Cover Story

The number of international students in Korean universities is growing every year as schools put in a lot of effort to attract them. In particular, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, which introduces itself as the “No.1 Globalized University in Korea,” is a place where students from many backgrounds are gathered as its name suggests.
However, HUFS pays little attention to the inconveniences that foreign students experience. The Argus looked into the problems faced by overseas students within its causes and solutions.


In last March, HUFS held a “dongari” exposition, or a college club exposition to introduce HUFS’ diverse club activities to freshmen and recruit new members. It was crowded with many HUFSans, including international students. However, the sight of some dongaris refusing to recruit foreign students could be seen when they visited dongari booths. Not only dongari’s issue, but many related flaws exist in HUFS unlike its renown “No. 1 Globalized University in Korea.” There are a lot of campus facilities that international students find very inconvenient, when they should be convenient for every HUFS students. On this issue, The Argus looked into the problems that international students’ face and their causes as well as solutions.


Problems international students face

No information delivery toward international students

Currently, international students from 101 countries are studying at HUFS. As many international students exist, HUFS’ main web page provides 10 different languages. However, the information that appears on the site in Korean and other languages is different. The Korean site contains everything, but when the site is switched into any foreign language from Korean, HUFS announcements and information such as Hot Links including the course catalog are not shown.

Another HUFS international web page for international students exists, but it is to promote HUFS and provide the application handbook to help foreigners enter the university. Also, notices related to the university curriculum system that changed last year were posted only in Korean. Therefore, it does not give international students practical help to get more college news. Moreover, there is no English version of HUFS official mobile application “HUFS+” for foreigners.

In addition, the university staffs cannot understand when going to facilities such as the library or administrative office except the Office of International Student Services (OISS), so international students are not able to get information they want. It is yet hard for foreigners to travel around campus to find out new information on their own without any translator accompanied.

Spencer Steinbach, Division of International Studies ‘16, rapped out complaints about the school system that gives information mostly in Korean. “HUFS is more focused on language school and exchange students. The university provides them a lot of information and diverse programs while regular international students have to get what they need by themselves,” he said.
All sorts of college events such as “daedongje,” a university festival, or snack distribution events done by the General Student Council (GSC) are not announced to the international students. Also, the university notices and event promoting e-mails and text messages are sent only in Korean. Foreign students often cannot understand the announcements and do not attend the events, not knowing the news. The schedule and announcement for the fall festival last September was not given in English for foreign students. Most of them did not know it was being held, so they could not participate and enjoy the festival.

Curtis Life, International Studies 14’, said, “My Korean friend told me to come to watch her performance. I thought it was her club’s performance, but she told me there would be a festival held in HUFS. If she had not told me, I would not have known the festival was being held.”

The university holds the freshmen orientation for international students when they enter the university. However, it is just a repetition of information available on the website, so a lot of students have started school without an actual understanding of how it functions. Also, as they become sophomores or juniors, the university does not show much concern toward them in regards to questions or problems, assuming they already know all the information provided at freshman orientation. Thus, there is no guidance or translation prepared for them.

Problems at the student cafeteria

The student cafeteria provides Korean food because it is the Korean students who mostly use it. The students from different cultural areas are unfamiliar with Korean food, so they need some explanation. However, there is no explanation of the menu. The model of “today’s menu” is displayed, but there are much information that cannot be found just by looking at it, such as food ingredients or its cooking method. International students who do not have knowledge about the menu avoid trying it. Especially for students who are Islam, Jewish, Nepali or Indians who cannot eat pork or beef because of religious and cultural reasons, an explanation of the menu is strongly needed. Also, all the signs in the student cafeteria are written in Korean. It can cause confusion for international students who cannot read Korean, since they do not know which button to click and which window to use to get food.

Corey Adalikwu, Business Administration ‘14, said, “It was hard for me to understand what ingredients the food contains and what it should taste like. The explanation of how to get a ticket is not explained very well either.”

Hard communication with Korean students

As international students came to study in Korea, they want to be friends with Korean students. However, they feel that there are only a few opportunities to become closer and interact with Koreans.

Song Ju-ho, Department of Spanish ‘11, said, “It is unfortunate that there is only one, the ISO Buddy Program for Koreans and international students to interact at HUFS. I hope the university plans to design more such programs.”
In addition, it is known that it is hard for foreigners to join club activities because most dongaris do not accept foreign students. The reason why is the difficult communication between the club members due to the language barrier if the foreigners join in.

Helen Rodriguez, Department of Portuguese ‘15, said, “I tried to join a music club at HUFS with my friend. However, we were convinced to get out because it would be too hard for us.” She did not understand the reason why it would be hard for them because it was a music club, but she decided not to join in the end because she felt upset. About this issue, the president of Union of Companion Circle (UCC) said “It is true that there are dongaris that do not accept foreigners and such problems exist.”


What Are the Causes?

University’s indifference and Unrecognized seriousness

70 percent of regular international students need Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) level four at minimum to enter HUFS. However, it is not required for the remaining 30 percent of students who apply for majors that provide English classes, such as the College of Business Administration, Department of International Economics and Law, and Division of International Studies.

