[ENG] Guide for Exchange Students to Kyonggi University

As I am currently an undergraduate student at Kyonggi University(경기대학교), I do see quite a lot of exchange students from many different countries. All these countries have their own distinct cultures and history, and so is the Republic of Korea. It only has been one year since I started meeting exchange students in the university and a number of students complained the International Office which is responsible for taking care of exchange students is not helpful enough. Although the International Office may have excuses to make on this matter, it still made me feel outrageous on their slow and inflexible work process.

International Office has a "buddy(글로벌 경기협력단)" system where each buddy is assigned to help a group of exchange students. Most are willing to help and befriend with you, but there are things even buddies can't help due to lack of knowledge on a certain field. Sometimes buddies make a huge mistake exchange students had to suffer inconvenience. Hoping to provide better help to future exchange students to Kyonggi University, the article here will try to describe much essential information as possible.

This article is incomplete and will be updated later to help future exchange students to Kyonggi University.
The article is posted ealier to provide crucial information on exchange students' preparation.
The article is not supported by International Office of Kyonggi University and is written by sole individual.

University

This section of the article is mainly for the exchange students to Kyonggi University. Although some information is also true to other universities and can be used as a reference, it is highly advised to ask your designated buddy of your university for detail information.

Map

Once arriving at Kyonggi University, students would be curious what facilities there are and where they are at. Below is a map of Suwon campus of Kyonggi University and would not deal with Seoul campus. This map can be found at Kyonggi University Korean website only.

Figure 1. Map of Suwon campus, Kyonggi Univeristy

1. Building No.1 (진리관)
4. Building No.2 (성신관)
7. Library
10. E-Square
13. Building No.7 (집현관)
16. Architecture Workshop
19. Complex Building
22. Welfare Hall
25. Tele-Convention Center
28. Ceramic Kiln Workshop
31. Old-Dormitory
34. Central Seminar Hall

2. Education Hall
5. Building No.3 (애경관)
8. Building No.4 (예지관)
11. Gam-seong Dining Hall
14. Building No.8 (육영관)
17. Research Center
20. Professors' Office
23. Student Club Hall
26. Building No.9 (호연관)
29. International Office
32. Main Gate

3. Tourism Workshop
6. Gymnasium
9. Building No.5(덕문관)
12. Building No.6 (광교관)
15. Engineering Hall
18. Industry-Academia Collab. Center
21. Student Union
24. Museum
27. Sculpture Workshop
30. Kyonggi Dream Tower (Dormitory)
33. Back Gate

However, the map above only shows where buildings are located but does not show where facilities are at. Below is a list of buildings categorized by facilities students often look for, indicated by numbers used above.

Cafeteria	10, 11, 22, 29, 30
Coffee Shop	4, 10, 13, 19, 30
Convenience Store	2, 10, 22, 30
ATM	2, 8, 19, 22, 30

Some buildings have multiple facilities that's worth noting individually.

10. E-Square	Cafeteria, Coffee Shop, Convenience Store, Bookstore, Photo Studio
19. Complex Building	Printer Room, Coffee Shop
22. Welfare Hall	Bank, ATM, Convenience Store, Optician, Cafeteria, Post Office

Semester

Kyonggi University's semester generally starts on first Monday of March (first semester) and September (second semester) and is fifteen weeks long. This means semester ends on the middle of June and December. The official mid-term and final exam is on the eighth and fifteenth week of the semester but this may subject to change according to a professor's individual preference. The unofficial sixteenth week is for a make-up class due to a reason like a holiday. If a professor has managed to finish fifteen weeks of class without absent, then you won't have a class on the sixteenth week.

The first and second semester period of 2019 would be from March 4th to June 14th (June 21st for the unofficial sixteenth week) and from September 2nd to December 13th (December 20th for the sixteenth week).

Dormitory

Kyonggi Dream Tower dormitory is deemed better than other universities' because only two students are assigned to each room. You do have a little bit more privacy guaranteed than a room of four or more people. The dormitory is also safe as building consist two towers and each of them is for man and woman only. Security guards watch over the entrance of the tower to prevent different sex from entering.

The floors that connect two towers are the first and second floor and is the only floor where you can meet with the other freely. The first floor has a cafeteria, convenience store, coffee shop, stationery, and a printing room. The second floor is where there's a laundry room for each tower and has a door that leads to an outdoor terrace.

You can stay at the dorm until Friday of the sixteenth week for free, but once staying over you need to pay an additional fee per day. Hence, in 2019 you can stay at the dorm until June 21st (first semester) and December 20th (second semester) without an additional charge.

Religion

Three major religions widely accepted in South Korea is Catholic, Protestantism, and Buddhism. Christianity, i.e. Catholic and Protestantism, was first introduced to Korea by missionaries from the West on late 18th and early 19th century. Meanwhile, Buddhism has a long history with Korea dating back from the Three Kingdom period (4th century) and has given a lot of influences. Korean Buddhism has developed an ideology of protecting one's nation, which is very unique compared to other Buddhism.

This led some students to wonder if South Korea is a religious country: definitely not! Some Internet may emphasize Buddhism in South Korea but rather people without a religion is a majority. And even the Buddhism population in Korea is in decreasing state.

It is common to see Christian, specifically Protestant, "advertising" their church and asking others to believe in Jesus Christ. They will give you a pen, wet wipe, or even snack for free with a brochure reasoning why you should believe in Jesus and God. Some Protestant would approach you and speak English or your native language fluently. They'll try to be friend with you and could later ask you to come to their church on Sunday. A church is one of the good ways to make new Korean friends but is not the only way. Don't give them your phone number for no reason as they can be quite persistent in some case which would annoy you for sure.

