ENGLISH TRANSACTIONAL 40S
PURSUING UNIVERSITY IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC
AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTOPHER KIM BY HANNAH KIM
Are you a student who has been battling with online
learning for the past year? Hopefully, this interview will
help you find a sense of comfort. Christopher Kim, a
second-year student at the University of Toronto, has been
pursuing his studies online due to COVID-19. It has been a
year since he has packed his bags from his university dorm
and moved back to his home in Korea. Hannah Kim has
interviewed Christopher Kim to better understand the
struggles of current students, especially university
students who are facing the exhausting reality of online
learning. This interview has been conducted to help
students connect with others who are undergoing similar
changes during the pandemic.
Hannah: Good afternoon, please introduce yourself.
Christopher: Hello, my name is Christopher Kim and I am a
second-year student at the University of Toronto. Currently, I
am attempting to double major in actuarial science and
statistics as well as minor in computer science.
Hannah: I see. What has been the most difficult aspect of
online learning from an academic perspective?
Christopher: It has been the transition between in-person
lectures to online zoom lectures, not being able to see the
professor face-to-face, but in reality just seeing a screen on
my computer. One main concern with online lectures is the
diligence required to attend them because it's quite easy to
skip these lectures due to being lazy and staying in the
comfort of your own house. When you go to lectures in
person, you feel more proactive as well; if you attend one
lecture it makes you motivated and since you’re in the near
vicinity, it makes you want to go to the next lecture as well.
INTERVIEW HANNAH KIM
So it’s quite a snowball effect for the whole day, but with video lectures,
everything is from one location and it’s online. This could really
disadvantage you from an academic standpoint.
Hannah: Then how do you motivate yourself when you feel
discouraged?
Christopher: It’s due to the knowledge that if you don't keep track and
keep up-to-date with these lectures that you start to fall behind. I
definitely felt that when I started being lazy with a couple of lectures,
but ever since I’ve seen how it’s affected my grades, I’ve started to
attend more of these online lectures. However, due to time zone
differences [as I live in Korea], sometimes this could be a large issue.
Hannah: That must be challenging and I believe the emotional aspect
of this experience must have been tough as well. What are the
challenges you've been facing from being isolated from your peers?
Christopher: There were multiple challenges. Not being able to interact
with other students is definitely one of them. One thing you don't take
into account or you take for granted is that once you attend lectures in
person, even the students you don't know, you realize that everyone is
struggling to study and work toward a common goal. And not being
able to see those faces but just sitting by yourself in your own room
every single day makes you feel incredibly isolated and quite stress-
inducing that's for sure. Which kind of relates back to my earlier point
about time differences. Due to huge time differences, personally, it's
quite difficult to attend every single lecture due to having lectures at say
3 or 4 a.m. And not being able to attend every single lecture, on one
hand, makes it difficult to study for the course but on the other hand, if
you do attend these lectures, you start to lack sleep and your sleep cycle
begins to alter quite a bit and that kind of messes with your eating
schedule as well as your sleeping schedule which kind of has an indirect
effect on your stress level as well. So it's all quite interconnected and
creates multiple universal issues.
Hannah: Has this impacted your health in any kind of way?
Christopher: Physically, yes. I mean, both mental and physical health is
quite interlinked all due to high stress; you may feel like you are more
tired quite often or you feel as if you don't eat as often and vice versa.
Because you don't eat as often you don't feel like sleeping and your
mental state starts to deplete or starts to dip again. This seesaw back-
and-forth kind of ends in like, quite a depressing spiral. But one thing to
keep in mind though is that as a student, I recognize that other
students are going through this as well. So just one thing I realized
throughout this entire online learning experience is to constantly stay in
ENGLISH TRANSACTIONAL 40S INTERVIEW
contact with some students you know. Especially with some
friends you've made in the past years which is the reason why
I’m quite glad that I’m a second-year and feel bad for the first-
years who are entering university at this moment in time since
they’re entering a new environment, and especially since it’s
online, everything can seem quite intimidating and you probably
feel even more isolated due to not knowing anyone beforehand.
