Studying at KAIST: How Much Korean Language do You Need?

So, you’re prepared to study at the 3rd ranked best universities under 50 years old huh? Well congratulations! However, I’ve received questions asking me about the language problem at KAIST: that is, whether they’re really going to need to learn korean language at all to study or not. I’ll try to give some background explanation about KAIST itself, and additional information based on my own experience as a graduate student from 2012 to 2014.

About KAIST itself

Among Korean universities that I know, KAIST is one of the readiest to accept international students. It has a functional international student association, international student and scholar support office, free Korean language classes, and a volunteering group where they have native Koreans conduct one on one classes with international students. Major classes are conducted in English, and important notifications also use English so you don’t have to worry about missing any important details. International students also create events periodically, so should you ever want to mingle with students of other nationalities, you can join year end parties, strawberry parties, field trips, anything!

Just for comparison, there are Korean universities out there which don’t conduct English classes, so you just need to do assignments, take exams, and work in labs.  I don’t mean to speak ill, but some universities accept international students only to improve their ranking without the necessary preparations. If you managed to enter KAIST, then you’re in good hands.

So, do I need to learn Korean if I attend KAIST?

Depends. I’ll just give some example cases, and you might fit into one of the cases.

A. You spend all of your time holed up in KAIST. You just commute from your dorm to lab, lecture buildings, and the library. You barely go off-campus until graduation. Then you’ll do just fine without even a tiny bit of Korean language. Although personally I sincerely hope that you don’t fall into this category. Most of the staffs at KAIST speak English, so you’ll be fine. It’s a shame, though. I know this guy who attended KAIST (previously ICC until it merged with KAIST) for 7 years, but can’t even read hangeul. He was an excellent student, but because he was unable to speak Korean he had some difficulties when finding employment.

B. You go around Daejeon, and from time to time travel to other parts of Korea. The most common type (and I think I fall into this category). You don’t have to be fluent in Korean, but you should have some basic conversation skills e.g. asking for price, telling the taxi driver where to go, ask for tickets, etc since most Koreans can’t speak english. For more complicated issues like immigration issues or taxes, it’s OK to ask help from your Korean friends. As a bonus point, learn how to use Naver to find your way around when traveling.

C. You seek employment. Although not always a requirement when applying for a job, it is really vital for your career (and sometimes they ask you to speak in Korean during interview to gauge your ability). There’s a really good chance that not all of your co-workers are fluent in English. As such, they tend to shy away when you try to speak with them in English. This also applies when working in lab with Korean students.  Based from my experience, they’ll appreciate you more if they know that you can speak, or at least attempt to learn Korean. It will really help you get closer to Koreans.

Unfortunately, having a technical discussion in Korean language would be really difficult if you just learn Korean normally. Even students taking intensive one-year course in Korean from zero can’t always speak fluently. If this is your target, then honestly speaking it would be a really huge challenge if you stay for only, say, 4 years and squeeze learning Korean in between your jam-packed schedule. Personally even I feel envious when my fellow labmates are able to have a heated discussion about lab works in Korean language, but they are unable to do so with me due to communication barriers.

So there’s my post. Hope this helps anyone wanting to go to KAIST prepare for their study.

Wrapping up Geumgang

Tired legs, aching butt, summer’s humidity, and most of all, boredom

This story is from last week, where I managed to wrap up Geumgang river’s bicycle path. The total length of my bicycle trip is almost 130 km, starting from Daejeon towards Sejong city, and eventually following the Geumgang river all the way down into Gunsan city.

The whole trip takes approximately 7 to 8 hours with a single 30 minute break halfway there. As usual, kudos to the Korean government for providing such excellent cyling road even in the most remote areas :D.

The geumgang path is considered to be one of the easier route, spanning only 147 km – I finished Daecheongdam earlier so I didn’t go there this time – with pretty much a flat route with minimum hills along the way. The road runs along the river road passing through large bridges and dams. And which is why the road is so boring, because all I can see are nothing but the side of river, with the occasional cliff on the left side and some small towns along the way (hey so Daejeon is not as underdeveloped compared to the real villages in Korea).

For this trip I didn’t bring my camera (because falling over my bike would spell instant disaster with my camera inside my backpack) so pictures taken from my phone would suffice 😀 (and it’s a new phone! ta~dahh).

This one is taken at sejong city, the city right next to Daejeon. Only 20 km away.

This one is at Gongjubo, the outskirt of Gongju city. The promotional material at 4 river’s website shows it as interesting, but when I actually got there.. Meh.

