Over the past few weeks, I've really started to notice stark differences between the social patterns of Korean and American children. Even after three months in Korea, I am still sometimes taken aback by these extreme discrepencies in classroom behavoir.
1) Korean kids love to get physical.
It's not uncommon to see students smacking eachother in the classrom, hitting eachother with brooms or books, and wrestling on the floor in the hallway between classes. These offenses, which would send American kids to the principal's office, aren't taken seriously here. The teachers laugh it off, and so do the students. A wrestling match in the hallways of US schools would result in escalation, tears, accusations, and, maybe the threat of a lawsuit. In Korea, you just pull the kids off of the floor and they're both laughing about it already. The craziest example I witnessed happened a few weeks ago after class ended. I noticed a group of boys huddled in the back of the room. Suddenly, I saw limbs and a head flailing from side to side. The kids had lifted a smaller boy off the ground and were swinging him from side to side by his arms and legs. I went over there to break it up, thinking they were picking on the smaller kid, but then I saw that he was laughing with the rest of them. Then I looked over at my co-teacher and she was laughing too!
2) Korean Kids Love to Show Love (as long as it's with the same gender).
It's not uncommon to see boys walking down the hall holding hands, or with their arms around eachother..it's just what best friends do here! This doesn't apply exclusively to children, either. When I was at the baseball game with a few of my male co-workers, I announced that I had to go to the bathroom. One of my co-workers told me he had to go as well....so we held hands on the walk to the bathroom. (This same guy was showing me pictures of his girlfriend earlier that evening)
3) Memorization vs. Critical Thinking
The Korean education system places a huge emphasis on memorization and testing. Students can memorize long English phrases in seconds and recite them with ease. They are forced to memorize long paragraphs for homework and speak them in front of the class in the morning. This is in sharp contrast to the US, where memorization is not nearly as strongly emphasized. I don't think I even ever fully memorized my times tables as a kid. Conversely, independent ideas and critical thinking skills are not given primacy in the South Korean school system, and I have seen evidence of this in my English lessons. For example, today my 6th graders were reciting a dialogue about being home sick from school. One of the lines was, "I can't come into school today. I have a cold." So, after the students recited the line, I asked them to change the word "cold" to another ailment that could keep them out of school. The kids had a very hard time, and I believe that this is because they're so used to just repeating what I tell them to repeat. Finally, after a minute of silence and confused looks, a girl raised her hand and said, "I have a fever."
1) Korean kids love to get physical.
It's not uncommon to see students smacking eachother in the classrom, hitting eachother with brooms or books, and wrestling on the floor in the hallway between classes. These offenses, which would send American kids to the principal's office, aren't taken seriously here. The teachers laugh it off, and so do the students. A wrestling match in the hallways of US schools would result in escalation, tears, accusations, and, maybe the threat of a lawsuit. In Korea, you just pull the kids off of the floor and they're both laughing about it already. The craziest example I witnessed happened a few weeks ago after class ended. I noticed a group of boys huddled in the back of the room. Suddenly, I saw limbs and a head flailing from side to side. The kids had lifted a smaller boy off the ground and were swinging him from side to side by his arms and legs. I went over there to break it up, thinking they were picking on the smaller kid, but then I saw that he was laughing with the rest of them. Then I looked over at my co-teacher and she was laughing too!
2) Korean Kids Love to Show Love (as long as it's with the same gender).
It's not uncommon to see boys walking down the hall holding hands, or with their arms around eachother..it's just what best friends do here! This doesn't apply exclusively to children, either. When I was at the baseball game with a few of my male co-workers, I announced that I had to go to the bathroom. One of my co-workers told me he had to go as well....so we held hands on the walk to the bathroom. (This same guy was showing me pictures of his girlfriend earlier that evening)
3) Memorization vs. Critical Thinking
The Korean education system places a huge emphasis on memorization and testing. Students can memorize long English phrases in seconds and recite them with ease. They are forced to memorize long paragraphs for homework and speak them in front of the class in the morning. This is in sharp contrast to the US, where memorization is not nearly as strongly emphasized. I don't think I even ever fully memorized my times tables as a kid. Conversely, independent ideas and critical thinking skills are not given primacy in the South Korean school system, and I have seen evidence of this in my English lessons. For example, today my 6th graders were reciting a dialogue about being home sick from school. One of the lines was, "I can't come into school today. I have a cold." So, after the students recited the line, I asked them to change the word "cold" to another ailment that could keep them out of school. The kids had a very hard time, and I believe that this is because they're so used to just repeating what I tell them to repeat. Finally, after a minute of silence and confused looks, a girl raised her hand and said, "I have a fever."
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