Tag: southkorea

Living in Korea’s Past

Published on by stefaniepaikLeave a comment

One of the most popular attractions for both locals and travelers in Korea is to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace. In the middle of Seoul, Gyeongbokgung Palace is the royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty. This palace was founded in 1395 and faced Japanese invasions in 1592, the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910, and the Korean War. Beginning in 1990, the Gyeongbokgung Palace restoration project began. The palace is in possession of the Government of the Republic of Korea’s Culture Heritage Administration. The restoration project plans to restore major pavilions throughout Korea by 2045.

Around the palace, there are various cafes, museums, and event locations. When I went to visit, it was Hanbok Culture Week, where various hanbok businesses had their own booths, selling their products. Some hanboks were traditional and others were modern takes on the hanbok.

While there is an admission fee to enter the palace, you can skip the fee by wearing hanboks. Around the palace, there are various hanbok rental shops that let you wear the hanboks for a set amount of hours. For my hanbok I paid 18,000 won for 4 hours; this is about 14 US dollars.

When walking around you can visit the various sections of the palace and read about what each building within the palace was used for.

Finished the Hard Journey of Korean Mid-terms

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Today, on October 24th, 2023 I have finished my last two mid-terms. The classes I am taking at Korea University currently are International Marketing, Marketing Management, Marking Strategy, and a Korean language class.

On Monday, October 23rd, I had International Marketing and then my Korean language class. Now I wouldn’t say I am facing culture shock, from how my International Marketing professor has decided to grade our mid-term. So basically the grades will be determined by who he sees as the best mid-term and then grade everyone else compared to it. Many of my fellow classmates were confused about this grading system. My fellow students and I were confused about the grading criteria because he did not give us one. Our professor said that if we know the material well then we will succeed. For me and how my brain works, I could answer one question in a million different ways, so for the mid-term it was difficult to prepare for an exam I couldn’t follow the directions of. For the most part, the learning in this class is independent, then the professor will facilitate discussions.

My Korean language mid-term was fairly straightforward. The class had the whole class period to take the exam; it was on paper and covered class topics. Most of the people in the class finished in 10 minutes.

For my Marketing Management class, the exam had two parts; 30 multiple choice and two short answer questions. The only issue I had with this exam was the short essay section because due to the exam being on paper, we had to write the answers. I have not hand-written an essay since high school, so not only was it giving me hand cramps, but also the entire page was smudged because I was left-handed.

The Marketing Strategy class was pretty similar to my Marketing Management class. This exam was 4 short essay questions, but we only had to answer 3/4 questions. Again, because I had to handwrite the answers my hands cramped so hard, and the smudging was awful, but I was able to write about 3 pages worth of knowledge.

Overall, while nothing was super different about mid-terms in Korea compared to the US, some of the personal preferences of the professors felt strange to me.