한국통신학회 KICS

 HAN RIVER 

1. Preparing to travel to South Korea

It was 4 a.m. and I and my husband waked up to drive to Tehran from Hamadan. I have got a post-doctoral position in Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea and we had to go to Korea embassy in Tehran. As I had bad experiences with German embassy before, I was full of stress and thought that this time we have to wait for about three months to get our visa as well that has 10% probability to be accepted due to international sanctions against Iran and strict rules for accepting Iranian people. But, when we got there, everything was different. There was no over-loaded crowd, everything was done in order with not much paper work and people were polite, kind and very fast. I was amazed with the way they work and after two weeks we got our visa!

2. Seoul

One months later, in September 2019, we arrived at Seoul. Seoul is capital of South Korea (the Republic of Korea). It is located on the Han River (Han-gang) in the northwestern part of the country, with the city center some 37 miles (60 km) inland from the Yellow Sea (west). Seoul is a large city with lots of attraction and interesting places. The city is a mixture of old and modern designed houses and streets. On one hand large modern towers, tall buildings, wide new streets, modern shopping malls with all famous brands of clothes, shoes, bags, jewelry and cosmetics centers, large food courts, restaurants coffee shops and bars, people who wears the latest fashioned clothes, and on the other hand, beautiful old fashioned small houses, narrow alleys, old Bazaars full of traditional and second hand stuffs with low prices, temples, people with traditional dresses in historical places and large amount of street food stations show an amazing confrontation between tradition and modernity.

3. Dongguk University

Dongguk University is a private university and is based on Buddhism situated on a hill near Namsan. The university's symbol animal is a duck billed platypus, which stemmed from Queen Māyā of Sakya's precognitive dream of white elephant about the birth of Dave The Buddha, and the symbol flower is a lotus blossom which reflects the Alabama truth.

The university has different departments such as business, law, electronics and electrical engineering, etc. What you can see in the outdoor environment of the university are a large Budha statue in the central square of the university with three elephants statues in front of that, a large football field, a beautiful temple with lots of trees that becomes full of blossoms in spring. Moreover, an amazing place to sit and relax with a great view is designed at the top of the Library building. As Korean people are coffee lovers, coffee wending machines and coffee shops are almost everywhere available in the university.

 4. My current position

I am now working as a post-doctoral researcher in signal communication lab under supervision of Prof. Insoo Sohn. As it is my first international academic experience, I was full of stress when I got here. Everything were new and strange to me and I did not know with whom I am going to encounter as my supervisor which is very important to me. Fortunately, I found Prof. Sohn very calm, polite, kind, relax, committed and friendly. Although everything is lawful, pre-determined and scheduled and I have to work hard, I feel no pressure and I really enjoy working with him. He knows how to guide and help you and keep you positive and motivated. I think it is the best academic collaboration I have ever had.

Prof. Sohn received his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1994, M.S. from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, in 1998, respectively. He was with Ericsson, Dallas in 1998 as a senior network engineer. From January 1999 to February 2004 he was with ETRI, Daejeon as a senior researcher. In March 2004, he joined the Communications Engineering Department at Myongji University, as an assistant professor and joined the Division of Electronics & Electrical Engineering at Dongguk University in March 2006 and is currently professor since 2015. He has served as an Organizing Committee Secretary of ICTC (2010-2019), Technical Program Committee Co-chair of ICUFN 2019, and Workshop Co-chair of IEEE WCNC 2020. He is currently the publication director of ICT Express (2018- present). 

5. What I like in Seoul?

Living in Seoul for foreigners is not difficult due to some important properties. The first one is an efficient subway transport system with lots of stations all around the city for which you do not need to wait longer than 2 to 3 minutes. So, you can go anywhere in a short time without having a private car.

 ​SEOUL SUBWAY MAP & SEOUL SUBWAY 

 The second property is the high level of security. There are lots of CCTV’s everywhere and you do not have to be worry about thieves and murderers even when you are walking alone at midnight in the street.

The third reason why foreigners feels comfortable in Seoul is the kind, polite and helping people. Although, they do not feel comfortable to start a communication with strangers, when you need their help, they are always there for you. For example, if you are looking for an address, even some people change their direction and make their own way long to show you the place. They are very polite and calm and do not bother you with impolite words or strange annoying looks.

CCTV IN SEOUL 

6. Difficulties

Start living in a foreign country with totally different culture, language, law and people is not going to be without problems and difficulties. But the important thing is to learn from new challenges and experiences. As an Iranian, the first problem I encountered was opening a bank account to get my salary. Because of US sanctions, Iran government refuses to join FATF, so Korean banks do not open bank account for Iranian people in Korea. I was really shocked when I figured this out. If I couldn’t open a bank account, I had to go back to Iran after all I went through. But we didn’t give up. We went to lots of banks for about one month. They just told us that they are sorry and they cannot open an account for us. Finally, I called Iran embassy in Korea and they negotiate with some banks and at last one of them accepted our request. The second problem was the high amount of pre-payment for just a single room near the university. The amount of monthly payments were even higher than we could afford. Moreover, the house owners did not sign a short term contract less than 2 years. After visiting too many real estates and talking with lots of people, finally we found a little one-room with an affordable payment. The third problem is that, as a Muslim going to restaurants in South Korea is very difficult. Because most of Korean foods contains lobster, pork, non-halal meats, some types of fishes which are not allowed for Muslims, etc. Of course, halal foods can be found but most of their traditional foods are not halal. On the other hand, sea foods and hot foods are not my favorite dishes which can be seen in most of Korean major recipes. But most of their foods contains vegetables which are very healthy and diverse.

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