This one is taken at baekjebo. There’s a k-water facility here so we can learn more about Korea’s river if we’re interested I guess. But it’s in Korean so I didn’t feel like entering.

This one is taken at Iksan. Probably the most remote stamp booth compared to the other posts, as this one is located right in the middle of nowhere! It’s like they decided to just plop one somewhere in a rural area so that the distance between posts don’t get too far.

This is the last post located at Gunsan city. For this one there are two certification centers available, but I picked the nearest one of course. At this point I felt like I’m tanned all over, my butt aches, and I yearn for toilet so much.But now the Geumgang river stamps is complete! I got a congratulatory sticker for this one, and of course a complete bragging right LOL – although not long after that an ahjussi came to chat with me and he showed his almost complete stamp collection. Shoot!

We took the bus back home from Gunsan terminal – because retaking the bicycle route back home would be suicidal for a noob like me. So what have we learned from cycling long range? Fatigue is bound to happen, but above all it’s more of a mental battle. The fact that there are road signs showing the distance from the final post sometimes act as an encouragement, sometimes it made me despair on how there are so much distance left, and sometimes it made me lazy knowing that there’s less than 10 kms left. Yes, definitely a mental battle.

 

Sereal impor

Salah satu hal yang menarik dari hidup terpisah dari orang tua di luar negeri adalah: gw jadi kayak emak-emak. Gw jadi ngebandingin harga-harga barang kebutuhan sehari-hari apakah itu di toko KAIST, HomePlus, ataupun Emart. Gw pun jadi tahu kalau lagi ada diskon dari langganan email newsletter homeplus dan emart. Sungguh.

Nah, karena gw jadi sering pergi belanja ke homeplus – biasanya beli snack, susu, dan sereal karena yang ngurus belanja makanan Alfan sama Rully – ada satu hal yang seru di sini: sereal impor. HomePlus Korea sebenarnya adalah punya Tesco, karena itu wajar kalau di sini kita bisa beli produk-produk Tesco. Salah satu produk tesco yang paling gw beli adalah si sereal impor itu!

Nah, kalau ada kata impornya pasti yang terbesit di kepala adalah kata mahal kan ya? Well, gak usah khawatir, karena Homeplus sering diskon. Memang diskonnya gak terus-terusan, tapi pasti di satu waktu minimal ada satu barang yang didiskon. Dan diskonnya pun bisa setengah harga, sehingga harga si sereal impor ini bisa ngalahin harga sereal lokal dalam harga per 100 gramnya (sungguh gw jadi merhatiin ginian). Terus kenapa gw milih sereal impor? Karena enak! Ditambah, biasanya sereal impor yang didiskon itu yang sehat a.k.a. yang high fiber dan mengandung berbagai macam vitamin dan mineral via potongan buah-buahan dan kacang-kacangan. Serius, udah harganya lebih murah, jumlahnya lebih banyak, sehat pula.

Bahkan si nyokap di rumah dan calon menantunya nyokap ikutan nitip beli karena pengen nyobain sereal yang lucu-lucu itu. Alhasil meja gw jadi kayak meja pengidap kelainan suka hoarding barang.

Si roommate pasti bingung apakah temen sekamarnya lagi menyiapkan diri buat zombie apocalypse dengan asupan survival sereal.

 

Pendaftaran Internet Secure Payment BC card

Hm oke, biasanya sebelum saya mengetahui cara ini, biasanya saya belanja di Gmarket Korea dengan menggunakan virtual account, di mana saya harus mentransfer sejumlah uang ke virtual account Woori Bank. Tentunya cara ini agak malas untuk dilakukan berhubung berarti saya harus cek uang yang akan ditransfer ke website Woori, mengguakan sertifikat untuk login, masukkan virtual account gmarket sebagai rekening tujuan, menggunakan security card, dan menunggu Gmarket konfirmasi deposit. Akan tetapi, apabila kita menggunakan pilihan local credit card, kita cukup menggunakan sertifikat dan password saja untuk transaksi real time.

Pada dasarnya, semua check card yang memiliki logo BC bisa menggunakan cara ini. Di sini akan dijelaskan cara mendapatkan sertifikat untuk Internet Secure Payment (ISP).

Pertama, buka http://www.bccard.com dan pilih login (로그인)

Pada halaman berikutnya, di bagian ISP, pilih pendaftaran untuk ISP (ISP 신청)

Di halaman berikutnya, masukkan nomor kartu dan email kita

Di halaman berikutnya, isi data mengenai kartu kita

 

Untuk terms and condition seperti biasa di yes aja semuanya :D.

