Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

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Sol
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Sol » Sat May 20, 2017 10:23 am

I've been thinking the past few days... Since I enjoy learning the language so much, I should try and move to SK for a bit, both to learn the language and to see more of the world. Currently my life is going nowhere in the UK.

The problem is, I don't know how to. I finished HS last year, haven't got a bachelor's degree so I can't teach English, and can't afford tuition if I were to study in Korea. I don't know how likely I would be to win a scholarship either. If I were to go, I'd either study languages or something to do with fitness and nutrition.

I don't know, does anyone have any tips or ideas?
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Oscard587 » Sun May 21, 2017 8:25 am

Sol wrote:I've been thinking the past few days... Since I enjoy learning the language so much, I should try and move to SK for a bit, both to learn the language and to see more of the world. Currently my life is going nowhere in the UK.

The problem is, I don't know how to. I finished HS last year, haven't got a bachelor's degree so I can't teach English, and can't afford tuition if I were to study in Korea. I don't know how likely I would be to win a scholarship either. If I were to go, I'd either study languages or something to do with fitness and nutrition.

I don't know, does anyone have any tips or ideas?


There are various ways to come here, but more information about you needed..

Most common way to come here is come here as exchange student. But are you studying in university or college now? If you do, then you must know how to come here by get information from your college. If it's not, then...

IMO, also some students come here as a master student after graduate somewhere outside of Korea. I remember that one Bulgarian student who currently doing her master in Busan. Also she came here after studying in London, is it coincidence? :D anyway scholarship generally aimed at master degrees.

For Bachelor degree, I can see some students in my university that enrolled here. This semester I could see one student from South America and one student from Germany in my classes. But I don't know how could they came here, I mean, maybe they are paying it on their own, tuition and living cost..


Since get a scholarship for a bachelor degree has less option than master degree, it's still exist in here. But in that case, you need to compete with others by your highschool GPA and others.. it differs by organization. There must be websites for these scholarships but as a native Korean, I don't know well about that. You maybe need to find some people from language exchange website who studying Bachelor in here and how they came here. (They must be setting their learning language as Korean) They certainly know more than me about this topic.

Besides, It's easier to get scholarship from your university after you come here, foreigners have their own standard for scholarship so seems they compete only with other foreign students, but be aware, I guess it doesn't pay you living cost even if you got it 100%.

In my case, I also wanted to study Russian in Russian speaking country, however I had no budget and no support from family since I became university student. So I stopped my studying in university for 2 years and got a job for one year, save my money and leave here almost one year for learning Russian language. (It ends as a disaster cause I didn't know how to learn languages at that time..) but I doubt this way works for studying in Korea, Just living cost is expensive, maybe not as much as London but still.

So if you can't pay all, there is only one way to come here - get a scholarship which also pays you living cost every month. But these are rare, so you need to check and prepare yourself well to fit scholarship conditions. I guess it will be difficult as time goes because recently, Korea become strangely popular among young students so number of applicant keep increasing.
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Just because I accept the inevitability of my fate, does not mean I am in any hurry to embrace it!

Mais l'important n’est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.

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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Sol » Sun May 21, 2017 7:19 pm

Oscard587 wrote:
Sol wrote:I've been thinking the past few days... Since I enjoy learning the language so much, I should try and move to SK for a bit, both to learn the language and to see more of the world. Currently my life is going nowhere in the UK.

The problem is, I don't know how to. I finished HS last year, haven't got a bachelor's degree so I can't teach English, and can't afford tuition if I were to study in Korea. I don't know how likely I would be to win a scholarship either. If I were to go, I'd either study languages or something to do with fitness and nutrition.

I don't know, does anyone have any tips or ideas?


There are various ways to come here, but more information about you needed..

Most common way to come here is come here as exchange student. But are you studying in university or college now? If you do, then you must know how to come here by get information from your college. If it's not, then...

