I was sure grateful to see Daniel waiting for me at 3:45 am in Seoul…..I dreaded finding a hotel myself a la Quito…when I don’t know any Korean! It is a long drive from Seoul Inchon airport to Seoul and especially Myongji. It was eerie at that hour and I imagined Douglas MacArthur’s ghost was going to step up over the top of the embankments along the amazingly long causeway from the airport.
I had a warm dorm room
from 6am until 11am when Daniel fetched me with Yoon-Soo Jung…..the bright Wharton trained Dean of International Affairs. He and I walked to his office….the campus is right in the heart of the city….with dorms for 800 but campus population at this campus of 7000! The other campus has another 8000! Their president was busy today so I will not see him. But Yoon-Soo and I talked extensively and then we moved to Byung Kim’s office….V.P. for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. He has joined Myongji 2 years ago….from 20 years working as an engineer at GM and Ford in the Detroit area. He TOO has had a challenge readjusting to Korea. His old Korea is gone he says.
They were genuinely pleased that CCCU has chosen to reach out. I have heard that several times on the trip…..they have sometimes wondered what CCCU does and what the point is for them. This university has very different needs from most of the others I’ve visited. Like Holland’s CHE and unlike Lithuania CC they really don’t need visiting faculty. Nor do they really need workshops for faculty development….the SWAT teams. What they face is radical change in Korean culture requiring them to help the nation adjust. There will be a decline of 50% in the student age population between 2000 and 2015.
They shared two major changes for which they are not sure their culture will be able to manage. 80% of college grads want careers (including women) so the average number of children in a family has fallen from 5 to 1. That’s less even than Japan. 70% of the population is now retiring in their 50s!....while Americans I THINK are working longer….not sure. The average age at death is at 80. So retirement typically lasts 30 years here! In any case this means that those early retirees may not have saved enough to support themselves….and esp since the economy world-wide has tanked. But younger people are abandoning the cultural obligation to care for their parents…both because they are more westernized and because the idea of caring for parents for a 30 year retirement is just financially impossible. Combine with this, people are moving to the cities so the farmers are aging…and young men who DO want to farm can’t find women to marry them for that life. So they are “importing brides” from the Phillipines…with agencies flying men there to interview brides. This introduces a HUGE cultural diversity into Korea which has always been VERY mono-cultural. So the urgent need seems to be for help in managing cultural change……i.e. managing cross-cultural adjustment. THIS IS perhaps a way in which CCCU schools both in the US and Europe…remember the Vienna International CCCU school with 75 nationalities in 300 students…..can bring experience perhaps to our Korean partners. Globalization is on the minds of Myongji’s (and KNU’s presidents.) For them this also means significant increases in the number courses taught IN ENGLISH…so visiting students and faculty …who by their very presence can help with the cultural adjustment challenge….will find it easier and easier to come to Korea. Myongji has a wonderful summer program 3 weeks long for expats that they offer free….including room! I wonder how many CCCU partners know his and advertise it to their students!
The composition of Myongji students is about 60% Christian.....while the definition of that is not easy. Dr. Kim is a Catholic, and the question of how serious their faculty is about their faith (“devout” seemed to be the best word to use) was open for interpretation. But their president is clearly passionate about this….ordained in the Presbyterian church in which Myongji has roots.
Joint degrees seem to be something they’d like to see…..and they work closely with some international organizations already. (NAFSA, and EAIE in Europe). The name of Hope International in CA came up repeatedly. I confessed that despite working at Westmont for 15 years I didn’t know of it in southern CA. They exchange students and seem pleased with the arrangement. Rich Gathrow apparently suggested it. I imagine other schools could easily do the same and hope they will.
Studying at a US institution seems to be a very important desire among Myongji schools. And the more prestigious the better. I asked twice how this priority of prestige compared with the preference for Christian school. It seems to rank third if at all after scholarships and prestige.
