[Interview] Foreigners who long for learning Korean from all over the world rush to Korea
Foreigners who long for learning Korean from all over the world rush to Korea
Last October 9th was the 573th Hangeul Day (Korean Language Day) to commemorate the invention of the Korean alphabet in the year 1443. I met three foreign students who came to study in Korea (Anita Emefa Hato from Ghana, Caz Sundberg from the UK, and Phuong Nguyen from Vietnam) and talked about Hangeul and their life in Korea. -Ed
Ms. Anita Emefa Hato from Ghana
Q1 Please tell us about yourself.
A1 My name is Anita Emefa Hato. I’m from Ghana and a Korean at heart. I’m an Educational Technologist, Educator, Photographer and a Content Creator. I did my Master’s in Educational Technology at Ewha Womans University.
Q2 Can you tell about your country for our readers?
A2 Ghana is located in West Africa. We gained independence on 6th March 1957 from Britain and our official language is English. Ghana is divided into 16 regions as of 2019 and every region has their own unique culture which includes a local dialect, food, dressing, festivals, tribe etc. Ghanaians are very nice and welcoming people.
Q3. What made you come to Korea and what are you currently doing in Korea?
A3 I came to Korea do pursue my master’s degree. I am currently working for a company. I also do freelance photography, acting & TV shows, and I engage in some cultural activities here in Korea.
Q4. How do you feel about your life here in Korea?
A4 Life in Korea has been somewhat both good and bad. The good side is that I’ve got to meet awesome people who have impacted my life and are now like family to me. The downside has been issues with communication (language barrier) when I first came but I’m quite comfortable. I’ve had my fair share of bad things such as discrimination and racist behaviors but looking at all the love I have received from other Koreans it outweighs and completely rules out the bad for me.
Q5 How do you feel about Hangeul and learning it?
A5 Hangeul is a very beautiful language and I understand it is the easiest language to learn compared to Chinese and Japanese. I first heard the Korean language watching my very first Korean drama on TV (대장금) back home in Ghana. It sparked my interest in Korea and was thrilled to have received the KGSP scholarship to pursue my master’s program at Ewha. As part of the requirement of a KGSP student, it was mandatory to learn Korean in order to enroll in my master’s program at Ewha. I enjoyed my intensive Korean Language classes at Keimyung University in Daegu for 1 year. After completing my Master’s, I again enrolled in the Korean Immigration & Integration Program (KIIP) class.
Q6 Can you tell us about some of cultural differences between your home country and Korea?
A6 For cultural differences, to mention a few, I’d say that in Ghana, we eat with our hands or with a cutlery whereas Koreans mostly use chopsticks and a spoon. We use ‘please‘ to show respect when talking to older people whereas in Korea there’s a totally different honorific lingo. I found the drinking culture in Korea quite strange when I first came to Korea. We don’t use our left hand to hand anything out as it shows a sign of disrespect because the left hand is presumed to be the ‘dirty’ when one visits the washroom whereas in Korea you have to use both hands
Q7 I’d like to ask you about your future plan.
A7 I have a lot of dreams and plans for the future. I would like to work in fields related to my major to gain more experience to build my multimedia firm. I also plan to feature more in TV programs and become a Radio show host and use that platform introduce facts about Africa esp. Ghana and Afrobeat to Koreans.
Q8 Do you have any comments or advice for our young readers?
My advice to our young readers will be to first, follow your heart and what you’re passionate about. Dream BIG as big as the ocean.
Caz Sundberg from the United Kingdom
Q1. Please tell us about yourself.
A1. Hello! My name is Caz, and I’m from London in the UK. I studied linguistics at undergraduate level, before pursuing a Masters Degree in Pacific Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London. By this point I had fallen in love with Korean sociolinguistics, and so I decided to do another Masters Degree, this time in Korean Studies, here in Korea. I was incredibly fortunate to be selected as a GKS Scholar, meaning I have such an amazing opportunity to study here!
Q2. Can you tell us about your country for our readers?
A2. Most people know the UK quite well, from movies or TV, but I’d like to tell people about how beautiful it is! It’s a different kind of beauty that you see in the UK, We have beautiful wide open spaces and stunning forests. It’s what I miss the most actually, how green everything is.
Q3. What made you come to Korea, and what are you currently doing in Korea?
A3.I first came to Korea on a summer exchange, in 2016, and even though I knew next to nothing about Korea or its culture, I fell in love with it. Then, as I began to study Korean and Korean sociolinguistics, I just knew that this was a place I would love to study and live. So, here I am, as a graduate student, doing just that!
Q4. How do you feel about your life here in Korea?
A4. I love it here! I’ve made very good friends, and settled in well so I’m very happy. For me, the most difficult thing is just getting used to differences in culture – even though I might know something is done differently in Korea I still get shocked! The most impressive is the variety of food. No matter how long I live here, I feel like I’ll never have tried everything. Even if you just travel one city over, there’s a whole new specialty dish to try. It’s pretty amazing.
Q5. How do you feel about Hangeul and learning it?
A5. Speaking as a linguist, I think Hangeul is one of the best written systems on the planet. It’s so simple to learn, and the rules are fairly consistent (unlike English, where spelling is a nightmare!). Plus, it was made to match the mouth shape of people when they speak, which I find really cool from a linguistic point of view.
Q6. Can you tell us about some of cultural differences between your home country and Korea?
A6. Does the weather count as a cultural difference? If so, then the weather! Korean winters and summers are so varied, but in the UK it’s pretty similar all year round. That was really hard for me to adjust to at first.
Q7. I’d like to ask you about your future plans.
A7. I hope to continue with my education, and get a Doctorate degree. My personal area of study is Korean socio-cultural linguistics during the Japanese colonial period, so I plan to keep on researching that. Maybe I’ll even keep studying here in Korea.
Q8. Do you have any comments or advice for our young readers?
A8. My best advice would be: make sure you are doing something you enjoy. And my second piece: don’t be afraid to change your mind. When we decide what to study, or what job to apply for, we are usually quite young and we might not know exactly what the best career is for us. So, just try and make sure you are doing something you enjoy! And, if it turns out you made a mistake, don’t be afraid to change your mind and search for a new path. It may seem scary, but we all deserve to lead happy and fulfilling lives.
Q1 Please tell us about yourself.
Q2 Can you tell about your country for our readers?
Q3. What made you come to Korea and what are you currently doing in Korea?
Q4. How do you feel about your life here in Korea?
A4 My life in Korea is very different compared to my life before. There were ups and down situations mentally during my life here so far. There were some difficulties, but I have received a lot of support from friends here. I faced the biggest difficulty in language barrier in Korea as other foreigners did. When I came to Korea first, I only knew a few Korean ｅxpressions. I took part in Korean classes and studied Korean by myself.
Q5 How do you feel about Hangeul and learning it?
A5 It was an interesting experience to study Hangeul since Korean is my second foreign language besides English. While studying Hangeul, I came to know how related Vietnamese and Korean are, and understand more about Korean culture. Interestingly, Korean and Vietnamese have a similar pronunciation, which helped to motivate me in studying Korean.
Q6 Can you tell us about some of cultural differences between your home country and Korea?
Q7 I’d like to ask you about your future plan.
Q8 Do you have any comments or advice for our young readers?
http://cafe.daum.net/weeklymonday/iSZz
39호 2019년10월21일(인쇄본).pdf