Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Inside The Life Of A South Korean Teen (Day 2)


Written by mohdazhar.
Edited and photo by stdynn.
Photo edited by felixtan.

She’s a third-year Architecture student from the prestigious Chung-Ang University. She’s a huge fan of renowned Korean mobile phone maker, Samsung. But most importantly, she loves Indian curry!

Pardon me as I attempt to match the cute standards here! Hehe. ;)

Meet Kim Hyung Eun, my first native South Korean friend for the trip. Despite the rather comical 20-minute conversation – trust me, we were struggling to understand each other for almost every two sentences – I did learn a lot about the lifestyle of the teenagers or young adults here, specifically their school culture.

For a start, she told me that a typical high school student here spends about fourteen hours on campus, from 8am to 10pm. She explained that competition for university places is tough due to the limited facilities. With the country now positioning itself as a global economy, the students are expected to pick up the English language, which has proven to be tough for most of the students here.

Another discovery I made was that the preferred mode of transport for the young here is the subway. Entry to the stations costs 1,000 (equivalent to SGD 0.95). In contrast, cab fares start from 2,400, with the price surging drastically for longer trips. The time taken to travel between each subway station is also short – 5 minutes only.

Before we exchange our annyongs (goodbyes), Kim Hyung Eun said that she is very much interested to visit Singapore next year. An architect in the making, she hopes to visit the Marina Bay Sands, a building she finds most enthralling. And of course, to get another taste of her favourite curry! 

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