Cross-listed business course to send students to South Korea

The Kelley School of Business and the East Asian Studies Center have created a jointly offered course that will allow students to travel to South Korea next spring and spend their spring break on a 10-day study tour of South Korea. \nThis is the fifth year that the business school and the center have teamed together to send IU students to East Asia. Previous destinations have included Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. \nThis trip will be the first to South Korea. \nSouth Korea was chosen this year because of the Kelley School's excellent contacts there, said Tammy Orahood, manager of undergraduate international programs for the Kelley School. These contacts grant students access to educational institutions in Seoul and allow them the opportunity to visit with businesses that partner with the Korean University, like Samsung, one of the largest computer chip manufacturers in the world. \nThe advantage of a study tour like this one is that students are able to visit nontraditional locations and learn about a culture and economy that they might otherwise have overlooked, Orahood said. Students often travel to Europe or Australia, but this course gives them a chance to visit a place of equal economic importance they might not be able or willing to visit on their own. \nThis study tour will help students gain a global perspective of business, said Ellen Keating, a senior who traveled to China last year through the same program. People normally think of Western Europe when talking about international business, but visiting China opened her eyes to what international business really means, Keating said. \n"The program allows you to travel as a colleague, not a tourist," she said. "You really get to participate in the culture and see how businesses work and how Americans interact with these foreign businesses." \nWith South Korea modifying its business practices to meet today's business demands, students could learn a lot by observing these changes, said Taik Sup Auh, a visiting professor in IU's journalism school from South Korea. \nConfucianism, a practice that emphasizes the importance of a superior/inferior relationship, has always held a strong influence on South Korean lifestyle, he said. Lately, however, South Korean laborers have joined together in hopes of changing Confucianism's influence in the business sphere. As a result, a surge of new socialist movements have strengthened South Korean labor unions, allowing them to push for fewer hours and increased pay. By visiting South Korea, these students will see how Korean business copes with these two competing currents of old and new and how it adjusts its business practices to balance old ideals and modern wants, Sup Auh said. \n"Students will learn how Korea was able to survive and prosper in such an adverse political and social situation," Sup Auh said. \nThis course, which will be listed as BUS D496: Foreign Study in Business and as EALC E497: East Asian Exchange Programs, will be taught Thursday evenings in the spring and include a mandatory 10-day study tour to South Korea over spring break. \nIn accordance with a business curriculum, students will learn about South Korean language, culture and history, according to information provided by the Kelley School. In South Korea, students will go to historical and cultural sites, meet with IU alumni and visit important business and commercial areas. A grant will provide round-trip air fare for students and a small subsidy for hotel and in-country expenses. Students are responsible for food, housing and local transportation. There will be a required, nonrefundable deposit of approximately $1,125 upon acceptance into the course. \nApplications are available at the information window in the business school and must be returned to the East Asian Studies Center in Memorial Hall West 207 by Oct. 2.