Hi, my name is Anja Schmidt and I am exchange student at the Korean Philosophy department. I have been interested in different cultures ever since I was young, and I ended up majoring in Korean Studies for both my bachelor’s and master’s degree. I only became interested in philosophy later during my studies, but ever since then I have enjoyed learning about different ways to view the world and approach human relationships through studying Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism.
One of the reasons I have come to study at SKKU is its Confucian heritage, and even though I have not been able to be on campus a lot due to the pandemic, I got to witness the beautiful golden gingko tree on the courtyard of the old Myeongnyundang lecture hall in autumn and the cherry blossoms in spring. I have also been to the nearby Changgyeonggung and Changdeokgung palaces a few times after classes, which I recommend everyone to visit at least once. In Korea you can find traces of traditional culture a lot easier than in my home country Germany, which is one of the reasons why I love being here.
Since it is my third time here, Korea has started feeling more and more like a second home and SKKU has been a wonderful place to study at as well. I hope that with the rising popularity of Korean pop culture there will be an increased interest in traditional Korean culture and philosophy as well, so that more students will come to study Korean Philosophy at SKKU and contribute to the international scholarly exchange between different countries and cultures.