Akaraka, status and university elitism in Korea
A few weeks ago a small group of young Koreans approached us on a busy street of Jeonju. They were all undergrad students spending a weekend together surveying foreigners for touristic data and getting them to sign a carton cut-out turned into a giant visitors book. After exchanging names and nationalities, they were surprise to see a group as diverse as ours. It begged the question: ’how did you all get together?’ … ‘we’re all Yonsei students‘.
We knew what followed. They unisonaly wowed and after holding their voices for a few more seconds another student stepped forward and added that his cousin was also studying at Yonsei. The group nodded in approbation.
This is just one of the many situations SKY students are used to in Korea, a nation glutted with graduates. For Koreans in their early 20s, not being a student is out of the question: 82% of all high school students go to University, highest rate of all OECD countries, and out of Korea’s 50M inhabitants, 3.8M are currently university students.
2 months in South Korea
The scent of soju, yellowy dry winter days, kimchi flavour, 노레방 neon lights… South Korea hasn’t changed much since I first came here 2 years ago. Nothing has come to shock me, in the last 2 months I have effortless blended into the routines of an exchange student: compulsively planning the weekend ahead, keeping my liver busy and pretending life will never cease to be this way.
So with already enough ado, this is how things are around here.
The University
Ticking Yonsei University as my first choice couldn’t have been a better option. Not only is one of the 3 most prestigious universities, but in my opinion, it’s also the best in terms of location and student life. Still, nothing to be proud of as most Koreans see employers’ obsession for prestigiousness as the biggest burden to get a fair go in the over-qualified job market. Many around here “feel sorry” for their
Next stop: 한국
As you read this I’m on my way to my next port of call: Seoul, South Korea.
I will be spending almost 6 months in Seoul completing my last semester as an undergraduate on exchange at Yonsei University. In hindsight, 6 months packed with Korean language, society and history lessons, long nights warmed up with soju and new faces.
It’s a journey I have impatiently awaited since my first Korean lessons 2 years ago. If time allows, I will start posting my adventures, thoughts and experiences in this blog in the coming days. Stay tuned.
아자 아자 파이팅!!
