sidonie-lein

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Today is my last day in South Korea! I'm so thankkful for this opportunity. It was really a dream come true. I will definitely come back as a tourist to explore more. I had a great time despite Covid!

If you have the opportunity to study abroad I would definitely recommend it! This semester will stay with me forever!!

Thank you!

See you tomorrow!

Greetings, Sidonie

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

WAUW! The semester is almost over, only 14 days until I go back home.

Next week, I have my final exams and on the 23rd December is my flight.

I had a wonderful time here, met a lot of new people, and made lots of friends, despite Covid. But, I am honestly glad that it is ending, because I miss my family, my friends, and my home so much. This was the first time I went abroad for so long all on my own, so I think it's normal to miss home. :)

Thank you to everyone who read all of my posts. I hope you enjoyed it!

I will update you more next week and when I'm back home. ;)

Greetings, Sidonie

#studyabroad #adventure #exchange student #south korea #first time away #university #culture #education

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Since you all know, I am in Korea as an exchange student. I thought you would also be interested in the courses I am taking at Hanyang University. First, for the rest of the semester, all of my classes are online through Zoom. Our teachers have decided it is for the best. The numbers of Covid-19 are still high. They're doing it for our and their safety.

Now, let me tell you a bit about my courses. I am taking five courses worth 14 credits. My major is Education. A little more specific, I am a teacher trainee in Secondary School in history and English. In conclusion, I had to find courses that had to do with education, history, and English.

The first course, my only education course, is English Curriculum and Material Development. In this course, we learn to be critical of the coursebooks teachers use in Secondary schools and how to develop lesson materials. We have to read chapters from the book Developing Materials for Language teaching by Tomlinson. We look at the exercises in a coursebook and apply what we learnt from the book. We learnt about the different kinds of exercises there are. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than this, but I want to keep it short and clearly for you. :)

My second course is English Pronunciation Practice. This course is about phonetics and the pronunciation of English words. We use the book Clear Speech, which uses the pronunciation of North American English. In Belgium, during the first two years of my education, I have learnt the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but currently, I'm learning the Clear Speech phonetic alphabet, which is different from the one I had learnt. This makes it a bit more confusing, but luckily we focus more on practicing pronunciation. Even though it's different, I still find it interesting and helpful.

My third course is Basic English Writing. In this course, we learn how to write appropriate academic paragraphs. I find this very helpful and intriguing since I have never decently seen how to write a paragraph. We have seen different kinds of them. We repeat grammar rules, capitalization, punctuation, citations, vocabulary practice, descent topic sentences, building better sentences, and more. We use the book Great Writing.

My fourth course, and personally the most interesting, is Global English. Our teachers said a better name for this course would be The Story of English since this course is about the history of the English language. As an English and history student, this course is perfect for me. We have to read the book The Story of English by McCrum R., MacNeil R., and Cran W.. There is also a BBC documentary about the book, which you can find on YouTube. It is a captivating book. It shows how English has changed through the centuries and how much of that change is because of influences. It shows the spread of English across the world and how it has become a global language. It talks about the many dialects and varieties English has. In class, we also do research about people who made changes that we still know today. Think about Shakespeare's attribution of new words to the English language. I had to write a paper for the mid-term exam about Robert Lowth and grammar. For this paper, we learnt about APA and MLA styles, styles that say how to accurately write a paper and citation use. Now, we are learning how different social groups have influenced the English language. For example, the impact of Black African Americans on English or of Native people, for example, the Aboriginals of Australia. I knew there were a lot of varieties of English (think about Am. Eng., Brit. Eng., Austr. Eng., Indian Eng., South Afr. Eng., ...) but by learning the history of it, they all get linked together, and I started to see the entire picture of the spread of English. To compare it with Flanders. West-Flanders has more French words in their vocabulary than people from Antwerp or Limburg. Another comparison is North Korean and South Korean. Both are Korean, yet they are, to a certain extent, different.

Speaking of the Korean Language, this is my last course. In this course, we first learnt the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. This way, we would be able to read and pronounce words, phrases correctly. Then we started learning some vocabulary and grammar. By the mid-term exam, we were able to introduce ourselves and others. Now, we are learning more grammar and vocabulary. It is getting more difficult, but it is still fun and exciting. For this class, we use the green book you see in the picture.

So this was a short introduction to the courses I'm taking here. My mid-term exams are finished now. On December 23rd, I'm returning home, which means there are only seven weeks left. Time flies when you're having fun. ;)

See you soon!

Greetings,

Sidonie

#south korea #exchange student #studyabroad #first time away #adventure #university #education

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

A couple days after visiting Changdokkung palace, I went to visit the Namsan tower.

