Jungu Myung (1993.05.10) 2nd year in Hanyoung Foreign Language High School

German-Korean student's exchange opportunities have been rare until recently, and I was a few selected students qualified to participate in the German Korean home stay program directed by the Asia-Circle. Although I had previous experience in home stay programs, having participated in the Korean-American home stay program, this particular home stay program was the most fruitful and worthwhile.

Firstly, this program helped me to understand German educational systems better. I had lot of chances to discuss about school lives of Germany with the German students, and we compared our school curriculum with one another. From these open discussions, I realized that Germany had not as intense, but just as well organized educational system as Korea. However, I came to realize that there was a major difference in the major things that each country valued the highest in their education curriculum. In Korea, most students of my age group, who's currently under high school education, focus their academic goal on receiving high scores on the entrance exams of universities. In other words, most students consider university as the final stop of their academic career. Therefore, the high school education is the most toughest and challenging term for most of Korean students. On the other hand, the German student's view toward education was very different. They saw university as the start of their academic career, different from Korean students, and therefore, middle school and high school years for German students were not as tough as that of Korean's. However, even though the high school educational curriculum might not be as challenging as that of Korean's, the university demanded much intense and higher standard of educational to German students. One of the home stay German students mentioned that it is a more challenge for them to get a university diploma, than actually getting a high score on Abitur(German University Administer Test). As a whole, I realized that the values of German and Korean on educational curriculum were somewhat different and unique.

Apart from educational benefits I achieved through this interaction program, I was also able to build open mind sets toward foreign cultures and people. I had a chance to go to Invest Korea and MCM opening ceremonies, from which I realized that people from all over the world were no longer independent of one another. When I visited Invest Korea, I was able to watch foreign businessman and companies counseling with professionals, about investments in Korea. People from Asia, Africa, Europe, and America mingled with one another without any hostilities, considering one another as an equal. German students who also went to the Invest Korea with me showed high interests on the future outlook of Korea's economy and on investments in Korean groups. This kind of reaction of German student's surprised me, as I suddenly realized that Korea has grown strong and competitive throughout the past years, to be considered as a safe and reliable place to invest money. The MCM opening ceremony was also a great and memorable experience to me. I heard that MCM which was once a German company became Korea's brand due to high demands for MCM products by Korean people. This also clearly showed that the world has become a big unified family.

As a whole, this German-Korean home stay program had been very beneficial and memorable to me. Asia-Circle provided us with valuable opportunities to meet with famous people, and learn from them, and all the other programs arranged by the Asia-Circle was very well organized and worthwhile. All the experiences I achieved were very fruitful, and I am certain that it will be beneficial for me in the future. Being overwhelmed by the great program Asia-Circle provided for us, I hope that I could participate in another home stay program like this one in the future.