by ZHAO QING, Woojung Cho, HyunKyung Choi

Have you ever been an international exchange student abroad? Or do you have any plans to be an exchange student? Like you guys, there are also many international students in EWHA campus. Indeed they are enrolled in all EWHA majors and courses, even in PhD programs. Of course they love studying in Korea, but they also have some problems that you may not know about. We conducted some interviews with international students randomly on the street of EWHA campus to find out what they thought.

There were five students who answered our questionnaire and they are all from different nations. Two students are African students from Ghana and Ethiopia, two students are Asian students from Japan and China, and one student is from Sri Lanka.

Facilities

The Ewha campus affects the first impression that foreign students get when they come to Korea. So, the facilities and their views of them are very important. Most of the students told us that the facilities in EWHA are easy to get to because they are linked by school bus. However, they have some problems locating some specific buildings, because all the sign boards are in Korean and the campus map is inaccurate.

How can this problem be fixed? We suggest that Ewha make a community website exclusively for international students. Through that website, international students will be able to exchange information about facilities.

Academic

           Most of the international students are pretty satisfied with their major professors, because the professors take the time to explain the lecture content again in English in case they can't understand the Korean well. At the same time, most of them think it's difficult to take Korean courses and write essays in Korean, so they need extra help outside of class. Therefore in our opinion, the professors should make regular office hours exclusively for international students.

Some of the international students wanted to take Korean language courses but these courses are only provided in the morning. Therefore, they can't attend since the time over-laps with their major courses. To solve this problem, Korean courses should be provided with more time selections for international students, especially night time courses for graduates. Also, it will be a great help if Korean courses can focus more on the basic level, because most of them are just beginners.

One more suggestion for overall academic improvement is to have a community website to share information about academic subjects.

Culture & social interaction

           For Asian students, Korean culture may not be so far from their culture. However, when it comes to students from western countries, customs are quite different. One exchange student told us that the Office of Global Affairs helped her to adapt to her life here. But for those full time international students in Ewha, food, language and accommodation are big problems.

For social interaction, there are programs for international students to get together with each other and with Korean students, but the times are not frequent and the times always over-lap with courses, so many of the students cannot attend. We suggest the university arrange more frequent gatherings so that foreign students’ Korean speaking ability can improve and so that they can form social networks with Korean students.

Location

Most of the students we interviewed were satisfied with the location of EWHA. They agreed that it is very convenient to travel from EWHA to other parts of Seoul and they even enjoyed the busy side of it, which we thought they wouldn’t like.

One of the students said, “Since there are so many people around here, I don’t have time to feel lonely, which is good for international students like me.”

Also, Sinchon, Itaewon, and Seoul Grand Park were mentioned as their favourite spots in Seoul.

There are many international students in Ewha with a wide range of nationalities. Ewha has provided a nice academic environment for international students; more than 100 courses are taught in English and Korean language courses are offered by the Ewha Language Centre for them. But an extra effort in the Korean language courses and better opportunities for social interaction are needed to improve their life quality.