Along with the changes, international students will be allowed to replace some of their core course completion with other alternative courses. However, these changes are only available for international students who are admitted in Ewha since 2013 and enrolled as a foreigner, whose parents are of non-Korean nationality.
To replace “Reading Classics & Writing” class, students should take one of these following courses instead: “Korean Language Level IV,” “Academic Korean I” and “Academic Korean II.” However, “Korean Language Level IV,” those who have taken in or after the fall semester of 2014 will be allowed to replace “Reading Classics & Writing.” Other than required courses, changes will be made in core courses.
Originally, to complete core courses, students had to take all sections of core courses. However, since there are few English lectures offered, it was hard for international students to complete all parts of core courses. In this regard, English lectures offered by Department of Korean Studies are admitted as core courses.
“I think courses conducted in English will be quite helpful for the students who speak English well,” said Wang Wan-qiu (French, 2). “There are many international students in Ewha who try to take courses in Korean, but it is very hard for them.”
About these new changes, Office of International Affairs (OIA) hopes to alleviate students’ academic burden and encourage their academic pursuits.
“We know that some international students are pressured by the mandatory Korean courses,” said Im Hyun-chae, an official from OIA. “Especially in case of Korean Language Level IV, contrary to its demanding works, the credit for this class was zero and it was very stressful to some students. So we are now giving six credits for this course to encourage students to learn Korean.”
Yoon Hye-joon
hajun1237@ewhain.net