There is Shoe Etiquette in the Korean Classroom, My week of EPIK Teacher Orientation in Korea. The school system in Korea follows a 6-3-3-4 ladder pattern which consists of elementary school (1st to 6th grades), middle school (7th to 9th grades), high school (10th to 12th grades) and junior college, college and university. Much attention is paid to physical training and musical education. As many of us are very new to Korea, we are dispersed to different cities and even different schools in the city, we started a Facebook group to share lesson plans, insights and mild anxieties with our new teaching system. All teaching staff is subject to a valuation system and receive points for exams they take, workshops they attend as well as, receive incentive points for how well their school ranks in the district . There are many high school options in South Korea, in… If you think Korean students have the weekend for recreation, think again. We were told Korean students learn better with learning games so many English lesson plans incorporate Powerpoint games, where ESL teachers alter. Often, they are run strictly like a business, running one class after another, prepping students for exams and drilling skills into them from the textbook. I eventually even worked at a Korean musical camp and we had role-playing rooms from traffic school (I had to wear a police hat and jacket and set up traffic cones) to a hospital room, with eye charts, stethoscope, height and weight scales, examination table, wheelchair and a doctor’s lab coat! As an average high school student in South Korea spends about 16-hours per day at school and Hagwon, tuition includes meals (including dinner). The school system is cracking down on this abuse, but it still happens in some schools. Discounts just make life better, don’t ya think? By the way, elementary schools were called People's school until recently. In Korea, the saying is “Teachers are as high as God“. Dismiss. I stay at the academy until 10 o’clock and come home after the academy. Hye-Min Park is 16 and lives in the affluent Seoul district of Gangnam, made famous by the pop star Psy. Within the first month of my living and teaching in Korea,…. Click here for an article on the subject (although it is a bit dated). I am a language teacher since 1989 until present, but the shift that I made in my teaching career and I taught students from different backgrounds, who were from Turkey, Iraq and USA makes me feel I want to go back and teach where people, students, parents, school system who like to take advantage from all the hard work and appreciate the teacher time and efforts. Most Korean students study at the undergraduate level. Now the Korean public school system has two Saturdays per month, off. Each school is run slightly differently. Table of Contents: 10 shocking facts about Korean schools. In comparison to primary school, the number of disciplines significantly increases, as well as the requirements to pupils are tightened. My initial welcome to my job placement did not start very warmly. The average high school student generally has class from about 8am until 9:30pm or 10pm. In my EPIK teacher orientation, one  lecturer told us we might want to have a fishbowl of at least 25-100 English names for kids to choose from or to assign to students. As excited as I have been about being here and my Daegu apartment and neighborhood, teaching in Korea comes with its rough bumps. However, 51 percent of students were still enrolled at the undergraduate level, compared with 28 percent at the graduate level and 21 pe… s.type = 'text/javascript'; Korea boasts a literacy rate near 100 percent and one of the highest levels of education anywhere in the world. Life in Korea seems to be hard I can’t make it as a Kenyan. I’d say Korean standards of dress are more office casual to office professional compared to U.S. teachers who dress a cross between a tasteful soccer mom and office casual. Same for Saturday classes, they were abolished in 2012, so at the time this was written they were still on. Role playing lessons can be very Hollywood style, 7. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Some higher educational institutions have one more additional entrance examination. Between teaching ESL and navigating the workplace and forging a new lifestyle in Korea, you'll need a pinch of patience and a dab of nuts, because living and working in dynamic Korea can throw any newbie expat. Much attention is paid to physical training and musical education. Why do some Korean students have “English” names? (Below) School Shoes for Kids. The author said it was 2010 when this article was written. But South Korean … This doesn’t mean all teachers are tech saavy, though. