Speeches and Transcripts
U.S.-Korea Educational Ties
Remarks by Alexander Vershbow
U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
to Newly Appointed Secondary School Principals
KNUE In-service Training Center
October 27, 2006
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Alexander Vershbow |
President Park, Director Kim Myung-soo, newly appointed principals, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to be here at Korea National University of Education. I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as school principals. I want to thank President Park and Director Kim for inviting me to address you, a most important audience in any culture, in any society.
Today, I would like to talk about the many educational ties that connect the United States and Korea. I will talk about Koreans studying in the U.S., and I will share with you the Embassy’s efforts to engage Koreans here in Korea.
The deep relations between the United States and Korea have expanded from what was once primarily a military alliance to encompass a broad range of common values and mutual interests. Representatives of our two countries are negotiating a free trade agreement that has the potential to increase the trade in goods and services between us, attract more foreign investment and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Korea is becoming a world leader in the arts, in fashion and in the development and introduction of new technologies, from mobile phones to biotechnology.
Korea and the U.S. will need a new generation of students to take up these new opportunities and these new challenges. New, more specific teaching fields will develop, and we should expect more educational and professional exchanges. As educational leaders, you more than anyone are in a position to help our students prepare for these challenges and exchanges. Although education and knowledge are ends in themselves, the potential rewards for our respective countries are many. Because more trade will necessitate more education, a highly-educated population can only benefit our two countries.
Koreans Studying in the U.S.
Our two countries have so much in common when it comes to our shared educational values and traditions. Education and dialogue are crucial to our development as free, prosperous societies, and they will continue to be agents of peace and cooperation. In fact, education and dialogue bring us together in ways that politics and even business sometimes cannot. By their nature, education and dialogue allow us to think broadly and freely, without constraints, about a range of our most pressing questions.
Our two countries place a high emphasis on education. According to the OECD, South Korean students have one of the highest educational levels in reading, mathematics, and science. In terms of spending, both the U.S. and Korea invest about seven percent of their respective GDPs in education, representing some of the highest levels of educational spending among developed countries. As you may know, the U.S. has more Korean students than from any other foreign country, including China and India. In 2005, more than 87,000 Korean students chose to study in the United States, making Korea our number one source of foreign students. This, in addition to the million and a half Koreans and Korean-Americans living in the United States, has also sparked a tremendous growth in Asian-American and Korean Studies, not only at the university level, but also in our high schools.
I am convinced that such people-to-people dialogue is the most valued and perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of diplomacy. When it takes place directly among the citizens of two nations, it has extraordinary potential. President Bush said at the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education last January that the “more youngsters who come to America to get educated, the more likely it is people in the world will understand the true nature of America.” Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also noted that “our greatest strength in dealing with the world is the openness of our society and the welcoming nature of our people. A good stay in our country,” he said, “is the best public diplomacy tool we have.”
To promote study in the U.S., the Embassy’s Public Affairs and Consular sections hold regular information seminars on studying in the U.S. We have held U.S. Education Fairs in Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju. These are just some examples of the kinds of educational outreach programs we do throughout Korea, not just in Seoul.
Just as our bilateral relationship continues to evolve and expand, I strongly believe the U.S. and Korea should reaffirm their commitment to strengthen contacts between the citizens of our two countries by increasing the number of students, teachers, and professionals who participate in bilateral exchange programs.
U.S. Embassy’s Educational Outreach: Fulbright Programs, SELF
Although I have only been in Korea for one year, I have met many teachers, professors, journalists, and entrepreneurs during that time. Many of them have studied in the U.S. as students or have visited the U.S. on professional internships or workshops. Some of these professionals traveled to the U.S. on Fulbright scholarships. With help from Congress, Senator J. William Fulbright established the Fulbright Program in 1946. Since then, the Fulbright scholarship has promoted two-way exchanges between students, scholars, and artists, sending promising Americans abroad to places like Korea, just as it has brought promising foreigners to America.
The Fulbright English Teaching Associate Program -- or ETA -- serves the same goal. The Fulbright ETA program places young Americans as teachers in middle and high school English classrooms in Korea. Beginning in 1992 with eight grantees, the program now brings more than 80 Americans to Korea each year. The Korean Ministry of Education is supportive of the program, as it sends teachers to schools outside the capital of Seoul. Several ETAs have remained in Korea teaching at Korean universities, working for international firms, or enrolling in Korean graduate schools. As one former Fulbright ETA said, “You never get Korea out of you.” But education and dialogue go both ways. Many ETAs return to the U.S. and share their fond impressions of Korea with their friends, families, and colleagues. These impressions help further mutual understanding of our two countries.
