This month, The KAIST Herald had a chance to interview members of KI House — a program in which international students from KAIST can sit down for one-on-one Korean lessons with volunteer teachers — who participated in and won first place in the national “Dokdo Love” Korean speaking competition held in Daegu in August. The competition was held in the spirit of Dokdo Day, an unofficial annual commemoration every October 25, on which Dokdo was declared a Korean territory over a century ago.

The members of the team K-Goose included Patara Trirat (PhD student in the School of Computing), Merve Doganbas (PhD student in Industrial Engineering), Thwe May Mayt (MS student in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy), and Hao Yun Lee (MS student in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy). Alex, who was in the team representing Daegu University during the competition and is now studying at KAIST as an MS student in the School of Computing, was also interviewed. K-Goose was led by KI House teachers Joong-hye Shin and Won-soon Jeong.

Could you tell us a little bit about how the competition was organized?

Doganbas: We got to know about the competition through our teachers. We were all already students of KI House, which is an organization of volunteers teaching Korean to students at KAIST. So they asked us if we were interested in the competition. Before [the competition], we actually had a special discussion class in which some of our members already knew each other and were interested in having discussions based on certain topics which would help us learn the language. After the teachers saw this, they suggested [participating in the competition], which is how we gathered for this event.

We heard that each competing team prepared a performance related to Dokdo to demonstrate their Korean speaking skills. Could you tell us more about what your performance was about and the roles each of you had?

Trirat: Our performance was a discussion panel. Basically, we had a small-scale summit where Merve acted as our Moderator, May acted as the representative for Korea, I played the part of a Japanese representative and Hao Yun was a representative from the UN. I talked about the viewpoint from Japan, arguing about why Dokdo, or Takeshima in Japanese, should be considered part of Japanese territory.

Mayt: I mainly did research about the history and debated about why Dokdo [belongs] to Korea, both geographically and historically.

Lee: I mainly tried to search for some other opinions held by foreign countries regarding Dokdo island, for example, [those of] the United States, China or Russia, and some other countries near South Korea. 

Doganbas: I was the moderator — I was trying to lead the discussion between [the representatives] and ask some questions.

Were there any difficulties in preparing for a competition in a language foreign to you?

Trirat: In my opinion, because our performance was a discussion summit, we had to study some core points in Korean. [Doing that] was very difficult because the words and vocabulary used were really high level and I also needed to learn more about the contexts of [those] words. Afterwards, we needed to prepare a coherent script, not only for our [own] discussion points but [also against the] points of other members of our team.

Doganbas: [Even once] I did the translation and thought I understood it, it [then] became hard to find the right tone when I started saying it out loud [— finding where I should] put the stress in a sentence or even in a single word. The emotion depends on where you put the stress into each syllable, so I think that was a little bit of a challenge for all of us. It’s not so easy to pronounce [the words] when you’re not so sure about [their] meaning, or [to remember] how the word is pronounced and the feeling you need to give on that specific word [after] you learn the meaning and memorize the script. But thanks to our teachers, who were always there for us, we were able to get some help. It would’ve been impossible to do this without their help. 

What was it like winning first place in the competition, and did you at all expect this outcome?

Doganbas: Honestly, all other teams were also well-prepared, with [various] performances so we weren’t very sure if we would win. [Other teams prepared] a musical and a small theater play while we had an abnormal summit meeting. Since it was all so different,  I think the result was a matter of the taste [of the judges]. But, yes, we were confident in our team.  [It] wasn’t important that we won first place but that we could learn and practice more Korean, and it was really good to [demonstrate the practice we had done] on that stage. 

Did you know about Dokdo before the competition, and what has this experience been able to teach you about the island?

Trirat: Actually, I think we all knew about Dokdo before, but not in depth about what [was] really going on between Korea and Japan. We just had superficial knowledge about the existence of the conflict. By doing this competition, we [were able to] research about both sides. Actually, we had some split parts in the beginning. May was representing the Korean side, while I was representing the Japanese side. So that was the starting point for how we learnt about Dokdo. 

Were you able to interact with any of the other international students at the event?

Doganbas: On [the day of the competition], we had a big chance to talk to people, especially after the results were announced. People were congratulating each other, and I personally really liked the environment. It wasn’t really like a real competition; it was very friendly so we could talk to people about how much we liked each other’s performances. We [took] some pictures and so on and it was nice, but it was pretty much a short-term relationship. Still, I would say we had some great interactions with other people.

Alex: I think the real interaction came when we went personally to Dokdo [to experience its nature and culture after the competition]. I mean, we spent three days together exploring this beautiful island and so we had a lot of chances to really get to know each other, and it was a really great trip because of that.

Could you tell us more about the trip to Dokdo that was part of the program? What natural and cultural aspects did you learn about?

Mayt:  We were able to explore the island of Ulleungdo on the first day and on the second day, [and] ride a boat to Dokdo. Fortunately, the weather on the second day was really good. In terms of the history of Dokdo, since we already did a lot of research while we were preparing for the competition, we actually knew most of the content. But we [visited] the Dokdo museum and [learned even] more about the history. 

Lee: I think I’ll only be there once in my lifetime, so it was a great experience. 
Doganbas: Actually, I’ve been to Dokdo before in a yearly program offered by Daegu University, which is how I was initially interested in the competition. You can learn about lots of things on paper, but I think it means much more when you go to see it in person, and witness how close the islands actually are. You can literally see the island [from Korea], and it only takes about an hour by boat, so it made it feel much more real. This helped us to understand [how]Koreans might feel about the issue. 

Do you have any final remarks about the experiences you have gained from this competition?

Doganbas: I had heard a lot about the Korean perspective regarding the Dokdo problem, but I didn’t really know much about the arguments presented on the Japanese side. So I think it was a valuable experience to learn about the approaches to the problem from different perspectives and be able to analyze them. I think the biggest problem in most conflicts is not knowing the other’s perspective; to know where others stand is a huge step to solving a problem. So I feel like I got to know more about the problem.

Mayt: For me, these days, when I meet with other Koreans and talk about Dokdo, they all really seem thankful to us foreigners [in] that we side with them in this territory dispute.

Lee: I think it’s really interesting to know about the country we live in as a foreigner, [and] to be able to experience the local culture. So I think it was a really good chance for us to do so.

Alex: When it comes to developing leadership and immersing yourself deeper into modern day Korean culture and issues, there really is no better opportunity other than through competitions. So, if you really have that desire to be a leader and to become more knowledgeable about Korean culture, I recommend you to take this opportunity.

Trirat: When we learn a language, if we only know the literal meaning without knowing its cultural context, we sometimes overlook why natives say things the way they do. So, I think knowing more about Dokdo as a part of Korean history made me and can make others know more about the language better and how to use it in the right context.

Doganbas: Speaking is very important when it comes to learning a language. When you go to take a Korean course, there’s generally a lot of [international students] and just one native speaker. But here in KI House, you can talk to and have real conversations one-to-one with the teachers. You can go to competitions and actually feel as if you’re living the language, not just looking at it from afar and imitating it. So I highly recommend other foreigners to come [to KI House]. 

The interviewees agreed that although they had heard a lot about the issue surrounding Dokdo while living in Korea, participating in the “Dokdo Love” competition gave them a valuable opportunity to investigate deeper into the different perspectives and history involved. They noted that preparing for the competition also enhanced their understanding of the Korean language, learning the contexts in which phrases are used, as well as the overall culture. As students living and studying in a foreign country, they highly encouraged other students to try to engage in competitions and conversations with native Korean speakers through the KI House, feeling “as if you’re living the language”.