안녕하세요 여러분! (Annyeonghaseyo Yeorobun)
Hello everyone!
I hope you all enjoyed last weekend's post on activities for kids in Korea! I think it's pretty neat to see how daily lives for Korean kids are different from America. In relation, this week I am going to discuss education in Korea! Next week I will be interviewing a kid here in Korea to get an even closer look at life in Korea as a kid so be on the lookout!
To start, let's look at how education is laid out. Kids typically start school at 5 years old for 유치원 (yu-chi-won) or kindergarten. Next they go to elementary school (초등학교- cho-deung-hak-gyo) until 6th grade. After this, kids will go to middle school (중학교-jung-hak-gyo) until 9th grade and then high school (고등학교- go-deung-hak-gyo) for three years, from 10th grade to 12th. Notice any differences from America yet?
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| Typical classroom of elementary schoolers. |
In America the school year starts in September right? In Korea, they actually start in March and end the year in December! This means that everyone in your grade will have been born the same year as you. Age is really important in Korea due to the system of respect here. In fact, in Korea you can technically only be true "friends" or 친구 (cheen-goo) with people who are your same age. Of course you can be friendly and close with people of different ages but they won't technically be your "cheen-goo". Actually when I met my roommate Jiwon, the first thing she asked me when I arrived was my age. When we found out we were born the same year, she said that made us "cheen-goo"!
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| My friend Eunji and I! She was born in 1995 and I was born in 1997. So what do you think? Would that make us cheen-goo's? |
Anyhow, I am curious how what does a typical day of school look like for you all? What time do you go to school and what time do you go home? In Korea, elementary kids go to school at 9am and the younger kids (grades 1-4) will go home after lunch. Older kids (5th and 6th grade) stay a little later. However, this doesn’t mean the school day is done. Many elementary kids will go to a 학원 (hak-won) or after school-school until late at night (my friend Jiyeong said that she would go to hak-won until as late as 10pm!) Hak-won is where students go to study English and other subjects. In high school it is most important since it is where kids study for their college entrance exams! What do you guys do after school?
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| What do kids in Korea wear? Although, elementary students can wear what they want usually, middle and high school students have to wear uniforms like this. Would you like to wear a uniform? |
Now that I’ve told you a bit about Korean education I wonder if you have any questions about education in Korea I can ask the kids. If you have any other questions for the Korean kids let me know, and I can try to ask them!
By the way, this weekend I went with my friends to a green tea field, bamboo forest, and the 6th largest city in Korea- Gwangju. I picked up some delicious green-tea caramel that I hope to share with you all when I come back. Do you like green tea?
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| Picture I took at the Boseong Green Tea fields. Boseong creates 30% of Korea's green tea. |
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| Bamboo Icecream! |
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| Bamboo forest. This was me next to a statue from the Korean story "The King's Ears are Donkey Ears." |
i like the picture it looks nice and it has a donkey -franco
ReplyDeleteThank you! I like the picture too! Donkeys are cute
Deletehi this is miri reporting live from portland. it kind of wierd to think that some people start schoool half way thrua ar school year allso that bamboo icecrem looks relly good.bye.
ReplyDeleteHi Miri!
DeleteI kind of thought the same thing, that it is a little weird to start the school year so late. However, when I told my Korean friends we start the school year in September, they thought it was weird that we started then! haha. And yes! The bamboo icecream was so tasty.
for us,at school we go home at the end of the day or at 3pm but i wish we got out after lunch.
ReplyDeletei think i like green tea but i dont know if i hava tried it
It would be nice to get out after lunch haha. Green tea is really tasty and I'm excited to share the green tea caramels with you all!
Deletebamboo ice cream!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes!!! It was so yummy! If you ever get the chance definitely try some!
Deletein the bamboo forest why is there a donkey?
ReplyDeletethat was from isaac k
DeleteHi Issac!
DeleteThere is a donkey because there is a famous story about a king who suddenly got donkey ears in Korea. So the donkey is showing that.
i have never had to where a uniform but i do want to
ReplyDeletethe comment above was me
-Emma
I have never had to wear a uniform either, but sometimes I wish I did because then I wouldn't have to worry about having to pick out a new outfit everday.
Deletewhen i wrote my first comment i loved going up and down the stairs and you said there were lots of stairs, the good times:)
ReplyDeletealso what is the best thing youv'e seen in Korea?
-Akil
Yes lots and lots of stairs! Actually our stairs are so unique here they were recently featured on a Korean tv show!
DeleteHmm. That is hard question, I think the best thing I've seen in Korea so far was probably the town of Boseong where I went last weekend for the Green Tea fields. Boseong is a really small town and is very different from the big cities that I tend to go to, so I think it was really cool to visit a place like that.
hi jocylin is that bear like koreas mascot?-solana
ReplyDelete