{This article is written by a Junior Journalist. Junior Journalist articles are only briefly edited by mentors before publishing.}
On October 26th, Jeju’s MG Training Institute played host to the 4th Jeju Youth Forum. Students aged 15 to 18 were selected from nine different countries to gather together, and debate global issues. Numerous topics were discussed, such as smart phone addiction and leadership.
The participants came from Russia, China, Japan, Korea (Jeju, in particular), USA, Vietnam, and more. In total, 9 nations and 19 cities were represented by more than 120 participating students.
"This festival's purpose is training talented individuals,” said event organizers. “Here, students form strong relationships with different friends from different races, they grow up themselves, and they all enjoy the time together."
The forum's responses from its participants were quite positive, and different.
"This is a really great and beautiful time to me,” said Aoi Nagata, a second grade high school student from Japan. “It was not easy to talk with English."
"It is awesome here,” said Casandra, a participant from China. “I can meet new friends, and have new experiences. But there were some cultural difficulties, such as taking off shoes when you come inside."
Casandra, who spoke about school violence at the event, showed strong sympathy for the topic she presented on.
"It's about making school a happy place, without school violence,” she said. “This is a very important global issue. We should improve the education about it, and parents and teachers and students should unite together to solve it."
It was not just the students that attended the forum that were impressed by the gathering. Event organizers and facilitators spoke highly of it as well.
"Literacy, gathering, and sharing each other’s thoughts with different races," said Noriko Uno, an event guide from Japan, when asked what impressed her about the event. "I was impressed with the beauty of Jeju's nature."
With globalization and the rapid changes of technology, the world’s boundaries are becoming faint. Whatever the debates' topics and results were, the most clear point is that this forum showed that we all are one. Whatever countries the students came from or what color their skin was, they all showed their confident and unique personalities at this festival.
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