High School Study Abroad in Seoul, South Korea

The program , from application to flight info to class navigation, was super smooth and easy. Clear instruction is always provided. Not only are the other kids friendly, but the teachers and program leaders are amazing.

Traveling the world alone with new people was a once in a life time experience, I met very many people along the way and will be leaving seoul with new life long friendships! It also help me improve multiple skills that’ll eventually lead me towards success!

It was so much fun and I met so many lovely people! Great opportunity to experience different cultures. However, it can get pretty pricey depending on the location, and sometimes the planning/scheduling was poorly executed.

This past July I had the opportunity to take part in the 2023 South Korea immersion program by the experiment and it was a blast. We went to a variety of places ranging from Seoul shopping centers to museums and temples and traditional markets in Gwangju. Each day was jam packed with new activities and new international friends. The group dynamic was really comforting and the staff always supported us. This program also focuses on the growth of an individual and for me i’ve grown immensely. This trip really gave its students a sense of independence like going to the laundry mat to do our own laundry or hanging out with friends in an area of the city for a few hours. All of this independence led up to our free day where I met up with international friends I had met throughout the month. I learned about Korea’s dark history, their gorgeous scenery, and immersed myself into the language and trying to speak it. Although this trip was only a month, the memories I made will last a lifetime <3

I was interested in all the activities provided and I genuinely did enjoy my time in Korea. The adults supervising us were extremely respectful and helpful and the children in my group were also likeable and I am glad I got to share this experience with them. If I had to add anything, I would have to say the day we got to truly experience the culture and wear hanboks was my absolute favorite. The food was amazing and the demographic was even better. My entire experience was positive. I would say this changed me in a way where I would actually like to spend my future doing things revolving around peacebuilding internationally.

This experience was honestly that I will never take for granted. The people I met and the program overall has helped me a new perspective. I learned to be more independent and more of a good person overall. There are so many things that I have learned from this trip and I can't wait to have another experience like this one.

My experience with the Experiment was phenomenal. You are able to experience traveling aboard while learning the Culture and traditions of a new environment. The leaders were nice, respectful and would check up on you regularly. Overall it was a good experience.

While i was abroad on this program i made some of my best friends and i am so grateful for it. Not only was i able to take in the culture around me but i was also able to improve my social skill when i talked to local students, and other students in the program. Overall i learnt many things while staying in Seoul and I made so many great memories that i’ll keep with me for the rest of my life!

Through this program I got to interact with different local high school students and the friendships continued after the program too. I believe if it wasn’t through this program I wouldn’t be able to meet these cool people.

The High School Summer abroad program for Seoul Korea session 2 was the best way I ouldve celebrated my summer. This program gifted me with a sense of individuality and helped me gain independence while still creations a bond between all of us attending. The bonds I made on this trip I truly believe will last a lifetime . The friend I made while in Korea on the trip with me and who just live there will forever be important to me . This program really opened up my world and broke that shelters view I once had and I believe it really prepared me for college in the sense that I will have to be independent and learn things myself.

Is a great experience because they get us the opportunity to explore lore places be our self do that we can make a lot of friends Ik the Program from around the world and you can also found our some of the friends you made leave like 45 min away from you

I spent the entire month of July participating in The Experiment's K-Culture and Peacebuilding program. I hadn't been on a plane since I was a toddler, and I'd never traveled without family before. Despite my tremendous excitement for the opportunity, I was also extremely anxious. It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life. Every participant and group leader was easy to connect with, and I feel I've formed incredible bonds. I was also able to achieve my goal of reconnecting with my language and culture, and I returned home feeling more worldly, knowledgeable, and sociable. With the help of The Experiment, I was able to take a trip I never would have been able to take on my own, experience incredible moments, and learn invaluable lessons. I will treasure the memories from this trip for a lifetime.

