IYPE日韓学生交流

国際惑星地球年（IYPE）日韓学生交流プログラム参加記録

高木秀雄*　

2008年7月31日〜8月4日の5日間，韓国IYPE委員会から日本IYPE委員会を通じて国内の地球科学関連の学生5名が招待され，学生の引率者として私が参加した。このプログラムは，前年に日韓越の3国で締結されたIYPE活動に関する覚え書き（MOU）の一環として行われたものであるが，今回は日韓の2国間の学生交流となった。

プログラムの内容は，韓国南西部の光州に滞在し，現地で開催される科学フェスティバルに参加したり，市内見物をしながら，韓国側で選ばれた5名の学生と，その引率者である江原大学のYu, Jae-Young教授とともに， 10名の学生が交流を深めるというものである。Yu教授は地球化学が専門で，英語が堪能であり，また博識であった。

韓国の科学フェスティバルは昨年から始まり，今回は光州にある金大中会議場という巨大なホールで開催されたもので，科学博覧会である。ただ，IYPE関連のブースは全体の1/3程度の広さを占めており，韓国の地質調査所に相当するKIGAMをはじめ，海洋関係，極地関係，宇宙関係，気象関係の研究機関のかなり大きなブースが設置されていた。各ブースの内容は充実しており，また大変お金をかけていることが印象的であった。その反面，韓国地質学会の関わりが見受けられなかった。どうやら，韓国地質学会はこの巨大なIYPEイベントに対しては蚊屋の外であったようである。

フェスティバルの参加対象は小学生〜中学生とその引率者が主であり，高校生以上の姿はあまりみなかったが，いろいろと展示に趣向をこらしていたので，子供たちの科学への関心を深めるよい機会を与えていた。ただ，そのこともあり，プレゼンはすべてハングルでなされていたので，書かれてあることはまったくわからなかった。 KIGAMのイベントとしては，恐竜を象った石板とそれを掘る道具を無料で配布し，恐竜を掘り出す模擬掘削を子供たちにやらせていた。参加した学生たちも全員挑戦，結果がどうあれ，日本の学生は全員参加賞としてかなり大きな瑪瑙板を土産にいただいた。聞くところでは石板だけで40ドルだそうである。また，出版物の展示のなかに，韓国地質150選という写真集が目に留まった。 KIGAMのwebサイトから注文できるそうである。

今回はインチョン空港から高速バスで4時間半かかる光州で開催されたこともあり，初日と最終日は移動だけで時間を費やし，実質上は3日間の活動であった。その初日は会場でLee Sang-Man IYPE韓国組織委員会会長の日本語を交えた挨拶の後，引率者のYu教授と私のスピーチに引き続き学生の自己紹介がなされ，IYPE関係の主に3機関のブースの見学を実施した。 2日目はフェスティバル見学の自由時間に宛てられ，高木は韓国地質学会長の李　鉉具教授を表敬訪問するため，大田に向かった。 3日目は前半が光州めぐり，夕方から全南大学恐竜センターでミーティングを行い，あらためて学生の研究テーマの紹介やフェスティバルを含むこのプログラムの印象や希望について語り合った。

韓国の学生は，ソウル大，江原大，全南大（2名）などの国立大と，高麗大（私立）から合計5人が選ばれて来た。募集のやり方は，web上で応募を呼びかけたようであるが，日本側は学生を5名に絞るのに時間が不足していたこともあり， IYPE国内委員会や地質学会で連絡が取れる大学機関の教授を通して学生を募った。東大，茨城大，京都大，早稲田大（2名）の5名である。学生どうしは，5日間宿と食事を共にし，時には朝方まで語り合い，大変交流を深めることができた。最終日のバスターミナルでの別れのときは，日本ではあまり見られない光景だが，学生通し抱き合って別れを惜しんでいた。

*日本地質学会副会長，早稲田大学教授

参加学生のレポート

Park, Jong-Yeon (Seoul University)

Even though I am not an outgoing and a gregarious person who can easily get along with new people, the reason why I wanted to participate in this program is that it could be a great chance to talk with foreign students involved in the Earth science. Through the meeting, I thought we could not only talk about cultural difference between two countries, but also we could share our honest thoughts about our major which we have felt while studying so far. Now I am looking back the last five days being together and I think I was able to catch the two rabbits. Add to that, I could make good friends from Japan and from different regions of Korea. The most memorable moment is the discussion time in the fourth day. It was a little bit pressure for me to talk in English, but it was fun and valuable time in an atmosphere of freedom. And also I would never forget the last night talking with them until morning comes.

Great and unforgettable five days! It was a great experience and exceeds my expectations. I am really looking forward to meet them again someday in the future.

