Trip to Ansan City in Korea

Written on May 10 in 2000 for the school journal, Bunrin, of Itoshima High School
by Toshishige Yamasaki
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Introduction
Meeting with the Principal
Meeting with Email Club Members
General Impression on Korea Today
Interesting Sites on Korea

(1) Introduction==== back to top ====
Ansan City is located in the mid western part of Korean peninsula along the Yellow Sea coastline. It is 50km south of Seoul, the capital of Republic of Korea, and 37km east of a famous port city, Inchon. It will take about 40 minutes from Seoul Station to Ansan by subway. Ansan with a population of 550,000, is a city of industrial complex in rural environment.
[ Map of Seoul and Ansan ]

Ansan Girls' Information Industrial High School in Ansan City, Kyongi-Do, Republic of Korea was founded by Dr. Gill-Hwan Kim on March 1st in 1993, specializing in computer science and technology with the school motto of "Sincerity, Diligence and Kindness". It is the 10th, 11th and 12th grade vocational high school with enrollment of 500 students to each grade. It has four departments: Information Processing (four classes), Office Automation (two classes), Cybernetics (two classes) and Visual Communication Design (two classes). It is equipped with 350 Windows and 150 Mac computers, giving the students an easy access to computers.

Mr. Jin Tae Lee　(English teacher) and Mr. Dong Ho Lee　(Computer teacher) helped to establish the email exchange partnership with Itoshima High School in 1999. To meet the email club students was the main purpose of my visit to Korea.

(2) Meeting with the Principal==== back to top ====
On May 2nd, we were ushered in the principal office by Mr. Byoung Chul Choi, Curriculum Coordinator. We hadn't expected to have an honor of meeting the principal, Mr. Kwon Jun Sung, but he warmly accepted us, talked about his last visit to Japan, and gave us the school pamphlet, the CD-ROM guide and the school magazine. We showed our year book, the school pamphlet, the booklet on Fukuoka Prefecture and Maebaru City. Mr. Choi and Mrs. Yoo Ja Jeon, an English teacher, led us to one of the computer rooms in the computer building where 26 email club members were waiting.

(3) Meeting with Email Club Members==== back to top ====
There are 50 computers with a video camera on each. There hangs a big screen in the front so that the teacher can show what to do using the projector. The last time we had a video conference, Mr. Lee said, our faces appeared on that big screen. The teacher handed me a microphone, and I guess that the teacher usually uses the microphone in the lesson. I introduced myself and started talking about Itoshima High School. Well, I don't understand Korean, and most of the students don't know Japanese. The common language is English. Mrs. Jeon added explanation in Korean.
I showed our website, and introduced our mutual link program with Murrieta Valley High School in the US, the Email Around the World project, and our school trip to Beijing. I also showed our Japanese currency. They asked me if the entrance examinations to universities in Japan are hard to pass. I asked them if they wish to go onto universities. To that question, many of them said in the affirmative. One of them asked me if we learn Korean at Itoshima High School, for they study Japanese at Ansan. Unfortunately, almost 95 % of Japanese only study English as a foreign language in Japanese high school. If my students had been in that room, they would have asked about pop music, fashion, food and other daily life.
Korean language has a similar sentence structure with Japanese language with Subject, Object and Verb in its order. It means that young people in both countries can easily master language of each other. But the problem is the letters. Japanese and Korean have their own writing systems which are quite different from alphabet.

(N.S.Lee)(S.W.Lim) (H.Lee)(12)(J.Y.Park)

(J.H.Kang)(A.Y.Kim)(M.S.Youn)(M.J.Park) (H.L.Kim)(J.Y.Park)(M.J.Son)(O.J.Park)

(Y.J.Choi)(K.S.O)(J.Y.Bae) (M.S.Jan)(Y.S.Jyung)(J.A.Yun)

(H.J.Nahm)(M.H.Lee) (I.G.Wee)(H.R.Jyung)(J.U.Shin

(J.H.Park)(H.J.Song)

(4) General Impressions on Korea Today==== back to top ====
Many visitors to Japan notice that almost half of the people you see on the street use mobile phone. I myself bought one this April, but in Korea a lot more people use one. In the subway, there are a lot of advertisements and you will see lots of lots of http://---.com. It looks like you can't do any business without having web site now.

You will meet a lot of people who are especially kind to foreign visitors. Subway in Seoul is very convenient, but Line 2 is a cirle line and sometimes you don't know which side you should go. I myself got confused. Standing with an area map, I was approached with a friendly voice, "Do you need a help?" "Where do you want to go?" "Are you lost?" At Seoul Station, I didn't know which gate I should go, and I was checking the map showing the gate number. Well, a family came up and show me the way around. Korea is planning to have a lot of international events for the next two years, and the citizens seems to be ready for offering a help.

You will notice that high school students are really diligent. At night, you will see a lot of high school students getting into subway. Many high school students who are preparing for the entrance examinations for university study at school until 9, and after that they continue studying at private preparatory school.

(5) Interesting Sites on Korea==== back to top ====
The first place you ought to visit in Seoul is the Information Center in City Hall. The guide books you can get in your own country show you where to visit and what to buy, but those information could be out of date by the time you get to Seoul. Korea has started a big campaign of its opening gate policy to promote tourism under the leadership of President Kim Dae-jung. They plan to hold various international events such as the Asia-Europe Meeting in 2000, Visit Korea Year in 2001, and the World Cut and Asian Games in 2002. Aiming at the success of those big events, they set up dozens of small size events, and the Information Center will provide you with the latest news on events.

At the same time, you can use the Internet for up to two hours there.