IMO, also some students come here as a master student after graduate somewhere outside of Korea. I remember that one Bulgarian student who currently doing her master in Busan. Also she came here after studying in London, is it coincidence? :D anyway scholarship generally aimed at master degrees.

For Bachelor degree, I can see some students in my university that enrolled here. This semester I could see one student from South America and one student from Germany in my classes. But I don't know how could they came here, I mean, maybe they are paying it on their own, tuition and living cost..


Since get a scholarship for a bachelor degree has less option than master degree, it's still exist in here. But in that case, you need to compete with others by your highschool GPA and others.. it differs by organization. There must be websites for these scholarships but as a native Korean, I don't know well about that. You maybe need to find some people from language exchange website who studying Bachelor in here and how they came here. (They must be setting their learning language as Korean) They certainly know more than me about this topic.

Besides, It's easier to get scholarship from your university after you come here, foreigners have their own standard for scholarship so seems they compete only with other foreign students, but be aware, I guess it doesn't pay you living cost even if you got it 100%.

In my case, I also wanted to study Russian in Russian speaking country, however I had no budget and no support from family since I became university student. So I stopped my studying in university for 2 years and got a job for one year, save my money and leave here almost one year for learning Russian language. (It ends as a disaster cause I didn't know how to learn languages at that time..) but I doubt this way works for studying in Korea, Just living cost is expensive, maybe not as much as London but still.

So if you can't pay all, there is only one way to come here - get a scholarship which also pays you living cost every month. But these are rare, so you need to check and prepare yourself well to fit scholarship conditions. I guess it will be difficult as time goes because recently, Korea become strangely popular among young students so number of applicant keep increasing.


I'm not a student currently. I should have gone just so I could teach English around the world eventually! Unfortunately I have no interest in uni, the only reason I'd ever go would be as a way to visit a country. Without a scholarship it's not realistic either sadly. Looks like I'll have to find another way!

I might save up some money too and do what you did, but with SK. Do you have a job in Russia? Or are you living off your savings? Eventually I want to move to Russia for a bit too, to learn Russian properly.

And yes, Korea is becoming very popular. I think it's the Hallyu wave of kpop and dramas!
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Oscard587 » Mon May 22, 2017 8:58 am

Maybe do you have U.K passport? Then there will be way to come here with legal visa.

Korea and U.K signed a contract called YMS - allows their young people to study, travel and work for a long time. You could find some information in U.K government website. While other EU countries has signed it as a 'working holiday', only U.K has a different name. It allows you live here for temporarily - Koreans got permission to live in U.K for maximum 2 years if we got this visa, so it would be same to them.

You can enroll language classes if you need, it's also possible that if you want to work in Korea as a part-time. Just a problem is our economic situation is not so good, so get a part time job would be difficult. Whatever it is, important thing is you need a budget for settle in here. After that, it depends on person how to live in here. (But it seems usually they got support from their parents)

I always think about it in Korean perspective so forgot to mention this before (not many people from U.K or EU countries come here with this contract because low salary is not attractive to them, get a job without decent Korean is really difficult even for part-time)

For Belarus, (actually it was Belarus but I didn't want to show my private info about that) I didn't earn any money from there. Because, simple, you can't earn or work in there unless you have something proper visa. Even if you have, well, I doubt.
You may could go to cheaper cities or places in Russia, but it also means they will give you less amount of salary (actually, it was amazing after listen how much they get from their local companies) С.П и Москва is better than that. But it costs you more- more than salary gap. Also don't forget native Russians leave their hometown and go these cities for get a high salary job.

I recommend you to go some small cities (usually in Siberia or close to Central Asia) rather than two big cities for save money. Even though I think two big cities are core of Russia that has almost everything with cultural heritage.

My Russian was really bad (literally nothing) and still bad (I almost didn't studied in there for some reason). So only one option is available, save as much as I can and stick to it for living cost.

