国際交流センター

【留学先】  仁荷大学
【学　部】  外国語学部　国際ビジネスコミュニケーション専攻
【期　間】  2022年8月1日～8月21日　　　　　　　　　　　
【氏　名】  L・Dさん（留学時：3年生）

・Purpose

– Make friends from all over the world

– Multicultural coexistence

– Learn new culture and language

– Study about the business and economy in South Korea

・Classes

For the Classes, We had to take 60 hours of classes within three weeks, so we were taking three hours of Korean language and three hours of Korean business and economy per day. Since I was taking a beginner level Korean class, I mainly learned about Hangul(Korean Characters) and basic phrases we can use in daily conversation. Writing Hangeul itself was not difficult, but I suffered a lot from the similar pronunciations they had for some vowels. The hardest part was that our teacher was not very good at English and so he had to use gestures and Google Translate when he taught us. Since I had never studied Korean before, I took the beginner’s class, but it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be, so I wondered if the intermediate class would have been better, but overall I am glad that I took that class. For my other class, an American professor taught us about Korean business and economy in English. Because the professor was American, the education style was similar to that of an American university. In the first half of the class, the professor gave a small lecture, and in the second half, we did group work. Group work involved researching and writing together a paper based on a topic about business and economy in South Korea given by the professor. What was difficult was to share and summarize opinions with people from different countries. Despite the fact that we spoke English as our common language, it can sometimes prove difficult to understand each other as some people did not speak English and the contents we were learning were also challenging. Even though studying 60 hours on summer vacation may not seem fun, I learned a lot and I think it was the most productive three weeks of my life.

・Memories

When I was out of school, I often went to Seoul for fun or had dinner near the university. Our university was not in Seoul, but in the neighboring city of Incheon, so I took a train and bus for about an hour and a half to get there. On weekends, we basically spent the whole day sightseeing in Seoul, and on weekdays, we went out to eat after school and did homework with friends. I felt like I was learning a new thing every single day because there were people from various countries participating in this summer program and I was exposed to many different cultures. In addition, we had two fieldwork sessions. For the first field work, we saw Nanta. It is a non-verbal performance based on the rhythms of traditional Korean music that comically dramatizes various incidents that occur in a kitchen. I had never seen it before, and the quality of performance was outstanding and hilarious. For our second field work, we went to Lotte World, Korea’s most famous amusement park. I had a great time with all my friends because we spent the whole day together without thinking about our studies.

・Struggles

There were two things that were difficult for me in this summer program: First, multiculturalism. Because we were all living in one dormitory with people from different cultures and values, it was often exhausting to be constantly on our toes. For example, we all had different ways of doing assignments and spending time after school, but because we were all under one roof, we often had to invite everyone to join us and do things in large groups so as not to be rude to others. However, since not everyone had the same culture and hobbies, there were many differences of opinion in what to eat and where to go. The hardest part was that people are not always honest or share their views straight forward, so we had to observe and ask people for their opinions. The second thing is the transportation. Even though they had trains and buses for public transportation, the train system was complicated, and the trains and buses were only available in Korean unless you were in an urban area, so I often got lost in the beginning. One day, when I wanted to go back to Incheon from Seoul, I went back the same way as before and tried to change trains as usual, but I was dropped off at a completely different place apparently because I was taking an express train. Since there was no train before my curfew, I took a bus home from there, but looking for a bus also took me time so my trip back to the dorm from Seoul took three hours where it should have taken an hour. Since the transportation system was quite complex and tourist attractions were not close to the university, I was usually very tired at the end of each day.

・Overall

I was depressed when I thought I would be studying during the summer vacation as well, but after actually spending three weeks there, I think it was very fulfilling because I was exposed to new cultural values. Having the chance to live with people from different countries in Korea, a country only two hours away from Japan, is truly a treasured experience.

This a photo we took when the professors took us to have Chicken & Beer! The food were great and it was fun having an opportunity to talk with the professors.