The dream of becoming the first Korean in University of Yangon’s doctoral program began at POSCO TJ Park Foundation homepage

 

Back in high school, my relationship with the late Nai Tun Naing, the president of the Korean branch of NLD (National League for Democracy), led by Aung San Suu Kyi (current State Counsellor of Myanmar) who led the democracy movement in Myanmar, led me to Myanmar. In order to understand current Myanmar, I needed to understand Buddhism, which rooted deeply in the history, culture, and life of Myanmar for a very long time.  Despite the teacher’s dissuasion in the third year of high school, I entered the Department of Buddhist Studies at Dongguk University and graduated with Dual Bachelor’s Master’s Degree.  In the first semester of master’s program (September 2014), I decided that ‘I must pursue the doctoral program at University of Yangon in Myanmar to achieve my dream of becoming a Myanmar expert’, and discovered POSCO TJ Park Foundation’s ‘Scholarship for Asian Universities’ while looking for a scholarship.  Since then, I started dreaming of entering University of Yangon’s doctoral program as POSCO TJ Park Foundation’s scholarship student.  After 4 years of dreaming, I finally achieved my dream and became the first Korean to pursue the doctoral program in the Department of Oriental Studies at University of Yangon as POSCO scholarship student in June 2018.

 

Realizing a bucket list as POSCO TJ Park Foundation’s first Myanmar scholarship student

 

 I have been dreaming of studying abroad in Myanmar, but studying abroad wasn’t free until 2015 under military regime.  As I waited for over 10 years in Korea, dreaming of studying in Myanmar, I began to create a ‘bucket list’ of things I want to do when I study abroad.  “First, participating in president’s state visit to Myanmar, second, accompanying Myanmar’s state official’s visit to Korea, third, participating in Myanmar’s cultural heritage documentary, and fourth, writing an article related to Myanmar culture” were the dream of studying abroad that I had been wanting for a long time.  As I got to study in Myanmar as POSCO scholarship student, I unexpectedly achieved these four dreams much faster.

 

▲ Fellow Jaehee Choi is writing articles titled ‘Choi Jaehee’s Begin Again Myanmar’ in online and offline versions of ‘Hyundai Bulgyo Newspaper’ twice a month on the history and culture of Myanmar.

 

 September 2019 is the experience that I will never forget in my life.  President of Korea visited Myanmar for the first time since the democratic government of Myanmar launched.  With President of Korea’s visit to Myanmar ahead, a state visit preparation committee was established in Myanmar.  As the first Korean POSCO scholarship student pursuing doctoral program, I was assigned the duties to prepare for the First Lady event and act as the MC of the event.  After hosting the meeting between students of Korean and Burmese students at University of Yangon and the First Lady, the First Lady made a compliment that I “was a great MC, and spoke very well.  I’m proud that such smart student is studying Myanmar, a country of New Southern Policy,” and gave me a warm hug.

 

 In December of the same year, ‘Korea-ASEAN Commemorative Summit’ was held in Korea.  To commemorate, ‘Korea-ASEAN Train’ event was hosted in October, and I participated as an international student in Myanmar representing Korean students.  This event was attended by U Pe Myint, Minister for Information of Myanmar, and Myanmar delegation.  The minister recommended me to join the Myanmar delegation, and we eventually finished ‘Korea-ASEAN Train’ event as ‘Team Myanmar’.

 

After ‘Korea-ASEAN Train’ event, ‘Korea-ASEAN Commemorative Summit’ was held in Busan in December, and heads of ASEAN countries came to Korea.  From Myanmar, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attended.  At this time, ‘International Student Meeting’, hosted by the government of Myanmar, was held in Busan.  Attendees were limited to 50 people, and as the only Korean student, I participated in this meeting with State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and international students from Myanmar.

 

▲ Fellow Jaehee Choi (fifth from left) worked as ‘Team Myanmar’ with Myanmar delegation, including Minister U Pe Myint of Myanmar, in ‘Korea-ASEAN Train’ event (October), which was held to commemorate ‘Korea-ASEAN Commemorative Summit’ in December 2019.

 

I wished to participate in a documentary that introduces beautiful culture and Buddhist historic sites of Myanmar and introduce it to Korea.  After participating in filming EBS ‘Great Heritage Southeast Asia: Myanmar’ episode in January 2019, it was aired in July 2019.  Without ‘Buddhism’, Myanmarese culture, history, as well as modern history and culture can’t be discussed.  Since January 2020, I have been writing an article titled ‘Choi Jaehee’s Begin Again Myanmar’ in online and offline ‘Hyundai Bulgyo Newspaper’ on Myanmar’s history of Buddhism and culture once every 2 weeks.

 

I believe I was able to live the life of studying abroad that I dreamed of because I did as POSCO scholarship student.  I believe I am where I am now because I achieved the dream of becoming ‘University of Yangon’s first POSCO TJ Park Foundation student’.  In the remaining 3 years of study, I will study hard and build different field experiences to act as the bridge between Myanmar and Korea as POSCO scholarship student, and become POSCO TJ Park Foundation’s Asian regional expert student.

 

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to POSCO TJ Park Foundation for providing the foothold to achieve my dream.  I will make the best effort to become the true Myanmar expert through study as well as social activities that will turn me into Myanmar expert.  Achieve your dream with POSCO!