly recommend doing that if you have the opportunity. It is interesting and an experience you will never forget.
Because of some problems with a huge number of classes suddenly not being in English anymore, I had to change the courses I chose. Luckily, in the end I got some very fun and enjoyable classes. If you have any problems being insecure or scared to talk in big groups or present, I really recommend the English through Drama class. It helps you get that self esteem up in a fun way and you get to know people from all over the world as you must do quite some things together with Koreans and other foreign students. It really helped me with my presenting skills and self-esteem overall.
In Korea I made some beautiful pictures I can share with school to show our amazing experience there. I also spoke to some students there who would love to come to the Netherlands or Europe once in their lives and I recommended the exchange with our school since I learned a lot from it, and it is the perfect way to get to know a country hands-on.