The Experiment in international Livings South Korea program was an amazing trip and experience. I was born in South Korea but at a very young age I move to the United States of America. This trip was a great way to learn about the people and culture of the place I was born. During the trip I visited many incredible places for example we visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace, The Korean War Museum, Han River, the DMZ, and many more incredible places. My personal favorite places we visited was the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Han River, and Seoul. I learned so much about the old and new traditions and culture of South Korea. It was amazing to see how technologically advanced Korea was. There were robot servers at restaurants and robotic guides in the airport. The food was another highlight of the trip. Korean cuisine was very different compared to America. The seasonings as well as the food ingredients themselves were different. I’ve had a good amount of Korean food growing up but there was a difference between having it in the USA vs having it in Korea. At the end of our trip, we met with a group of Korean high school students and did many activities with them. We visited Cheongju and learned about the Korean presidents, we attended a student lead fair and toured through an art museum. It was a lot of fun to learn about their lives as students in Korea and what their plans for the future were. At the very end of the trip, we were allowed to explore the city of Seoul and I was able to meet with a friend from America that was there as an exchange student. They gave me a tour of the surrounding area and we did some shopping. My biggest take away from the trip would have to be the culture of South Korea. Korea is so different than the US in so many ways. There are definitely cultural mannerisms I’ve taken back to the US and that I’ve implemented into my daily life. I would love to go back to visit again.

I've been traveling with TFT since I was 13, and it has been one of the best learning and growth experiences in my life. Through TFT, I've met great friends from all around the world, experienced amazing places, and was pushed out of my comfort zone and grew so much. It even helped me pick my career. In the summer of my 11th year of high school, I went on the Japan Discovery & Service trip. I had recently picked up an interest in digital photography and it just so happened that the Trip director for my trip was a professional Travel Photographer. After traveling with him for only 2 weeks and seeing my photographic growth, I started taking courses in photography at my school and have ended up going to college for Fine Art Photography. Without the experiences TFT allowed me to have, I never would have found one of my biggest passions. The people I've met on the trips are good friends of mine to this day, and the experiences I had with them on the trips I've been on were unforgettable. Karaoke in South Korea with a crew of wacky friends, doing a two hour hike up one of the steepest mountains I've ever seen to take one picture, and other once in a life time experiences like that have made the TFT experience so special to me.

I will never forget this amazing trip. From wearing traditional clothes to dancing modern K-pop. Learning about my host family and their daily life was awesome. I am so glad I was able to participate, and better myself through these experiences and knowledge.

This summer I had the greatest opportunity to go to South Korea for one month. I applied and was accepted to the Experiment of International Living and had the best month of my life! It was my first time out of the country and going without my family, and with complete strangers was a new challenge for me to face. A few days before I left for study abroad trip, I was nervous about eating new foods and meeting the group I was going to be with for an entire month. But once I got to know everyone and meet them for the first time, everyone was really nice and sweet. I knew a long lasting friendship was going to happen. Once we got to South Korea, I felt like I was in a completely new world. Everything was very advanced, especially the technology. People were speaking in Korean and there were many signs in Hangul, the Korean language, and English. When we got to Incheon Airport, we met one of our Korean partners. He was very sweet, friendly, and spoke really good English to us. We took a bus to Seoul and stayed at a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing guest house. We stayed there for around one week and during that time we went to many museums, including the War Memorial of Korea, the National Museum of Korea, the War and Women's Museum, and the DMZ. During this month, the main topic we were learning about peace building and modern culture. The whole month involved the topic about peace and the Korean War. It was interesting and fascinating to learn more about the divide between the two nations and what the people of South Korea think of the division. I noticed that they all hope for a future where both nations can come to an agreement to become one Korea again and have no more war against each other. After a week in Seoul, we spent 4 days in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. We went to the beach and walked around some of the city during the night. It was absolutely beautiful! We also had the opportunity to meet with high school students from Busan and did peace workshops with them, played traditional games, and went to the Astronomical Observatory. Meeting the students was really fun and we bonded well with each other. We even keep in contact with them through social media. Next stop was Gwangju, where we made traditional Korean treats, experienced a traditional Korean wedding, visited the Archives of the May 18th Democractic Movement, and did a dance class. My favorite part of the entire trip was the dance class because it was really fun and challenging. Another important part of this peacebuilding trip was the 3 day temple stay. We traveled to Gimje and stayed at a temple in the mountains. All of us had to wear matching uniforms and toured the multiple temples with Budda statues everywhere inside. There were very few monks and they all were very nice. The first morning we stayed, we had to wake up at 5 in the morning to pray to Budda. The ceremony was 15 minutes long and we had the opportunity to sleep in for another few hours. We also had the option of doing the morning ceremony the next day, but I decided not to. I liked that during the temple stay because we were allowed to do not do certain practices that made us feel uncomfortable. We were not forced and we had a choice of what we wanted to practice during our stay. After the stay in the mountains we went to a city called Goyang. In Goyang we would experience homestay with Korean families. Personally in this part of the trip, I did not have a good time because of how one of my host siblings treated me throughout that week. But during this time we did see the people from our original group and learned more about peace from the students in Goyang. We returned to Seoul after one week of homestay and relax, reflected, and cherished our last moments with each other. Overall, this trip was so life changing and empowering. I learned how to be on my own in a new country and loved the experience. Thank you to the Experiment in International Living for giving me this opportunity.

