Why do I not write on my blog every day? Well, being on a student exchange actually involves some studying as well. So, how have the courses been at KHU? Let me tell you my experiences.
Overall, the courses at Kyung Hee University has been quite the same as back home. We have group presentations and assignments as well as smaller quizzes and tests. For me the midterms were more stressful than the finals but I know this is not the case for everyone. And one thing that was different is that attendance is part of the grade.
The workload
The workload for the courses are quite different depending on the course.
Two of my courses were at the tourism department. In this we had one smaller quiz per course and bigger group assignments. In one of these classes we had to have one 15 minute presentation for the midterm and one for the final. We had to analyse ads and make a small research to do this. For the final he expects also a longer paper and for us to create a short PSA ad ourselves.
For the other class I have in the tourism building we got one bigger group project that honestly took a lot of time. For it we had to analyse a city to hold a convention in and have a presentation of it for around one hour. If we did this well (which we did) we did not have to do any final exam.
75 multiple choice questions to answer in 75 minutes
The course in the business department on the other hand included a midterm of 75 multiple choice questions to answer in 75 minutes. We also had 12 individual assignments and a group presentation where we analysed a company and presented our project for one class hour. In this class as well, if you got enough points you did not have to do the final exam. Or you could take the final exam but the points would be the average score of the midterm and the final exam. In this course I got a B+, so I did not need to take the final exam.
So in 3/4 courses I had group assignments and presentations. For this, as in any other group work I have done, it is easy to work with some people while it is a bit more challenging to work with others.
It was interesting to notice that the Koreans were just as shy as the Finnish people. When the teacher asks a question not many want to answer.
As for the Korean 1 that was held for us exchange students. Well, for example we went through the endings of words but have never gone through how to build up a sentence. In Korean 1 we had one midterm and one final exam with multiple choice questions. Then we had two writing quizzes.
The professors
And the professors? Some professors were organised. But with others, well, we spent ten minutes with my teammate to try to understand the assignment instructions with the professor. At the end he apologized because even he did not know what the assignment was.
Two of the professors I had were commenting on different thing such as North Korea or how the students in the class dress, the latter of which I found a bit odd.
A thing I actually found rude is that a professor slept during the group presentations. Also during my group presentations I just looked at the professor that had a great snooze in the back of the class. “Are you kidding me”, I thought. After he had pressured us to do the group work since the beginning and then he just sleeps…
Overall the courses took quite some efforts. Some friends said it is much more studying for them at KHU than back home but for me it is quite the same amount of work that goes into the courses, of course depending on the course.