Philippa Wyant

  University of Greenwich

  London UK

Hansung Summer International School will always be a memorable experience for me, the programme has allowed me to learn and experience things about South Korea that I never knew about. I applied for this course as I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me, being half Korean I didn’t know a lot about the history and politics of South Korea so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to learn more about my heritage and background. I have been able to learn a lot about South Korea through this course, which I am very happy about. Within the 3 ½ weeks of this programme I have been able to meet and make new friends from all around the world, who I most likely would have never of met without this programme. Also, I was able to learn and experience many new things that I had never thought that I’d be able to experience before coming here.

During this programme we did so many activities, a lot more than I had anticipated for the 4 weeks that we were here for so there was a wide range of things that we were able to learn. From the classes that we attended, politics/history and the Korean language were the most enjoyable. I enjoyed learning about the history of North and South Korea as its not taught at schools in the UK. We watched a few movies about South and North Korea which really put what we learnt in perspective. I was glad to be able to learn about some of the politics and history as when we went to the museums, we already had an idea and were able to then learn more about it from there. The Art classes were interesting as well, learning about traditional Korean clothes and houses and then making our own. The language classes were also fun, the games that Grant did made it a lot more enjoyable for us when learning the language.

There were many activities that I enjoyed during this programme, but my favourite activities that we did on this programme were, Lotte Tower, Seodaemun Prison History Hall, Gyeongju trip and visiting the DMZ.

Lotte Tower was somewhere that I had always wanted to go to as I had heard the view is really nice, so I was happy to see it on the programme timetable. From Lotte Tower, you are able to see Seoul from all directions as there is viewing points all around the tower. I really liked the clear floor, so you were able to see directly down into the city. The skyline view of Seoul was really pretty, especially as the sun started to set. You can’t see Seoul from this point of view from anywhere else.

Seodaemun Prison History Hall was really interesting, we had learnt some stuff about the Japanese occupation of Korea in the Politics class, so too see it in person was very fascinating. However, it was also sad to see though what Koreans had to go through while they were imprisoned at there. It was probably one of my favourite museums that we visited during the programme.

I enjoyed the three- day Gyeongju trip, it was a very jam-packed trip but nevertheless enjoyable. Visiting the Temples and Wolji were the most memorable parts for me, the night view of the pond at Wolji were really nice, it was the prettiest place to view especially at night. The temples that we saw were really pretty as well, it was my first time seeing such beautiful coloured hanging lanterns. Being in Gyeongju had a different feeling to Seoul as it isn’t as built up, there are a lot of mountains around the city which made it feel like we weren’t in a city. This trip also allowed all of us to bond more as we spoke to people that we had yet to get to know.

DMZ was also a really interesting place to visit, it was somewhere in Korea that I have really wanted to go to, so I was so glad that this was one of the activities on the programme. To think that we were so close to the border and that we could view North Korea was so exciting. Seeing the tunnel 3 that the North Korean’s dug out was really impressive, it was nothing like I had seen before. Then going to view North Korea was even more fascinating, the weather wasn’t very good so we couldn’t see North Korea very clearly but being able to see the North Korean flag and some parts of North Korea was impressive. I hope that the next time I come to South Korea I will get the chance to visit JSA, as after the trip to the DMZ it’s made me want to visit JSA a lot more.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my experience at Hansung University, I am glad that I got the opportunity to be a part of this programme and experience many new things about Korea. I appreciate everything that David has done for us during our experience, and everything that he organised for us to have an exciting and fulfilled trip. I am so glad that I was able to meet so many new people and make new friends from around the world, I’m sure that we will keep in touch with each other. Thank you to all the buddies as well, without them I don’t think that I would have enjoyed this programme as much as I have, they made everyone feel so welcome and helped us out in so many ways, I am so grateful to them all. Lastly thank you to Hansung University and Greenwich University for giving me this opportunity, I am so glad that I applied for this programme, I will remember this trip forever.