Over the summer I attended the South Korean trip on Peacebuilding and Modern Culture hosted by The Experiment. The program lasted for a month but flew by incredibly fast. I chose this trip due to my interest surrounding Peace in the Korean Peninsula, as well as my hopes to work in South Korea in the future. We completed various activities including; community service work with local teens, living and learning at a local Buddhist temple, as well as my favorite part… the homestay. My homestay family and I spent a week together, but through that week we grew closer than I could have ever imagined. They truly welcome me into their home and for the first time ever I finally got to have siblings. I still talk to my host sister and other Korean teens I met on the trip every day. The bonds I formed during my time in Korea were not the cliche type ones which we all forget about in a matter of a couple of weeks… they were the very real connections which I will foster and keep. Along with the connections I made, my Korean language skills improved dramatically due to this experience. I was able to have a conversation easily with Koreans in the end. The Korean people are so incredibly kind and I found myself in awe of my experience day after day. I grew as an individual dramatically in just the span of a month and my travel leaders especially were the ones to help me unlock this growth. I would strongly encourage this trip for those who are interested in East Asian culture, peace, and languages.

I participated in the CIEE Korea K-pop summer program and I had a great time! My favorite parts were dorm life— I LOVED my dorm. It felt super clean, had the best desk that I would totally buy for myself at home if I didn't already own one, there was a little self-serve convenience store with the best snacks and extra shampoo, a gym, and laundry facilities inside the dorm, and even better, my roommate and I got along great! The only drawback was that the shower wasn't separated at all from the sink space in the bathroom on the floor, meaning that while there was a standard glass shower door, the water would get all over the bathroom floor. But I'd stay at the Yonsei dorms as a college student, all four years if I could! I also loved the independance— we were given parameters to stay within ("don't leave these three streets, stay in Myeongdong, etc") and given a time frame ("you have until 1:30!") to roam free with our own little groups, completely unassigned! I'll be totally honest, I really just signed up to shop (I'm Korean American and come to Seoul annually, but wanted to get some time on my own to do what I wanted instead of just going to family reunions), and I was not disappointed! I still miss hanging around with my friends in Korea, all on our own. As for classes/culture, our music classes (we started with the history of music in Korea— then incorporated the Korean war, Korean pop culture, Hallyu, etc) were very informative, and our teacher was very enthusiastic. I've really never seen anyone that excited about k-pop, I think. We also had occasional Korean language classes— you might be bored if you even just know the alphabet, but you don't have them all that often. We also had some cultural field trips, all of which were fun— kimchi making in Insadong, fan painting, a night in a historic village, etc. And a tour of SMtown, if that counts. I got to meet so many people on this trip! From the people coming with me from outside Korea to the Korean students we hung out with and who gave us a tour of Gyeongbukgung Palace, you really get to meet a lot of people from a lot of different places. Overall it turned out to be so much better than I expected, and I would totally do it again! (but I'll probably just stick to staying with my relatives next summer, easier on the $$$)

The South Korea program was such an exciting trip and experience. The culture in the country is something I have never experienced. To learn about how this small country went from being so poor to now thriving and a technologically advanced was mind blowing. The trip showed me that old traditions and new modern trends can come together beautifully. The Korea trip is in the summer so it gets quiet hot so i recommend packing light clothes and keeping water on you at all times. It was supposed to be their rainy season but it barely rained. Coming home from the trip I hope to tell my experience to whoever will listen in hope to spread the idea that there is a whole world out there beside our country worth learning about.

This study abroad trip absolutely changed my life and will forever effect who i am as a person. This was an amazing program to be apart of, and all aspects were executed perfectly The trip had a perfect amount of freedom and guidance. I was able to practice Korean at all times, with native speakers and feel super comfortable the whole time.