(523) First Students Abroad

By Andrei Lankov

Who was the first Korean to study in the United States? It is a bit difficult to say. Most books would suggest Yu Kil-jun, a young intellectual, writer and political activist, who studied in America in the mid-1880s.

However, he did not undertake a systematic course of study, but spent about a year improving his English and learning more about Western life and culture.

Perhaps, we might denote Seo Jae-pil (Philip Jaisohn) as the first bona fide Korean student in the country. Seo had to flee to the United States after the violent collapse of the short-lived reformist government of 1884.

He undertook systematic studies, and successfully graduated from George Washington University with a degree in medicine (he is now remembered as a journalist and political activist, but until the end of his very long life, Seo practiced medicine and did some professional research in microbiology).

From the early 1890s a number of Korean Christians, graduates of the newly established missionary schools, went to America. Most of them specialized in theology, but some chose to focus on modern science (like, say, Easter Pak, the first Korean female MD holder).

However, these people were few and far between. Only after 1910 did the numbers of Koreans enrolled in the United States begin to grow.

Throughout the colonial era, the United States enjoyed great popularity in Korea, where it was seen as a friendly country, perhaps the only force which could somehow check the ongoing Japanese expansion.

From the early 1930s Japanese propaganda insisted that the United States was a ``white imperialist'' power, against whose encroachment the Japanese empire had to fight, but it seems that few people believed that.

However, going to Japan to study was much easier than going to the United States. The distance was shorter, the cost of living was lower and the language was (and is) much easier for Koreans to master. Hence, in 1929 there were merely 292 Korean students in American universities, while in Japan there were about 3,000.

The majority of the students were graduates of the missionary schools, and they traveled to the United States with recommendations from their teachers and principals.

It is remarkable that in 1924, out of the 159 Korean students in the United States, 58 (or 36.5 percent) were natives of South Pyongan Province, the area of Pyongyang, then the major stronghold of Korean Christianity. Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi Province accounted for only 41 students, or 25.8 percent of the total.

In the early 1930s it would cost between $600 and $1,500 a year to live and study in the United States, depending on the school and area. According to a 1930 publication, the most expensive place for Koreans was Princeton while Emory College in Atlanta was the cheapest.

In the case of Emory, for example, a foreign student would expect to spend $60-$90 a year on accommodation, $200-$300 on food and $240-$250 on tuition and books.

In 1930 it took two yen to buy one greenback, so this means that a year of studies in the United States would cost between 1,200 and 3,000 won/yen, this in an era when a skilled worker in Korea made 250 won a year and a school teacher or clerk would earn 500-700 yen.

This was a large amount of money, well beyond the means of most Koreans, so nearly all students went to the United States on scholarship. Still, in most cases, the scholarships paid tuition only, so the rest had to be earned somehow.

Thus, most students spent their summer vacation time doing all kinds of casual work: washing windows and cleaning houses, cutting grass at the golf fields, working as waiters in Chinese restaurants, picking grapes on farms, etc.

Typically, the newly arrived students first enrolled at some college in a small city, in order to improve their English and get acquainted with the American way of life. Then they would move to a major college in a large city, if they could afford it. The countryside colleges were both cheaper and less stressful.

Dr. Kim Song-hak, who recently analyzed the reports and memoirs of the colonial-era Korean students in the United States, wrote that two features of American education attracted much attention. First, the teaching methods were different from those of Korea and Japan.

The professors expected their students to do some reading and then discuss the issues, while in Japanese-style schools the emphasis was on the textbook and its content.

The second issue was on co-education. In Korea, all schools above the primary level were strictly segregated by sex, but in the United States co-education was becoming the norm.

Another problem was racism, which remained so powerful in the United States in the 1920s and '30s. The Immigration Act of 1924 greatly restricted access of the ``Orientals,'' and introduced visa regulations which sometimes could make life difficult.

However, these ugly incidents didn't change the notion that the American system was an example to emulate. Indeed, despite frequent complaints about racism, most students returned home as admirers of the United States.

The political environment was conducive to instigating anti-Japanese, pro-independence activities. The emigre politicians, including the would-be ROK first president Syngman Rhee, were much involved with student groups and associations.

It is not surprising that so many former graduates of American schools featured so prominently in post-1945 Korean history.

Professor Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. He recently published ``The Dawn of Modern Korea,'' which is now on sale at Kyobo Book Center and other major bookstores. The book is based on columns published in The Korea Times. He can be reached at anlankov@yahoo.com.