EIL Intercultural Learning

Hun Bin 'Jackson' Lee is a current exchange student on EIL's Secondary School Programme in Ireland. Originally from Korean, Jackson has been living with a host family and going to school in Colaiste Dun Iascaigh in Cahir since August 2009 and will stay to complete the academic year in June 2010. Here are his reflections on his time spent in Ireland:

My name is Hunbin from Korea. I’m also known as Jackson in Ireland. I am now participating in the International Student Programme by EIL in Ireland. I am a student in a secondary school ‘Colaiste dun Iascaigh’, which is located in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. The reason why I decided to become an exchange student was that I wanted to experience an entirely different life. Since I was a little child, I wondered how people living in the other parts of the world could differ so much from people living in my society. However, there were not enough chances for me to contact the outside world until I found the best way to achieve my dream, being an exchange student. By applying for this programme, I was able to see and experience for myself how people in other parts of the world live and grow up. It is more than simple culture shock. For example, in Korea, students have to suffer from vast amount of studies. Some people say that Koreans can never have a real school life. After spending many hours in school, they have to devote their spare time to extracurricular activities or other pursuits, which are only related to exams, universities, etc. In Ireland, however, comparing to my hometown, teenagers seem to have lots of free time, which they can spend enjoying life as a teenager. This happens in most of the countries in the Western world. They do not really depend on the exams or school grades as much as we do. The other thing I was surprised about in Ireland was that people here are so much related to Christianity. Well, comparitively, Koreans are under influences of Confucianism. However, Confucianism is actually considered as a philosophy, not a religion. Therefore, I mean that most of the people in West, specifically Irish people, are closely related to Christian concepts in their normal lives. There is Pastoral Care office even in the public schools. It took me few months to get accustomed to this.

Now I would like to talk about the region where I’m staying. The Republic of Ireland is a small country right beside Great Britain. Most parts of the country have rural atmosphere, which is actually very sincere and emotional. The town where I’m staying is called Cahir. It has an Irish pronunciation, so you should be aware of this when you pronounce the name of this town. It is a small inland town of about 4,000 people. Numerous ethnicities around the world are living in this town, such as Polish, Chinese, Latvian, Russian, Czech, Indian, Pakistani, British, and others. Since it is such a small town, many people actually know each other very well, which is almost impossible to see in urban areas. My school is a secondary school with approximately 720 students. Although it is comparatively small to Korean secondary schools, and since there are relatively smaller amounts of students attending, students know each other so well that even the 1st year students and 6th year students can hang out together. I’m quite satisfied with my school. I would like my school much more if I had more time to be accustomed to Irish school life.

For six months so far, I have experienced numerous valuable things, which I would never achieve if I were stuck inside my own country of Korea forever. Once again, I deeply appreciate EIL, which has given me such an opportunity. I hope the EIL exchange students around the world enjoy their rest of the days wherever they are until they go back to their hometowns. Cheers!