| Asians at WESLI by Kenny Tanemura |
| The Wisconsin English as a Second Language Institute, or WESLI, is located in Madison, Wis. Nearly half of the institute's students are from Korea. WESLI has attracted students from all over Asia, in part because of the cost of living and studying in Wisconsin is considerably less than it is in San Francisco, New York, or other cities. There are other draws from Asian students. The Midwest boasts "standard English," and Madison is known as a safe college town. In spite of the recreational and cultural opportunities Madison offers, many of the Asian students easily get bored because they come from big cities."It's not exciting here," says Seyoung, an intermediate level student at WESLI, "but it's inexpensive, so I can study here for a long time." Many of the Koreas students are funded by their parents, and the parents help their children decide where they will study English. Gi Sun, an advanced level student who began graduate school at Michigan State in August, said that her mother checks in on her often. "My mom has pictures of my room. She knows it's nice, and it's very safe here. She wants me to go to a univesity that is safe, like Madison. It's boring, but the most impotant thing is that it's safe, it's clean, and it costs less to go to WESLI. I couldn't afford to study in New York, though I would love to visti!" she said. "We have a very large number of Korean students, because Korea has a huge middle class and they can afford to send their kids abroad to study English," says Dan Perreth, and instructor at WESLI. Some Korean students, however, are disappointed when they arrive at WESLI to see so many other Korean students there. "I don't want to go to a school with so many Koreans around," Seyoung said. "Because I don't to speak Korean with other Koreans; I want to be forced to speak English. I'm here to learn English, not to meet other Korean friends. I have many Korean friends in Seoul." Most of the Korean students at WESLI agree with Suyoun, altough at the same time they have found a nice community there which they appreciate. They rarely go out for lunch or dinner by themselves, or even with one or two friends. Instead, they go grocery shopping together at the local Korean store and then cook and eat together. They also eat lunch together, and participate in most activities in large groups. "This is typical Korean style," Seyoung said. There are 15 students in one dorm room. While Seyoung and others cook, friends sit on the sofas or at the kitchen table, or stand around talking. If a needed ingredient is missiong, one of the student-cooks runs downstairs to a friend's dorm room and borrows it, whether it's rice or chicken or cabbage. This is a collective dinner happening, and other friends and friends of friends regualrly walk into the room to say hi, even if they can't stay for dinner. No one knocks. Korean pop music plays from language dictionaries that also work as radios. While this sounds like a lot of fun, most of the students have left their best friends behind, in Korea, and would prefer to studey at a school where are few other Koreans. One Korean student has adopted an "American" name, Tim. "When the next session starts, I might ahve new Korean roommates, so I'm going to pretend to ve Japanese, and Seyoung is pretending to be a Taiwanese," jokes Tim. "I'm from Taiwan," Seyoung says, ;aughing. They're only half-kidding, because in Korea, the amount of English prospective employees understand is directly related to how much money they will make and what kinds of jobs thay qualify for. The Asian students at WESLI are themselves a kind of lingua franca in Madison -- they bring an international presence to the town and add new and exciting cultural layers to the downtown area, where most of them hang out. |
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