Korean Expat Community for National Disasters

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This is Najmul Hassan (Ph.D.) from Pakistan. I am working as assistant professor at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS). It has been about 7 years living in South Korea. I came to South Korea in 2015 as a Ph.D. candidate. Initially, it was a bit difficult to survive alone due to several reasons. Since it was the first time for me to live abroad so it was nothing less than a challenge while having many responsibilities to manage alone. It was the time when I had to do homework e.g. cooking etc., along with outdoor responsibilities such as managing lab work, taking coursework-related classes, and working on the research project.

Though I had good communication capabilities in English language, however, due to lack of English communication skills of Koreans, it was hard to interact with them. This made it difficult to fulfill daily requirements from outside. Similarly, the lifestyle difference also put hurdles while living with the Koreans in nearby vicinity.

Besides all these circumstances, I was able to get my goal achieved within the provided timeframe and got my Ph.D. degree. However, after the Covid.19 pandemics, many things started to change my lifestyle. It was quite difficult to withstand the situation alone. Although the facilitation provided by the Korean government is worth mentioning. The precautionary measures taken by local government bodies and institutions were greatly effective. The institution provided several services to eradicate the Covid.19 infections. Furthermore, they provided immediate support to the foreigners studying at the University.

Last but not the least, instead of all these facilitations yet it is hard for foreigners to cope with the financial problems they are facing here. Because living in Korea is quite expensive and the financial assistance given by the relevant institutions is not enough. Also, the different government policies such as insurance policy make it worsen for foreign students. Considering students’ choice to pick Korea instead of going for US, UK, or Canada, most of the students may not have that strong financial background to get their families to support from back home, they struggle with their routine expenses more than often. 

I hope considering different problems of foreigners the Korean government will take steps to provide further facilitations.