코리아타임즈 (2013.03.21) Learning language peppered with love

Posted : 2013-03-22 20:01

 

 

 

Yacub Isac from Somalia practices writing in Korean and the conversational Korean he learned in a class at the All Love School in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul. All Love School is a preparatory school for multiracial students to help them acclimatize to the Korean language and school environment.

By Kim Ji-soo

On Tuesday morning last week, a school day, seven teens filled a small classroom at the All Love School in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul.

Euribi Moon and Andrea Rodriguez, both 14, were chattering away while Yacub Isac and Quan Mingze, both 16, and Ono Hibiki, and Jin Fengyu, both 17, were seated. Jeon Dong-won, 16, straggled in.

After the last student took a seat, Oh Mi-ran the teacher for conversational Korean began the class.

She instructed Isac to read first: "Annyeonghaseyo. Jeo neun Junko ipnida. Jeoneun ilbonsaramipnida." ("Hi. I am Junko. I am Japanese.")

Lee Young-ran from China enthusiastically follows her teacher's pronunciations at a basic Korean class at the All Love School. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul

Then Andrea followed: "Annyeonghaseyo. Je ireumeun Chenchen iyeo. Jungguk saramieyo." ("Hi. My name is ChenChen. I am Chinese.")

Slowly they went on with the repetitive drill class for two hours, and they were in a relatively advanced level in the All Love School. The school is a preparatory one designated by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to help children from multicultural families adopt to the Korean language and classroom environment.

The term "multicultural" was broadly defined here. Moon is from Australia, Rodreguez from the Philippines, Isac from Somalia, Hibiki from Japan, Jin, Quan and Jeon from China. Some are from interracial marriages, some just moved to Korea, but the seven students were all struggling in the new language and the culture.

A corridor down, five students including Lee Young-ran, 15, from Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China and Kim Keun-min, 15, from China were sweating to pick up rudimentary Korean words and accent in the "Jamo Class." Now these children, from China and Mongolia, were really picking up the basic pronunciation and simple Korean words.

Five students in the basic Korean class or "Jamo Class" have a lower student-to-teacher ratio because their level of Korean is rudimentary.

The All Love School is less a school than a cram school-sized institution. Its classrooms are loaned free of charge from the church while the school is run mainly by the Korea-Vietnam Culture Communication Center and help from leading corporations like Samsung, POSCO and others.

Three years into its making, it is often cited as an exemplary case of educational program for multicultural children.

"Our program is to provide Korean language and Korean culture," said Lee Hee-yong, 53, director of the school said. "We're a small but effective school," he said.

The classes usually run from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m., free of charge. There are about 50 students enrolled. Twelve students are in the preparatory programs. A group of 28 students are placed in an advanced consignment program at the school where they learn several subjects like Korean language and history and Korean cooking. Graduates of the consignment program then go onto regular Korean schools, when they are better prepared for full immersion in the Korean educational process.

Oh Mi-ran, the teacher of the conversational Korean class at the All Love School writes down Korean sentence structures on the board for her students, Tuesday.

One of the noticeable features of the school is the ambience. There is general jovialness among the students and with their teachers.

"I like the school. I get a lot of love from the teachers," said Lee from Mudanjiang. Her Chinese mother married a Korean man and relocated to Seoul. She also has a young sibling aged three. Her Korean is pretty good for someone who arrived here three months ago. She came to Korea on Dec. 20 last year, and is enjoying the new city and the new life.

"I like it here," she said. Asked why, she just gave a big sheepish smile.

"After studying here, I want to go onto a regular school and grow up to be a Chinese letter teacher," said Lee.

Students studying at an advanced level learn how to make Korean dishes.

The school is an extension of the work that KOVIculture does in Vietnam since it was founded 20 years ago, the director said. A lot of the migrant wives come from Vietnam, so the KOVIculture has been building centers to teach Korean in Vietnam, and has started the language program in Korea.

"These children didn't come here voluntarily to learn Korean, so we help them to get used to the Korean way, even how to say hello to a stranger or bow when meeting for the first time," said Director Lee. "The teachers work hard to make sure that the students are placed in the right level, before they graduate and go onto regular Korean educational institutions.

Kim Keun-min from Jiangchun, China is not adjusting so well. Kim is a classmate of Lee from Mudanjiang. Unlike Lee, he can barely repeat the pronunciation that his teacher makes. He spent some time at Yeongseo Middle School in Seoul, but returned to gear up on his Korean. He's a chubby, rubric–cheeked boy who preferred to speak in Chinese rather than in Korean like his classmate. When asked when he plans to go to a regular Korean school, he responds petulantly to say that he hasn't thought about it.

Director Lee Hee-yong of the All Love School shows the blue celadon the students made at the school's office in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul.

But he's still a shy teen who is quick to smile when complimented.

There are five other designated preparatory schools in Seoul. Korea is becoming increasingly diverse with more interracial marriages; government statistics put the number of interracial households at 260,000. To address the educational challenges these families face, the Ministry of Education began operations of these preparatory schools in 2011. This year, there are a total of 50 preparatory schools nationwide. The 50 are comprised of 29 elementary schools, 16 middle schools and five that will be a mix of elementary and middle-school curriculums.

All Love School has plans to open up another school of its kind in Guro-dong, Guro-gu, in southwestern Seoul, where there is a heavy concentration of multicultural families and a China town.