Re: Going abroad
Lee In-wha
I went to a boarding school in the United Kingdom for three years, and these three years became a very important period in my life. English society is very diverse; it contains Indians, Chinese, Black and of course, English people while there are far more ethnicities. Despite having a diverse amount of races mixed into their society, there rarely seems to be discrimination against each race. When it''s a holiday for a particular race, for example, Rosh Hashanah or Diwali (Divali), they are all respected for their belief, and are allowed to celebrate on major scales. After living in this type of society, the prejudices I used to have about other races disappeared and I began to respect other people''s beliefs, regardless of what they believe in. Contrastingly, in Korea, the single-race society is still viewed proudly by many, while seeing foreigners in the streets of Korea is a rare sight.
Additionally, English people do not care much about what we do to ourselves, for example, about we do to our hair, what we wear, and other things. In Korea, we often get left out by people if we do not follow the current trend or do what is considered "right." However, as we do not have to worry about being criticized for what we like to do, we are granted the freedom of expression and such. We are able to be more open-minded, while being able to look at things from a different angle (from what Koreans thinks are right).
In spite of the fact that the United Kingdom might sound like a perfect place for everyone to live, it has some defects, as does everything. It is quite inconvenient to live in the United Kingdom, as it requires reservations for things such as calling maintenance. When I planned to get my braces in England, I had to wait for a few months just to get my teeth checked. After this, I also had to wait about a year, during which I came back to Korea and got braces after a week. This tells us the difference between how fast the service is and how convenient Korea is compared to other Western countries.
Because I was in England when I was quite young, I began to feel that I was losing my identity as a Korean, while I wasn''t totally English. As the time I spent in the United Kingdom increased, my Korean skills decreased noticeably, while my English skill enhanced. Rather than viewing England as a foreign country, it felt more to me like a second home after Korea. If I didn''t come back from England, and continued to live and go to St. Helen''s School, I might have been in a great tumult about which country I really belong to.
Living abroad may seem like a perfect life, but it is not. Living in Korea, as well as living abroad, both have advantages and disadvantages. Living abroad in countries such as the United Kingdom teaches us to respect others, regardless of ethnicity. On the other hand, living in Korea is very convenient compared to living abroad, and we are able to retain our identity.
2009.06.16
