First I would like to tell you about my background and how I came to study in Korea. It was in 2000 when I started to learn Korean at the Korean Education Center in Tashkent at the age of 15 because I was interested in oriental languages, culture and history.

By coincidence, I learned of and entered a contest of Korean language proficiency as a result, and received a scholarship to study at a Korean technical high school for 3 years. At the young age of 17, it was an interesting yet challenging experience that I knew not everyone would get to experience in their lives. The most fantastic thing about it is, unlike other international students who usually first come to Korea as college students, I came here when I was quite young and it helped me learn about Korean culture from the deepest roots and helped me a lot in adapting to the local life style.

After I graduated from high school I got accepted to Seoul National University, which was the happiest moment in my life and I¡¯d like to share a few things about my life here ever since. There are tons of great things I would like to tell you about SNU. The first thing that excited me about SNU was that there are so many regular and exchange foreign students here so you can feel quite comfortable and learn about the various cultures of the East and the West. This environment can also help you enhance your language skills or spark your interest in learning new ones. There is plenty of foreign literature and textbooks in the SNU library so you can easily recheck or renew your knowledge or use your foreign language skills while you write your papers or just get something to read. There is also an information desk for international students in the library and in my personal opinion, SNU is the most globalized and international student-friendly university in Korea.

Another great thing about SNU is that there are many and a wide variety of lectures that you can attend, which allows you to obtain totally new knowledge about different areas of science, society and even culture, both local and foreign. For example, I could never imagine myself learning photography or music while studying at business school. But here I was able to take so many amazing lectures about society, history, religion, industry and culture. Also, there are a lot of official language courses. That means you can kill two birds with one stone-- learning a new language while earning academic credit, and as I am interested in learning different languages it was the most wonderful thing about SNU for me. Moreover, there was a new scholarship set up in the Language Education Institute that allowed foreign students to learn foreign languages there, absolutely free. So I am currently taking a Japanese language course this semester.

Along with the election of the new president of SNU came new and big changes for the good of the international students. For example, a new in-school organization for international students called SNU International Students Association (SISA) was founded and by fortune I became the first president of this association. So far our team has hosted different activities for international students like ourselves. We organized our first big event in May 2007, the Sports Festival. It was quite successful and, thanks to our international student community, our association has become widely known among SNU authorities who are now lending strong support to the international students of SNU. We have also organized Cultural Experience programs, various membership trainings and other activities, and look forward to continually introducing new fun and fascinating events.

The differences between colleges in Uzbekistan and Korea are vast. First of all, in Uzbekistan students are required to wear suits to college but in Korea, you are free to dress as you please, so you could possibly even show up naked to class (I¡¯m kidding!). Also, in my country you can¡¯t choose the classes you want to take, but again, SNU allows total freedom of course choice. Of course, there are a few courses that you are required to take in order to get your degree within your respective department, but students are allowed to choose the times convenient for them and have appropriate reign over their schedule. Lastly, SNU has a good system for extracurricular activities including clubs and academic meetings. Students here can join any of them and enjoy their college lives even outside the classrooms.

I think I¡¯m going to stop here because if I try and write everything about SNU it would take me centuries to finish and I would rather write my own book about it and earn some money (lol)! My point is that it is quite fun and nice here at SNU. I wish what little information about our university that I have been able to offer here will help you in your decision-making about which college to attend or in planning your visit to Korea, and I hope that in a few years time, your words will be as enthusiastically expressed as mine.

Enjoy your college life!