People do not do things without purpose, but they may fail to realize their purpose. A number of examples can be taken but let us focus on tourism.

Owing to an increased globalization and improvement of means of transportation, people are unprecedently travelling across the globe to see what they have not seen or what they have seen in movies only. As a result, horizon of their knowledge of different cultures and places is much better than from what it was long time before the turn of the 21^st Century. 

Most tourists, however, lack one important thing to fully understand the life, culture and values of societies that they visit – home visiting. More often than not, tourists’ focus is beaches and fancy places which hardly unveil the history, culture and way of life of the people and country that they are touring. The KDI School understands this gap and has created the opportunity for its international students who can partially be considered as tourists to buddy themselves with their Korean counterparts. Apart from letting foreign students get assistance from their buddies in their daily lives, the program allows international students to get the benefit of home visiting – a program that international students value most to practice Korean way of life at homes of their respective buddies.

It was with this passion that a group of nine students, perhaps the largest group ever for a family in the history of the KDI School buddy program, travelled to Cheonan during the spring break. In its two days and one night stay in the town, the group has dined at home and traditional restaurants, drank makholi and mekju, talked with the hosting family through their daughter as a translator and slept on the floor as Koreans do. Beside this, the hosting family has sacrificed its two working days to give their guests ride to different parts of the town, historical places and parks which include independence hall, Cheonan three-way Intersection Park, Oeam folk village and Sinjung Lake and park.

In an attempt to get firsthand information about their feelings of the home visiting program, the Globe has talked to one member of the group and the host. 

Ibrahim Haleem (2012 MDP, Maldives) frankly admits that he is in short of words to exactly explain his feeling of the event. But wishing readers of the Globe will understand the difficulty of expressing feelings; he says that the program was a great opportunity for the group to feel, understand and experience Korean culture and life. He further says that by talking, dining and drinking with Korean parents, the group felt that it is part of the family. The parents’ deep involvement in the program and their loving heart creates a special feeling that he says will never forget.

Nari Shin (2012 MDP, Korea), the host, shares the same feeling with Haleem. She says she cannot express what she and her parents felt. What she can briefly say is that her parents realized and felt happy that their daughter has many friends from various countries that bring with them a mosaic of culture and color. She adds that her mother wished to better treat her friends whom she found hard to say buy as they had already established a strong family bond.

By Kalekristos ZERISENAY (2012 MDP, Eritrea)