Korea Life: My Kinders Graduating

While I have been in South Korea, I have been teaching kindergarten at an academy. It has been and still is a highly rewarding job. I enjoy helping teach young children, not only English, but everything else they need to know for life. But, although it is highly rewarding, it is also very hard. Not only is it hard in a general teaching aspect, but also an emotional one.

I have been assigned to teach the 7 year olds at the academy. This means they graduate and go onto elementary school after one year. This doesn't mean I will never see them again. Some continue studying in elementary classes at the academy after public school. However, they will not be my students again and the ones that don't choose to stay with the academy, I probably won't ever see again.

Now I should explain that teaching young children, especially 5,6, and 7 year olds in South Korea is a lot different than teaching in the USA. The parents and school wants you to make a connection with the children, not just in a respect sense, but an emotional sense. So, while you are required to teach, it is also looked well upon to love and nurture the children. Affection is something that is expected. Which is something that I have noticed is very cultural here. It is not just the parents who are raising the children, but grandparents and relatives, older brothers and sisters. It is a group effort and everyone (not literally speaking) loves the children. So, the teachers, helper teachers, and everyone at the school love the children. I am not saying that kindergarten teachers in the USA don't love their students, but it tends not to be normal to be affectionate to children not in your family.

Writing my goodbye letters to my graduating students required wine.

Getting to the downside, in February my first classes graduated and moved to elementary school. After spending six months teaching these children, watching them mature/grow, and pouring lots of love into them, it was really hard watching them move on. I still see a lot of them daily, as they come to elementary classes. But it is not the same as teaching them and being in the classroom with them daily. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry like a baby at their graduation ceremony. I was an absolute mess.

Some letters from my students.

After my classes graduated and I was assigned 7 year olds again, I thought I could never get as close to them as I was with my first classes. Especially since I knew they were also going to be graduating in one short year and the tear fest from losing the first classes was still fresh in my mind. But after teaching them for only a month and I half, I knew that I would be just as close to this class, if not closer because I learned a lot about teaching during the first 6 months. I know that if I continue on teaching, it will always be sad to see my students go but that it is rewarding watching them grown and hoping that you really helped them.