Classes Begin

Classes have now begun! With my first two days of classes out of the way, it is now time to predetermine what my classes will be like (whee?).

First up, comes Operations Management. The class seems interesting and will certainly give me new perspectives on how the interworking of a business goes, but I’m a little worried because the professor speaks very softly. Thankfully, I’m sitting at the front of the class, so I should be able to hear most of what he says.

Next comes Financial Management. Now this is the class that I am most worried about. Even coming 30 minutes early to class, I was forced to sit 5 rows back (I’m a first 2 rows kind of person), and I can see why. I could barely hear the professor! I am immediately intimidated because the classroom, which is only supposed to for 50, is filled with 70 people, and I’m only 1 of 2 foreigners! While it will give me the chance to practice my Korean, it’s still intimidating. To add to the stress, the teacher announced just how hard the class will be—she expects us to fail!! She expects us to fail so much, that she’ll pass us almost no matter what. The only way to actually fail the class is to be in the bottom 5% of the class AND have below a 50. So if I had a 35, but am not in the bottom 5%, I still pass. While this gives me some comfort, I now know that I will need to do some serious studying for this class. I’m thankful that one of my roommates is studying for her CPA exam, because I have a feeling that I’ll be asking her a lot of questions.

After Financial Management comes Marketing Strategy. One of my passions is marketing, so I know that I’ll enjoy the class just because of that. I’m also excited because the professor is engaging, and we’ll get to design 2 products throughout the course of the class (always my favorite kind of project).

Finally, my last class in Beginners Korean 2. I’m actually a little upset about this one because I was hoping to place into Intermediate 1 since I studied Korean all summer. I seriously underestimated how hard the placement test was going to be, because I only understood about 10% of what was on the test. So in one sense, I’m sad that I’m a place lower than I want to be, but at the same time, I’m glad that I’m not biting off more than I can chew. The professor for my class though is going to be great. He’s very passionate about helping us learn to speak Korean and wants to make learning the language as fun as possible (because, in his words, “What’s fun about learning a language?”).

I’m very disappointed that I’m taking 12 hours instead of 15, but all of the classes were full by the time exchange students were allowed to register, and unlike previous semesters, they wouldn’t let exchange students into full classes. So, even though I literally had 10 alternative classes lined up, every single one of them was full. Even the extra Korean classes (like colloquial (modern) Korean, speaking Korean, and writing Korean) were full!

On the bright side of the first day of classes is the meeting a Korea University professor (not one of my teaching professors). Korean students dress for class, and since I’m in another country I follow the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This effort paid off when I met the professor. We talked and he treated me to coffee (Korean tradition for the senior to treat the junior). While drinking our coffee, I practiced my Korean conversation with him, and, impressed, he asked me to meet him and some of his students for dinner next week so that we could all do language exchange. I am very excited for this new contact, as well as meeting new students to do language exchange with.

Despite my disappointment when it came to registering for classes, it seems that I’ll have a fun time this semester. I’m just going to need to study hard and keep my energy up!