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Choe Hyeon-woo of Korea Polytechnics Dasom High School strikes a pose with his new tools on May 8 in Jaecheon, North Chungcheong Province.
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Choe Hyeon-woo is studying to become a certified welder and electrician
The name of this 17-year-old is Ho Huu Vui– in Korean, he goes by Choe Hyeon-woo. After leaving his former home of Naju in South Jeolla Province, he enrolled at Korea Polytechnics Dasom High School, in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, this past March. Choe’s major is plant equipment. That was his fallback: he’d been hoping to get into the electricians’ program, but the competition was too steep. Dasom High School teaches practical skills to international students, both those who were born in South Korea and those who entered the country at an early age. In addition to the vocational classes, the curriculum is designed to help students master the Korean language and acclimate to Korean culture. Since students come from all over the country to attend, they stay in a dormitory, and tuition is free. The school is outside of town, so the students spend most of their weekdays at the dorm and then, on weekends, take trips to downtown Jecheon with their friends to hang out at internet cafes. Choe’s dream has been becoming a football (soccer) player. Back in Naju, he liked to play in a football club, and even since enrolling at Dasom High School, he has been a forward at the school’s football club. Since he’s thin and not very tall, other people don’t think very much of his dream. Even his mom tells him he shouldn’t play football because it’s too dangerous, but he thinks it’s too early to give up on his hopes. Learning skills and Korean at Dasom High School At first, Choe wanted to transfer to a high school in South Jeolla Province, where his mother lives, so that they could stay close to each other. Before coming to South Korea from Vietnam, he’d spent three years apart from his mother, and it made him sad that he only got to hear his mother’s voice over the phone. But Koh Sun-hui, his guidance teacher at a preparatory program for international students at Seji Middle School in Naju, convinced Choe’s mother that getting vocational certificates would make it easier for Choe to acquire Korean citizenship. Choe had no choice but to agree. “I’d like to learn welding and electrical skills so that I can get certified and to improve my Korean too here at Dasom High. I want to get a job and make a lot of money so that I can live with my mother and father,” Choe said. The certification that Choe can acquire through the plant equipment program is for welding and advanced welding. He hasn’t forgotten about getting certified as an electrician, either. He’s planning to prepare for that certification by taking extra classes in the electricians’ program. In order to gain certification in the first and second years at Dasom High, students have to pass both a written test and a skills test. Since Dasom High School is a vocational school, however, students in their third year are exempted from the written test and only have to pass the skills test. Students have a big advantage on their skills tests: they’re proctored at the school, where students can practice on a daily basis, which means they don’t get too stressed out when they take the test. The reason Choe is interested in getting certified as an electrician is that he thinks he has some natural talent in the area. Since he was back in Vietnam, he’s been in charge of electrical repairs, both at his own home and at his neighbors’ houses. Choe said he learned by watching electricians do their work. That’s why Choe listed the electricians’ program as his top choice when he applied to Dasom High. Choe’s role models are Park Han-sang and Son Woo-hon, who graduated from Dasom High School this year. Park, whose mother is from the Philippines, earned eight certificates during his three years at the school and got a job at the Seoul Facilities Corporation. Son, who is from China, earned five certificates before getting hired by Hwaseung Chemical. It’s easy to get a job with the right qualifications and good communication skills. By the time they graduate, students here have earned a range of certificates, from one to as many as eight. Of the 42 students who graduated this year, 22 got jobs and 12 enrolled in university. Applying for naturalization as a Korean citizen Last year, Choe applied for naturalization. His application was filed by his South Korean stepfather, but he hasn’t gotten citizenship yet. Even if he passes the document stage and the interview, he’ll have to wait from between six months and a year and half to gain citizenship. If he fails to gain citizenship while he’s at Dasom High School, he won’t be able to get a job, in which he would be required to go to university to extend his stay. Choe hasn’t taken the Korean language test yet. In order to get citizenship, he has to pass the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) at level three or above, and he’s planning to tackle that after studying a little more at Dasom High. The Korean language program at the school is designed so that students can pass level two, the beginning level, in the first year and pass level four, the upper intermediate level, in their third year. While Choe says he understands about 70% of Korean, there are still a lot of difficulties, including high-level vocabulary and words he doesn’t know. Among his Vietnamese friends, the ones who were born here or have lived here for a long time are good at Korean. Choe’s mother brought him to Korea four years ago. After living with his mother in Mokpo for the first two or three months, he enrolled in the preparatory program for international students that’s attached to Seji Middle School in Naju. Since there were other children from Vietnam at the school, Choe didn’t feel lonely there. That’s where he met the teacher Koh Sun-hui, whom he calls his “Korean mom.” Choe started calling her “Mom” after he got to know her. She felt like a mother to him, treating him kindly even though his Korean wasn’t very good and he knew little about Korean culture. Choe was among a group of international students that “Mom” would take to cultural centers in the area when time permitted to help them adapt more quickly to Korean culture. While he’s still a work in progress, Choe credits Koh for the degree of understanding and familiarity with Korean culture that he’s been able to achieve thus far. It was on her recommendation that he gained level-two certification as a barista. She also encouraged him to write about his multicultural experience last year, earning him a prize in the 10th Multicultural Educational Outstanding Examples Competition. Though Choe was reluctant to write in his broken Korean, Koh pushed him to write a longer piece and corrected the parts that were incorrect or didn’t make sense. As a result, Choe earned 500,000 won (US$420.58) in prize money. He hasn’t spent the money yet, but he has his heart set on buying some fashionable clothes, like his Korean peers. A new life with a new family Choe thinks he’s ready to become a Korean now. He’s gotten to know his Korean stepdad, and he also feels a familial connection with his new grandmother, aunt and uncle, and cousins. The relatives all get together for meals and to have a good time. Choe is especially fond of his five-year-old half sister Hyeon-a. When he visits home, he thinks it’s adorable how she follows around her big brother and wants to play with him. He’s also made some Korean friends and is gradually getting to know them. But Choe also laments the tendency in Korean society to look askance at people like him. “People from other countries may have different facial features and skin colors, but I hope that Koreans will treat them warmly instead of giving them weird looks. I’ll work hard to become a Korean,” Choe said. By Kim Hak-joon, senior staff writer Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