At the heart of all the Fulbright Programs is the belief that free individuals can change the world, and the program’s extraordinary alumni demonstrate the truth of this proposition. Indeed, the 250,000 Fulbright alumni comprise a global honor roll of talent and accomplishment in every field of human endeavor, including two UN Secretary-Generals, prime ministers and presidents, actors and astronauts, Nobel laureate physicists, and poet laureates.
SELF at KNUE
More than 400 English language professionals have conducted programs in over 80 countries. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the English Language Fellow Program has become a major public diplomacy tool for combating terrorism and democracy building.
I am proud that the Embassy is partnering with Korea National University of Education in co-hosting Ms. Joan Dean, the Embassy’s Senior English Language Fellow (SELF). Although Ms. Dean only arrived in Korea last month, she has already led many training sessions for teachers and students and she will continue to provide professional expertise in teaching English as a foreign language by working with academic institutions like KNUE. She will share her best practices in enhancing English teaching by sharing the latest methods in English teaching and will help to improve teachers’ and students’ access to diverse perspectives on a broad variety of issues. Of course, she will also give them information that will enable them to better understand and convey concepts about American values, democratic representative government, free enterprise, and the rule of law.
Additionally, the Embassy’s Regional Program Office is planning a series of training workshops for teachers, students, parents, and media. These workshops will take place at English language training centers around Korea and at our three American Corners in Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju. Our American Corners are resource centers located in public libraries that provide English language books, movies, and magazines. The Corners are also venues where we hold many speaker and cultural programs. For instance, a few weeks ago one of our officers organized an American wine tasting at the Gwangju American Corner. Future cultural programs will include English language workshops, as well as American wine and food tastings. Learning about American culture has never been more fun, and we’re now making increase of digital videoconferencing to bring American “guest stars” to our American Corners in virtual reality.
International Education: From Boston to Moscow
Speaking of culture, as a young student I experienced culture shock while studying abroad. Just as many young Koreans have a burning passion to master English, I had a similar passion for the Russian language. As a 17-year-old high school student, I had the opportunity to be an exchange student in Russia (then the USSR). Let me tell you, at that time the physical and cultural distance between Boston and Moscow was as vast as the ocean that separates them.
However, I am grateful that I took the chance -- and risk -- to live and study abroad. Even as a foreign student at the height of the Cold War, this international experience helped me appreciate how interconnected our world is. My first experience of Russia’s diverse culture and history made a lasting impression on me. Stepping out of my own culture, I learned to appreciate cultural differences and similarities in both countries. The experience inspired me to travel and learn new languages (unfortunately, Korean wasn’t one of them). In many ways, it helped me choose my calling as a diplomat. I have since devoted my career to studying and working to improve U.S. relations abroad.
I know that more and more high schools and educational institutes in Korea are establishing exchange programs and sister-school relations with the public and private schools in the U.S. I believe this to be an important and efficient way to build bridges of mutual understanding in both countries. Initiating such relations might be difficult at first, but once you build the bridge, exchange and information sharing will lead to broader, more in-depth understanding of our respective societies. If you need assistance in making these initial connections, please contact our Public Affairs Section. They are experts in helping you connect with your counterparts in the U.S.
Our Embassy is committed to promoting exchanges through a variety of programs, including U.S. Speaker programs (both live and through digital video conferences), the American Corners, and initiatives aimed at enhancing opportunities for teachers and students. For example, just this past year we have held student seminars on American holidays, and recently two young Embassy officers hosted a seminar and barbecue for college students. Their topic was the living history of American punk rock music. The students loved the program as much as the officers loved organizing it.
If you have any suggestions or requests for Embassy speakers, please do not hesitate to ask. Once again, our Public Affairs Section has a stable of eager Mission speakers who can talk about diverse American subjects, from punk rock to pinot noir wine.
Again, I am honored to be here with you today to celebrate your new role as principals. When it comes to learning, our two countries have so many shared values and shared traditions. We have a long tradition of educational and cultural exchanges, and our passion to learn about other cultures and languages is unparalleled.
I want to end with a quote by Senator J. William Fulbright. He said the following of his program, but it could be applied to educational and cultural exchanges of all kinds, in that they aim to “bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs, and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.”
Thank you for allowing me to participate in this wonderful celebration. On behalf of the U.S. Embassy, I wish you well in your current and future plans to lead our students into the future.
Thank you. I will take any questions you might have.