“Everything in life is chance”, says Professor Sanidas, and it was by such chance that he came to pursue a career as an economist. Professor Sanidas’ original dream was to study engineering -- to be exact, aeronautics or architecture. He left his home in Greece for a French university only to find that the admissions for such disciplines were closed. He also found that language problems were harder to overcome than he had thought. So, by chance, he chose economics, of which mathematics was the primary language. After receiving his doctoral degree, Professor Sanidas taught at the University of Wollongong in Australia and Dubai. His move to Seoul (which he has praised as being a ‘complete city’) this year was not his first time arriving in Korea. On his several former visits he was very impressed by Korea’s diverse culture. “Korean culture is a fantastic one that should not be underestimated,” says Professor Sanidas. “Korea was influenced by Japanese, Chinese, American and European culture, all the while developing its own unique culture. The combination of Confucian and Christian values here was very interesting, too.” He also used words such as ‘good mannered, passionate, and active’ to describe Koreans and Korean society. He also mentioned his love of Korean food. Probably these were some of the reasons why Professor Sanidas chose to come back to Korea this time.
However, Sanidas explains that his main reason for deciding to come and live in Korea was very much SNU itself. “Organizational economics, which is one of my fields of interest, is quite a well-studied subject at SNU,” he says. He was also touched by how kind the staff were, saying, “Everyone was always willing to help me out.” The passion students showed in their studies, how the students stayed in the libraries all night to study, was something that impressed him, too.
“I encourage students to visit my office often and talk to me”, says Professor Sanidas when asked whether he had any special teaching methods of his own. “I am very much interested in teaching and education and I have a degree in education. I like communicating with students because I get to know more about each one of them. In class, many people participate even if their English is not so good. They don't care.” He also added that participation is done not only through words but also through facial expressions such as smiling. “My aim is to promote communication and so far, I think I have succeeded with the majority of the students. They seem quite happy with communicating and come to my office regularly.”
In his ‘International Economics’ class, Professor Sanidas sees the Korean students as the most active constituent. “I can see that Korean students really want to do well in class. I have 12 to 13 exchange students in my class and the Korean students are no less active than them and actually work very hard. Even students who do not major in economics do very well, too.” One thing that worries him is that students often go into small details and miss the really important topics. “They should see the forest, not the trees, especially in economics.”
Work hard, and do it smartly. This is what Sanidas advises students. “You should love what you do! If you don’t like economics, then don’t do it. Do try many things. It is important that you find what suits you best.”
May 27, 2009
Eunyoung Kim and Yeha LEE, SNU English Editors