Education in Korea....it's different.

Week 4…completed….

I’ve had a few people as me about the school, so let me explain how the schooling works over here. Kids go to public school from about 8 am – 2 pm, they take classes like Math, Science, History, English, Korean, PE, Music, etc. Once they are done with public school many children go to private language schools, called Hagwons, which is where I teach. Hagwons are basically strictly English language schools, that parents pay to send their children too. Though at some hagwons they teach addition subjects like Science, Math, Cooking, etc, though they are taught strictly in English, which is not as easy as you would think. Education is so important here that these kids seem to be in school, private classes, hagwons or doing homework all day. My hagwons last class finishes at 6:30pm but there are some hagwons that are open until midnight. It is very common to see 1st and 2nd grade kids on the bus going home from a hagwon at 1 am.

I have discovered that these kids are very smart, book wise but trying to get these kids to be creative or use their imagination is close to impossible. Parents here want their children to learn English so badly to prepare them for the chance to go to the US for college and to work in the US workforce that their children are in school 12-16 hours a day. When I ask my students what they do on the weekends they tell me “homework” or “lessons.” In my short time here I find myself thinking that there has to be some sort of middle ground, between the US, who push creativity, imaginantion, extracurricular activities, sports, choir, band, etc and here in Korea where it seems that they are creating a robots. They are great kids though, sweet, outgoing, friendly kids. I have discovered that no matter where in the world you are kids are kids, they want to be loved, and accepted and they want someone acknowledge them.

The tough thing about hagwons in this country is that they are all individually owned and operated and they are very much a “business” so even though education is important it just as important if not more important that the kids have fun so they want to keep coming to the school, so that they will tell their friends and more parents will enroll their children.

This week was pretty uneventful at school. I’m getting more into the swing of things with my classes. I’m still struggling with my 6 year old class. I have two students, one who is a very bright little boy, and another who is a special needs little girl, who is mentally about 3. Up until this week the little girl was never actually in the class because she would just get up and walk out, but a few of the other kids noticed this and started copying her, so the director is now requiring her to stay in my class, which I understand…but it isn’t working very well. They are both great kids, but I’ve been having a really hard time teaching them because I feel like I need to give her all of my attention and the little boy is getting very moody and upset about it. I’m still working on how to provide both students with what they need and at the same time keep an eye on the little girl.

My other classes have been going pretty well. I’ve discovered that they love what they call “Teacher Says.” I lay all of the flash cards that we have been working on out on the table and then have the kids get up and I call out the card and they run around like crazy kids to find the right card, then they say the word, bring it up to the front of the class and write the word on the white board to get a point. It can easily take up the entire class.

I went to the Jinhae Wonderland on Friday to see their facility and to see how they run their activity days. We have two “activity days” a month, which are set up to act out American events/holidays/etc. For example this month one of the activity days is for Easter and the other is a traditional Western culture childrens birthday. We got to see how they did an activity day at the Jinhae school, they read a story about Easter to the kids, which in fact was a little advanced for me. Then the kids got to decorate eggs and have an Easter egg hunt. I really don’t know how much the kids actually understood but they had a lot of fun with it.

This week ended with my getting sick, I started coming down with something on Thursday and by Friday I couldn’t stop coughing, couldn’t hold anything down, and was running a nasty fever. I ended up running out of class sick on Friday, so they sent me home. I spent all Fri and Sat in bed and now it’s Sunday and I am still laying in bed not feeling very 100% but at least I have stoppped throwing up, though my body is sore and I’m tired.

I am trying to find out if they have chiropractors and massauses here…I’m sure they do, but I just have to figure out where, but as soon as I find one…I am getting a massage.

Next weekend I am going to be going to spend the weekend with Stacy in Jinhae. I am looking forward to seeing the Cherry Blossom Festival and taking lots of pictures! I'll be sure to have lots of pictures to post next week.