According to seoultower.co.kr "The Namsan Seoultower, Korea’s first general radio wave tower, was built to promote the future of the broadcasting and tourism industry. It combines a broadcast tower and an observatory which embodies traditional Korean design."

To get to Namsam tower, I took the subway and then the cable car. After arriving at the platform, I saw the handrails were full of locks with names on them, just like the famous bridge in Paris! But I was still not on top of Namsam tower. So I took the lift to the top where you have an amazing view and walk 360° around.

The Namsam tower is famous for both foreigners and Koreans. It is on most lists about what people should visit while being in Korea. I am glad I did!

See you soon!

Greetings, Sidonie

#studyabroad #adventure #exchange student #south korea #first time away #culture #university

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Here are some more photos of Changdokkung Palace. I tried to pick to best photos because I have way too many photos to post them here. I hope you like them!

Enjoy!

See you soon!

Greetings, Sidonie

#studyabroad #adventure #exchange student #south korea #first time away #culture #university

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Here I am again! This time with the photos from Changdokkung Palace. There are five Grand Palaces, of which only four are open to visitors. This is the first Palace I visited. According to Koreabyme.com "Changdeokgung was built in 1405 by King Taejong, the third ruler of Joseon, and served as a secondary palace. During the Japanese invasion, Changdeokgung as well as the rest palaces were destroyed. After its reconstruction in 1610, it served as the main palace for about 270 years."

Visiting this palace was an amazing experience! The palace is not like a castle, which is one big building having multiple rooms for different occasions, but this palace and the others are different buildings spread over a big surface. I was lucky it was a beautiful, warm, and sunny day, which made me enjoy the day trip even more.

If you ever come to South Korea, I definitely recommend visiting the palaces!

See you soon!

Greetings, Sidonie

#first time away #adventure #exchange student #south korea #studyabroad #culture #university

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Here I am again!

This time with pictures of fried chicken with French fries and the beautiful night sky. :)

That day, Anaïs (another Belgian girl from Howest) and I went exploring the city. And believe me when I say it's a BIG city! :)

But I have four months to explore this beautiful city.

In the next post, we will be exploring a bit of Korean's history. ;)

See you soon!

Greetings, Sidonie

#south korea #exchange student #studyabroad #adventure #first time away #university

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Quarantine has ended and school started!

Here are some pictures of the campus. Unfortunately, classes are on Zoom until the end of October. What happens after that depends on the Covid numbers.

Luckily, we are allowed to visit historical places and eat in restaurants but that's for my next post. ;)

See you guys real soon!!!

Greetings, Sidonie

#studyabroad #exchange student #south korea #first time away #adventure #university

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful view from my room, as promised!

Four more days and quarantine will come to an end! Yaaayyy!

See you soon!

Greetings Sidonie

#studyabroad #south korea #exchange student #quarantine #adventure #first time away

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone!

Because of some unknown reasons, my fellow students and I had to move to another hotel. The video shows my new room with an AMAZING view! I love it! It was raining and foggy yesterday, that's why you can't see much, but I'll upload a picture when the weather is better.

Today, I received an email from my buddy! I can't wait to meet her and discover Seoul.

Five more days until I can get out of quarantine!

See you soon!

Greetings Sidonie

#studyabroad #south korea #exchange student #adventure #first time away #quarantine

[sidonie-lein]

Hi everyone! Here's a video of my quarantine room. When I walked in, I was really surprised by how big it is. My room is on the 15th floor, but it looks like I'm on the second because of the terrace.

Today is my sixth day of quarantine. I'm feeling lonely here, but I video chat with my friends almost every day, so that makes the loneliness more bearable.

If you're lonely too, follow me on Instagram @sidonielein and we'll keep each other company. :)

See you next time!

Greetings Sidonie

#south korea #studyabroad #exchange student #adventure #quarantine

[sidonie-lein]

Nice to meet you!

Hi everyone!

My name is Sidonie. I'm 20 years old and I'm from Menen, West-Flanders, Belgium. I'm starting this blog because I'm going to study abroad for one semester. The semester begins September 1st and ends December 21st. You may ask where I'm going. Well, I'm going to South Korea! It's on the other side of the planet, no biggy ;) Through this website, I will update you as much as I can. But in my first two weeks in Korea, I can't visit anything since I will be in quarantine. These two weeks of quarantine already started since I'm writing this from my lonely room, on the 15th floor. I left Belgium on August 15th and arrived in Incheon, South Korea August 16th at noon. A taxi drove me to my quarantine place where I'm currently staying. Two days ago, other exchange students, who are also staying at Kingstown Sky Park Hotel, and I went to take our first PCR test. On the 13th day of the quarantine, we have to take our second test.

When my quarantine is finished you will hear more from me.

See you next time! Greeting Sidonie

#studyabroad #south korea #newblogger #university #journey #adventure #first time away #exchange student