Navigating Academia in a Foreign Space: An Interview with Professor Vanessa Lim
Vanessa Lim is a professor in the English Department of SNU, part of the school’s growing international faculty. As she shares her journey that has taken her across the globe from the UK to Korea, she offers personal insights on cultural adjustments, perspectives on academia in a new space, and valuable advice for students and faculty navigating similar paths.
Culture & Academia
1. Can you describe your background in academia and how it is similar/different to your current position at our university?
I came to literary studies in a very roundabout way—I was first a student of political philosophy as an undergraduate and then as a master student I studied intellectual history and the history of political ideas and it was through that that I came to my main field of studies which is Classical and Renaissance and through that Shakespeare. So my background in academia has been varied—I am happy to be here in an English department.
2. How does the overall culture at our university compare to that of your previous institution(s)? (ex: academically, the environment and atmosphere etc)
My main academic experience and studies have been in the UK so I can only really speak to what's happening there. I was in the UK for about eight to nine years I think around nine. Initially, I enjoyed it very much. I thought it was very welcoming and had a good time, but in recent years, although this is not only limited to the UK, the higher education sector has been in considerable trouble over there. Compared to where I’ve just come from, SNU feels very stable and everyone has been absolutely lovely.
3. Could you elaborate a little further on the considerable trouble in the UK you’ve just mentioned?
There's a lot of upheaval-strikes related to the pension funds in the UK. So comparatively, SNU feels like a very safe space to work in. That's not to say there aren't issues here in Korea which I'm not all that well educated on, but from my very limited bubble in the Humanities Department, I feel safe.
Navigating in a New Space and Surrounding
4.Have you encountered any challenges navigating the academic system in a different country, or its cultural aspects?
Obviously the language barrier is a huge source of trouble. I'm studying Korean really hard, but it's not like I always have the time. As I'm sure you know, a lot of the paperwork and the bureaucracy at this university is done in Korean, so it's not something I would be able to get by without a lot of help.
Culturally, there were lots of new things that I've experienced: things like hweshik (회식), or after-work gatherings, are very unique to Korean academic culture or Korean working life, generally. Of course in the UK you go to the pub with your colleagues, but it feels a little different. There’s no Second or Third Rounds (2차, 3차), and it usually doesn’t go on for that long. So it's been quite a new cultural experience in this sense.
5. Were these aspects difficult for you to adjust to at first, were they merely shocking or surprising culturally?
Culturally and somewhat linguistically Korea has lots of different levels of formality and hierarchy, which I'm not necessarily used to. I was born and raised in Singapore, then lived in the UK for a while, and then Europe for a bit, where although people do respect their elders and speak politely, it's a different level of consideration. People say I don’t need to turn away when I drink at hweshik but of course if every junior is doing it, then I would have to do it.
6. So it’s a different form of formality compared to what you are used to in Singapore or the UK.
Yeah absolutely! When I first moved to the UK, when I first started my Ph.D. program I kept writing to my Ph.D. advisor addressing him as “professor,” and he wrote back to me saying “Vanessa, You must never call me that. I would strongly prefer you address me by my first name.” Here, I have to address my colleagues as “OO teacher”. Students always call me professor, so I'm always very shocked by that. The first two years, I could not get used to being called professor. Students who would address me would say “Professor Lim,” so I was like (gasp) “I’m a professor now, okay!”
7. The weight of the word itself is actually different in some countries.
Yeah exactly, I would call my colleagues by their first name or students would call me by my first name. Some students in the UK will say “ma’am” because it's a part of how they address teachers in high school. But ma'am and professor are very (laugh) different.
8. Have you noticed any other cultural differences in the expectations of academic staff and students between your home country and here? Is there any particular anecdote you’d like to share?
I do have an anecdote from my first week. When I came here—I think my second or third time riding the line 2 subway, which is very crowded, I experienced an ahjumeoni (middle-aged woman) physically moving me out of her way so she could get off the subway. I don't remember ever in my life even in Singapore being physically moved by an ahjumeoni. So, personal space is something I've had to navigate especially when it comes to people behaving like that in the subway.
9. Is there a difference in value on personal space that you experience in different cultures?
Yes, I think if we talk about space, not just in terms of physical space, but in terms of the boundaries between more metaphorical things. For example, what I've discovered here is that a lot of work conversations sometimes tend to happen through KakaoTalk, and people text each other all the time about work. That's new to me, because I would previously only email my colleagues rather than text them. So the boundaries between work and time-off are sometimes blurred.
Also, what comes into mind is the appearance-oriented comments. I can see how someone moving to Korea for the first time with a different background from me, say, if they lived in the UK or Europe all their life, it would be very different. Since I was born in Singapore—I was raised in Singapore in a Chinese speaking household, I think I share a lot of, you know, how people sometimes say “oh, you look tired” when they greet you—I hear that a lot, I used to hear that a lot (laugh). But it's not something you could say in the UK. I think in the UK, if you say you look tired, people might get really offended, or things like “you lost weight”—you don't do that there. I think my upbringing in Singapore has been a bit helpful in terms of assimilating into Korea.
