Of KOMTEP

Are you wondering what am I doing here in Korea? If you are, then this post is especially for you.

The brief history of the program

Starting 2014, Malaysia received an invitation to join an exchange program for teachers; Korea-Malaysia Teacher Exchange Program or KOMTEP as you know it. The program is initiated by Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) and funded by Ministry of Education Korea.

What is the program for?

Just as the name suggests, this program calls upon teachers from certain regions throughout southeast Asia to do cultural exchanges between the two nations in conjunction of Global Citizenship Education (GCED).

How can you apply?

Applying for KOMTEP is easy, but getting in is not a joke. As the requirements each year differ, you can't really be sure of what to expect. As for 2019, the interested participants were asked to prepare 1 4-5 minutes duration video about their achievements at school/in life. Obviously, my video was longer than that! I did mine for about 11 minutes.😱😱😱 What did I put in the video? Well, mainly braggings about my life. Was it too much? To me, nope. You have got to sell yourself, so do whatever's necessary to earn your spot, at least to get yourself into the next round.

Once we submitted our forms and the short videos, we waited for the interview letter. I was lucky since I am teaching in Putrajaya, but those who worked outside of Putrajaya, including Sabah and Sarawak had to handle their own transportation, travel, accomodation and etc. So, be mindful of this if you're applying next year. Don't go around asking for claims, okay. The interview was conducted within a day, with three separate rooms and six different interviews from respective fields such as ELTC, Bahagian Lembaga Peperiksaan, Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan and of course, Bahagian Pembangunan Guru (also known as Bahagian Professionalisma Guru). Before the interview, we were asked to sit for a written exam. What should you prepare for this exam? None. Just rely on your existing knowledge and experience of the teaching world. The interview was quite nervewrecking to me as you have to understand the current issues in Education, the Malaysian curriculum as well as your own project. Yes, your project! Prior to the application, every one of us were asked to prepare a project which we wanted to carry out at Korean schools. The project could be on cultural, technology or even curriculum. Make sure you prepare an absolute mindblowing yet doable project, okay!

Our result came out two weeks after the interview. Honestly, our batch was a bit lucky as we didn't have any selection camp due to budget cut. So, the selected ten were chosen based on their performance during the interview itself. As for the orientation week, it was carried out at BTP Port Dickson for 3 days and 2 nights. We've learnt a lot from the past alumnis regarding the dos and donts and ways to improve our projects. It was also during that period of time that we practised for our cultural dance. It was verrrrrrrrrrry intense yet fun! We started our practise as early as 8p.m. and ended about 4a.m. the following day. Well, at the end of the day, the sweat was all worth it. The audience enjoyed our show during the opening ceremony in Seoul and we received a lot of positive feedback by the members of the floor too. My Korean mentor teacher even recorded the whole show! Daebakkk!

Before I end my ramblings, I would suggest you to learn a bit of Korean language before coming here. It is not compulsory to nail it down but it would be a great help to you and your friends while living in Korea.

Comments

Of Ewa Bule

Upon coming to Korea, I am being more conscious and aware of the worthy and unique arts and culture of my hometown; Kelantan. So, it is a great waste if I didn't debut any of them at Sahwa Elementary school. After hearing that our mentor is looking for a special Malaysia performance for her class exhibition, without any hesitation, both of us suggested Dikir Barat to be the highlight of the day besides joge t and Wayang Kulit performance. At first it seemed very farfetched and ambitious, but after hearing the kids singing the Ewa Bule verses, my heart felt very touched and then, I knew, we've made the right decision. Since I am not an expert, we refer to this dikir barat/choir performace of Ewa Bule by the UK kids. We showed the kids their performance and they were hesitant about it at first but as they rehearsed through the song, they finally gained some confidence. To be fair, we're still at the initial phase of the practice, yet we've got limited time to p

Of Random post

Disclaimer: This post is very random. You've been warned 😆😆😆 Today is such a lovely day. It has been for two consecutive days that we were greeted, "Selamat pagi, Apa khabar?" by the principal on our way to school. He is such a lovely man. He even sweeps the school compound, especially the part where the ginkgo biloba fruits (they stink by the way😓😓) fell of its trees. The kids started to open up to us. Most of them still greeted us as "Hello/Hi Malaysia" while some of them called us with our names (Dean/Zaki). Speaking of being greeted by the kids, yesterday, Zaki and I got the permission to go out during lunch to settle about our online banking (which is verrrrrry complicated unlike our online/internet banking), the Grade5/6 pupils waved goodbye to us while saying "You're handsome". As I responded, "Oh, thank you. You're handsome too". He was sooooo excited and happy to hear that while his friends asked him what did

