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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 shoes and changed into the slippers which were already prepared for us in the shoe lockers. The first word that came out of my mouth was, "Wow"!"😍😍😍

My own shoebox! Yay!


We're the fantastic four foreigners at the school. From the left; myself, Wak Jek, Tang and Kayla.


The school is indeed big and it is completely different to most of the school buildings in Malaysia. Though it is almost 68 years old, the school still stood out proudly among the neighboring schools. Adding on to our amazement, our school mentor gave us a quick tour around the school and soon after that, we were brought to the office to meet the principal. Honestly speaking, the principal is very kind. He immediately opened our gift bag for him the minute it was handed to him and we briefly explained the contents of the bag. The principal walked us through the school's students and teachers enrolment, school song, logo, mission and vision among many others. As it was the first day of the week, we were brought to a broadcasting room to introduce ourselves through the school screen. It was indeed nerve wrecking to see the camera was being pointed at you and u would be aired in front of everyone. Unfortunately, due to the technical glitch, the students couldn't hear our voice. 😭😭😭

Our mentor teacher had to leave us on our own because she had an emergency family matter. So, we spent most of our days by ourselves. At least that's what we thought at first. However, the real case was even better than that. Every single one of the teachers were very nice towards us. Some of them even spoke good English! (So, who said the Koreans can't speak English?). The kids were very excited to see us walking around too. We could hear them greeting us with "Hello" or "Anneyonghaseyo" everytime we appear anywhere within the radius. The funniest part to me was when a girl waited for us in front of other class's door and introduced herself to us as, "Ye-song". At first, I thought she was trying to say that her class is next door. My inability to guess her intention correctly ended with herself trying to keep repeating that phrase to me. And out of sudden, another boy came by and said "She's stupid.". Reacting just how I would do back in Malaysia, I quickly told the boy off by saying "Hey, it's not nice to say that to her". Being all flushed, both of them quickly bowed and left 😅😅😅 

We were invited to observe 2 Grade 5 classes on that day, 5-3 and 5-1 as well as attended a short meeting with the fifth graders teachers at 3 p.m. After they moved us back to join other English teachers, they called all of the teachers to a short meeting to introduce both of us.

Some of the Grade 5 pupils' artwork displayed in class: 







The lockers are kept inside the class and numbered accordingly: 

The class rules (varied according to the homeroom teachers): 



 The hallways:




 The materials provided in class; stationeries, board games and storybooks:


Lesson objectives being displayed on the board (just like our version of success criterias): 



Our lunch. Teachers have the same lunch as the pupils, except that they have to pay for it. For like *20,000KRW per month. 



The library has their own librarian working from morning until afternoon. There are no librarians among the pupils. 







Interactive textbooks. Given to each pupils for free and collected at the end of the year to be recycled! The books also differ from each schools as the teachers choose the textbooks themselves. There's no specific and standard textbooks nationwide. 



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Location: Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea

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