We did agree that the BEST practical thing we could do was to increase the information available to them…..the FOUR web sites I listed in my comments yesterday seemed to them like VERY good ideas…allowing the “market” of each different CCCU school with its own distinct needs explore whatever relationships it might need without a lot of CCCU superstructure. Among the items that need to be included in the standard form pages of info for each member we added that each school should indicate what they believe would be most helpful from other CCCU partners. In Myongji’s case it would be visiting profs to help with the cultural adjustment challenges, and JOINT degrees….like they already have with a few non-CCCU universities in the US and Australia (Central Queensland). It was clear that the kinds of schools their students prefer for attending are the prestigious ones.
I urged them to bring team to Atlanta….a year from TODAY! I’m surprised how many of our affiliates seem completely unaware of this event and how it could be of help to them. We need to write/invite them especially and create a number of programs BY and FOR internationals for that event if we are to be serious about this internationalization priority in the strategic plan.
Lunch at the Chinese restaurant at the Hilton
was spectacular….in our private room for 3….impeccably served….all with chopsticks…and culminating with Chinese black noodles served only by Koreans. 
After greeting the chaplain back on campus….I was met by Sang-Hun…the young international programs administrator from Korea Nazarene. We drove 2 hours
to Everland….
one of the three the amazing “Disneyland” clones in Korea! But this makes Disneyland look like a postage stamp. It occupies an entire mountain valley! 
The KNU term begins March 1, and the entire Freshmen class went for their overnight orientation to Everland. When we arrived….after I caught a little nap in the car and we wandered for miles on the roads through this resort….I was rushed through the jam packed auditorium with 1000+ students right up onto the stage where President Im was speaking to the students. 
He gave me 
time to address them, and we were escorted out…..Got to meet quite a few faculty too as they came out ahead of the students and we stood where we could greet them. What a sight….and for the next 2 hours, as I sat with their academic VP Dr. Hyunsook Chang (Ph.D. Va Tech in Child Development…at KNU for only 2 months so far), it was fun to watch literally hundreds of KNU students come by in their organized orientation groups headed for the carousel, or the absolutely MONSTER roller coaster……classic wooden style construction. The shrieking, the other Korean families, the smell of hot dogs, cotton candle, baked goods, …all made for an amazing festive air. What a way to begin college!
KNU has 5500 students on the main campus…+ 2500 continuing education students. Less than 50% are Christians. They also have 100+ Chinese students and see this as a ministry. It never ceases to amaze me the thirst that international students have for education….oh that US students valued it nearly as much! KNU offers 35 majors, have 150 FT faculty…all of whom are Christians. Hunsook’s chief concern is how to help these young students learn to set aside the rapidly changing Korean cultural focus (sounds like Byung’s comments from Myongji this morning) on success to learn to know and love God. The Wesleyan influence here seemed tangible as she spoke. So apparently here too the need is less for faculty than for exchange opportunities for both faculty and students…to give them exposure to other cultures and help increase the cultural diversity on their own campus. Ironically, like most US campuses, cultural diversity is a high priority, but in this case, the “minority” they need is white American students and faculty! J Given the complications of disparate tuitions (KNU is ~$6000/year) it seems to me that straight 1:1 SWAPS of faculty and students would be ideal and easiest. CCCU could facilitate faculty swaps too on a web site.
Joint degree programs also seem to be a KNU priority.....allowing students not only the cross-cultural education they value so much, but the prestige of an American degree too. One potential obstacle I found in talking with Sang-Hun driving back to KNU later is that Korean schools who send students abroad, expect the student to pay for tuition at both the host and the sending school.....to protect themselves against the loss of revenue when students go. What a deal!
After chatting with Hunsook, wandering around the never ending Everland looking for a restaurant….by this time I could imagine eating again finally….determining nothing was actually open for dinner…..Sang-Hun drove me 90 minutes back to KNU. The wonderful Mi Ja Wi was waiting with an amazing smile, a gracious welcome, and the most amazing well stocked dorm suite I could have imagined. She thought of everything! Slippers, snacks, ironing board, internet……when president Im called to see how I was doing…I said fine but that I planned to steal Mi Ja and take her home! I owe so much today to Daniel for fetching me at 3:45am, to Sang-Hun for 4 hours of driving and to Mi Ja for making me feel at home.
