TESOL students are seeking other students to join the Korean Student Association on campus.
The association has three student members and three faculty members. After forming last semester, the group had its first meeting, and members are looking for more Korean students to join.
“Last semester, I met an American friend,” said Young Ju Lee, TESOL student and president of KSA. “She likes K-pop. That’s why she can speak Korean a little bit. At the time, I was surprised at that. I want to explain or introduce the Korean food and Korean culture to another student.”
Lee said the student interest in facets of Korean culture inspired her to create the association. Yunji Park, TESOL student and vice president of KSA, gave a similar account. She also elaborated on why their organization has few members.
“We couldn’t find a lot of Koreans here,” Park said.
Park said this is because OCU doesn’t have sister schools in Korea like other universities, including the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.
Jinsu Kim, accounting graduate and KSA member, said Lee approached him personally and invited him to join.
“When I was in the library, Young Ju came up to me and started speaking Korean. I was kind of surprised because I could be anyone, Chinese, Japanese. But I guess she kind of knew of me, maybe. And then she talked to me about the KSA and brought me into it,” Kim said. “At first, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not particularly too interested in it, to be honest. I’m just a grad school student. I did all of my involvement and stuff when I was undergrad. I thought it would be a good chance for me to branch out to my fellow Koreans.’”
Kim said at this time the organization is a way for him to get to know other Korean students, rather than introducing Korean culture to Americans.
“For instance, I’ve been in the states for much longer than they have, so I could give them advice about American culture, colleges, even visas and stuff. I thought I could help out, and I like helping people out. I quite enjoy it,” he said.
He said they do not yet have enough members to focus on disseminating knowledge on Korean culture.
KSA members said they would still like to teach the OCU community about Korean culture. Park also said she would like to volunteer to teach Korean to some native English speakers.
Students interested in joining the organization may contact Lee at ylee4@my.okcu.edu.
Leave a Reply