To what extent should one abolish their indigenous culture and assimilate to a more widely accepted international norm? This question presents a fundamental and yet convoluted dichotomy the Korean society must address as it goes through globalization. It reveals the uncomfortable truth of how Koreans generally take pride in the rising influence of so-called “K-culture” around the world, whilst simultaneously being highly reluctant towards the acceptance of others. POSTECH faces the same dilemma very much as it strives to become a leading institution in scientific research. Much work and progress are being made with regards to the bi-lingual campus policies, but there still exist numerous nuanced situations in which the school inevitably favors one over the other. The school, therefore, gives mixed messages which come to show the lack of discourse and consensus regarding the matter at hand.

  POSTECH’s bi-lingual policy is frankly and bluntly not working. Most courses are allegedly taught in English, but both the professors and the students do not see the purpose in speaking in their second language when there is the more fluent option. Often, the lecture will start in English and unknowingly transition into Korean mid-way through. Some professors do not seem to be bothered at all by the fact that there are international students present in the room. This can be, conservatively speaking, counter-productive at best. The school’s administrative office also, at times, acts with a double standard to defeat the purpose of the school’s bi-lingual policy entirely. The 2024 CES report competition imposed a strict Korean-only policy when the very goal of the CES program was partly to enable students to experience the broader world.

  Embracing multiculturalism is indeed a daunting undertaking. Colloquially speaking, if some stranger comes into a house and starts telling the residents what to do or, even worse, demands their culture be changed, one would be, with no doubt, livid. Let it be known, however, that this conflict is not only limited to POSTECH but is universal all over the world in, for example, white predominant countries in Europe or some conservative states in the US. This conflict can generally be ascribed to the fear of change and the threat to one’s status. But one must not be so short-sighted as to overlook the fact that diversity is equivalent to resilience. In the long term, it is beneficial for both indigenous people and newcomers. As with all conflicts, it is important for both parties to meet at the middle ground, one of which is language.

  The dilemma is highly judgmental and has no strict answer, which only further underscores the importance of public discussions. It poses a challenging question as the school has to embrace the international norm but not to an extent that it becomes reverse discrimination. In most cases, the decision does not have to be mutually exclusive. In other words, the school-wide announcements can be made in both English and Korean versions; there can be student support service for both local and international students; and the school can support the social activities of international students as well as the locals. In fact, POSTECH already has a dedicated office, International Student and Scholar Service, as well as a student body, PBUD, who are doing tremendous amounts of work, mostly in good faith, to support the international students in their adjustment to a new environment.

  “South Korea has been promoting multiculturalism as a policy initiative since 2006, so it is a fairly new phenomenon in Korean society. Even though the rhetoric is inclusive, in reality it is not very much so,” according to an article by Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Much like it is at the domestic level, POSTECH promotes an inclusive community, but there still exist unseen barriers and systemic discriminations. Most prominently, Dorm 16, colloquially called DICE, is physically separated from the other housing dorms, and hosts specifically inbound exchange students, GYP scholarship students, and international graduate students. While there is a sound explanation for such separation and students are free to live in other buildings, the mere label nevertheless unintentionally exacerbates the us-and-them rhetoric, and thus is counter-productive in the organic integration into the POSTECH community. National University of Singapore, for example, does not have a specialized, physically separated and labeled building for housing international students. We have to acknowledge that the first step toward globalization is realizing they are not so different from us, because we are all humans at the end of the day.