But definitely, I would hope the best for those students.
Hannah: You mentioned that you are currently living in Korea
in your home. You moved back from your dorm so you probably
had a typical dorm lifestyle there with a roommate and with
your college community, so how would you compare the two
different settings and how that affected you?
Christopher: Personally, this is the first time I ever had a
roommate in my entire life. I always lived at home and attended
school from here. And definitely, the transition of moving
halfway around the world from one country without family was
quite difficult. I would have to say though, I will recommend
everyone to do it at least once and I definitely do not regret it. I
made so many friends and living on campus makes good
opportunities to meet plenty of other people and develop more
connections that way. From what I heard from people who live
off-campus, while there are times where you can make friends
even if you live off-campus, there is less time and lost
opportunities due to having to travel or um...
Hannah: Commuting?
Christopher: Yeah, commute from place to place so you’ve
definitely got to take into account. How's that different from
living at home? While living at home is definitely comfortable
and at the same time comfortable, you end up wanting to stay
outside your comfort zone and university is a time you should
explore new things because you start to develop yourself as a
person and see more about what you like and dislike.
Hannah: You stated that it is indeed much more comfortable
living at home so do you think that's the only upside to online
learning? Are there any other factors that might be quite
beneficial for university students?
Christopher: In my situation, since I had to live by myself abroad
separate from my family, staying home throughout the year was
financially beneficial. Everyday costs such as food, clothing,
transportation, all costs begin to add up and you start to realize
how much you actually do spend so by living at home. Another
benefit is definitely being able to see your family every single day
because sometimes you quite often miss your family when you
live abroad. And while it does help to have a lot of friends, you
know, it is quite comforting to know you can see your family
whenever you want to.
HANNAH KIM
Hannah: Then what is the most prominent takeaway you've
learned from this entire experience?
Christopher: One thing I realized that I didn't know before is how
much I was taking for granted when attending university. It is quite
stressful to study every single day for university. Having friends
nearby definitely does help because it creates this environment to
get to bond with other people. And this is kind of taken away when
you start to study online. I would hope that it's back to in-person
lectures soon. Online courses are better than offline I guess in the
near future or being near the new academic year, but overall I
realized more about myself such as who I am as a person and what
I need. I thought it would be a lot easier to listen to lecturers at
home but since I've actually done so, I realize that it's not
necessarily easier because it wears you down mentally not being
able to meet new faces or to study alongside your friends and
peers. I must mention that it must be very difficult for everyone and
I hope that it can come to an end very soon.
Hannah: And on that note do you have any final words you would
like to say to students who are struggling with online learning
due to the pandemic?
Christopher: I’d tell them to try to sustain a way to see it without
seeming too choosy. I would definitely say, “Try to stick to a routine.”
Because it's not going to last forever, and from now on, everything
will go up, as in everything will get better. Right now is pretty much
the low point. The only way forward is up so just keep that in mind
and try to persevere peace.
Hannah: Thank you for your encouraging words. It has been a
pleasure talking with you.
It has been a fatiguing year for many due to the on-going
pandemic. From the perspective of a high school senior, Hannah
Kim can resonate with the struggles Christopher Kim mentions in
the interview. It is unarguably unfortunate that students have to
cope with this restless situation, whether they are in university,
high school, or even kindergarten. Although Christopher agrees
that there are comfortable aspects of online learning, such as
staying home instead of living in the dorms, he emphasizes how
mentally draining it is, especially when studying in a different
time zone. He mentions the snowball effect and reminds us how
attending lectures in person can help students drastically
compared to online lectures. As a piece of advice, he encourages
all students to stick to a routine to stay motivated and reminds
them that this proceeding challenge will come to an end soon.
Hannah Kim agrees with this statement and hopes many
students can connect with this interview during these uncertain
times.