Newsletter No. 411

10 No. 411, 19.1.2013 周勛儀 前中大國際學生會會長 為何會來香港唸書？ 我是台韓混血兒，爸爸是在韓國做生意的台灣人。 我在韓國出生和長大，五年級時舉家遷到中國，我 入讀廣東的一所加拿大國際學校。我覺得香港是 很適合我發展多元文化特點的地方。 為何修讀法律？ 我一向有很強的社會意識，對公義很有熱情。世 界每天都有許多不公義事情發生。我希望成為人 權律師，想花幾年時間到經濟不發達的國家幫助 那裏的人。我也對國際關係很感興趣，最終目標 是到聯合國擔任外交家。我覺得法律學位用途很 廣，能幫助我達到目標。 為何會成為國際學生會會長？ 我一直希望加入國際學生會幹事會，因為這所大 學的國際生愈來愈多，國際學生會的作用也日益 重要。我唸大學想要做的事之一，就是代表國際 生和為他們服務。外國人初到像香港這種說粵語 的地區，需要相當多支援，我很明白這點，因為我 以前曾經歷這樣的階段。 如何聯絡散布於不同書院、學院和學系的國際 學生？ Facebook。這是我們的主要溝通工具，令我們可 以很靈活，國際生也覺得更親切。 你任內做了些甚麼？ 最大的成就是暑假期間我們與學生事務處合辦的 迎新營。能辦這麼大的活動，我真的感到很自豪。 許多新生都感謝我們辦了這麼有聲有色的迎新 營。我們也舉行了一些較小型的聯誼活動，像「黑 暗中的對話」，也有足球、籃球等運動比賽，還有 多個非本地生協會的聯合晚宴。 本地生似乎多與本地生混在一起，而很少和國 際生接觸。為甚麼會這樣？ 我覺得本地生之間的關係太過密切。另一個大問 題是語言障礙，他們都說廣東話，而我們大部分人 都不會說。所以彼此很難溝通，也很難一起辦活 動和互相交往。但我覺得情況正在改善。 有甚麼辦法可促進本地生和國際生的交流？ 幹事會開會時，也常常提出這個問題。我們想過 很多點子，比如舉辦過一場電影會，希望本地生 會來一起看電影，然後討論電影中的文化差異問 題。但結果只有大約七名的本地生來，這令我們 很氣餒。真的不容易。我覺得可能需要大學幫忙。 例如，「友凝·友義」就是我們和本地生接觸的好 計劃。 你很喜歡韓國流行音樂嗎？ 我算是PSY的歌迷，他真的熱情洋溢。現在人人 都聽過 Gangnam Style ，真像瘋了一樣。他在美國 伯克利音樂學院唸過書，很有音樂天分。 韓國選出首名女總統，會否有助提高女性地位？ 其實在過去十年，韓國的性別平等狀況已有改 善。女性過去地位低，是因為許多女人是家庭主 婦，她們沒有工作，沒有財政獨立。但世界正在改 變。現在許多韓國女性都走出家門了。這次韓國政 治史上的大轉變，對於過去的大男人主義思想可 能會有衝擊。 Ariel Chou Former President, CUHK International Student Association (ISA) Why did you come to Hong Kong to study? I’m half Korean and half Taiwanese. My father is a Taiwanese businessman living in Korea. I was born and raised in Korea before moving to mainland China when I was in Grade Five. I enrolled at a Canadian international school in Guangdong. I thought Hong Kong very suitable for me to further develop my multicultural characteristics. Why do you study law? I always have a keen social conscience and am passionate about justice. There is a lot of social injustice happening around the world. I intend to be a human rights lawyer and really want to go for a few years to those economically underprivileged countries to help the people there. I’m also very interested in international relations and my ultimate goal is to work in the United Nations as a diplomat. I thought the versatility of a degree in law would help me to achieve this goal. Why did you become the president of the ISA? I always wanted to serve at the ISA executive committee because with the expanding community of international students at this University, the role of the ISA has become very important. And representing and serving international students was one of the dreams that I want to achieve when I’m in university. I know that substantial support is needed for foreigners who first come to a Cantonese-speaking region like Hong Kong because I experienced that earlier in my life. International students are scattered in different Colleges, Faculties and departments. How do you contact them and bring them together? Facebook. It is our major communication tool. It gives us flexibility and international students feel that we’re friendlier when we use Facebook to reach them. What did you achieve during your presidency of the ISA? I think our biggest achievement was the summer orientation camp. We cooperated with the Office of Student Affairs. I felt really proud of myself for organizing such a big event. And a lot of freshmen expressed their gratitude to us for such a dynamic and interesting orientation camp. We also organized small social events like Dialogue in the Dark, sports events like football and basketball matches, and joint non-local student association dinner gathering. It seems that local students like to hang out with their local peers, rather than international students. Why is it so? I think local students are too bound to each other. And one of the biggest barriers is language because they use Cantonese and most of us don’t speak Cantonese. So, it’s really hard for us to communicate and organize events together, and have interaction with them. But I think it’s getting better. Can you think of ways to promote the interaction between local and international students? This question always comes out when we have meetings with our committee members. We have thought of a lot of ideas. For example, we tried to have a movie festival so that local students could come and watch a movie together, and discuss about the cultural differences in the movie. But it turned out that only about seven local students came to watch. So it was very frustrating. It’s really hard. I think we may need some help from the school as well. The CLOVER, for example, is a very good progamme for us to interact with local students. Are you into K-pop? I’m kind of a fan of PSY because he really made people move and shake. You know, everyone is crazy about Gangnam Style now. He used to study in the Berklee College of Music in the States. So he’s very talented. Will the election of Korea’s first female president help to improve women’s status in Korea? Actually the gender equality in Korea has improved a lot during the last decade. The status of women was low because many women were housewives. They didn’t work and didn’t have financial independence. But now the world is changing. A lot of Korean females are out there. This big change in Korean political history may have some impact on the old male chauvinist mentality. 請掃描QR碼閱讀全文版 Scan the QR code for the full version Photos of Ariel Chou in this issue are by Keith Hiro