Studying Korean in South Korea: My First Term Experience

November 25, 2023


Studying Korean in South Korea is fun and challenging

I have been studying Korean for quite some time now. But I have always been stopping and not really taking things seriously. Although I have passed my examinations in KCC in the Philippines before, I still have some things I wished I knew before I actually started studying the language.

Although I can somehow understand a lot of conversation already, I still struggle a bit with speaking. As an introvert person who doesn't want to go out usually it's hard for me to practice my Korean speaking skills.

If you have been following me on my social media accounts, you would have known that I moved to South Korea to study. I am one of the recipients of the Global Korea Scholarship. Before I start my Master's, I am required to take one year of Korean Language and pass the TOPIK 2 Level 3.

This is how my first term went...

My classmates with my teacher Lee Dong Yeon
I am the oldest in class.

That's the first thing that I can say. Everyone else is born in the 2000s. I'm the only one born in the 1990s. Although there's a huge difference in age, I didn't feel it. I felt like I was one of them.

But to be honest, it was a bit hard communicating. Most of them are Vietnamese and they don't speak English. And since we're still in level 2, we're not yet that fluent in Korean as well. But we're all trying.

The class was fun thanks to our loving teachers, Lee Dong Yeon and Kim Mi Ae. I was able to review the things I learned from the past and was able to learn new vocabularies.

Difference with my studies in KCC

There are a lot of similarities from KCC. But at the same time, I also noticed some differences.

First is the schedule. In KCC, my class is only two times a week but here it's everyday. Making the study pace slower, which I personally like because I was able to understand the grammar and vocabulary more.

Another difference is that we also have time to play games and have some cultural activities.


And the last difference that I noticed is that all the teachers here do not speak in English during class. They do their best not to explain it in English but in pure Korean which I believe is helpful. Although there are times I still need the English translation to understand more.

Moving Up Ceremony


I received an award as one of the students who have a perfect attendance. Because of this, I got a powerbank from the university which I can really use. Inspires me to have a perfect attendance again next term.

Overall Experience

I had a great experience during my first term in studying the Korean language. I believe that I have learned a lot and now am able to create paragraphs in pure Korean.

I still have three more terms and I hope my experience will be the same as the first one.

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