SEASK (Southeast Asian School in Korea) is a program that intensively teaches ‘critical foreign languages’ during vacation, partnered with JBNU and the Busan University of Foreign Studies. This program mainly focuses on Southeast Asian languages. Students receive language training for a total of forty-five hours over two weeks. They can also participate in events, such as special lectures to help them understand Southeast Asian regions, graduate school information sessions for Southeast Asian Studies, and Southeast Asian-related film screenings. This camp is also open to other university students and researchers from all over the country. Lectures, textbooks, dormitories, and meals are provided free of charge to the students.

Researcher Kim Da-hye, who is a manager of SEASK at the JISEAS (JBNU Institute for Southeast Asian Studies) relayed details about the camp. She said, “first, Southeast Asia is an important region for us, and relations between countries and exchanges at the private level are expanding, and the scale is increasing. However, despite its importance, Southeast Asian language education institutions are regionally biased. SEASK was made to break down this barrier and provide educational opportunities to students from various regions who have been neglected in Southeast Asian language education.

Afterward, she explained what a ‘critical foreign language’ is. “It is the foreign language that is strategically important to the nation but has few opportunities for people to learn. From the 2019 summer camp to this year’s winter camp, six Southeast Asian languages, which were Malay-Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Arabic, Turkish, and Italian were taught in a total of nine regional languages. We are soon planning to open a Lao course,” Kim said.

The biggest difference of the last winter camp was online lectures using ZOOM had been introduced for the first time. For the Filipino course, the online lecture was conducted by inviting an instructor from the Philippines. Based on this experience, JISEAS plans to find a way to convert languages that have not been opened due to low enrollment to online lectures instead.

The JBNU Globe interviewed two students who participated in the camp and listened to their stories. Song U-lin from the Department of History was in the Italian beginner course. She said, “my professor was very passionate. She wanted to tell us many things about Italy.” Song mentioned that many students wanted to visit sights in Busan, and the camp management knew this and did not put hard restrictions on students going out. Of course, students had to follow the rules for preventing COVID-19 infection and personal safety in order to go out. To enhance fairness, she suggested to JISEAS that all courses be taken on the exact timetable. She remarked, “classes ended early or late at the discretion of the professor in charge of the course. I insistently requested that all schedules and break times should be unified.” Song wasn’t enthusiastic about learning Italian at first, but she thinks her language skills have improved significantly. After returning home, she watched a TV show featuring Italians and heard familiar words in their conversation. “It was rewarding because I felt that I had studied hard,” she said.

Lee Su-bin, from the Department of History, was also in the Italian beginner course. She talked about the atmosphere of the classroom. “There were some things that I was disappointed about. The course was led by the professor, so I could learn in detail, but I wanted there to be more interaction with students who chose other languages. I hope there will be group activities or programs to socialize with students outside of the classroom next time,” she said.

JISEAS plans to actively campaign and recruit students so that more people can join the upcoming camp. The next camp will be held at Busan University of Foreign Studies for two weeks from June 26th, 2023. Why don't you take a chance this time?

| Ha Yae-one Editor, Jo Soo-jin, Chae Won-jin Reporters