One rarely expects to find a fellow Indian in South Korean Universities, leave alone finding an exchange student doing a semester in one of the oldest and most respected Universities at Seoul.

Against all odds, and by some sheer luck, I ran into Simarjit Kaur – an exchange student at SKKU Seoul, from (hold on to your horses) – Sweden. I wanted to get the perspective of exchange students at South Korean Universities and their experiences interms of culture, learning and career, alongside the reason to be there.

The Indian-ness of Simarjit is unmistakable (given her way to courteously greet me with “Sat Sri Akal”) and she impresses with her confidence and no-nonsense approach to the discussion. These qualities and more would probably help her in a career in Business Law that she has chosen to pursue.

As an exchange student, Simarjit shared that she wanted to start her career in Asia and she chose Korea for the quality of exposure in her subject. She intends to start working in Hong-Kong. I was intrigued by the fact that there wasn’t much of culture adjustment issue that she had to face during the exchange program. Although, she mentioned that things are pretty slow and inefficient in the administrative parts of the University along with a culture bias against women being active part of activities/clubs in the University (this, I think, goes parallel to the dismal equal employment opportunity existing for women in South Korea)

Simarjit mentions that perspectives are now changing with Internationalization at South Korean Universities and specifically at SKKU. Rooted to her own Punjabi upbringing but being a global citizen with the openness to start her career outside her comfort zone, she embodies the quality of exchange students visiting SKKU and other such Asian Universities.

Her suggestion to prospective exchange students it pretty clear – do your research properly on the programs, credits, and faculty well before you reach these Universities, and one needs to be prepared to sort out alien experiences alongside cultural bias when one lands into the exchange programs.

A bright future awaits you Simarjit!