BFA’s Insights – Part 1

The Catholic University of Korea (CUK) invites foreign students every vacation to experience Korea through immersion in the Korean language and culture. The program is called CUK Global Summer School. This program is spearheaded by the International Language Education Center and the External Affairs office of the school. This summer, there are a total of nine students from United States of America, United Kingdom, and Taiwan. Aside from their participation in the CUK Summer School, these students also form part of the GEO program through their participation in the Buddies from Abroad (BFA) project. The BFA project serves numerous purpose. It is an avenue for the foreign students to learn more about the Korean culture and to meet new Korean friends through spending time with the GEO students. In addition, it is a good platform for GEO students to practice their English skills through having meaningful conversations with foreigners. Through this program, students can practice expressing themselves confidently. Furthermore they also get the chance to learn a culture other than their own. It is a chance to befriend a foreigner as well.

In relation to this program, we solicited the experiences of the foreign students to know more about their insights, comments about their BFA activities.

Read on and get to know about Yvonne's BFA experience. ^^

Students from GEO class with the infamous Korean pose

Yvonne with the GEO students. Say K-I-M-C-H-I  (●＾∀＾●)

During our time together, we talked about the GEO program and how they really love to play games in class. We also talked about the Speed Quiz, which is the team event that they played the night before. They told me that they felt very nervous and that when they played Speed Quiz in class, they felt more confident because there is not as much pressure as there is when they were in front of other students. They asked me about my personal life and what kind of music I like to listen to. I told them that I like Big Bang. Upon learning that I liked this boy group, they immediately asked me who I thought was the most handsome guy. I told them that I do not know much about K-pop except for Big Bang and they told me that they were going to help me learn more about K-pop because they feel that K-pop is one of the most important things to learn while being in Korea. They are so sweet and fun to be around. I am really look forward to meeting the rest of the students from the class.

During my first meeting with the initial group of GEO students, everything went better than planned. I woke up that morning, went to class, and was looking forward to lunch. I went to the Global Lounge thirty minutes earlier than scheduled to wait for the students. Surprisingly, when I got there, the four GEO students were already there! We left for D. Deli right away because we were all starving. At D. Deli, they ordered Dukboki and Kimbap—exactly the foods that I was craving for. There were times when the girls asked one another how to say a phrase or word in English, but overall, they spoke in English well. They did a very good job trying to explain things to each other.

by Yvonne Van Nguyen, Buddy from Abroad, from U.S.A.