Ellie Choi
From the last week of class, we visited a multi-cultural school, which is a high school only for students whose parents are from two different countries, and one must be Korean. The size of the school surprised me because I didn’t expect that how small a school could be. There were only one floor and six different classes at the school, and less than ten students in each class. Also, since most of them are not born in Korea and they are not fluent in Korean, so there was one translator sat next by each two or three students and translated what the teacher said during the whole class. At school, there was a hotel-room-model and bar-model for students who are studying hotel management in order to give them a chance to practice what they learned. It was an interesting experience to see the school life of Korean multi-cultural high school students.
Daisy Vang
Just like all our other visits, I was excited to visit this one too, because it was one of the only three multicultural schools in South Korea. Before visiting the school though, I learned that Korea’s definition of multicultural differed greatly from how we as Americans view the word. In America, Multicultural meant people of all races, from different countries. In Korea, the term multicultural just meant a student who is mixed, their father is Korean and their mother is of a different race. This was the definition at least for this school, and therefore was the only reason why a student would be able to attend this school. I enjoyed my visit to this school because they had specific rooms that were set up for their practicum in each of their respective majors, like hotel management or some kind of computer science. It was eye-opening to learn about how limited the students were in choosing their career path. It was kind of frustrating to know how even more limited the paths for these students were in comparison to their native Korean counterparts. In conclusion, I have very mixed feelings about this school because it’s good that mixed Koreans have an alternative to help them adjust, but it’s also very limiting too.
Mary Xiong
Visiting the Multi-culture was smaller then I thought it was. Although it was small it had so many cool things! It's amazing how school likes these help students who are half Korean learn Korean and develop job skills. They even had rooms for students to practice bartender skills, tourist/hotel management, or computer technology. I was very surprised how schools like these provide help to the students prepare for their future jobs compare to the United States. I wish schools in the United States would help students prepare for the real world job and learn some basic skills. I think that it would help a lot of people and gain some confidents. I hope that the Multi-culture school will expand bigger and help more students out in in Korea beside Seoul. I had a fun experience exploring the multi- culture school and seeing how Korean schools were like.
Patricia Thao
In art class, we learned about Korean folk art and did calligraphy painting. The professor gave us a lecture about the history and different styles of folk art. I liked how the professor showed us many artwork that combined Western and traditional Korean art. It was interesting how Western and Eastern art styles worked well together. Also, it was nice to see that he also included pictures that he personally took of different Asian art forms. The highlight of his lecture for me was learning about the ten symbols of longevity; like the peaches, cranes, white deer, mountains, the sun, turtles, the waters, fungus, and more. It made me realize that these symbolic animals, plants, and such represented longevity in their own ways. When we got to the painting part, I was very excited to do it because I’ve never learned about it form someone else. I learned that when painting calligraphy, you do it while moving your whole body and not just using your hand. So I thought that art class was very fun and interactive.
