In my dreams also, I never thought that at this advanced age and being lack of knowledge I would be studying in a foreign university and that too in Korea. As Koreans are known for strict following of rules and insist upon an aptitude/entrance test for admission in any education institute.
The often quoted English adage ─ “If wishes were horses, the beggars would be riders,” was proven wrong this time, as I was given admission in the Chonnam National University in Gwangju, my wife’s home town.
On November 16th, 2013, when I entered the gate of this 60 years old prestigious university, I had a mixed feeling of pride and fear. Pride and enthusiasm to be a student again, and even my wife (though she hails from Gwangju, not having the privilege to study in this university) also treated me like a kid going to school for the first time, after giving me a long lecture on Do’s and Don’ts, insistng that she would accompany to my class in the language education center.
Fears of the unknown, were worrying me, as I found smartly that the class turned out in colorful clothes and each student had a girlfriend. With my grey hairs and ‘ancient’ looks, I thought, somebody may ask, as to why I had come to the university, without my daughter/son.
I entered the class and found all teenagers sitting there and obviously inquiringly looking at me, as if I was searching for my own ward in the class. At 9 a.m. the teacher arrived and as practice in my country, I thought, the first day would be spent in admission formalities and introductions. But after a short introduction, the teacher started her class seriously. All talk was rightly done in Hangeul and we were told to keep our native language/English at home and work seriously, otherwise we had no business to b at the class. I reminded my school days and my dream of attending the class for fun sake were firmly put to rest.
However, gradually things eased out, as the teachers also respected my age, but gave no relaxation to me in studies/homework. After the first week, when I got myself familiarized with the route to my classroom, I started venturing out. The university had given us the university location map, besides a big cemented map also put at the entrance of the university. Though I found most of the students were not very familiar with places, other than their classroom or prominent places like market and library. Maybe, I had a wrong impression of them due to lack of local language, but I found each of them very courteous and willing to help, but had to shrug their shoulders ─ “Sorry” due to communication gap.
Chonnam National University is a sprawling university, established 60 years back, but still growing. In fact, the university located in the heart of the city, is a mini city in its own term. Each and every facility like banks, post office, shopping center, with numerous restaurants (including book café) are available on campus itself and a student need not go out for his/her daily needs. There are wide roads with enough parking space.
The striking feature is that the sprawling university does not have high boundary walls with guards positioned at the gates to restrict entry, as prevalent in my country due to terrorism threats of checking entry of anti-social elements.
Through columns of university’s English monthly ─ the Chonnam Tribune, I came to know that all university facilities were also open to the general public, free of cost. This was a surprise to me, and I cannot even think of entering a school compound in my country without checking my antecedents and reconfirmation of person whom I was visiting.
The university is well planned and laid out though the university authorities may be facing the space constraints, as they might not have visualized that the university would become so big. Korea being a hilly (I won’t say mountaneous) country and getting a plain ground (with stricter rules on grounding of hills/environment and conservation) is a dream. That is why the cities are growing vertical for obvious reasons.
Another unique feature is that the university’s keenness to accord all facilities to encourage students to take up studies, at all possible hours, besides lounges in the dept. building, even posh restaurants like ─ Angel in us coffee shop, students can sit and study/relax without ordering anything. All eating places are self-serviced.
The university has convenient shopping center where students can shop all their needs at affordable prices. Everything is fixed price and computers are used for billing out for no chance for price bargaining or haggling.
As unlike in my country India, the hostels don’t have dining rooms where cooked food is served. Each student is expected to be independent and cook his own meal. Each room in the hostel (various types available from dormitory to single rooms) is provided with cooking range and washing machines.
To cater to the huge students crowd, huge shopping centers (mostly cafes, mobile and garments stores) have cropped up, outside both the gates of the university and are doing thriving business, many opened till late hours in the evening. In the evening, may “ajummas” come with mobile stalls, opposite university gates, to sell delicious snacks, at very affordable prices. And to cater to the senior staff, approvements are there to bring food (waffled in cloth, as was prevalent in our olden days in India) from home, so convenient.
The university has all sporting facilities and very well maintained courts and playfields, even open to the public at a nominal cost. Koreans are a sporting nation, but surprisingly at the university, I don’t find much sporting activity in the evening. Most of the students prefer to walk around in pairs/couples. There is a beautiful water-body with walking alleys to suit the love birds.
Gwangju has been the cradle of democracy but so far I have not seen any student’s demonstration or defacing of walls by posters and painting slogans on the walls, as witnessed by me in my country.
By and large, the Korean children have been imbibed by the sense of cleanliness and privacy. The campus is clean as waste and paper baskets (휴지통) are placed all over. The toilets are well maintained with running hot water but some naughty children are still found carelessly throwing paper glasses and wrappers, as children are children and as all over the world. They enjoy breaking a petty rule.
Another noticeable things are the driving skills and immaculate parking of vehicles. The drivers respect the pedestrians and rarely find a person crossing a road, other than a zebra-crossing. It is mind boggling for a person like me, coming from the third world about the amount of spent on the highways/main roads in painting the roads for lanes and stops.
To connect the student to the past history, a huge museum has come up displaying artifacts in different section wide floors. School children are encouraged to visit and get themselves educated on the subject. Very surprisingly, no entry fee is charged, even for the maintenance of the complex.
Through the Chonnam Tribune, I came to know about the university attempt to contribute to the social community. Various clubs have been opened to offer voluntary services to the society (legal aid, volunteer service at farms/villages, teaching poor children, liaison with industry for innovation & research, sending volunteers abroad through the UN agencies etc.). This is a new concept to me, as in Korea, the educational institutes are not more educational centers but an aid to the society, probably I would like educational institutes in my country to imbibe this noble concept.
Another striking feature is professionalism. I find all my teachers through professionals, strict in business but otherwise very humble and approachable. Teachers even volunteer to visit students’ hostels to sort out academic and personal problems, especially the foreign student.
Class strength is kept limited and a perfect teacher-student ratio is maintained for effective teaching. In my own case, 23 foreign students came for admission in the basic Korean language course and could have been easily put in one class/section, yet the university authorities made 2 sections for efficient teaching and performance monitoring.
Class timings are well spaced (50 minutes class) with 5 minutes break in between and a longer break of 20 minutes in mid, to allow students to assimilate and freshen-up, than leaving the in the middle of a session. Timing is strictly followed as in Korea and all activities strictly go as per the watch.
To foster a sense of inter-mixing and brotherhood, the university organizes many functions, to make the students, especially the foreign students, know the Korean culture. This includes classes like calligraphy, making traditional rice cake, knowing Korean customs and traditions.
To break monotony, cultural and sight-seeing tours are organized during the midterm break, to take students around and make them conversant with the Korean history and mix with the locals.
To further ease out tension, Korean “chingu” (friends) are deputed to mix with foreign students and make them at home without any cost. This is also an ideal tool for a foreigner not only to learn local customs and way of life but also to practice Hangeul, as classroom teaching is not enough to master a foreign language, especially a rather tough language like Korean.
During my short stay of less than 2 months, so far, has been an education to me and I am enjoying every bit of it. Though I had planned to do only the basic course of 1 year in Korean language, now different plans are developing in my brain, and a serious thought to do the full 4 years course. The university is benignly bestowing all possible assistance, it is I, who have to gear up.
I look forward to the day when I would graduate from this prestigious university and proudly claim at home ─ ”A proud product of Chonnam National University.”
By Surgit Singh Puri, Indian Student, Regular Korean Language Course,
Language Education Center, Chonnam National University