Ohkawa, Eri (Kyoto University)

At the festival, I was surprised that the number of visitors was very large. Especially, it was impressive that there we were a lot of children. First day of the festival, we visited three Earth Science Sections and listened to English explanation. When we were listening to the explanation, some groups of parents and children stopped by and started listening up. However, they went away once they found the explanation was not in Korean. I thought that was a waste of chance to interest people. There were many sections and they, particularly experience based exhibitions, were popular among children. So I knew why there were so many children. I was also impressed that we could join all events without any fee. Since almost every display was written in Hangeul, I could not understand what was displayed.

All Koreans we met through this program were very kind. Thanks to them, we, Japanese delegates, had spent a great time during our stay. Five Korean students are all good English speaker. I thought I should have been a better English speaker to communicate with them. Now I really feel that I must practice speaking English. And talking about our specialized fields also raised my motivation for the study at the university. The participation to this program brought me the motivation to learn more. I could gain valuable experience! I really appreciate all people supporting us.

Cha, Seung Hoi (Kangwon University)

These days, many people are interested in the nature, environment, resources and pollution because these things are very close to our lives. We need to concern about them more than past years to continue developing our society. Therefore, our meeting, which the people studying the Earth science met, meant a lot. I would like to say our friendship between Korean and Japanese students rather than the conference and sightseeing because a purpose of this program is to develop correlation between them. Of course, the conference was great and amazing. We could see and experience current trends of various fields. Indeed, city tour and meals were also good.

We, two different country students, obviously had a great time although the time was very short. We talked about each other, major, and the future. Surprisingly, our interests and worries are almost same. In spite of the importance of the Earth science, our social awareness is too short so that we don’t have many opportunities to get a job. By the way, an interest thing is that such a situation happens at not only Korea, but Japan. Actually, I thought that geology or the Earth science is very popular in Japan because Japan is a developed country and earthquake and tsunami occur pretty frequently, but Japanese students said “that’s not true and geology is not so famous.” That’s a new fact. Nevertheless, we weren’t disappointed but encouraged each other and felt sympathy together. I found that our thinking about our field was pure and not shaken by trends. We all must be people who love geology and the Earth science.

Finally, I thank all of the people who attended this program, especially, my teacher, Prof. Yu. If he didn’t recommend to me participating in this program, I might lose the opportunity to meet such nice guys and to talk about developed discussion. Above all, I am so glad to find the fact from this program and the conference that I study a wonderful major now. I believe that this conference and program are successful, and I hope we keep going such an effort for our society and future.

Shinya Miyata (Waseda University)

I took part in IYPE-Korea-Japan Student Exchange Program to visit Science Festival and discuss with Korean students. The IYPE related booths in festival exhibited various things, such as minerals, fossils, oil-bearing sedimentary rocks, etc… We could have nice experience of cleaning fossil by kit (but I finished it only 5 minutes). This experience was very popular for children. In festival, we looked many contents, for example, experience for weather forecaster and simulation of the KTX. The exhibition of army contents was not familiar in Japan, but I wish that someday we don’t need it.

Japanese students were surprised that Korean students manage English very well and have ambition to study abroad. So we thought that we must learn from them. We understood that Korean Earth science has some problems such as post doctoral problem, decreasing students of geology as well as in Japan, so we need to exchange views much more for solution of them.

This program was very precious experience for my life. So I want that this type program will be active all over the world.

Yamada, Tetsushi (Waseda University)

“I want to work at international oil company and make a contribution to oil sand development in Canada.” “I want to study in Japan or US, which has a priority in my study field to get Ph.D.” Each of the Korean students has more concrete future plan than Japanese, and in addition the direction of their eyes are at abroad. The reason may be their oldness due to military service (for men) and their experience of studying abroad. They said that good portion of Korean university students goes abroad to study English for about one year to prepare for job hunting. One of Korean students said that it’s so stressful to study English even after entering the university. It is true that they have disadvantage in polishing their specialty for this, but it is also true that I felt inferiority toward their sense of purpose and English, and that impression became my energy for study and future planning. On the other hand, Japan and Korea share the same problems in geological field, such as unpopularity of field geology among students and the difficulty of being employed after Ph.D. I hope we could activate geology by motivating students through grass-roots activity like this program.

Hosoi, Jun (Ibaraki University)

It was the first time to visit Korea for me and I had a little knowledge about Korea. Firstly I worried about the mutual understanding among Korean students and me because I was not a good English speaker. However we promoted scientific and cultural exchanges between Korean and Japanese students and finally I became more familiar with Korea. We talked with Korean students in English and occasionally in Korean language every day and became the best friends.

