Hajung Kim is a senior majoring in public relations from Busan, Korea. Kim never considered going to school in America until she took a trip to visit her family in February 2013. By August 2013, she had started school at The University of Alabama.
Why did you come to America and choose the University?
First, my dad went to grad school here, so I grew up here when I was young from about 1990 to 1997. In 2012 my parents came here with my sister because my dad was a visiting professor here. I just came here to visit them last year. Then they asked me, “Would you want to transfer? It’s a good opportunity.” A lot of people in Korea want to study abroad so it was a perfect opportunity because my family was here and I could be with them and study. At first, I didn’t really want to come because my friends and everyone is back in Korea, and I’m used to that culture more. I came here to meet the director, and I was talking with her and I changed my mind. I thought maybe this would be a good opportunity in my life – a new experience.
What do you like about campus? What do you not like about campus?
It’s a huge campus, so I like that part, and I heard the city is a college city. Pretty much you can do everything on campus. Not really 100 percent, but mostly everything on campus because you have the Strip and Publix there. I like the Rec center, too. It’s really nice. I don’t really use it, but it looks nice.
[I don’t like] the food, it’s so expensive. I kind of figured out that if you buy something on campus, it’s more expensive. Why I don’t like it is because in Korea on-campus stuff is a lot cheaper because it’s for students. If you buy a cup of coffee or something off campus, it’s expensive, but when you buy it on campus it’s like at least 50 cents less. The foods are really, really cheap on campus [in Korea]. But here, if you want to try that Fresh Food, it’s almost $10.
What’s the weirdest things Americans do?
Whenever you see a stranger, not every time you do it, but they kind of say ‘hi’. If you get eye contact, you say ‘hi’ even though you don’t know that person. It was weird to me. We never do that. But at the same time, it’s a good thing. It’s weird to me, but I feel like that’s a good way to be happy around.
How do you feel about football?
I like the football culture. I don’t really enjoy the game that much, but I like watching people and how they enjoy the game. On the game day, they tailgate. We don’t really see those kind of things in Korea. We have a small country so we don’t have space to do that. They spend a lot of money for that too. They’re really big about this football, and I think that’s a really good thing because you know there’s one thing you can enjoy in your life. A big event you can gather around with people, that’s a good thing. Especially at UA, they are so good at it.
