SOUTHEAST ENTERS EXCHANGE AGREEMENT

Fifteen South Korean Kunsan University students performed their country's national anthem Tuesday at Southeast Missouri State's University Center.

The students provided entertainment as part of a celebration luncheon to mark the signing of a new student exchange program agreement between the two schools.

The students, ages 19 to 25, and two instructors from the South Korean university just completed an intensive three-week exchange program on the SEMO campus. The program focused on intensive English, language, reading, conversation, and American culture. Southeast students assisted the Korean students as conversational partners.

English graduate teaching assistant Chris Worth said the program will be on-going. This summer's exchange was the first of many.

"The English department currently does an on-going program with other countries such as Japan," he said.

Worth, who studied in Korea for a year, assisted the students in an intensive six-day-a-week English program.

"Most of the students had some exposure to English but English is a hard language to learn."

Worth said the English alphabet is different than the Korean alphabet and it is hard for the students to find the approximate sounds of the English language in Korean.

The students lived in Myers Hall on the campus for the three-week program. Their only exposure to Southeast Missouri culture was university-sponsored field trips.

Worth said the students were exposed to American culture by a textbook titled "Spotlight on the USA" and visits to shopping malls, the St. Louis Arch, Bollinger Mill, Trail of Tears, and local entertainment spots such as bowling alleys.

"It has been a wonderful program. It worked well because both of the universities worked together," said Worth.

Dr. Kang Hoon Park, professor of economics at SEMO, went to Kunsan National University in June to help initiate the exchange program. "I was a liaison contact between the Korean students and their teachers," said Park. "I helped with problems in communication, living in the dorm, and other problems that came up on campus."

Jesse Perry, director of SEMO's Intensive English Program, said the possibility of the program started five years ago with the signing of the first exchange agreement with then-SEMO-president Kala Stroup.

"Since then there has been dialogue for the exchange of faculty and students from both universities," he said.

Perry said in the near future there are plans for an exchange of SEMO faculty and students to Korea.

Dr. Song Hwan Cho, president of Kunsan National University in South Korea, and Dr. Dale Nitzschke, president of SEMO, signed the agreement to strengthen the participation of the two institutions in the development of student exchanges, and to foster meaningful understanding among Korea and the United States.

The Korean exchange students signed up at the Kunsan National University. The cost of the tuition and travel was paid for by the students and scholarship funds from Kunsan University. Perry said SEMO provided the programing.