University I (SKKU)

Have a nice day, happily ever after ^^

I finally got into an university.
I will major in Education. Voy a espacilaizarse en la Pedagogía.

Although this blog is not for my personal news... since the university is very historic,
I will introduce my university today. Please congrats!

This is the main entrance of the Seonggyungwan (Sungkyunkwan) University. 成均館大學校正門也. Es la puerta princial de Sungkyunkwan Universidad.

It has traditional roof. Tiene tejado de tejas tradicionales.

This one is built to celebrate 600th anniversary.

This university has a long history. Technically, some argue that this has about 1600 years (since A.D.372); but the university officially states that its history is 614 years (since A.D. 1398). Then why there's huge gap?
Well, it depends on how you define the university.

The SKKU was the only highest national education institute for 500yrs. in Joseon Dynasty. The name was made before the dynasty but the curriculum was settled when Joseon era started. Since the university is officially successed the royal institute of Confucianism which was named Seonggyungwan, and had decided to use the same name, they see the first opening date of Joseon Sunggyungwan as the official establishment date. On the other hand, if you notice the role and status of the university Sunggyungwan which is "the only highest national/ royal educational institute, you may conclude that the first establishment dates back to the first date of establishment of national educational institute; and that goes back to A.D. 372. In 372, the King Sosurim established "Taehak (meaning Great Study)" to enhance the power of King and the nation. This record is the very first record of national educational insitute built by a King in Korean history. However, considering that the university is the direct succession of Joseon Sunggyungwan and its name and the members of boarders, etc. they decided to use A.D. 1398 as their official establishment date.

If you define university as the modern, western style university, then you may say it was built in 1950s. There could be no universities in Korea that can have history more than 60 yrs if you applies that criteria because Korea is eastern country and we had war in 1950s and we had a terrible colonial time from 1910 to 1945.

Nota Bene! Be caureful! Even though it was the royal-national highest educational institute in Joseon Dynasty and Daehan Empire era, Republic of Korea established another university for the National University. That is Seoul National University (SNU) but you don't put "national" in Korean because of many social and political reasons. You just say Seoul University in Korean. By the way, don't confuse the SNU and UOS (University of Seoul). The UOS is municipal.

This building is Hoam Hall. "Hoam" is the title of one of the main director of the university. The chairman, Yi-byeong-cheol, of SAMSUNG had title Hoam. Here, the title doesn't mean duke or knight... in the eastern culutre, people refused to call name and be called by name because names were the personal itself. So, until nowadays, it is very common to call someone else as his occupation or titles. In the past when they didn't have many jobs, the scholars who were the politicians and governors in modern sense used to make their own titles or his friends titles. These titles could be compared to nom de plume which is not excalty same though.

Anyway, that one is for economics and management students - as far as I know.

This is one of the playground. Unfortunately, surrounded by a mountain in north and towns in east and the old edifice of Seonggyngwan which is historic heritage and palaces one of which is UNESCO world heritage (Changdeokgung), this university doesn't really have a space in campus. I feel soooooooooooo pity of myself. ha ha :P

Ah, there is another campus outside of Seoul which is for the natural science and technology students. The humanity faculty stays in Seoul and the Seoul Campus is quite occupied and surrounded by nature and cultural, historic heritages. I have no idea whether I should be happy or not... I guess the former maybe?! :-)

This is inside of one of the building. I took it because of the "S" symbol.
As you see, the leaf symbol is the school emblem. It's Gingko leaf. Gingko trees stands for the spirit of saints and scholars of Confucianism.

for futher information you may visit: http://www.http//eng.skku.edu/ or http://cn.skku.edu/ or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungkyunkwan_University