Catholic and Protestantism is not the only Christianity presented in South Korea: Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-Day Saint (aka. Mormon) can also be seen but rarely. Many Korean deem these two Christianity as pseudoreligion just because it is not Catholic nor Protestantism and is founded relatively recent 19th century, representing Korean's conservative religious-perspective. Jehovah's Witnesses is especially a huge issue in South Korea due to its belief conflicting with mandatory military service every man has to partake.

Other religions such as Islam and Judaism exist in South Korea as well and are extremely rare to find them, even more than two Christianity mentioned above. Although Islam has attracted negative international attention due to an extreme terrorist group called Islamic State(IS) before, most of Korean do not worry on that matter anymore as they think their nation is not under direct threat. It is also safe to go outside in public as people do understand and accept the religious difference. Still, Islam is a religion practiced only by a minority in South Korea: people would not know what is halal and haram, thus it is important to explain what is allowed and forbidden as a Muslim to others.

Hinduism is almost non-existence in South Korea due to a terrible condition: Korean loves meat and alcohol.

Food

Some of the widely known Korean cuisines are Kimchi and Korean BBQ but Korea has a lot more variety of food to offer. This also means there are foods that some people should be careful of or even avoid at all cost. This section of the article is mainly for people who cannot eat certain food or ingredient based on allergy, religious belief, or food aversion.

Halal

Islam is the second most populated religion in the world just before Christianity. This, however, is not true in South Korea which is explained in the Religion section of the article. When Muslim visit South Korea, one of the problems they encounter arises from the meals: many Korean dishes have pork inside. Even instant cup noodles are not safe to eat as they are not originally halal and do contain ingredients from pork. Other meats like beef and chicken are not slaughtered according to Islamic law but if these two are acceptable to you, then you can enjoy much more various kind of meals on your stay in South Korea.

When having to observe Islamic law strictly, your day in South Korea could go difficult. There is no halal restaurant around Kyonggi University but there are restaurants that serve meals without meat. You can also ask the staff not to put any meat inside.

Here are some words from food or ingredient Muslim should avoid eating: 돼지(pig), 제육(pork), 돈(豚; pig)

Below is a list of food that doesn't have a word mentioned above but contains pork:

Korean pork cuisine

족발, 순대, -까스, 삼겹살, 보쌈, 수육, 곱창, 막창

Cutlet(-까스) restaurant usually serve pork cutlet(돈까스): even if you order fish cutlet(생선까스) or chicken cutlet(치킨까스) that doesn't have pork inside, it is highly possible the restaurant have fried those cutlets from oil they fried a pork cutlet.

If there is Korean pork meal but not mentioned above, let me know and I'll update the post as soon as possible.

SIM Card

Prepaid SIM card is a great and efficient way for visitors to use telecommunication service in other countries. There exist a prepaid SIM card for a traveler which is an excellent choice when staying for a short period of time (expires after a maximum 30 days depending on the product). Exchange students, however, need to stay in South Korea for more than three months. It is possible to get three or four of such prepaid SIM card in advance and replace it every time it expires but the quality of the network would be doubtful and could eventually result in inconvenience. This section of the article is here to introduce prepaid SIM card for a longer term of stay.

Korea has three major telecommunication operators: SKT, KT, and LG U+. SKT is the most popular telecommunication operator in South Korea due to its great network quality and membership service. KT is the second most popular operator that once used to be a public corporation. LG U+, as you can guess, is a sister company of one of the best home appliance manufacturer LG which also makes smartphone.

Each operator has their store name as following: T World (SKT), Olleh (KT), and U+ SQUARE (LG U+). It is recommended to get a SIM card from the official store but you'll notice not every store sells SIM card like the T World near the Back Gate of the Kyonggi University because it's a small agency. Another possible way to get a SIM card is by going to a retailer which mostly has all three operators available. How do you find a retailer? Their store panel has a logo of three operators altogether.

When getting a SIM card, service fee needs to be charged firsthand. A charged service fee is used when making a phone call and sending a text message but also pays for the monthly subscription. Hence, there is a minimum amount of service fee required to pay even when you want to get mobile data service only. Beware, you can still call and send messages to others after paying only the minimum fee you need but would eventually have to top up additional fee for continuous service or else you won't be able to your remaining mobile data. This is because the charged money is used for calls and messages instead for the subscription. Thankfully, receiving a call and message is free of charge so don't be hesitant to pick up the phone.

Another price that needs to be paid is a SIM card itself. This price usually cost around 5,000 KRW (equivalent to 5 USD) and is irrelevantly small compared to the other price you need to pay. Some students may wonder whether if it's possible to use mobile data without changing their SIM card; no, it is not. SIM is an abbreviation of Subscriber Identity Module which works as a door key to access the operator's frequency of network that is allocated uniquely.

Most of the data plan operators provide for prepaid SIM card last forever as long as the SIM card is valid. If the data is all used up, you can go to the same retailer you got the SIM card from and buy a new data plan without needing to pay the service fee and SIM card fee. To prevent from being scammed just in case, be sure to bring your buddy with you when getting your SIM card; your buddy can help you with translation and interpretation you'll find difficult.

Even when you signed the contract and paid money for mobile data, you need to wait for an hour to get your SIM card authenticated. From this point, it's documentation that needs to be processed from the telecommunication operator office. It should not take more than an hour, so it is advised to wait until your SIM card is properly functioning by checking phone call and accessing the Internet using mobile data. After thoroughly checked, you may leave the store and enjoy your data.