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}). One class example we saw was a market checkout scene.. they had aisles, shelves and a real conveyor belt. I love teaching English to my Korean students. Songs that children sing in preschool have an educational orientation. Not ready to travel alone yet? I mean, it’s gone now. Master’s degree takes 3 or 4 years. The School Year in South Korea. Those tools sound like an office job. After school, I go back home, study, and go to academy. s.src = u + '?v=' + (+new Date()); This stage of education prepares pupils to enter a higher education institution. To be honest even in 5th grade (in american age), which is 2 years ago, I thought everybody was living like this, which apparently isn’t true. However Korean culture and the language is obviously very different. Usually, a student will have to write an essay on the given topic. But when we speak about the success of South Korea education model, it is important to mention the role of the government. The institutes that provide preschool education are usually privately owned, though some get subsidized by the government. Sometimes, we design our own powerpoint games to project on the screen and play for classes. As a rule, in primary school, there is only one mentor who teaches children all subjects. Though pre-school students are very young, there are English classes in pre-school where children learn how to think and speak in English. Therefore, there are private schools with a wide range of studied disciplines in South Korea. The School for Improvement program, which began in 2010, provides extra funding to secondary schools with low performance on the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). you can probably guess what happened. 5. Learning is a serious business! It doesn’t matter if you love your school or not.eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_8',129,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_9',129,'0','1'])); After each five year term, the teachers, vice principal and principal undergo a lottery system and have to change schools. Elementary school is for students ages 7–11, middle school for students ages 11–13, and high school for students ages 14–16. Due to education being the main extracurricular sport, the average teen doesn’t get home until midnight. Classrooms in Korean Elementary schools come with a computer, connected to an overhead projector or an LCD flat screen. My sister wakes up at 6 and stays at school until 10 p.m. She leaves school at 10 o’clock and goes to the academy. The curriculum is standa… This system is still used in South Korean middle schools. Primary education is compulsory and it’s free of charge from the ages of six to twelve. One thing I admire about Korean values is that the Korean school system teaches students to be responsible for the care of their school. Children are also taught the basics of security measures. Students eat lunch last week at tables equipped with plastic barriers at Doan High School in Daejeon, South Korea. If there’s something you want to do, then you can achieve it by working hard. The teach children to respects parents and teachers, they explain how to eat, brush your teeth, how to communicate and pay respect to each other. Well, you can blame it on the foreign English teacher that gave it to them! After graduation, a student can work as a specialist in such areas as shipping, art, land management, etc. Preschool education is for children between the ages of three to six and carried out by kindergartens and nursery schools. And summer or winter break it isn’t vacation. Also, children with teachers and parents spend time exploring nature, which allows children to study in a comfortable environment and to relax. Corporal punishment became illegal in 2014 if I remember correctly. eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_2',124,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3',124,'0','1']));Just how strongly do Koreans feel about education? Korea emphasizes education and schooling to the power of a hundred. You need to agree with the terms to proceed, BEST Tokyo Capsule Hotel Experience- FEMALE ONLY Tour #2, BEST LUXURY Capsule Hotel Experience in Tokyo | First Cabin vs MyCube, I DID NOT EXPECT THIS! According to a recent survey, South Korean children are the least happy in the developed world – and the reason behind this could be the pressures of the education system they are subjected to.. We’ve all experienced the stress of exam periods at some point or another. The school year is divided into two semesters in South Korea. Korea's School System. Dress attire? The NAEA is administered to all students in grades nine and 11. Also, there are vocational colleges, where a student will have to study for 3-4 years. eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_11',157,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[320,50],'grrrltraveler_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_12',157,'0','1'])); Some schools have blue screen technology and/or rooms with “role-playing sets” for kids to enact situations in. See my Amazon store for my travel gear lists! As a result, Korea possesses a high regard for its Korean teachers as being pillars of the schooling system. Now the subjects are taught by different teachers, each class has its own room. Use GRRRLTRAVELER :  70% OFF 3-year plan + 1 month FREE. This is what Korean students look like. It was to prepare us for the varying conditions and types of schools we would be sent to teach in. The world may look to South Korea as a model for education — its students rank among the best on international education tests — but the system’s dark side casts a long shadow. It’s sometimes harder than school. I am scared after reading this. Check out travel resources I recommend for more! Bedtime is around 3 a.m. Retirement age isn’t until 65 years old. System Structure Children between the ages of six and 15 are required to attend school in South Korea. For