Dear Mayor
I am writing this letter as a foreign student to say that I’m really thankful and grateful to the people in the Korean society for being kind, helpful and thoughtful. I have been living in Korea since 2009. From 2009 until now, I have met very many helpful people and without them it would have been impossible to continue my studies while staying with my family in Korea. However, it was not any particular organization which helped me, it was a combination of many different people from several places: professors, businessmen, social workers and other people in the community. I and other students like me would be very interested and grateful if an organization could be set up to offer a hand in assisting foreign students in Gwangju. International students are struggling with many of the following challenges simultaneously, some to a greater degree than others.
After five years of experience, I feel that language is the main barrier to study and survive for foreigners in Korea. It is always a struggle to accomplish simple tasks, or to obtain things which should be easily obtained, due to language difficulties. Therefore, I think that foreign students need a platform where they can learn the Korean language without fees for a long period. Even though many universities offer free Korean language courses at a basic level for international students, which is helpful to learn some basic words and sentences, these basic lessons are not enough to understand a university-level lecture. Before coming to Korea, foreign students are led to believe that most of the classes related to their major will be conducted in English. Once they are here, however, they find the situation is just the opposite, as many classes are conducted in the Korean language.
In addition to the language barrier, international students also face difficulty in obtaining proper medical treatment. In Korea, being hospitalized or receiving medical treatment is more expensive than in under-developed countries. A majority of the foreign students in Korea are from underdeveloped countries and this costly medical care can be a great difficulty for them, as their scholarship does not provide enough money to cover living expenses here. If we take a look at Japan, Europe or other developed countries, we find medical treatments are free for foreign students. Korea and the city of Gwangju might want to follow in the footsteps of these countries.
Another difficulty which international students face is that of finding a place to live. The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) provides family dormitories to students who have a family with them, but Chonnam National University, Chosun University and others do not. It is a big problem for foreign students to stay outside of a campus with their families. To get a home, students have to pay more than university family dormitory monthly fees, in addition to a large deposit fee. In GIST, family dorm fees are only 80,000 won per month, whereas international students living off campus must pay upwards of 400,000 won plus “key money”. As previously stated, the scholarship provided is not enough to provide these families with a place to stay.
Child care is also a financial challenge for foreign students as students who have children are unable to send their children to kindergarten for lack of Korean government support. Korean law does not provide support for children attending daycare or kindergarten as it does for Koreans, even if the children were born in Korea and their parents pay taxes to the Korean government. If international students want to send their children to kindergarten, they must pay around 300,000 – 400,000 won (depending on age) per month. Generally, foreign students receive scholarships from different channels – on average about 500,000 won for Masters students, 900,000 won for Doctoral students (NIED 900,000 won). Due to shortages of finances, foreign students’ children must stay with their mother or another family member at home, which is not a proper environment for child development after they reach the age to attend school like their Korean peers.
Finally, many foreign students want to work in a Korean company after graduating, but due a lack of proper information or guidance they are unable to find jobs inside Korea. So, I would like to propose that an international job fair be arranged in Gwangju twice a year which would benefit both the students and the city of Gwangju by giving a boost to the economy.
In closing, I would like to make clear my feeling that Korea is now a very welcoming country to international societies in different sectors. I would like the Korean government to consider these problems and requests to help make Korea an even more inviting school environment to international students. I believe not only that the students will benefit from changes made by government and/or non-government organizations, but also that universities within Korea will gain more popularity on an international scale.
Many thanks, and best regards.