A Kazakh Exchange Student in South Korea
The very first time I met Zarina was in 'Korean language for
foreigners' class last year. She is a very smart person with accurate
manner of speech. And since she is from Kazakhstan we were talking in
Russian a lot and, as a result, it took us a short time to get closer
to each other. But then Zarina returned to her homeland and after some
time she went to Korea again. Now it's her second time here. That's
why I thought it's my chance to interview her and hear about exchange
student's life from the first face.
I started from standard questions to give some background
information about the interviewee. Zarina is 20 years old female who
was born in Temirtau city in Kazakhstan. She is majoring in Korean
culture and philology department in Kazakh National University named
after Al – Farabi. Currently she is an exchange student in South Korea
for this semester.
Obviously, the first question was about the reason she came here. She
confessed that actually she planned to come to Korea and study here as
a regular student, but under some circumstances she decided to enter
the university in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. But she is just
in love with this country. She likes its culture and language, and she
made a lot of friends here whom she doesn't want to leave.
"Were there any difficulties during preparation for a flight?" -
I asked Zarina. She let out a sigh and answered sadly: "Yes, there
were. Mostly financially because usually an exchange student supposed
to get support from the university he is studying in, but my education
and dormitory fees are paid only by Korea. And nobody provides a
scholarship, so I have to find money for living expenses by myself.
The other difficulty was with documents - it took me a long time to
prepare them all. But the most difficult part is about my university
grading system."
She paused, took a deep breath and continued: "Right now I'm
required to listen to 6 lessons for my major. But since I'm in South
Korea right now three of them I have to take here and the other three
will be given as distance-learning courses. And after I come back to
my homeland I will have to take a few exams." She also expressed her
discontent about such a horrible system. "I'm pretty sure that
exchange students from other countries don't have so much pressure.
They are usually required just to take Korean language courses and
that's it."
Then we decided not to pay attention on that depressing topic and
go to the next question. I asked her about the very first expression
right after she went out from the plane. With a big smile on the face
and with happy and cheerful voice Zarina said that she was really,
really happy just because she finally was in Korea. That's it. She
stared at me for a few seconds and asked me to go on.
I asked her to tell what is the main difference between Korean
and Kazakh people. She was staring thoughtfully somewhere for a while
and then said that it is a speed of life. Because of the crazy
competition Koreans always busy and do everything really fast. In
Kazakhstan there is no such big competition, so everybody relaxed and
don't rush. After Zarina finished she hesitantly looked at me as if
she was not sure is it a good answer or not. I just was thinking if I
should ask her a little bit more about this question, but since I
wanted to ask her about other topics too, I decided to go to next
question.
The next question was challenging. "Which action would make
Kazakh people react normally, but make Koreans look askance at you?" –
I asked her with excitement because I was really curious what answer
the interviewee would give. She was in real deep thoughts for two or
three minutes. And then she replied with the confidence: "A flash mob.
I know it because I used to participate in the Korean flash mob that
was called 'Free Hugs'. Kazakh people would react normally – just go
and hug you. But Koreans were a little bit freaked out and asked lots
of silly questions and they couldn't make up their mind whether to hug
a person or not." To be honest, it was such an exceptional answer for
me, so I only mentioned that I would like to participate in this flash
mob, too. And without any further discussion we moved on.
A question was if Koreans are neat people. Zarina's eyes
glistened, I knew this glance: it meant that she has a lot to say
since she used to live with one Korean girl in the dormitory last
year. Zarina squinted and said that Koreans are doing well with their
personal hygiene, but when it comes to room cleaning... She stopped,
and after a few seconds of silence, instead of keep answering the
question, suddenly, she indignantly asked a question about why Koreans
are so careless about the mess around them. I only understandingly
smirked and reminded her that I know exactly how she feels. She
smirked too.
Then it was time for another challenging question. This question
is my favorite one. I asked here slowly: "In what way Korean people
amaze you?" She sneered ironically and said softly: "I'm not sure how
I should answer this question because people tend to memorize the
negative things first.". I noticed that the word 'amaze' can be
interpreted in a bad way. Right after this she got some ideas for a
respond. First of all, she told she was slightly shocked how easily
Koreans think about the plastic surgery. And also about the fact that
some parents consider the operation as a present. Secondly, she
pointed out that some people turn into hypocrites, probably due to
crazy rhythm of life and a huge pressure from the society.
To switch our mood on something positive, I asked her if
foreigners can learn something from Koreans. But she didn't reply.
Then I quickly ask her: "It means 'nothing'?" she surprised a lot and
we just started laughing, so ridiculous the situation was. "There are
a few. The sense of purpose. Koreans are really determined and do
everything to reach their goal. And also their ability to separate
personal life and work," – she answered quite seriously.
Finally, I asked Zarina to give some advices to students who
wants to come to Korea. She answered without any hesitation: "There's
no need to sit in the library for the whole days. It will be more
productive if you make Korean friends and hang out with them. It will
be more interesting to learn language and culture this way. I'm not
telling you to forget about studying, just don't spend too much time
for it. But, please, don't idealize South Korea. The majority of
people build some extremely ideal pictures about Koreans and about the
country itself because of Korean Wave. And then those people come to
Korea they become frustrated and angry. But it's only their own fault.
It is true that Korea is a good place to live, but it's not ideal."
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