Haha, I don't get why! I even cannot recall when I watched K-drama last time (maybe more than 10 years) also My Korean song list is somewhat different 'trendy' Korean song list like top 100. Lyrics is really important for me, but most of Korean learners just stick to songs that sing something like 'ring ding dong, ring ding dong' (actual lyrics) and say they are learning Korean! My taste is very different from Korean learners in the world, sadly :lol:
0 x
Just because I accept the inevitability of my fate, does not mean I am in any hurry to embrace it!

Mais l'important n’est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.

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Sol
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Sol » Mon May 22, 2017 9:25 am

Oscard587 wrote:Maybe do you have U.K passport? Then there will be way to come here with legal visa.

Korea and U.K signed a contract called YMS - allows their young people to study, travel and work for a long time. You could find some information in U.K government website. While other EU countries has signed it as a 'working holiday', only U.K has a different name. It allows you live here for temporarily - Koreans got permission to live in U.K for maximum 2 years if we got this visa, so it would be same to them.

You can enroll language classes if you need, it's also possible that if you want to work in Korea as a part-time. Just a problem is our economic situation is not so good, so get a part time job would be difficult. Whatever it is, important thing is you need a budget for settle in here. After that, it depends on person how to live in here. (But it seems usually they got support from their parents)

I always think about it in Korean perspective so forgot to mention this before (not many people from U.K or EU countries come here with this contract because low salary is not attractive to them, get a job without decent Korean is really difficult even for part-time)


I have a UK passport. I think I'd like to work part-time and enroll in language classes, though as you said it's difficult to find a job there, especially with beginner-level Korean. Perhaps I should just save up and treat it like a holiday, and look for opportunities at the same time.

For Belarus, (actually it was Belarus but I didn't want to show my private info about that) I didn't earn any money from there. Because, simple, you can't earn or work in there unless you have something proper visa. Even if you have, well, I doubt.
You may could go to cheaper cities or places in Russia, but it also means they will give you less amount of salary (actually, it was amazing after listen how much they get from their local companies) С.П и Москва is better than that. But it costs you more- more than salary gap. Also don't forget native Russians leave their hometown and go these cities for get a high salary job.

I recommend you to go some small cities (usually in Siberia or close to Central Asia) rather than two big cities for save money. Even though I think two big cities are core of Russia that has almost everything with cultural heritage.

My Russian was really bad (literally nothing) and still bad (I almost didn't studied in there for some reason). So only one option is available, save as much as I can and stick to it for living cost.


Thankfully smaller Russian (and Eastern European) towns are quite cheap so I think I can manage if I decide to go to Russia for a bit. In Bulgaria we get a lot of tourists around the beach because it's so cheap. :D

What made you interested in learning Russian anyway?

Haha, I don't get why! I even cannot recall when I watched K-drama last time (maybe more than 10 years) also My Korean song list is somewhat different 'trendy' Korean song list like top 100. Lyrics is really important for me, but most of Korean learners just stick to songs that sing something like 'ring ding dong, ring ding dong' (actual lyrics) and say they are learning Korean! My taste is very different from Korean learners in the world, sadly :lol:


LOL I think it's because dramas are so different to the normal Western shows we get. They are cheesy, cute, completely cliche, etc, but that's what makes them a guilty pleasure. Kpop I don't listen to but the tunes are really catchy so maybe that's why. I know there are a TON of fangirls out there. And I think I know what song you're talking about!

I've always been curious as to what Koreans think of this new worldwide obsession with Korean media. Do you guys see it as funny/weird, or a good thing?
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Oscard587 » Mon May 22, 2017 10:41 am

You can apply it before 30 years old - still you have much time, so you can prepare yourself while saving your money in there before come here. Going to Russia would be better before come here, too.

Russian is my second major and I found this is more interesting than my first major - Turkish. As you can see I didn't enlist Turkish as my TL, I don't wanna learn it now.

