The force of globalization has hit university campuses nationwide around Korea. CNU campus is no exception! When you are in a class, look closely at the student sitting next to you; she or he may be one of those 682 people from outside Korea this semester. Nationwide, the number of foreign people is approaching the one million mark and the rate of increase is very steep. This year’s rate shows 35% greater than last year. As we are all aware, a sizable (12%) portion of those people are spouses who get married to Korean husbands. In the provinces of Chonnam and Gwangju, international marriage accounts for 35% of newly married couples. The number of international offsprings is also rapidly on the rise. This year alone, there are close to 50,000 of these newborns nationwide. Within 20 years, they will become one of us on university campuses.
    The social environment of Korea is far from hospitable to the people who are from underdeveloped countries, as well as to the offsprings of intermarriage. The responsibility of acculturation is solely placed on their shoulders with little help from their surroundings. They are supposed to understand Korean culture and to communicate freely in Korean, and to immediately acclimate themselves to the traditional value systems of Korea. Few are successful but many are not. Consequently, the divorce rate is high and the number of battered wives who seek shelters is increasing too. They are frustrated and tired. They often become the targets of ridicule, ostracism and violent treatment.
Now this horrible situation has drawn attention from a few NGOs and concerned people for humanitarian purposes. The humanitarian organizations are trying to mobilize some resources that are scarcely available from the local government and from the citizens to provide immediate help to ease those people from difficult experiences. Their activities are twofold mainly; the first is to provide consulting and counselling service to ease out the pain and difficulties and the second is to facilitate acculturation into Korean culture by providing culture learning and Hangeul training.
    It is now time to ponder the challenges globalization imposes on us as a whole society and national culture. Because globalization is the process of intermingling among different people and different cultures with the expectation of benefit, the success of the process depends upon mutual recognition of the differences and requires respect of the other culture. These challenges comprise the foundation of cultural competency. Culturally competent people possess the cultural knowledge and skills of a particular culture to work out tasks (both informal and formal) effectively with the members of the culture. At the individual level, every one of us needs to be culturally competent. At society level, Korean society needs to be culturally competent to be a viable community. The aspiration to become a leading country mandates cultural competency, for every society resists hegemonic leadership by another society. Look at the wars and conflicts between nations around the world; one classification is that many are struggles against the hegemonic dominion of the US. It is worthy to note the remark of the Yale University President. In a recent press conference in London, President Levin stressed the critical importance of internalization of curriculum and environment of the university in order to prevent the "insular thinking" leadership the US Presidents show.
    Symptoms of culturally incompetent society (individual) are: imposing its own value system on others (the clients), regarding the cultural difference in terms of superiority-inferiority, not willing to understand others' predicaments from the perspective of others, being unable to communicate the language of others, refusing to recognize the virtues of other cultures, not being equipped with organizations, cultural knowledge and skills needed to function effectively with the clients. If we evaluate Korean society in such criteria, we have to admit how incompetent we (Korea and CNU) are culturally. CNU is facing the challenges to meet the local needs for multicultural understanding and to educate the students to become culturally competent leaders.
 

#278 Editorial