I had a warm dorm room
from 6am until 11am when Daniel fetched me with Yoon-Soo Jung…..the bright Wharton trained Dean of International Affairs. He and I walked to his office….the campus is right in the heart of the city….with dorms for 800 but campus population at this campus of 7000! The other campus has another 8000! Their president was busy today so I will not see him. But Yoon-Soo and I talked extensively and then we moved to Byung Kim’s office….V.P. for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. He has joined Myongji 2 years ago….from 20 years working as an engineer at GM and Ford in the Detroit area. He TOO has had a challenge readjusting to Korea. His old Korea is gone he says.They were genuinely pleased that CCCU has chosen to reach out. I have heard that several times on the trip…..they have sometimes wondered what CCCU does and what the point is for them. This university has very different needs from most of the others I’ve visited. Like Holland’s CHE and unlike Lithuania CC they really don’t need visiting faculty. Nor do they really need workshops for faculty development….the SWAT teams. What they face is radical change in Korean culture requiring them to help the nation adjust. There will be a decline of 50% in the student age population between 2000 and 2015.
They shared two major changes for which they are not sure their culture will be able to manage. 80% of college grads want careers (including women) so the average number of children in a family has fallen from 5 to 1. That’s less even than Japan. 70% of the population is now retiring in their 50s!....while Americans I THINK are working longer….not sure. The average age at death is at 80. So retirement typically lasts 30 years here! In any case this means that those early retirees may not have saved enough to support themselves….and esp since the economy world-wide has tanked. But younger people are abandoning the cultural obligation to care for their parents…both because they are more westernized and because the idea of caring for parents for a 30 year retirement is just financially impossible. Combine with this, people are moving to the cities so the farmers are aging…and young men who DO want to farm can’t find women to marry them for that life. So they are “importing brides” from the Phillipines…with agencies flying men there to interview brides. This introduces a HUGE cultural diversity into Korea which has always been VERY mono-cultural. So the urgent need seems to be for help in managing cultural change……i.e. managing cross-cultural adjustment. THIS IS perhaps a way in which CCCU schools both in the US and Europe…remember the Vienna International CCCU school with 75 nationalities in 300 students…..can bring experience perhaps to our Korean partners. Globalization is on the minds of Myongji’s (and KNU’s presidents.) For them this also means significant increases in the number courses taught IN ENGLISH…so visiting students and faculty …who by their very presence can help with the cultural adjustment challenge….will find it easier and easier to come to Korea. Myongji has a wonderful summer program 3 weeks long for expats that they offer free….including room! I wonder how many CCCU partners know his and advertise it to their students!
The composition of Myongji students is about 60% Christian.....while the definition of that is not easy. Dr. Kim is a Catholic, and the question of how serious their faculty is about their faith (“devout” seemed to be the best word to use) was open for interpretation. But their president is clearly passionate about this….ordained in the Presbyterian church in which Myongji has roots.
Joint degrees seem to be something they’d like to see…..and they work closely with some international organizations already. (NAFSA, and EAIE in Europe). The name of Hope International in CA came up repeatedly. I confessed that despite working at Westmont for 15 years I didn’t know of it in southern CA. They exchange students and seem pleased with the arrangement. Rich Gathrow apparently suggested it. I imagine other schools could easily do the same and hope they will.
Studying at a US institution seems to be a very important desire among Myongji schools. And the more prestigious the better. I asked twice how this priority of prestige compared with the preference for Christian school. It seems to rank third if at all after scholarships and prestige.