Pada halaman berikutnya, kita akan diminta untuk memasukkan password yang nantinya akan digunakan setiap kali kita akan melakukan transaksi dengan menggunakan kartu. (lupa discreenshot).

Berikutnya, pilih lokasi penyimpanan sertifikat transaksi. Catatan: untuk Flash disk, kelihatannya hanya bisa untuk flash disk dengan format filesystem FAT32. Untuk NTFS tidak bisa digunakan untuk menyimpan sertifikat.

Sekarang proses sudah selesai! Berikutnya akan ada beberapa pilihan untuk menyimpan sertifikat di mobile, tapi ini opsional.

Apabila sertifikat sudah tersimpan dengan benar di komputer, maka apabila kita memilih transaksi dengan credit card kita akan mendapatkan gambar sebagai berikut:

Cukup masukkan password, dan selesai! Uang didebit, dan status bayar langsung diupdate. Jauh lebih mudah :D.

Catatan: cara ini membuat belanja online jadi sangat mudah jadi hati-hati tabungan anda jebol karena kebanyakan belanja LOL

Woori Check card, visa

For a little while now, I’ve always wanted to do some online shopping at foreign websites here on South Korea. Unfortunately, shopping at for example play store and amazon requires a working credit card. I do have one, but since it’s linked to my parents’ (this one is for emergency use actually) it leaves me with a bit of guilt everytime I buy one of those 1000 KRW games at google play store. And for graduate drones students like me, the bank set a high requirement when I want to make a credit card (1 million won deposit in a deposit account, meaning you can’t withdraw from it)

But turns out that you can actually use a check card for this problem, but you need to be a bit specific when requesting the bank’s teller. You can use a check card that has Visa / Master Card written on it. However, by default they won’t give you this card, and the capability for international transaction is disabled.

Note the Visa sign

You’ll need an alien card and passport for this one. Just go to a woori bank branch, and ask for a visa check card. But this is something that you absolutely need to do: ask for international transaction capability to be activated. They don’t activate this by default, and yesterday I tried to register my card at google wallet several times to no avail. Wonder why can’t they just make things easier 😐

 

Busan: Apple guest house

Imagine a situation where: a. This is your first time at Busan. You know nothing about this city, and as usual, you only speak survival Korean. b. You simply give the complete address of your lodging to the taxi driver, entrusting your entire well being upon the mercy of the ahjussi. c. Using his GPS, he immediately found the most efficient route to reach your destination. However, he dropped you right in the middle of a parking lot in front of Jagalchi fish market, and after you tried looking around, no building resembles a guest house whatsoever, and you’re still carrying your luggage. Actually happened to me the first time I went to Busan, staying at Apple Guesthouse.

Just where the heck am I..

However, upon closer look upon one of the building..

There it is!

Yup, the Apple Guesthouse is located on the fifth floor of one of the building located near Jagalchi fish market. The first floor is a North Face apparel shop, and the other floors are used for Chinese language school. Uh ok, so I’m a bit skeptical knowing that I’m staying near a fish market. There’s the issue of cleanliness, noises, and the rest. But I went inside anyway.

And inside..

The interior is actually really cute! In contrast to the market outside, the guesthouse itself is really cozy. Apparently, this building used to be a bookstore. But since nowadays people buy books online, they closed down the store. Now, the space is used as a guesthouse. Since they’re trying to fit the rooms inside the space, some of the rooms are weird shaped. My room is shaped like the letter C. Not that it bothers me much though.

The room is really cozy actually. We were provided electric mats in case it gets cold. Our window is directly facing the main road, so we get a nice view of the street view. The downside is, of course, the noises coming from the street below. Good thing we were given earplugs.

I had a really enjoyable stay here. The owner is really nice and he loves to chat with his guests. I’m not really sure how to spell his name, I think it’s Seol? (sorry!). He treated me to some fried chicken :p.

To summarize,

Pros:

• Really cozy room
• Located in the Junggu district of Busan. Busan tower is within walking distance, and you can go shopping at Nampo. Jagalchi fish market is nearby if you’re up to some fish for your meal. Located right in the middle of Nampo and Jagalchi subway station. Only two stops away from Busan Station.
• Friendly owner 😀

Cons:

• Shared bathroom and toilet. Might pose a problem during one of those emergency situation. And it seems that the woman’s shower is communal.
• The noises from the street.

I really recommend this place :D. If you’re interested in touring Busan, you can just go to Busan station located two station away, and take the city tour bus.

