Chow Kim Sum

Exchange Institution:
Yonsei University

Exchange Period:
Semester 1 in Year 2011/12

Country:
Korea

Yonsei is a Christian private research university which was established in 1885. It is widely regarded as one of the top three comprehensive universities in South Korea.

Besides studying, Yonsei also offered a lot of extracurricular activities. During the first week of the semester, there were a lot of booths set up along the main road inside Yonsei. All students were welcomed to join clubs and be a member, and the Korean students were very helpful in answering your questions. For exchange students, Yonsei had organized two clubs for us. They were Yonsei Global and the Mentors Club.

There were a lot of inter school competitions. I attended one of the competitions, that was the Mr. Yonsei Competition. There were around 30 Yonsei students who participated in it. They needed to show 7 regular poses within an hour and some self selected poses afterwards. For me, my first impression was a bit weird due to the conservative ideas in Chinese Culture. However, a bodybuilding competition is not that weird in the eyes of Koreans since they love to exercise and are very concerned about their appearance. Through this competition, I can realize more about the Korean culture.