We are interviewing foreign scholarship students for the grad program. There are some standard non-academic questions we ask. "What made you choose KNU? What made you think to come to Korea? How many fingers am I holding up?"

The student explained what she found attractive about Korea is that it has a similar culture to her country– a culture in which family is important.

I admire these students, who apply to schools half way across the world so that they can get a modern education and take what they have learned back to their countries, so that they can send money back to their families, so that they can escape wars. These students have learned English and have distinguished themselves, to some extent, in math classes at their home universities.

And they have prepared for these Zoom interviews with a panel of professors from a country they know little about, professors who frown as they try to hear the students answers over poor internet connections.

But this answer is a platitude if anything is. This is an empty answer. And I wonder where all of these empty answers come from.

Wait a minute, perhaps it isn't. Are there cultures that do not value family ties? Cultures where the norm is to dis-honour your parents, to eschew your siblings? To hate your neighbours?

I had a friend once that hated his parents. That was what I liked about him, it was an endearing trait. But it wasn't cultural. I feel this fell within the natural multifariousness of a given culture.

What cultures was she referring to then?

The go-to when someone differentiates aspects of their nation is to compare it to America. But it has never seemed to me that disregard for family was a defining characteristic of the Americans I met.

Brazilian culture then? I only really know Eduardo Tengan. He didn't strike me as anti-family; but I don't recall ever hearing him tout family, either. And it makes sense. That is probably why he is so smart; doesn't have to phone his mom on Saturday mornings.

Yeah sometimes it just takes talking these things through.

These questions don't really matter though. We want to know what brings people here, but it is usually that Korea is relatively wealthy nation, and offers generous scholarships. We would like to know what attracts good students to our school in particular. But the main point of the interview is to assess the student's mathematical ability. Transcripts from foreign universities are not always the most reliable. And while not everyone that applies can be Eduardo Tengan, we do want students that have a reasonable mathematical background and some of the drive, or sense of curiosity, that is necessary to do mathematical research.