The dean of the OISS said, “The rule is to let international students who have basic Korean language skills enter, so we assume there would be no difficulties understanding Korean.” It is such a hasty decision of the university to think if they have a high language examination score, it will not be hard for them to understand all the materials in Korean. The university thinks their everyday life in Korea is easy, not recognizing how much inconvenience international students experience.

The 30 percent of international students who have English major classes do not have a TOPIK score, so it is hard to know their Korean language communication ability. They may know Korean, but it was not a university entrance requirement for them, so most of them do not know much Korean. The university excluded and did not consider the situation of the minority.

Shortage of practical effort

The university lacks practical effort to solve the problems that regular international students face. The student cafeteria received a few complaints from foreign students for many years, so they tried to write its menus in English as it sounds, such as ‘Bibimbap.’ However, they thought that it would not help the foreigners much, so they gave up translating. One of nutritionists said, “The head nutritionist has all the information so she has to translate it herself. We asked for OISS or GSC translation, but they had too much work to do, so they could not do it. We do not know where to request translation.”

The chief nutritionist does not have to translate every menu item by herself just because she has all the information. There are many at HUFS who are proficient at English including staff and students. There is a special HUFS organization called ʻUniversity Student Interpreters’ Association (USIA), and they have enough skills to do the simple translation. If they did not try to find where to request translation, it can be said that they have little effort to solve the problem.

Not only is this an issue in the student cafeteria, but another example can be found. It has been a year since the curriculum system of the university was changed. The fact that there is no change even after a long time has passed speaks volumes to the face that the university exerts little effort for regular international students.

Lack of programs and its poor management

At present, the International Student Organization (ISO) exists for exchange students at HUFS. ISO introduces school life and provides many programs such as the Buddy Program and movie night for exchange students and Korean students to interact with each other. However, ISO programs are mainly done for exchange students who stay in Korea for a semester. Regular international students do not have their own programs or organizations like ISO, so they have limited opportunities to interact easily with Korean students.

- Global Student Association
On March 2014, Korean and international students who had an aim to make such an association gathered and created a group for regular international students unlike ISO, called Global Student Association (GSA). In the initial stage, more people other than establishment members gathered and put in a lot of effort to think of programs and events for regular international students. However, it could not get any support from the university since it was not an organization officially granted.

There were many limits that could not be solved by themselves such as gathering contact numbers of regular international students, the ways to contact them, the size of its body, obtaining funds, and establishing an operating system. Their operations did not run smoothly because of the problem with the university. As their plans did not work out, the members started to leave. Also, the person who was in charge of the group became tired of all the problems, so the group naturally failed.

Kim Su-youn, one of the GSA members then, said, “The university staff member thought that GSA was good, so he entrusted the work for regular international students to us. However, there were so many things we had to consider. There were many good events for them, but it is so unfortunate even now that we failed without fulfilling those.”

- Union of Companion Circle
The reason why the dongaris do not readily accept foreigners is because there might be a situation when communication can be difficult because of the language barrier. However, dongaris’ purpose is to harmonize with every member with one mind. According to the UCC’s regulations, it is illegal not to accept a member intentionally, but action has not been taken in regards to such infraction.


The ways to solve problems

Awareness of problem and fast solution

First, the university should know that school announcements and information in Korean could be difficult for international students to understand, and it is a serious problem that has been an issue for a long time.

Grace Turner, Division of International Studies ‘16, said, “OISS should provide the college information that applies to every student in English. There are many international students accepted without prior Korean knowledge.”

This is an area where OISS and Academic Support Center and the Registrar’s Office should cooperate to solve the problem. If the staff has a hard time translating the information because of the time issue, they should find proper manpower such as through USIA or students with good English skills by giving a fixed amount of pay.

Helen Rodriguez, Department of Portuguese ‘15, said, “I know there are many who are proficient at English at HUFS. The problem could be solved enough if the university puts them in the right position.”

A small effort needed on the part of the university

For international students’ comfortable usage of the student cafeteria, English service has to be added. Within the menu display, a short explanation of its ingredients and cooking method in English is necessary for foreign students’ proper understanding of Korean food. Also, the university needs to check if an English version could be inserted to the ticket machine.

The student cafeteria nutritionist said, “It is easy work that can be done right away if the simple problems are solved.”

Improvement of programs and steady management

ISO, like its name “International Student Organization,” should attract regular international students and proceed with programs that are not only for exchange students but for all international students.

Cho Young-jin, the president of ISO, said, “ISO should play a central role in connecting Korean and international students and let them interact actively with each other.” He also hoped ISO to become a community for all the international students to gather and interact with one another.

Seong Dong-seok, the president of UCC, claimed that UCC should do a survey on whether they recruit international students or not to every dongari to get appropriate data first. “Before discussing about the solutions to the problem, a survey of why they do not recruit foreign students and why is it hard for them to work with international students is necessary.” He added that they need to think ways to prevent foreigner discrimination after the survey and take action against clubs not accepting foreigners according to the results.

UCC should seek peaceful club life by considering how Korean and foreign students can be comfortable with each other and how they can enjoy themselves in a group with similar interests.


HUFS is a place where not only Koreans but also people from all over the world are gathered. International students are also HUFSans, so they have a right to know the same information and should be treated the same as Korean students. Just because their residence is in Korea, they should not be expected to glean all necessary university information in Korean. An attitude of respect should be shown toward them.

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