Exploring the Study Experiences of Southeast Asian Students at a Korean University in Seoul

서울 A대학 동남아시아 유학생의 학업 경험에 대한 탐색적 연구

This study explores the study experiences of Southeast Asian students at a reputable Korean private university in Seoul. In particular, this study focuses on difficulties and coping strategies of both non-native speaker of English and native-speakers of English who are working for their undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Interviews of fourteen students from five Southeast Asian countries were collected and analyzed by NVivo 9. Thematic analysis result shows that many students, particularly non-native speakers of English, had much more difficulties than their counterparts, in contemporary Korean university context, where internationalization indices-driven strategies including expanding courses conducted in English language. Also, this study observes and documents contrasting patterns of different degree of difficulties experienced by students, depending on their degree levels and majors. Undergraduate students in science and engineering majors had the greatest degree of difficulties among all. In contrast, their graduate counterparts seem to have less difficulties. This might be related to the fact that graduate students in science and engineering majors are mostly working with their peers in their own labs, which provides institutional support. Coping strategies of students show that international students, facing unfavorable or unfriendly treatments by their Korean peers, developed innovative strategies, including using the internet technology to catch up with the classes that they could not fully understand. As a whole, adaptation process of international students do not seem to be passive or one-way. This study also provides policy implications for international students, particularly, who can be categorized as linguistic and ethnic minorities.