Global Zone is on the 4th floor of the College of Humanities, Seunghak Campus. Its interior design is good for students to take a rest, so Korean students often go there. They can study or have a conversation with their friends. Originally, it was designed to encourage students to speak English. But Korean students rarely use English, so foreign students can’t make Korean friends by speaking English, and they cannot help turning back out of frustration. One of the solutions is that foreign students join clubs, make Korean friends and learn Korean culture through club activities.
About 80 clubs are registered with the General Tong-ari Association. They are arts, sports, religion, volunteering, and so on. All the clubs are on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floor of the Student Union building. Normally, students can join the clubs by visiting club rooms. The General Tong-ari Association takes care of the interests and development of individual clubs. It holds an annual club festival in the begging of March, so you can also join the clubs through it.
The annual festival was held on the 3rd floor of the Student Union for three days starting 10th, March this year. The clubs recruited new members, introducing their activities, schedules, and histories of their clubs. Many students looked around the clubs, and gathered the information.
According to the General Tong-ari Association, fourteen foreign students joined KARION, Photo Art Club, Dong-A Chorus, Dong-A Taekwondo Club, etc. last year. Foreign students preferred to join arts, and sports clubs, because they have less communication problem with Korean students. Arts clubs consist of singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and so on. Sports clubs consist of ping-pong table tennis, bowling, taekwondo etc.
Foreign students, who speak Korean, can have a wide range of choices. It is helpful to join the club relevant to one’s major. It offers not only fun but linguistic capacity, and thinking skills.
Pyeon Seong-won (Mechanical Engineering 3), a leader of Dong-A Taekwondo Club in 2014, said, “Foreign students in our club could speak Korean, so we had no problem with communication, But we often could have a conversation by using some gestures.” And he added, “I had a great time to train, play with them.”
Vietnamese Le Minh Thang (Physical Education 2) said, “I joined the Dong-A Taekwondo Club last year,” adding “The period of training was so terrible but fun. After the training, we sometimes played games.” And he said, “I never forget the game. The name of the game is Shocking.”
Club activities introduce foreign students to great friends and senior students. You can meet club members in not only regular meetings but break time or on weekends. It can spice up your boring life. Communicating and hanging out with Koreans, you can learn Korean culture and national ethos. Lots of clubs have dinner after their regular meetings, and play games to brighten up the mood. You can learn about unique Korean drinking culture and get closer to Koreans. There are many kinds of games such as ‘I like a strawberry’, the game of counting strawberry, and ‘Son byung-ho game’ named after celebrity Son Byung-ho.
Call the phone numbers on the posters or visit interesting club rooms to join the clubs. Let’s make friends and have fun in school life through the club activities. Move! Move!