students, this is perhaps, their one social outlet and way to meet other friends. This is because various American educational assistance programs had permeated through Korea after the World War II. Students take responsibility for the cleanliness of their school. All content on is this site ©GRRRLTRAVELER. ESL teachers and Korean English teachers visit other schools to review teaching methods to see what practices other classes are employing. I study about six hours a day (I think i do a little), and my sister studies 12 hours a day (she blames herself for less studying if I study less than 10 hours). Education in North Korea is based on socialistic ideals and an efficiency-oriented school system with emphasis on Korean language, mathematics, literature, and the Kims. Teachers in the United States must dress tastefully, but in elementary, they also dress comfortably. In 1996 only about five percent of Korea's high schools were coeducational. If a student does not want to enter university, he has an opportunity to study at a Professional Institute. Seniority means increased pay and the overall work hours, holidays and vacation benefits are said to be better than regular office jobs. Also english names are not given by teachers. Also, that kind of punishments are now illegal. Note: All ages are not in Western years. In 1945, the year of liberation, elementary schools numbered 2,807 with the total enrollment at 1,570,000. I’m on a mission to stay at hotels which make you love traveling locally and alone . The standard curriculum now includes such disciplines as ethics, history, computer technology lessons, economics and various types of physical activity. Try these group tours. And the main subjects are Korean language, English language, mathematics, social Sciences. Different areas of the country have slightly different systems, including the processes for allocating spots, which might be by lottery (especially in large, densely populated cities), or throug… Korea is a fashionable and stylish culture. Corporal punishment is still alive (although quite hushed). Read a 2018 BBC post on the pressure regarding university entrance exams for high school students. However, classes in many coeducational high schools are still divided along gender lines. The education system violates international law by restricting freedom of thought and expression in … The first real schooling begins at the age of 6. This is a dramatic change over the past 70 years. Korean folks with English names are often very proud of them. There is a  five year teacher-principal rotation cycle, 6. Also, it is necessary to develop the imagination of the child, so it is important to introduce drawing classes and music classes. Between 2015/16 and 2016/17, undergraduate enrollments declined by 8 percent while graduate enrollments only dropped by about 1 percent. It used to have a system like that, but it’s not here anymore. People living in Seoul are more obsessed with studying than this. Young people usually study for 3-4 years to receive a Bachelor’s degree, and then those who wish to continue their education can study further to get Master’s degree. From now on, I will introduce the daily life of the people around me. Learn how your comment data is processed. At the age of twelve, a child automatically switches to high school and there is no need to pass any exams. EPIK teachers went to various cities- Daegu, Busan, Jeju Island, and more…- go to affluent areas of the city ; others may go to lower income or even rural areas. Also, there are certain schools which are known to be model schools (these are the schools that Korean teachers want to teach at) where they have high performing students and other Korean teachers (and native English teachers like me), will make a trip to see how they run their classes and organize their programs to get their students to focus and learn. 8. About 98% of Korean students finish secondary education. The K-12 system in Korea meanwhile, holds almost the same curriculum for both public and private institutions, thus almost all Korean children receive the quality education that the government and private sectors offer. I use Booking.com, Agoda and Airbnb. Students mostly choose their name by their own. You have principals and teachers who manage their schools and classrooms differently. It would shock you. The secondary-school enrollment figure also reflected changing population trends—there were 3,959,975 students in secondary schools in 1979. In the late 1930s the adult literacy rate stood at less than 30 percent, in spite of the Confucian respect for learning and the easy to learn Korean writing system, han'gûl. South Korea overhauled their schools and committed to an equal-opportunity system promising to educate every child, just as the Finnish did. High schools are separated into academic and vocational training schools. Are high level learners near 100 percent and one of the majority of South Korea education model, it important! My week of EPIK teacher Orientation in Korea, … working in an office temping and most of their hiring... Schools that many Korean teachers want to enter university, he has an opportunity to study at a professional.! Economics and various types of schools we would be sent to teach at special meetings with parents they... 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