These days we can meet many foreign students at Kookmin University. They come from many different countries to enjoy campus life at our university and to study with Korean friends. I know that having a number of foreign students is a very important consideration for university evaluations. To achieve a higher rank in this evaluation, our university tries to attract foreign students. It has good intentions, but there are too many foreign students to supervise properly. Kookmin even made a special department to deal with foreign students, but it still cannot cover all of the foreign students.

There are many foreign students who decide to study at Kookmin as exchange students, or as freshman foreigners. Before school starts, many foreign students learn Korean language and about the culture. However, foreign students often earn high scores on the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean Test of Proficiency in Korean) but still have trouble to communicate in class conversations. That is a big problem for them. And many foreign students have a hard time making new Korean friends and understanding Korean culture. They really want to make Korean friends, but they cannot because of the language barrier.

Of course, our university authorities provide many special programs for them. One program is ‘Global Buddy’. But it is not well-known by Korean students and it is very difficult to keep relations between the foreign buddy and the Korean buddy. I participated in this global buddy program this semester. It is very useful to make a foreign friend and to learn about his or her culture. However, I think it is not enough to satisfy all the foreign students, because this program leaves it entirely up to the students to form their relationship. Many buddies have a good relationship, but some do not.

I feel that in our university we only have a few chances to contact and have a relationship with foreign students. I would therefore suggest that we make another program: ‘A Night for Foreign Students.’ This summer vacation, I am going to visit Australia as a member of Sunkok Global Ambassadors (SGA). My team’s goal is to learn from many universities in Australia about their successful programs and policies regarding foreign students. Our final goal will be to successfully apply this policy at Kookmin University.

After this visit, we really want to host a party for foreign students; ‘A Night for Foreign Students,’ This party will be a good chance for foreign students and Korean students to make friends. Many Korean students think it is difficult to make foreign friends, and they feel they do not have any opportunity to do this because of a lack of language ability, or because of their shyness. But that should not be a problem anymore through this party.

I think that real globalization is the most important method to obtain a higher rank in the evaluation. It should not necessarily deal with how many foreign students there are. If we really want to make a global campus, then we should try to provide specialized services for foreign students and try to make a better atmosphere to enjoy a good campus life. A real global campus will be achieved by these methods.

When you see a foreign student in your class, you should say ‘hello’ first, and if you want to make friends with foreign students, do not wait for them to come, approach them first. University authorities and our SGA team members, including me, will host this special event at Kookmin University for all students to enjoy, not only Korean students, but foreign students as well.

Seo Young-Soo(Junior, Dept. of English Language and Literature)

sys7698@naver.com