Seoulwise Guesthouse

When my family visited Korea last time, we stayed over at SeoulWise, a guesthouse located in Seoul’s Hongik University area. You can see their website here. Although Hongdae (short for Hongik daehakkyo) area is generally accepted as a popular party spot, this guesthouse is located at a more quiet neighborhood of Hongdae, just across the subway station’s line 2.

The guesthouse is owned by Mr. Young – who apparently traveled a lot as shown from the photographs from many countries which he took himself. He’s really helpful, and actually helped me wrote an inquiry in Korean to a souvenir shop and book plane tickets :D.

From what I’ve seen, this guesthouse was probably established on a building meant to be a one-room residential, evident from a number of other one-room buildings around the area. Nonetheless, the room where I’m staying in, a 4 people room with two bunk bed, is cozy enough with its own indoor bathroom. You can borrow towel from the guesthouse, and even laundry your clothes for 1000 won.

My bed, just right after unpacking our stuffs

The guesthouse has its wifi on each floor, so for foreigner with no international data plan, this is a blessing.

Guests are served breakfast from 08.00-10.00 AM in the form of cereal or toasts. You can also drink milk and orange juice.

Common room

Kitchen and dining room

As I’ve said earlier, this guesthouse is not the party-guesthouse type, and there’s even a prohibition for making loud noises after 10 PM. So if you’re looking for peace and quiet, this is the place.

The guesthouse is located at a 10-minute walk from Hongdae’s subway station, so travelling all over Seoul from this place is not a problem.

My overall impression of this place? It’s really good! If by any chance you want to stay for the night at Hongdae area, this is the place to go.

Ripped off at the Seoul station

Ok, this just happened to me today. My family and I were going to Busan via KTX, and we were searching for our car number at the platform.
Suddenly, an Ahjussi came and asked us about our tickets. At first I thought that he might be some kind of cleaning staff or something and offered to help us find our car. Until suddenly he took our luggage. Well turns out that he’s a porter. Mkay, carrying one bag for as far as three cars, I’ll just give him 1000 krw out of generosity.
But then again after he put one bag – one bag, mind you – on the ktx’s luggage area, he said in english “ten thousand won. No, five thousand.” What? Just carrying one medium sized bag for such a short distance is somehow worth 5000 won? (Or 10000 initially). Even a bus ticket from seoul to daejeon is 10000 won. God, 5000 can get me a nice meal at KAIST’s cafeteria.
For all of you foreign tourists out there, only trust officials in Korean stations and try not to look confused or anything in public places. Have a safe travel.

Recharging your FreeC prepaid mobile data via the internet

If you are a foreigner and using a phone from outside Korea with a prepaid plan, there’s a good chance that you are using an MVNO’s service for your phone’s connectivity. An MVNO is a “Mobile Virtual Network Operator”, where they borrow major provider’s network to provide their service. Well I’m not going to go into too much detail here, because our main topic is about recharging/buying your mobile data plan using the internet.

Before I try this, I usually go to FreeC’s shop located at Hanbit Plaza near KAIST. But after trying this method, I don’t have to go there anymore if I simply wanted to recharge my data plan (and the weather’s crazy cold for that matter). The method is quite easy. You just need to prepare your bank’s account number and the security card you receive for online banking (you know, those cards with small numbers behind them).

This method assumes that you

• Are a FreeC customer
• Already signed up on their website
• Have your bank’s digital certificate with you

First, go to http://midata.freec.co.kr

There are 4 sections in this page. The first one is your phone number. The second one is the type of data plan that you want to buy. The third section is the total amount that you have to pay. The last section is the payment method. The first radio button is via credit card, the second one is direct bank payment, and the third one is using virtual account. We’ll go with the second option.

You’ll be presented with the next window

We’ll go straight to the second section. The first row is bank selection. The second one is your bank account number. The third row is your 4-digit pasword. The fourth row is account holder’s name (don’t worry if there’s not enough space), and the fifth one is alien card number. For the third section, just choose the leftmost radio button.

Continuing to the next part, you’ll get this window. Choose 보안카드 (security card) and enter the last 4 digit of your card’s serial number

After that, you’ll be required to enter some numbers on your security card and your certificate’s password, similar to when you’re making an online bank transfer in Korea. After everything’s finished, there will be some window where you can put your email and phone number for notification.

You’ll be brought back to the main window on FreeC’s website And as a proof that everything’s finished, they’ll send you an SMS.

There you go. Hope this helps so you don’t have to go to cell phone shops in this crazy winter just to recharge your balance.