Jimmy Ho gives a presentation on the history and culture of Hong Kong during the first i-pot meeting, held on March 24 at the Ewha-POSCO Building.

A program which is designed to promote relationships and communication between Korean and international exchange students at Ewha was launched on March 24 at the Ewha-POSCO Building. The program is named "i-pot program," which has the meaning of an international pot, a container in which many kinds of materials can be mixed.

The i-pot program was planned by four students, Lee Hyun-ju (Business Administration, 4), Noh Jin-su (Business Administration, 4), Kim Maria (Business Administration, 4) and Jin Bo-ram (Business Administration, 4).

Lee, one of the creators of the program, says that the i-pot was inspired by the i-house program, in which she participated when she went to University of Evansville in the United States as an exchange student last semester. "Through listenint to exchange students' presentations about their countires, I could understand and enjoy different cultures a lot more," said Lee.

She says that there is a prejudice among Ewha students that only students who are good at English can interact with exchange students. And many Ewha students turned out to have few opportunities to communicate with exchange students.

"My friends and I learned that there are no requirements for students to be friends with exchange students from our experiences as exchange students abroad," said Lee.

According to Lee, the i-pot program does not require membership so anyone can participate.

In fact, the i-pot program incited a lot of supportive views from the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) at Ewha, which mainly organizes activities related to international students. When the OGA first heard about the program, it graciously welcomed such invaluable cultural exchange between Ewha and international students and promised Lee that the OGA would support the program by providing appropriate places and advertisement fee to them.

Though it is funded, the program was first launched by the individually financed money of the four members and their efforts.

"I-pot is a program founded by four Ewha students with the pure motive of being a bridge between foreign students and Ewha. Though the program gets some help from the OGA, i-pot is not a subsidiary organization," said Lee.

At the first i-pot meeting, three exchange students from China, Jimmy Ho (Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2), Zhang Xiaozhou (Beijing Normal University, Graduate School) and Wen Yuhan (Xiamen University, Graduate School) together made a presentation in which they introduced their country and culture to exchange students from other countries.

They not only talked about their cultural backgrounds but also about Chinese politics and history. They were in Chinese traditional costumes and showed pictures of traditional costumes, foods, festivals as well as videos of traditional plays to the audience.

"It was a chance to talk about the political status of Hong Kong in China," said Ho. Good shopping places in Hong Kong were also introduced when a student asked for recommendations.

"I learned a lot more about China and I think it is a great opportunity to interact with exchange students," said Choi Yu-sun (Chinese, 2) who participated in the first meeting.

 

 

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지