Teaching in this Space — SNU
10. Can you discuss any notable differences in personal teaching methods or student engagement in your lectures that you've observed here compared to your previous teaching experiences?
I had a list of things for this. Firstly, the format of how classes are held here is slightly different from what I'm used to. In the British system for larger undergraduate classes, what you usually have is a lecture and a seminar. The lecture talks for about an hour and gives background information, and then you have a seminar in which you break into smaller groups and have a really intense discussion about the things you've read. But here, as you know (the interviewer is currently taking Prof. Lim’s course), there's no kind of lecture-seminar distinction. I've had to adapt my teaching and kind of combined the two. So in class I make you talk a lot because I think that's really helpful for people to discuss things together in terms of how students behave. I think, and this is not particular to my experiences, that our students are maybe worried about getting answers wrong when they say things to the class, especially if it's a bigger group. Sometimes in class I ask the question then it’s silent and quiet, and I tell you I can wait, and I really can wait. What I want to say is that we're all here to learn and the classroom is a safe space so you should feel free to speak up.
Yeah, I think a part of that comes from how not a lot of the courses here are discussion based but rather the professor lecturing for one to three hours and the students just listening to them the entire time.
I think it's helpful for you to talk to your classmates so you know how they've read, especially when it comes to the kind of thing I teach, texts (like Machiavelli’s The Prince the interviewer is reading in Prof. Lim’s class) because everyone has different interpretations of the text, so it's always very interesting to see what people have observed or different things they've picked up from the text. So I tend to be discussion based.
11. How does the support and resources available to you at our university compare to those at your previous institution(s)?
Ah, I kind of want to go back to what I said earlier about the crisis of higher education in the UK. A big part of it has been a lot of funding cuts, people being asked to take voluntary severance so there's a huge lack of financial resources support. So I am very lucky to be here at SNU because new professors get a yeongubi (research funds) which they can use to support their research by buying books or going to conferences. In terms of my academic background, it's not something I would expect from my job. I feel very safe and supported at SNU in that sense. I've talked to colleagues from other Korean universities and I understand their institutions are not so generous so I feel extra taken care of here in SNU.
12. So it’s because you really know about what's happening in places like the UK that you can understand that you have a different kind of treatment here?
When I first got the yeongubi I was like “what?! I get money to buy books!” This is very new to me, because otherwise I would have to pay for books by myself or if I wanted to go to a conference in the US I would not be able to get it fully funded, I think, by an institution. But here, the department and the college is very good and the central administration is quite supportive of people doing things like that, so that's good.
13. Is there any advice you could give to other foreign students at SNU, to those that don’t feel at home here in Korea?
I'm not sure if I’m fully qualified to give this advice because I'm not sure I entirely feel at home at this point. I think you should try as much as you can to learn Korean or the language. I like learning languages so even if I'm visiting a new place for a few days I would try to learn something simple, but I would say learning the language helps not just because it gives you a little bit more confidence but also you know communicating is important.
I'm also a very stubborn person in that I don't like to ask for help even if I don't understand anything, but if you are a foreign student coming to Korea, don't be afraid to ask for help. That will help you feel more at home and get closer to people who help you. You will find people willing to help you. Everyone's experience varies but I feel generally Korea, Seoul National University, is a welcoming place. So if you reach out to people, there will be people who will help you feel at home.
14. Many local students are looking into exchange student programs as well as other foreign-country programs. Is there a comment you’d like to make on open-mindedness or international mindedness?
That's a really good question. I think moving abroad—So I first moved abroad when I was seventeen and I haven't lived at home since, I haven't lived in Singapore since, so it's been a long time. I think the most important thing to know about moving abroad or living abroad is that it will be uncomfortable. You will discover new things and new inconveniences and things you didn't know.
It's a very trivial example—when I moved to Switzerland, I had no idea the supermarket would not be open on Sunday or that it would close at 4 PM on a Saturday. This is before I moved to Seoul, I lived in Switzerland for six months. I remember walking somewhere to get protein bars from a gas station because I just could not buy any groceries. So I had to kind of adapt my schedule because I was so not used to it.
So it's important not to let these inconvenient things get in the way of enjoying the experience of living somewhere new. My main suggestion would be to embrace the discomfort, acknowledge that you're not going to be able to do everything and that not 100 percent of your experience will be perfect, but there will be new things that you will learn that you will experience.
Thank you for sharing your experience so generously with us! It was a pleasure to hear your experiences on cultural adjustments and academic life, offering valuable guidance and inspiration to students here at SNU. Thank you again.