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POSCO Asia Fellow introduction ② - Ming Hui

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POSCO Asia Fellowship is cultivating talented Asian persons that will lead the 21st century through the following three programs. ‘Asian Student Scholarship for Studies in Korea Program,’ an in bound scholarship which invites Asian students with strong potential to Korea and supports them to get Masters and Doctorate degrees,  ‘Scholarship for Local Asian Universities Program,’ which supports outstanding students studying at the representative universities in each Asian nation, and ‘Asia Opinion Leader Fellowship,’ which invites opinion leaders from developing nations in Asia to contribute to the mutual understanding and cooperation between Korea and Asia.

 

The Asian Student Scholarship for Studies in Korea Program, in particular, which provides full tuition and living expenses, is a program that is so popular with students in the Asian region that the competition rate often reaches double digits. Most of the fellows who completed degrees in Korean universities and returned to their homelands develop into the mainstay leaders in their fields as government officials, university professors, and executives in global companies and play a key role in promoting cultural exchanges and friendship between Korea and Asia.

​This time, I met with a POSCO Asia Fellow who is studying hard in Korea to develop into a future talent in the Asian region, to hear directly about the reason he/she applied for the Asian Student Scholarship for Studies in Korea Program, the goal he/she would like to achieve by studying abroad, and how he/she is getting along these days.

 

Ming Hui

2019 POSCO Asia Fellow (Vietnam)

Doctoral Program, Korean Language Education Department, Seoul National University

Studying abroad

The process of introspection for constantly challenging in new environments and overcoming difficulties.

 

​Hello, I am Ming Hui, a Vietnamese foreign student who has been selected as a 2019 POSCO Asia Fellow Scholarship Student. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my simple life, for the past year, as a foreign student in the doctoral program at Seoul National University.

 

This is not the first time I studied in Korea as a foreign student. I was selected as a scholarship student by the Korean government in 2014 and matriculated at Seoul National University as a Korean Language Education major in the master’s program of the Korean Language Education Department. After graduating in 2017, I returned to Vietnam. When I returned after studying abroad, my friends asked me why I went to study abroad in Korea when I could have become a specialist in Korean Language education even in Vietnam. I answered that I wanted to become a mentor who can advise students by telling them about the challenges and episodes I encountered as a foreign student in Korea.

 

Exciting expectations for studying abroad in Korea, and Corona 19

 

While living in Vietnam, I wanted to enter a doctoral program in Korea because I felt inadequate as a specialist in Korean Language Education. I came to know about the POSCO Asia Fellowship awarded by the POSCO TJ Park Foundation while searching for information about studying abroad. I applied and waited for the result. Then one summer day, I heard that I had been selected for the POSCO Asia Fellowship.

I was excited everyday as I prepared to start my studies, imagining myself actively making presentations and participating in discussions with other classmates and listening to lectures by professors in the classroom. I returned to Seoul National University in the Spring of 2020 and entered the doctoral program in the Korean Language Education Department, full of excitement and happiness. The happiness of matriculation did not last long. The Corona virus had spread all over the world just before school started.

I received notice that all theory classes would be held online. Instead of going to the school to meet with the professors, I installed a tool called Zoom and learned how to use it. “It’s OK because safety is important. I should be able to go to school after about 2 weeks.” This is how I comforted myself as I started the first semester. At that time, I spent almost all my time in the dormitory, preparing simple meals because I was afraid of even going to the dining hall to eat. I even cut the front hair myself, for the first time. At the beginning of the first semester, I studied while adjusting to the “new routine” of checking the notice anxiously as soon as I woke up every day and watching the news. The first experience is always full of difficulties and fear, and I think other fellows who entered the school in spring of 2020 must have had the same difficulties.

 

The true way of studying abroad is to think and challenge incessantly, and not to rest or hesitate even when afraid

 

The day I could study in the classroom, which I had repeatedly waited for, ultimately did not come. Fortunately, however, although in an intimidating and lonely situation, I have a new challenge. I took over a content called ‘Korean Language that is easy to know’ in 'People Broadcasting,' the Youtube Broadcasting channel that is operated for foreign students. I produced contents about speaking the Korean language including Korean pronunciation, introducing oneself and making presentations. This program received more love and attention than I expected. Although there were many shortcomings in this process, my belief in my major became firmer by teaching about the Korean language and it was an opportunity to grow through self-discovery.

 

I am going to school full of excitement thinking about what new theory and which research problem I might encounter today.

 

I became a team secretary from the second semester of 2020, and I took on the job of conducting a seminar in my major. The habit of watching Korean news remains the same, and while I am sometimes nervous, I have been concentrating on my studies with an active attitude without rejecting the online environment. Even during the winter vacation, I am studying education research methodology seminar with my classmates and participating in special lectures and academic society activities online. Even though all I do is go back and forth between the dormitory and school, wearing a mask, I go to school full of excitement thinking about what new theory and which research problem I might encounter today.

 

With 2020, the year which I spent studying online, behind me, I started the first semester of 2021. There is something I want to say to POSCO Asia Fellows who I have not met in a year. While our classes will continue to be held online, I hope you follow the path of the study you dream of pursuing diligently. I will also do my best to complete my doctoral program successfully, without giving up.