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An episode I heard a while ago from one of my college juniors who spent a sabbatical year at a U.S. university: Having distinguished himself as a student activist in the 1980s and, upon becoming a faculty member, continuing to profess anti-American views, Prof. A came to his university as a visiting fellow in his 60s. He lived the routine life of a visiting faculty member, frequenting the library, attending seminars, shopping and touring with a second-hand car he bought. Near the end of his one-year stay in the U.S., the senior professor gave his pro-American juniors who had studied in the U.S. a wry smile over a drink and confessed, "The U.S. is a marvelous country!"
My own experience in Japan in the late 1980s while conducting an field studies for my thesis on cultural anthropology taking part in Japan Tent at the recommendation of the Japan Foundation that financed my study: On the way to Wajima City, Noto, which is famous for lacquer ware, at the invitation of the Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, hundreds of foreign students enjoyed unexpected hospitality during two-day home stays. On the last evening, residents participating in the event and the foreign students enjoyed themselves, eating, drinking and talking at the seashore. It was a dream-like week for foreign students who had been under a tight schedule in Japan.
The events were said to have been conceived by several thoughtful Japanese in the 1980s, when foreign laborers and students swarmed to Japan riding the wave of globalization. World leaders including those who were initially hostile, once they study, conduct research and perform jobs in the U.S. for a time often come to appreciate America, as was the case with professor A, Japanese were concerned that young people studying in Japan disliked the country for its closed society. Just seeing the efforts they made, I also concluded, "Japan is a marvelous country."
Already more than 1 million foreigners live in Korea, and more than 50,000 of them are students. Some universities, faced with ever-decreasing enrollments of local students, welcome foreign students unconditionally; others cannot operate research classes unless they have foreign students. Some administrators think they must have come to Korean universities because they couldn¡¯t get into go to American or Japanese ones. Some primary and secondary schools assign foreign students to lower classes merely on grounds that their knowledge of Korean is insufficient. Many universities pack foreign students into foreign-student-only dormitories, depriving them of opportunities to adapt and grow into Korean society and robbing Korean students of opportunities to understand the world.
Most foreign students in Korea, by whatever route and from whatever environment they have come here, will potentially work in senior posts in their home countries. Their experiences in Korea and the connections they establish here will decisively affect Korea¡¯s international image.
But our interest in and consideration for foreign students is minimal. Everybody is pushing multi-cultural policies and projects, and our recent multicultural fever is so hot it borders on hysteria, yet there are barely any policies and projects for foreign students. International understanding is an important part of a state's "software," and foreign students offer such opportunities voluntarily. It's high time that we seriously thought about what we can do for foreign students here.
The column was contributed by Han Kyung-koo, a professor of anthropology at Kookmin University and chairman of the Korean Society Education for International Understanding.
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