Living in Korea: Linda Had to Delay Her Trip For Two Years!
Like Asia, Linda is taking Korean courses level 2 in Donguk University. She arrived in April 2022 after struggling to come for two years.
Why did you want to come to Korea?
I wanted to come after my graduation as an holiday with my friends: two weeks in Korea, two weeks in Japan but then COVID happened so we couldn't come. I was following some Korean fashion and beauty youtubers and instagramers that got me hooked so I thought that maybe if I took the language program I would come more easily and for a long time so I applied.
How did you find out about Enkor?
My friends and I were looking for an accommodation because we wanted to get out of the dorms but we always get weird vibes from the landlord or the house. So at some point a friend recommended Enkor, and since we were already in Korea we could visit the place so we knew exactly how it was. And when we arrived everything was super clean! I was worried because when I lived in London I had bad experiences with share houses but I like it here.
How is your stay in Korea so far?
At first I didn't know about Korea at all so I figured that I would research it before coming and it didn't disappoint. As I'm a student I'm living the best part of the Korean life.
Do you plan on staying longer?
I currently am staying until December but I will try to extent for one more term so I will acheive lvl 4 in Korean. And then I'll see because I wanted to do my Master's in Media Communications here aswell but it's really expensive and I don't know if they would accept me with my Korean level.
What would you say was the most complicated at first?
They don't take foreign cards in most ATm so I didn't know where to take out cash from, and if you don't have your alien card you cannot do anything basically. That was really annoying at first. But the hardest was to collect all the papers from university, there is so much stuff you need to provide and you need to go to different places in Italy just to get the official documents and stuff.
Now that you are settled in Korea, is there a place you especially like to go to?
When I was at the dorm I lived really near from Namsan tower so we used to hike up there once in a while it was really nice. It's a bit steep at first but it looks much longer than it actually is, it's doable in 45 minutes if you walk slowly from the station. Oh and I went to Busan during my first holidays from school. I went to the beach where there was sand sculptures (Haeundae Sand Fesival) and I visited a temple by the sea. And the people were so nice, even old people tried to speak with us, the mood was less stressed than in Seoul.
Have you met other Italian in Korea?
Yes, so many! It's weird because when I moved to London I didn't wanna speak italian, I wanted to speak in Einglish so I tried to avoid the Italians. But in Korea I found so many amazing Italian people, I'm even living with them now! But a lot of them already went back home. So I think that the people I'm surrounded by are really nice, which is the best thing when you live abroad.
Next up is Erika, she wants to be a filmmaker and hopefully she will get opportunities in Korea!