President of the International Exchange Club, Baek Ji-eun
Reporter Jung Hae-mil
hysay1219@naver.com
At Busan University of Foreign Studies, many clubs are run in various fields. As a foreign student, it would be everyone’s dream to exchange with students from different countries. However, it was hard to manage programs such as exchange meetings with foreign students last year. In this hard situation, Baek Ji-eun, President of the ‘International Exchange Club’, created her own school club and started to work, providing many opportunities for other students. The Woeseong Times interviewed her to hear about what she got up to last year and her plans for the new semester.
Q1. Could you please introduce a little about yourself?
A. Hello, my name is Baek Ji-eun. I am a senior at Busan University of Foreign Studies, majoring in English and Japanese. I like to travel to other countries and make exchange meetings with foreign friends, so I created the International Exchange Club and have been working as the president since last year.
Q2. Why did you decide to make this club last year?
A. As I said earlier, I like talking with people from foreign countries, and I have been participating in many exchange meetings with various foreign universities since I was in the second grade. After participating in those activities, I always thought it would be great to have exchange meetings hosted by BUFS and I hope that students can grow into global citizens through many cultural exchanges with foreign students. For this reason, I decided to make my own club dedicated to language and culture exchange.
Q3. What kind of activities do you do in the club?
A. The club is run for the purpose of cultural exchange and language exchange between Koreans and foreigners. There are English groups, Japanese groups, and Chinese groups, and a Korean group for foreign students. Firtst of all, We have a ‘Closer project’ when before starting with new activities at the beginning of the semester. Students randomly greet each other first time in a small team, and have time to ask questions and learn about the club. Second, The core program of the club is the ‘i-language’ program. This is a reference to the i-phone and there are five meanings such as ‘internet’, ‘individual’, ‘instruct’, ‘inform’, ‘inspire’. In this i-language program, the students form groups of two Koreans and two foreigners, and each group conducts cultural experiences and language exchange activities. This program was the most popular program among the foreign students because they can make friends in small groups and can experience Korean culture that they otherwise only learned about in textbooks.
Lastly, there is an exchange meeting program, which involves three types of activity; an exchange meeting for each group in the club, exchange meetings with foreign universities, and exchange meetings with all club members together. In the case of exchange meetings in the club, the club set a date and each team met and had a meeting in the first semester. But we changed the stlye to meet once a week for each team and have time with their members freely. As a result, I think it was possible to develop little by little in the direction of respecting students’ autonomy within the club. In addition, the Korean team hosted its own exchange meetings in the first semester, but the participation was less than we expected. So the staff of the club held an entire club exchange meeting for foreign students twice in the semester. It’s regrettable that they couldn’t experience the program in the best way when students’ reactions are not good after the program, but I think it is worthwhile for everyone to be able to grow one step further together by modifying it.
When we first planned our exchange activities, we held a staff meeting to choose the hosts and people to give presentations. After the exchange meetings, every student had the chance to share their thoughts and a commemorative photo was taken, a questionnaire was handed out, and the meeting was brought to a close. Through these activities, students will be able to directly host exchange meetings with foreign students from other universities, not just those on campus. This gives the students even more opportunity to improve their language skills and learn about various topics.
Q4. How did you coordinate opinions with the club members?
A. In our club, students share their opinions on various activities during the vacation. Since it became hard to hold offline meetings because of the COVID-19 situation, I have been using an online voting system a lot to share opinions about new activities with other club members. Above all, I always try to get some ideas that could help me plan new activities by receiving feedback from students when the activity is over. We also try to create an atmosphere that encourages students to get closer to each other so that they can share their opinions freely, at any time.
The most difficult part of running a club is that we cannot meet all together at the same time as an exchange club. We have not had much time to really get to know each other, so I just hope there are many chances to create an active atmosphere when offline classes start again from March. I also had a lot of concerns personally because it is my first time to make a club. Even so, we are always doing our best and taking things step by step, so I think this year will be a better one than last year.
Q5. Recently, you participated in an exchange meeting with Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. How did you feel while talking with foreign students from another university?
A. I always feel proud of BUFS while holding an exchange meeting with other universities. At the same time, I am always thinking of new ways to introduce more about Korean culture to foreign students through exchange meetings. So, I am thinking about how to introduce and explain Korean culture more easily to foreigners on a personal level because I think it is also important to introduce our culture by understanding the other person’s perspective.
The exchange with other university like GUFS was very popular amongst the club members because we were able to practice our foreign language skills and could learn about new cultures that we have not learned about before. Above all, students can get new information much faster. Just as we improve our understanding and interest about other countries through these meetings, I hope that the foreign students also feel the same way.
Q6. As the new semester begins, is there anything you want to say to the freshmen who are looking forward to taking art in culture and language exchanges with foreign students this year?
A. First of all, congratulations on your admission to BUFS. Our university has an environment that encourages interaction with foreigners, so I hope you can find your own ways to improve your language skills and meet new friends. Look out for various notices on the university website, and also with our new club recruitment that will start on March 14th, we hope to catch your attention. As it is difficult to travel to other countries easily, please participate in many exchange programs in our university. The language and culture experienced through foreign friends will make you understand more about that country. I hope you can experience the global world at BUFS. Thank you.