Life In 19x19

Hi everyone!

It's been about three years since I was active on this forum and just realized (again) that this great community still existed. I'm sure I've met many of you on tournaments before, but there are probably even more who I've never met. So allow me to (re)introduce myself quickly.

My name is Michiel and I'm a 5dan from the Netherlands. Currently, I'm doing a master's degree in Baduk studies at Myongji university in Korea.

Since there is quite some interesting Baduk related content I come across here, I figured I might as well share some from time to time with you people.

In this thread, feel free to ask me anything about the Korean Baduk scene, Myongji university or anything else you're curious about. ^^

Cheers!

Nice to meet you. Can you summarize your overall impressions of studying at Myongji? Is it what you expected? Have you improved at go?

Hey Kirby, nice to meet you too!
Studying in Korea is far different from studying in the Netherlands whatever your major is. I feel like the level overall is lower here, but the focus is more on hard work. Myongji is no different in this regard. However, I feel like the Baduk department is a bit more laid back. We have a lot of foreign students here, and some don't really speak Korean (my own Korean is not very good either, I'm afraid), so classes are a bit slower for us to understand. Luckily, they allow us to make all our assignments and our thesis in English.
Since I'm doing a masters program, there are barely any courses on actually improving my Baduk I can take. I improved a little, and learned a lot, but mainly by my own efforts. The department does have a lot of materials which are always free to use though, which helps a lot.
My main focus right now is education: Learning general education as well as creating teaching materials. I sometimes teach Baduk and English at a hakwon (an after-school school) as well.

Is there anything at Myongji to be learnt that cannot be learnt in Europe autodidactically or any university thesis - other than related to Go education - to be done that cannot be done at a European university?

I don't think there is anything that can be learned at a university here which cannot be learned in Europe, aside from certain cultural or linguistic aspects of select fields. Overmore, the universities and study environment in Europe is better than in Korea, in my opinion.

A difference is that a lot of things that are not associated with universities in Europe can actually be learned at a university here. Many universities have large art departments (usually colleges in NL) and Myongji even has a fairly large musical department which produces semi-professional musicals. Our neighbouring university also has a Taekwondo department.

Overall, would you recommend Myongji? Would you make the same choice again (to attend)?

No, I would not recommend it. Unless, like me, you really want to do something with Baduk in the future.
If you want to go to Korea, I'd recommend enrolling in an actual Baduk school like BIBA.

Hi!

I'm studying education in Sweden and I would really like to include baduk in some way. Do you have many students there that only stays for a shorter while, like for writing their thesis or something? Or is it mostly about doing the complete program start to finish? I'll try to see if my university can send me there to do something later on. I just need a good reason...

Also, the fantastic baduk series intended for children, are there any plans to continue with the translation of those? I've noticed the jump level up series continues beyond what has been translated to English. Even though they are a bit childish I think they contain excellent problems and the structured "leveling" is very good for beginners.

Last question. Favorite korean food?

Hi Sundaay!

We're a small department, so we don't really offer any minors or things like that. However, I'm sure you can come here if you want to write a thesis about Baduk education. One of the professors actually has a background in education, and there's a visiting professor who focuses on character education. So you'll have all the necessary help here.

If you're talking about the "Level Up!" series, I'm not sure whether they will be translated in English or not. One of the translators is a professor here so I can ask her for you next week. There is, however, a translation of some of the follow-up books called "Level Up Jump!".

My favourite Korean food.. I have to say 닭갈비 (dakgalbi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_galbi. The Korean kitchen in general is excellent if you'd ask me.