Life in Korea.ish

I have met a lot of wonderful people in Korea who come from all sorts of life. There is quite a Kiwi community spread throughout Korea as well, so it is nice to make those familiar connections so far away from home. I am living in Bundang, which is 40 minutes away from Seoul. Bundang is quite a wealthy area, especially where EtonHouse is located.

 

Learning the Korean language was interesting. . . I started a (free) lesson and then did not continue after that. As the great learner that I say I am, I think there are some areas of grey that need a push, or maybe a shove! I know if I would have persevered I could be stringing more everyday sentences and building on from this. Instead I choose to talk with gestures and play charades when communicating with people that only speak Korean. 

I would have to say the biggest learning curve is working with children that have Korean as their first language. As a teacher in this environment it is something that I am still trying to grapple with, as the children are still learning their own language and then enter an environment everyday to learn "English" as well. Most of my class still speak Korean at times during the day, yet I don't disregard it or insist they "speak English!" In saying this, they do try and are becoming more confident each day at their own natural pace. The children are immersed in this English environment, yet personally I think their own language is still developing and should be the priority. Language is not a barrier to our communication, but a place where we have embraced Korean and English as one.

School Story: When painting for the first time, as soon as the children got paint on their hands they refused to paint and insisted on washing their hands (every time). . . It was experiences like this that shared so much more about the cultural dynamic in International Education, I think it is fair to say that teaching in Korea is commonly out of a textbook. I know that EtonHouse Asia is the paradigm shift of education in Asia today, there are already 70 EtonHouse pre-schools across 9 countries in Asia. Therefore parents sending their children to EtonHouse Korea, already have the prior-knowledge that EtonHouse is a school that encourages "Play" as learning and development. There is still a long way to go from shifting parents thinking into this zone and away from textbook learning for young children, but I feel will get there eventually.

Although our families are very supportive of what we do in the Jellyfish class, I think it is important to share stories from their own community. In a recent class newsletter, we attached a ted talk by Korean Author Young-Ha kim who shares an insightful talk on "Be an Artist right now". Young-Ha speaks wonders from a Korean perspective and I know has been an influential person for our parents to reflect on in relation to the work we are doing with their children and the thinking behind the scenes of our Jellyfish adventures. Enjoy!