Korean Science Festival is as same as the events, in which I participated, held at Makuhari-messe or Tokyo-bigsight in Japan. The hall was magnificent and the atmosphere was energetic and there were many people including children. The matters dealt with in this festival were in the forefront of science and technology. However, the explanations for them were plain, entertaining and interesting. Many booths, where children could learn science by the play sense, were found and also there were good places for high school students to know what universities were doing and to take advice for learning science from the university students and teachers. I was very surprised to see that Earth Sciences’ area accounted for over 25 percents of this hall. In Korea, earth sciences are treated as important disciplines in all natural sciences and technologies. It is recently pointed out that many Japanese children are losing interest in science, especially in earth sciences. I think that the science event like Korean Science Festival is effective for calling children’s interest in sciences.

Korean students and teachers took good care of us for five days. We enjoyed Korean good dishes, good lodging, fantastic city tour in addition to science festival. Next time, we want to see in Japan with the same member and to do scientific and cultural interchange. I wish, finally, to thank all of IYPE Korea and IYPE Japan people for giving us such a chance.

Lee, Sang You (Korea University)

It was helpful for both Korean and Japanese students who are studying Earth science. Actually I've had little opportunity for meeting other students except for my university. So, I felt like a frog in the pond. In five days at Gwangju, I discussed several topics about my major, future and so on with students who joined exchange program. So, I could get various information from them and extend my knowledge. Although we didn't communicate perfectly, because of English skill, we were close to each other quickly and easily since our major is same. We will keep in touch, exchange our opinion of study, help each other in the future. Through this exchange program, I learned about more detailed subject included geology, and became more proud of my major. I never forget five days during science festival at Gwangju, it was very valuable time for me.

Kim, Yu-Mi (Chonnam University)

I applied for the program to meet Japanese students who are studying Earth science in university because it was a good chance for me to discuss and share the knowledge related to our study area. We could also know a trend what is studying now in Korea and Japan. Nowadays, our study area is getting more important all over the world because of serious problems with our planet such as environmental pollutions and lack of natural resources. Those are why we need to study more deeply.

From the 2nd to 3rd day, we attended the 2008 Korea Science Festival together. There were many parts of science exhibitions in the convention hall. Especially, we looked around and listened to explanation in the related Earth science booths. We could understand how and what research is going on in Korea. Although we could not get deeply informative things related to our study, we just enjoyed the many kinds of science parts shown in the convention hall. In the last day, we visited some famous places in Gwangju and then had some time for final discussion about this program. Everyone who attended this program said it was very informative and satisfactory time. For 5 days, we made a lot of good memories together. Although it was very short time, we had a great time to exchange many opinions and ideas about our major and culture of Korea-Japan each other. I am pleased that I could join this program. I shall never forget this good experience!

To live on the earth together in the future, cooperation of Korea and Japan for study is thought very important. This program was just a small step to coexist Korea and Japan in the future. I sincerely hope that our association will be continued constantly.

Kimoto, Kentaro (Tokyo University)

We participated Korea science festival 2008 in IYPE-Korea-Japan Student Exchange Programs. We experienced not only science field but also each other culture. I thank for inviting us to Korea. After this program finished, we discussed many things as summary of this program. I thought that English was important in multinational events. Posters of this festival were written in Korean language. I thought that we should write in English. Many people can read English and produce various opinions. If we hold science festival like this in Japan, we want to write in English as possible.

In the field of culture, I thought that meal manners were different from Japan. When we eat something using bowl, we usually pick bowl up. But Korean usually eat something without picking bowl up. Other, I was surprised military service.

I felt other many difference. I want to hold science festival like this in Japan next year. If we hold science festival in Japan, I want to take advantage of this experience.

Yoon, Sung Jun (Chonnam University)

It is a well-known fact that time goes by, resources and environment are getting important. It is a good example that few months ago, one barrel of oil price was about 150 dollars. The high oil price made world-economy worse. How can we solve the problem? We have to find new places, which contain resources, and develop alternative energy. Also, we should take account of environment. Everyone knows that pollution create a disaster in the future, but almost all people think that It will not happen soon, also, environment don't make money, so everyone doesn't care about environment. However, everything is changed. A lot of disasters occur in the world, and in 4 years, some countries are restricted carbon dioxide emissions by Tokyo agreement, so we need to develop new technology for reducing a contaminant. Then, who can do this work? Scientists and student who study science should come together to contribute effort to provide a solution. We need the international student association for cooperation.

This festival was a very good chance to make a relationship with other country student. Our major are very similar, so we can be close easily. We attended many programs and met a lot of people who is geology scientists. We looked around an exhibition and got a lot of information about resources and new technology, which is concerned, in environment.

I got a strong impression from this program, especially discussion. When we had discussion, we exchanged information and our respective opinion about prospect of geology and environment. After we got in the hotel, we continued discussion at night. I have never had like this aggressive conversation. I got a unique experience and good friends from this program. If I could get a chance to join like this program next time, I want to attend again.