STUDYING @ CAU

So by now I've gone at least once to all of my classes here at Chung-Ang and thought I'd do a post about the courses I chose and what they seem to be like. My major is here business (in Finland I study in Turku School of Economics). The Cau business courses are competitive and you had to be very quick when registering (at 4am in Finland may I add). Exchange students got to register before the regular students, but there were limitations on how many exchange students can fit to a certain course. The recommendation is 5 courses per semester, which equals 15 credits and the limit is 19 credits. I chose a couple business courses and a few general education courses that I thought could be a good fit to my major and department.



About the timetable: the classes are usually 3 x 50 minutes once a week, with the exception of some 75 minute classes once or twice a week. I have Monday free and on Tuesday I only have one 75 minute class, but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are longer days with the earlier classes, free periods in the middle and then the classes continuing until 17:30.




My courses are:

Business Communication

This course is kind of a basic course about writing different things in English and also about discussing things together in class. I don't know how much of this is actually new compared to the courses I've already taken in Finland but let's see. I don't think I am keeping the course though if I'm not able to include at least some of the credits to my degree. Many assignments through the semester but no exams.

Korean History & Culture

The professor in this course seems fun, he was really impressed about me being from Finland :D He also stated that the classroom we were in was "bullshitty" (it really was), so from now on the class is in the nice new business school -building. Seems like an interesting course, from what I've browsed the materials.

Korean and Global Business

I like this course a lot actually, a lot of interesting information about the history of Korean economy and politics, the professor is 80 years old (!!) and has studied in The US and taught in universities all around Asia. A loot of reading to do for each lesson though, but not so many assignments - only two essays and a final exam.

Organizational Behavior

This course seems very interesting. I think it shows the difference between Finnish and Korean culture very well, since majority of the students are from Korea, and also seems to be kind of competitive. For example, on the first lesson we had 10 minutes to prepare a 1 minute presentation in front of the class of 80 students about ourselves. In addition to midterm and final exams, there's a group project and individual assignments coming up, and attendance is closely monitored: 4 absences and you're out, and if you're late from the class twice, it equals one absence. Nice, since my previous class ends only 15 minutes earlier and the transition takes usually at least that. This class is also conveniently on Friday 15-17:30 since the professor wants to ensure high motivation..

Elementary Korean

I've only had an introductory class on this course, but it seems like we are starting slow and beginning by properly learning Hangul (the Korean alphabets). On the first lesson we had to once again just introduce ourselves and tell why we want to learn Korean. Few quizzes and a midterm and final exam.

International Relations

This is the only graduate-level course I have here. Yet another professor who has studied in the US, and he seems really excited about his subject. Another very interesting course, and one I think is structured well. There are parts I and II, after which we have a midterm exam, and after that part III, and a final exam. We also have to do an international news summary for each week.


So far all of my courses seem very interesting and I like them, but we'll see if the workload of six courses becomes too much at some point.