Due to the student exchange programs being managed by the International Relations Team, SSU has a variety of foreign students. This interview is a good opportunity to find out the thoughts and predicaments of SSU’s foreign students. ST interviewed three exchange students on this matter: Zeffira, Aliya, and Abror.
Hallo! Salemetsizbe!
ST: Hallo (“hello” in Indonesian), Zeffira! Salemetsizbe (“hello” in Kazakh), Aliya! Please introduce yourselves.
Zeffira: My Name is Hianadi, Zeffira Bernard. I’m an Indonesian national, and I’m majoring in English at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Aliya: I’m Aliya Orynbassarova, from Kazakhstan. I’m a 4th year student in my home university, Kazakh-British Technical University, specializing in chemical engineering of organic substances.
ST: What learning-related problems have you encountered here at SSU so far?
Zeffira: I have difficulty communicating with the community, such as with the waiters in a restaurant and the workers in other establishments, because most of the people I meet can’t speak English. I think it’s better to offer more classes taught in English so that both the teachers and the students will be required to speak in English inside the classroom. I also hope that the library will acquire more books written in English.
ST: What is your fondest memory so far of your stay here at Soongsil?
Zeffira: My fondest memory so far of my stay here at Soongsil is my attendance of the mid-autumn festival, where I saw how the South Koreans celebrate. I saw families gather, and I saw their ways of life. It’s awesome. I now know their daily culture.
Aliya: For me, my fondest memory of SSU so far is and always will be the people whom I met here. I was somehow shocked by how hospitable, kind, and helpful the people here are. I think I will not forget the time that I spent here at SSU.
Assalomaleykum!
ST: Assalomaleykum (“hello” in Uzbekistan), Abror! Please introduce yourself.
Abror: My name is Abror Umarov, and I’m from Uzbekistan, Tashkent. I’m 20 years old. My home university is Tashkent University of Information Technologies, and my major is Computer Service. I’m a 4th year bachelor’s degree student.
ST: What motivated you to come to SSU?
Abror: Last year (2010), in my home country, I met some students from South Korea in the KIV (Korean Internet Volunteers) program. I spent a month with them, and we became good friends. I heard a lot about South Korea and about the Korean history, culture, and lifestyle from them. I learned from them that South Korea is a developed, high-tech country, especially in the IT sphere. I then got interested in studying in South Korea. My home university has partnerships with many South Korean universities. The main reason that I chose SSU is that I heard that it is one of the famous universities in South Korea in the IT sphere. I thus decided to apply for admission into SSU’s exchange student program.
ST: What learning-related problems have you encountered here so far?
Abror: Actually, to this day, I haven’t encountered any major problem in SSU. The unique difficulty that I have had, however, is choosing classes. There was a wide choice of classes, although some of them were offered only in Korean. The education system of my home university is quite different. We are not allowed to choose classes, and we have no credit system. It was something new for me, so I was a bit confused in choosing classes.
ST: How much does it mean to you to be here?
Abror: For me, fulfilling something in SSU means a lot. It may be one of the most important and invaluable experiences that I’ve ever had. It is a remarkable chance to get closer to the fulfillment of my dream. I can receive not only high-quality education with the help of excellent professors, most of whom earned their Ph.D. in the most advanced countries in the world, but I can also expand my viewpoint by sharing my thoughts with my classmates, and improve myself. I am willing to make new Korean and foreign friends in SSU, and to keep in touch with them even beyond my stint here at SSU.
To take a step forward, SSU needs to relay to its exchange students its demands from them, and to vitalize some ways of steadily communicating with them. If they are satisfied with our educational system, the number of our exchange students will steadily increase, and consequently, SSU’s reputation as an excellent university will spread throughout the world.
Gang Min-jeong (ST Reporter)
gang@ssu.ac.kr
