Seongho Hong

Q1) What is the general perception of India in your home country? Are those perceptions correct? In your opinion, what are India's greatest strengths?

• In our country, many people think that India is very dangerous country where there is so much sexual crime and fraud. However, there is a lot of exaggeration about it. Regarding the fraud problem, during city trips, rickshaw drivers asked a very high price for driving than the normal rates, or brought me to a wrong place and requested me to pay more. However, these sort of problems happen even in our country. India’s population is high, so the frequency of crime is also high. News reports are overhyped, and this leads to misconceptions amongst people.
• There are a lot of religions and ethnic groups in every city and hence people from other countries can interact with an extremely diverse group of people while staying here.

Q2) Has your experience here helped you gain an appreciation of how the world is interconnected on all levels (environmental, socio-cultural and geopolitical)? If so, can you cite specific examples? 

When I studied my UG courses at Korea, I had lesser opportunities to meet foreign students, and talk with them. Although I have an outgoing personality, I couldn’t hide my embarrassment when I was talking with foreigners. But, in India, I could live with a foreigner from Germany, France, Canada and other nations, eat meals together, and discuss about one problem with different perspectives. Finally, I got many opportunities to interact with them (even travelling with them), and I could feel that I live in the global world. 

Q3) What are the biggest differences you see between the college experience here and in your home country? 

Housing is the most different thing w.r.t. my university. 

• One hour is too short to take a minor exam.
• Indian students study way harder than our university students.
• Electricity cuts happen very often(In our university, it happens only once in 3 months or not)