We did agree that the BEST practical thing we could do was to increase the information available to them…..the FOUR web sites I listed in my comments yesterday seemed to them like VERY good ideas…allowing the “market” of each different CCCU school with its own distinct needs explore whatever relationships it might need without a lot of CCCU superstructure. Among the items that need to be included in the standard form pages of info for each member we added that each school should indicate what they believe would be most helpful from other CCCU partners. In Myongji’s case it would be visiting profs to help with the cultural adjustment challenges, and JOINT degrees….like they already have with a few non-CCCU universities in the US and Australia (Central Queensland). It was clear that the kinds of schools their students prefer for attending are the prestigious ones.
I urged them to bring team to Atlanta….a year from TODAY! I’m surprised how many of our affiliates seem completely unaware of this event and how it could be of help to them. We need to write/invite them especially and create a number of programs BY and FOR internationals for that event if we are to be serious about this internationalization priority in the strategic plan.
Lunch at the Chinese restaurant at the Hilton
was spectacular….in our private room for 3….impeccably served….all with chopsticks…and culminating with Chinese black noodles served only by Koreans. 
After greeting the chaplain back on campus….I was met by Sang-Hun…the young international programs administrator from Korea Nazarene. We drove 2 hours
to Everland….
one of the three the amazing “Disneyland” clones in Korea! But this makes Disneyland look like a postage stamp. It occupies an entire mountain valley! 
The KNU term begins March 1, and the entire Freshmen class went for their overnight orientation to Everland. When we arrived….after I caught a little nap in the car and we wandered for miles on the roads through this resort….I was rushed through the jam packed auditorium with 1000+ students right up onto the stage where President Im was speaking to the students. 
He gave me 
time to address them, and we were escorted out…..Got to meet quite a few faculty too as they came out ahead of the students and we stood where we could greet them. What a sight….and for the next 2 hours, as I sat with their academic VP Dr. Hyunsook Chang (Ph.D. Va Tech in Child Development…at KNU for only 2 months so far), it was fun to watch literally hundreds of KNU students come by in their organized orientation groups headed for the carousel, or the absolutely MONSTER roller coaster……classic wooden style construction. The shrieking, the other Korean families, the smell of hot dogs, cotton candle, baked goods, …all made for an amazing festive air. What a way to begin college!KNU has 5500 students on the main campus…+ 2500 continuing education students. Less than 50% are Christians. They also have 100+ Chinese students and see this as a ministry. It never ceases to amaze me the thirst that international students have for education….oh that US students valued it nearly as much! KNU offers 35 majors, have 150 FT faculty…all of whom are Christians. Hunsook’s chief concern is how to help these young students learn to set aside the rapidly changing Korean cultural focus (sounds like Byung’s comments from Myongji this morning) on success to learn to know and love God. The Wesleyan influence here seemed tangible as she spoke. So apparently here too the need is less for faculty than for exchange opportunities for both faculty and students…to give them exposure to other cultures and help increase the cultural diversity on their own campus. Ironically, like most US campuses, cultural diversity is a high priority, but in this case, the “minority” they need is white American students and faculty! J Given the complications of disparate tuitions (KNU is ~$6000/year) it seems to me that straight 1:1 SWAPS of faculty and students would be ideal and easiest. CCCU could facilitate faculty swaps too on a web site.
Joint degree programs also seem to be a KNU priority.....allowing students not only the cross-cultural education they value so much, but the prestige of an American degree too. One potential obstacle I found in talking with Sang-Hun driving back to KNU later is that Korean schools who send students abroad, expect the student to pay for tuition at both the host and the sending school.....to protect themselves against the loss of revenue when students go. What a deal!
After chatting with Hunsook, wandering around the never ending Everland looking for a restaurant….by this time I could imagine eating again finally….determining nothing was actually open for dinner…..Sang-Hun drove me 90 minutes back to KNU. The wonderful Mi Ja Wi was waiting with an amazing smile, a gracious welcome, and the most amazing well stocked dorm suite I could have imagined. She thought of everything! Slippers, snacks, ironing board, internet……when president Im called to see how I was doing…I said fine but that I planned to steal Mi Ja and take her home! I owe so much today to Daniel for fetching me at 3:45am, to Sang-Hun for 4 hours of driving and to Mi Ja for making me feel at home.
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