They produce it in commercial way - they know how to trigger others watch it. Well, not sure about future, maybe this trend will go away later. Cause as much as they watch, they will find that it's actually not that creative so lose their interest to our stuff (like me).

not sure how others think about it. My opinion would be different from mainstream opinion. But I don't think there is superiority exist in culture, so simply one thing is for sure to me that it doesn't hold much value as an Art as much as other Korean singer's song. Well, other Koreans still enjoy same stuff with foreigners who love Korean stuff anyway..

As a language learner, it's not that good phenomenon. Now it's really difficult to find genuine Korean learner who really willing to learn it. If it's worldwide popular language like French then it would be different, so many different kind of people want to learn French. It add some value from diversity. but...now usually young girls claim they are learning Korean language but their interest always goes to other side, not a language. Also lack of diversity of them makes me doubt about just stick with language exchange - so recently, I decided to get help from who don't learn Korean but native speaker. Also make myself away from them - now I'm here and it's certainly beneficial, more than just stick with language exchange.
0 x
Just because I accept the inevitability of my fate, does not mean I am in any hurry to embrace it!

Mais l'important n’est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.

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Sol
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Sol » Mon May 22, 2017 9:50 pm

Oscard587 wrote:You can apply it before 30 years old - still you have much time, so you can prepare yourself while saving your money in there before come here. Going to Russia would be better before come here, too.

Russian is my second major and I found this is more interesting than my first major - Turkish. As you can see I didn't enlist Turkish as my TL, I don't wanna learn it now.


Russian and Turkish, wow! Those would be rare languages to study in Korea, right? I've heard that Turkish grammar or structure is similar to Korean though.

They produce it in commercial way - they know how to trigger others watch it. Well, not sure about future, maybe this trend will go away later. Cause as much as they watch, they will find that it's actually not that creative so lose their interest to our stuff (like me).

not sure how others think about it. My opinion would be different from mainstream opinion. But I don't think there is superiority exist in culture, so simply one thing is for sure to me that it doesn't hold much value as an Art as much as other Korean singer's song. Well, other Koreans still enjoy same stuff with foreigners who love Korean stuff anyway..

As a language learner, it's not that good phenomenon. Now it's really difficult to find genuine Korean learner who really willing to learn it. If it's worldwide popular language like French then it would be different, so many different kind of people want to learn French. It add some value from diversity. but...now usually young girls claim they are learning Korean language but their interest always goes to other side, not a language. Also lack of diversity of them makes me doubt about just stick with language exchange - so recently, I decided to get help from who don't learn Korean but native speaker. Also make myself away from them - now I'm here and it's certainly beneficial, more than just stick with language exchange.


I see your point, there are a lot of people who are interested in the language because they want to understand kpop or dramas. While I guess there's nothing wrong with that, it is annoying when it's all they talk about. I want to watch a YouTube video in Korean without commenters screaming about their favorite kpop stars! It can get a little maniacal down in the comment section. :D
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Sol » Tue May 23, 2017 3:35 pm

I was learning some new vocab today and lol'd at the author's explanation of the word 애기:

Image
:lol: :lol:

I learned how to say "all".

불가리아 사람들이 치즈를 먹어요. - All Bulgarians eat cheese.
I really hope that's correct because Google translate gives me a very weird translation to what I just wrote...

I've been thinking of how natural the word structure seems to me now, but how unnatural it seems if I translate it directly from Korean to English: Bulgaria people all cheese eat.

Also:

저는 한국 어디나 여행하고 싶어요. 그 날이 언젠가 올 거예요.

I get such a kick typing these letters :D
Last edited by Sol on Tue May 23, 2017 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby vonPeterhof » Tue May 23, 2017 4:10 pm

Sol wrote:불가리아 사람들이 치주를 먹어요. - All Bulgarians eat cheese.
I really hope that's correct because Google translate gives me a very weird translation to what I just wrote...
I take it it's because you misspelled 치즈 as 치주 :D
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Re: Sol's New Russian & Korean Log

Postby Elenia » Tue May 23, 2017 5:12 pm

Hi Sol! Have you considered a TESOL course? Would there be programs that allow you to teach if you have a TESOL/TEFL course already in hand?
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