Group project politics gets a little complicated in Korea

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For some international students in Korea, group projects can be a piece of cake, but for others, they can be a burden they would prefer to avoid at all costs.

Students usually call group projects teample, a slang combining the words "team" and "project" in Korean. At some point, all university students have to go through them, no matter how worried they may be over someone else's input having an impact on their grade. And they are quite important too, as in most cases, group projects make up 15, 20 or even 30 percent of the final grade.

Group projects in Korea and other countries are similar in terms of the division of work. There is often a person who puts in less effort and somebody who ends up bearing most of the responsibility.

But there are factors that can come into play when working on a team project in Korea that make the experience markedly different, including communication issues and a fairly unique university culture.

On this reporter’s first group project in 2020, the introductions went well and everything seemed positive while talking to my group mates, with three of five of whom were Korean.

But once it was established that two of the Korean students were a year older than the rest of us, the pleasant dynamic shifted. There was a slight change in tone that, while nowhere near being rude, started to make the rest of us feel like employees being talked down to by the boss.

The two older Korean group mates also tended to talk among themselves.

The language barrier was not an issue as the course was conducted in English and all members of our team were able to communicate in English, however, the problem was more with the age and seniority hierarchy within the group.

As the first semester progressed, the two members of the group that were not Koreans started blending more and more into the background.

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This detached sentiment seems to be quite common among international students.

Moreover, the supposedly bonding experience of group projects tends to resemble more of a business transaction, where after the deal is finalized, all parties involved go their separate ways.

Iman Khairil, a 21-year-old student from Malaysia at Yonsei University, shared that her experience doing group projects in Korea diverged from the one she had back home.

While completing a foundation year at one of the British university campuses in Malaysia, Khairil had to participate in a fair share of group projects.

"Even with an international student in the group, we try our best to include them and will ask them to hang out outside of school," Khairil said. "On the other hand, Korean students are more closed off. Even if you try to get close to them and they reciprocate, you will probably never talk after the group project."

When it comes to the actual project, Khairil expressed her surprise at her Korean group mates' working preferences.

"In Malaysia, we usually just assign an equal workload and do it on our own," explained Khairil. "In Korea, I've noticed that people like to work together even if it's in silence on Zoom."

Now that Korea is gradually returning to pre-pandemic normalcy, many educational establishments are returning to the classroom and students will be able to work on group projects the way they did before Covid-19.

For Dora Scott, a 22-year-old student from the United States at Yonsei University who was able to attend face-to-face classes before the restrictions, the main noticeable difference between online and offline group projects is the greater sense of unity.

"Before the pandemic, people didn't rely on meeting over Zoom, so we'd have to meet in person," said Scott. "My experiences differed between group projects, but generally, you meet somewhere on campus like in the library, in the dorm's common rooms, or at a cafe, so it felt easier to bond with my group mates. We'd sometimes grab lunch and would often talk about our lives outside of class."

Scott also shared that after spending so much time with her group mates in the same physical space, they developed a stronger bond and celebrated after the presentation by getting drinks or dinner.

However, Scott noted that international students outnumbered Koreans in her offline group projects. It appears that the dynamic of the group changes depending on the number of foreign and Korean students.

Sometimes there are bigger concerns than just social hierarchy when it comes to group projects.

The language barrier or the social pressure of being an outsider can also be an issue, especially for students who are still early in their university career here and worried about letting their classmates down.

Tomris Silan Kurt, a student in the department of anthropology at Seoul National University, said that in one group project she was extremely nervous about the assignment and afraid of how her group mates and professor might react if she significantly underperforms.

“The members of my group had to do slightly more work than students in other groups,” she said, “because in other groups, four people could contribute to the organization of the transcript, while in our group we had to exclude me from that process.”

Kurt isn’t the only international student to worry that she might be holding her team back as she is unable to put in as much work as might be expected from a Korean group member.

“I am a burden for my group,” said one student from the design department at Seoul National University. “I have to focus on what I can do to help my team as I can’t communicate and understand when they speak fast.”

Despite these concerns, Korean students say that they’re not worried about international students doing badly at group projects, they’re more worried about them taking a fair share of the work.

“I remember being worried international students wouldn’t participate fully,” said Ahn Ji-hye, a student at Seoul National University. “Probably because they were intimidated from the start and worried that they wouldn’t be able to do their best for their group.”

Language barrier can also be a concern, especially for students on courses that are taught in English, but where students still feel more comfortable communicating in Korean.

“When I was applying for my major it was clear that the faculty had opened an English section for the department, and the classes would be taught in English — no one asked for a Korean language score,” the design department student said. “I study Korean to this day, but it’s hard because I was not prepared for these kinds of obstacles in my daily studies.”

As with the issue of participation, students suggest that the best way to overcome these issues is to continue to communicate as much as possible with group mates, even if there is a language barrier.

“In most cases there is some inevitable language barrier but the outcome really depends on how much both sides try to communicate with each other,” said one student at Seoul National University who declined to be named. “There has to be a mutual effort in order for the group project to work.”

BY STUDENT REPORTER ARUZHAN AIMANSHINA, KHAGAY TATYANA [kjd.kcampus@joongang.co.kr]