This time round, I got a friend of mine, Koulla Solomontos from the United Kingdom (UK) to share her views about the classes she took last semester. She is from the University of Hertfordshire and majored in Humanities but she got to take a few cool classes in Yonsei (we shared one common class, Korean Language and Society class).
IEE1154 KOREAN POPULAR CULTURE AND KOREAN WAVE (PROF BAN BOHI GIM)
Self introduction and Korean music performance reflection paper 10%
Mid-term exam 20% (It can be replaced with group presentation)
Final exam 40%
Class participation & attendance 30%
In this class, we delved into the topic of Korean popular culture and how it has spread worldwide: (Hallyu) aka the Korean wave. We researched mainly into the Hallyu phenomena, how it positively and negatively affects Korean society, and how industries such as music and television contribute. We also learnt a lot about Korean traditional music and visited the National Gugak Centre as a class trip. We received a book which we purchased for under 10000 won which contained many articles that helped us throughout this course.
The class trip to the National Gugak Centre was a part of our reflection paper as we had to write about our experience and review the performances.
Our midterm was replaced with a group presentation (or you can present on your own) about any aspect of Korean popular culture you want to explore. I chose to explore the world of YouTube and the exposure it gave to Korean popular culture with people who advertise things such as mukbang, music and beauty.
Our final exam was a written exam and we were given five questions to choose from.
This was an interesting class and I would recommend it to people who want a relaxed and fun experience learning about Korean popular culture.
Grade received: A+
SLS2106 TAEKWONDO II (PROF CHO KWANG MIN)
Mid-term Exam 30%
Final Exam 40%
Class Participation 30%
This course is for beginners who want to learn Taekwondo and was open to both Korean and International students (the class was taught in English). Even though this was a beginners’ class, we had anywhere from white to black belts attending. We exercised and learnt Taekwondo techniques in two parts.
It usually consisted of this routine for the first half of the class:
- Run laps around the gymnasium for around 10 minutes as a group
- Form into lines and do group stretches (following the instructor)
- Team exercises
After finishing, we would cool down and start practicing our Taekwondo techniques and learning new moves. It was fun and our teachers encouraged us to practice and never put us down or embarrassed us, it was up to you if you wanted to improve or not but you can definitely tell the difference when you do and don’t practice outside of class. The teachers often joked with us and even if we couldn’t tie our belts properly by the last lesson, they would just come over to you and teach you again.
Personally, by taking this class I improved my self discipline, fitness and confidence. I enjoyed attending every class and would recommend it to everyone (especially shy people).
Grade received A+
Hope some of you get to at least one of these cool classes!
Hello! I had a question about the class you mentioned. If you do not know anything about Taekwondo, are you still able to take that class? And say if your not the fittest, but you really want to learn, do you think it’s a good class to take?
I recommend it, check the choose description it was for beginners, I wasn’t the fittest but it is strenuous exercise before you start training so be prepared to run laps etc as physical fitness is an important part of that class 🙂 – from the friend who wrote the taekwondo class review!