Life post KOMTEP

Are you interested to see what my partner and I have done over our course in Korea? Click this link to go through the report

Of Final Message and School's slippers

Since today we weren't that busy at all, we decided to stay around during lunch and asked some of the kids to write any messages to us or to Malaysia on a piece of Mahjong paper. As usual, since there were two of us and there are a number of school's lobby, so we places ourselves at the 3rd and the 4th floor. At first the kids were a bit shy to do it, but once I told them that we're leaving tomorrow, they immediately grabbed the marker pens and started to write something. Some even asked if they could write in Hangeul, so I told them that it's fine. You can expect now that I can't read any of the messages 🤣 😭 😭 But it's okay, at least I could see their eagerness of giving us messages to remember them by. And as for the slippers, I just found out a few weeks ago that the letters on the slippers means, "Sahwa Elementary School". 😅 😅 See, you could see that my progress is rather slow, Just when I'm about to get the hang of it, It's a

Of Autograph

Today, when we entered the first class of our last First Graders, I literally had a heart attack! The kids had sooooo much sugar in their system 😭 😭 And I thought that it would be just the same with the other two classes. Luckily things only got better and better. The second class was great but the third class for the day was even better. Just like they said, "End it with a bang!" We, literally felt like an idol signing up authographs for the kids. It all started with one girl. She came and asked for my autograph at first, but I didn't understand it. And then, he went to my partner and only then I understood her 😅 😅 😅 And the dominos chain reaction started there and then 🤣 🤣 🤣 # komtep2019

Of Farewell

3 months had flown by so quickly. I felt like it was only last week that I was posted here. It's finally time to leave and go back to where I belong. Thank you Sahwa Elementary for being nice to me. And thank you MOE, KME, UNESCO and APCEIU for this once in a lifetime opportunity. No doubt that I'll miss my 89 days here. There are so much that I didn't get to do but it is nothing compared to what I've gained. Once again, from the bottom of my heart, 고맙습니다 # komtep2019

Of Pokemon Go

Seeing the kids playing Pokemon Go kinda made me miss being a kid. And yes, I hate the feelings of leaving too. Especially when I know there's no coming back 😭 😭 😭 😭

Of Rock, Paper, Scissors

"가위 바위 보"! (가위 = scissors, 바위 = rock, 보 = paper) Growing up, I often used "Lat Ta Li Lat" instead of rock, paper, scissors. The Koreans however, have their own similar version of rock, paper, scissors commonly known as 가위 바위 보 or KAI BAI BO (pronounced as KAWI BAWI PO). The game is very simple. The players would turn their hands into a ball while chanting: "Kai, bai, bo!". Then, they'd put their hands out at exactly the same time in one of three signs: Kai (scissors), Bai (rock), Bo (paper). To choose "scissors", you put out the thumb and pointer finger imitating scissors. You make a fist for "rock". You put out a flat hand horizontal to the ground for "paper". So basically, - Rock (bai) beats Scissors (kai) - Scissors (kai) beats Paper (bo) - Paper (bo) beats Rock (bai) If both kids put out their hand as the same object, they have to replay the round. Whoever wins 2 out of 3 rounds wins. I remembe

Of Scissors

Today was our second last day at school. So, in the morning, as I walked passed by the Sixth Graders classes, I asked them to write messages to us or Malaysia in general. And then, around 12-ish, one of the boy, who was quiet close to me gave me his card and left. Then, he came back, but with a pair of scissors this time. And then he gave me the scissors, with my name written on it (misspelled). I thought of why he gave me such present and then he said, "Think of my name when you see this". His English name is Caesar, but I kept making fun of him by calling him Scissors. Hence he gave me a pair of scissors to remember him by 😅 😅 # komtep2019

Of My first day at Korean elementary school

It was September 9th and we were still adjusting myself to the new environment. Regardless of feeling a little bit under the weather, I was indeed stoked of going to Korean school for the first time ever in my life. A lot of questions were playing in my head such as, "Will they accept me?", "Will we be able to understand each other", and so much more. Trying to get rid of the insecurities, I took out my camera and started to do a quick video on my social media - simply to let family and friends back home know where I was heading to that morning. We met our teacher mentor, Miss Song at the rendezvous place called GS25 (a convenient store similar to 7 Eleven in Malaysia). Our journey to school took about 10 minutes. We were surprised to see the welcoming banner that was prepared for us. That was indeed very thoughtful of them. No wonder our mentor teacher asked us what we would like to be addressed as. Upon arriving at the entrance, we were asked to take off our sh

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