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The New Shift in University Life in Korea

How COVID-19 changed university life in Korea: Before & Now

Like everywhere, Corona Virus has affected the whole education system. The winter break didn’t end till April and even after the semester had started, the schools were on and off, ending up doing online classes for the most of semester. It was a chaos and it still is. Some even said we should just skip the year and start all over the year after, hoping that things would get better in 2021. Though it made sense at some point, but wasn’t the option here.

In this section we will be giving background details on what university life actually means to most of students, how this has changed and how it has affected students’ university lifestyles.

University Life as Symbol

Enrolling to university in Korea is symbolic to each student, implying the meaning of freedom and entering into the world of fun. Some of you who are reading this that are from different cultural background may not understand why we put it this way, but after reading this post you will start to understand.

Korea has always shown extreme obsession to education, making the country rank #1 for university enrollment among all the OECD countries by resulting in 70.4% of university enrollment in 2018. Getting into reputable university is the ultimate goal for most of students, it’s never too much to even call it as a family goal because that’s how most families perceive it. This is due to which university one goes affects the person’s social status and starting point of one’s career, at least this is how the society takes it.

Imagine how it would be like to be part of this education obsessed environment. Many spend 12 years under this pressure studying from elementary school to high school. School-academy-study-sleep then back to school, this is common routine for typical students. Summer and winter breaks are for studying for following semesters under the fear of being left out by others if not done.

One thing that these students hold on as a hope is that once they get into university, if reputable the better, they will have the freedom to do whatever they want and have all the fun and relaxation. Parents and teachers would often tell the kids, study now otherwise you will regret later in life, so if you want to play or do something not related to studying, do it after you get into university. Rebelling to this is not taken well or accepted.

This is why students strive so desperately to enroll university, trying to get freedom and catch up with all the fun they missed during last 12 years. Think of this as compensation for missed years.

During freshman and sophomore years, students drink night and day, trying to get the most from it, making their university life fantasy come true. Missing some classes, getting poor grades are acceptable, school club activity can come before classes and all the stuffs that could not have been acceptable during high school years can be done.

What Corona have taken away

It has taken away their years of compensation, ‘the freedom’. We have listed up some of the major events these freshmen-to-be have missed based on the most prevalent university based community SNS ‘Everytime.’ They all basically relates human to human interaction and drinking.

• Getting to know alumni of the same department
• OT (Orentation)
• MT (Membership Training)
• Joining school clubs
• University Festivals
• Relaxing in school fields/ gardens etc.

If you are familiar with all of these terms, you probably have spent couple of semesters in Korea as a student. For those who don’t, we have elaborated in details below.

Getting to know alumni of same department

Unlike western part of the world, in Korea when one say class of 2020, it means alumni that enrolled to school in 2020, not one’s that graduated on that year. What matters the most is not when you graduated, it’s which year you enrolled in. We have particular term for this called ‘dong-gi(동기)’, if nothing goes south, it’s highly likely that they are the ones you will hang out with the most. Even if you did not intended to be close to them, you eventually become close, all the department hosted events are based on same ‘dong-gi’, plus all those events links to drinking eventually so it’s hard to not to get to know each other.

OT (Orientation)

University orientation day isn’t really just about getting familiar with school facilities and the department enrolling in, but meeting ‘dong-gi’ and ‘seon-bae(선배)’, a term for students who have enrolled to school in earlier years then you who don’t necessary need to be enrolled in superior year. Normally this occasion end up being drinking event and students become more familiar with each other and get excited about what they will be experiencing as real freed university student. Sadly this year, all freshmen will be missing this, besides being freshmen is one-time event.

MT (Membership Training)

This term may only exist in Korea, the ‘Membership Training.’ It may sound a bit silly, but it just basically means trip with dong-gi and seon-bae. On freshmen year, right after the first semester have begun, under the student council’s lead, freshmen start organizing MT, perhaps the most important event of the year. Normally the trip is scheduled for 2–3days, organized with various activities, sports and of course with drinks. But it seems this wouldn’t be the case for this year.

Joining School Clubs

Typical Korean university clubs are nothing like fraternities nor sororities, all simply based on one’s interests mainly related to hobbies or sports. In the beginning of each semester, each clubs recruit new members mostly looking for freshmen. They also hold club MTs, get-together events and other club activities. School clubs are where students can meet students from other departments and make connections. This will also be not so easy this year.

University Festivals

University festivals are something that one can’t miss out during their time in university. Those festivals are held by each school and lasts for 3 to 5 days, mainly held during April and May. Each department and club opens up themed pubs or event booths and student council casts famous singers to boost up the party. The festival goes on night and day and students enjoy the vibe during that period, since almost every school holds it and opened to anyone, they can pick on which ones to go. But this year there won’t be any of this going on.

Relaxing on school fields/ gardens etc.

Each and everyone of high school students imagine relaxing and lying on school field and feel the summer breeze and good weathers. It’s just some moments you feel like you are freed, since during high school it’s very unlikely you could actually relax on fields or garden. They are not perceived as some places to study, besides most high schools don’t have fields with grasses nor have garden. Few years back, some even took away gym classes and turned them into ‘autonomous studying time’.

As you can see from these top listed events and ‘normal’ routines that freshmen of this year should have experienced and are to be missed, they are all offline and face-to-face activities. What each posts mentioning these events on ‘Everytime’ concluded was that these students feels sense of loss, not being properly compensated for past years of efforts to get into university. The worst part is that they don’t know and no one really knows when the ‘normal’ days are to come.

Corona & Now

Starting school got delayed and even after the school had started, most classes were held online. Students only got to go offline classes for last 4 weeks of the semester and those classes were all cut off when there’s confirmed cases were reported in school. Even during the classes everyone had to wear masks, go home right after school and school were only opened 9 to 8 maximum, which was unprecedented measure.

Bunch of bars near schools were supposed to be full of students but they weren’t. Club activities, department hold activities, student council held events and get-together of any sorts were all banned and canceled. It’s like back to high school again, just this time it’s university.

No one is really used to doing online classes neither the students nor the professors. Many say the class quality has become very much poor, professors couldn’t deliver the class materials well, students couldn’t actively participate in classes. As for getting grades, it’s still controversial. Midterm tests were missing in most cases and as for finals, if students take online test, some can cheat and if taken offline, corona matter occurs. When you check out student community these days, it’s all about their grades, everyone feels unfair and neglected.

This semester was one messy period for both students and schools, just that we do not know when it is to get better, since the pandemic does not seem to terminate any time soon. For next semester, we still do have some time but it won’t be much different from now. For this year’s freshmen and the students enrolling following years, they may not get to experience the freedom they’ve imagined nor be compensated for missed years.

Corona has brought new shift in university life in Korea. It’s been almost 7 months since Corona was officially declared ‘Corona Virus’, ever since people are trying to get used to ‘new normal’. But will we be able to go back to the normal as used to be or will it fade into history? We don’t want to tell to tell our children that you are studying now to get into ‘untact’ university life that’s no different from your current routine.

Thanks for reading this article and leave any comments if you have any questions. To get more latest information or tips on living in Korea, be sure to follow our ADAPKO channel or Facebook. We will continuously be providing useful informations and articles.

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