Whether it be moving to a new city, state or even country, many students aspire to travel during their years of education. Though this dream usually does not become a reality until later on in life, some get to experience this during their high school years.
Junior Tae Min Oh, a foreign exchange student from South Korea, is one of these few. Oh took advantage of an opportunity in September of 2009 to visit another country and to see what living in America was like.
“The first reason I moved here was to learn English, and the other was because my mother wanted me to come here,” Oh said. “She wanted me to have the experience.”
Oh first moved to Celina, OH, through a foreign exchange student program. For this academic year, however, he moved to Fresno to be near a family friend.
“My father’s friend lives here, and I feel safer here,” Oh said. “I also heard that FCS is one of the best private high schools in California.”
Based on his experiences, Oh prefers school in the United States to that in South Korea.
“In Korea, we have to stay at school for 14 hours every day — Saturdays too — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” Oh said. “We did not have a lot of homework, but we had a lot of tests, which were really hard.”
Due to the lack of free time, Korean high school students are only allowed to join a few clubs outside of school, Oh says. Some may argue that this method of treating education more like an occupation is better, but Oh favors the relative freedom of the American system. Oh’s newfound free time allows him to pursue an important passion of his: sports.
“I think that there is more freedom in the U.S.,” Oh said. “Like, there are more sports to play and I can learn about friendship through sports. The only sports in South Korea are in gym class. Here, I play soccer, basketball and football, but my favorite is soccer.”
Junior Zedekiah Fries appreciates his companionship with Oh, which he has experienced both in school and on the soccer team.
“Oh has benefited the soccer team because he has skill and he knows how to communicate with his teammates during a game,” Fries said. “School-wise, for me, he makes things more fun. He puts a positive spin on things.”
As far as favorite subjects in school, Oh’s choice may be a bit surprising. Rather than enjoying a subject that is relatively universal, such as math, Oh relishes the challenges of learning English, his second language, and overcoming the “language barrier.”
“My favorite class is English with [Greg] Stobbe, because he always cheers me up when I have a hard time learning English,” Oh said. “I love learning English.”
Despite this language barrier, fellow South Korean exchange student Seungkeun Kim, ’11, says he has noticed Oh’s smooth transition to life in another country.
“Since I was here [U.S.] for five years and Tae is in his second year here, I help him a lot with American life as a Korean student,” Kim said. “I think Tae is perfectly fine at being Fresno Christian. He is, like, better than I do.”
Throughout his time with Oh, Fries says he has gained a greater understanding of the world outside of the U.S., such as differences in language, culture and life in a foreign country.
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