Please briefly introduce yourself.

Hello, our names are Tomas and Pepijn. We are from Czech Republic and the Netherlands, respectively. We both came to Korea to spend one semester as exchange students to broaden our knowledge and experience in international business. 

Besides studying, we also wanted to gain new experiences, meet new people, and have some fun.

We wanted to join a sport association to accomplish these goals. This is also connected to the first point of our article below.

What made you sign up for the Hallym Intramural Sports League?

We both like sports and we wanted to try something new. That’s why we signed up for Phoenix Football Association in the Intramural League. This was our goal since in our countries American Football is not really played and due to the American Influence football seems more popular here. We decided to join an association due to the positive experiences we could have, especially with Koreans. Since we felt that the interaction in HID generally is with international students, so we wanted to experience bonding with Koreans on a deeper level.

When did you apply for the Intramural League?  

We did not receive much information regarding student associations initially, since it seemed that the students organized everything themselves and maybe they were unaware of international students at Hallym. 

However, when we approached some Korean students, we found out that there were open days to meet the different student associations and to have to the possibility to sign up. 

This was for us around the third week at the start of the semester in the Campus Life Center. 

Our advice is to ask second or third year Korean students about this as they have been at Hallym for longer to get an impression of the important sign up dates. 

For the sign-up it was a very informal process. No official sign-up sheets or any complicated programs, we just wrote down our names and phone numbers, and then were added to a Kakao group where they usually agree on time of the trainings and other details. 

The membership fee for one semester was about 15,000 won (approx. 11 EUR), so it is definitely worth a try. Included in the fee are also some benefits (depending on the organization). For example, professional training, food, and transport etc.

Please describe the clubs training and match routines.

The training is quite short, usually about an hour and 15 minutes. These are usually taught by experienced team members. For us these occur about three times a week depending on the planning.

Aside from this, the organizations may plan extra training or boot camps. For real matches we have not played yet, this is largely due to COVID-19 however, we have been fortunate enough to train with other universities from Seoul. 

The training usually occurs at night to not conflict with class hours. For us the training is always around 17:00. 

How has participating in the Hallym Intramural Sports League improved your exchange period at Hallym? 

The Intramural Sports League has been very helpful in getting to know more Koreans and to experience other types of sports and to keep fit. 

The experience from this is improving our exchange experience in that we are able to stay active, this is necessary since as an exchange student you might find yourself bored from time to time since there are less established contacts and routines like in our home country. 

This will keep you from staying in your room and allows for interesting opportunities and experiences.

Hallym Intramural League video which showcases some of the other available sports can also be viewed here in Korean.  

The offices for each individual club can be found within Hallym Campus Life Center (building 9 on the map).

The exact location and floor of each club office can be found here.  

Interested in exchange at Hallym? More information regarding course lists, accommodation and application procedures and deadlines can be found here.