▲ Chinese student at Kyung Hee University
With the rapid spread of Corona Virus Infection-19 (Corona 19), Chinese students are entering Japan in earnest as the opening day of the university approaches.
Most of them do not live in school dormitories and live separately around the university, which makes them difficult to manage at the university level.
This is the reason why merchants and students around the university complain of anxiety when community infections are in full swing.
According to education officials and college students on Friday, most of the 10,000 Chinese students who will be coming into Korea for the last week of February will be in the community, not in the university dormitories.
At Kyung Hee University (38,393 students) with the largest number of Chinese students, only 480 Chinese students who visited this year chose to enter the dormitory for two weeks of self-regulation, and the rest reported to the school to stay separately I did.
The same is true for other universities.
In the dormitory, two weeks of self-regulation, 100 students out of 3330 Sungkyunkwan University, 80 out of 3199 in Chung-Ang University, 180 out of 2,508 in Korea University, and 80 out of 1,810 in Hankuk University In addition, 30 out of 1,400 Yonsei students are insignificant.
Although the college checks students' status by phone and asks them to refrain from going out every day, they recommend corona19 safety rules, but in reality, there is no way to prevent students from going out or verifying safety rules.
With the explosive increase in community infections of corona 19 in Korea, there are many people around the university who cannot hide their anxiety just because of the large number of Chinese students.
Huh, 72, who runs a pharmacy near Kyung Hee University in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, said, "There are a lot of Chinese students. Most people who come to buy masks are Chinese students."
Another pharmacy nearby also posted a notice saying there was no mask in Chinese.
Im Mo (58), who runs a convenience store near Sungkyunkwan University in Myeongnyun-dong, Jongno-gu, said, "It seems that about 90 Chinese students are looking for one day."
He said, "There are a lot of Chinese students in the village, but I know almost their faces." "If students go to their hometowns, they say," Keep at home, "and" If you have to go out, be sure to wear a mask. " .
Peer college students also complained of anxiety.
Yonsei student Kim Mo, 23, said, "The Chinese students who have come to Korea will have to walk the streets for their own lives. If they are not worried, they will lie."
Universities find it difficult to manage the daily behaviors of Chinese students living outside their dorms.
A private university official in Seoul, which has many Chinese students, said, "Chinese students who attend Korean universities tend to have a relatively high standard of living and do not want to live in dormitories where they are prohibited from going out for two weeks." Nor is it possible to accommodate all Chinese international students. "
"The reality is that Chinese students in the community check their health and check their traffic every day by phone, but they have no choice but to trust their responses."
On the one hand, there are voices pointing out that it is not right to direct the fear of Corona 19 to Chinese international students.
Jin Mo, a 28-year-old graduate student at Korea University, said, "I am not particularly worried about entering Chinese students, and I think these problems should not lead to discrimination against Chinese people." "
Hwang Mo, 24, a staff member near Sinchon Station, said, "Corona 19 is an infectious disease spread between people. We don't need to discriminate between nationality and region.
(Photo = Yonhap News)