Cultural Adjustment #1

Our first assignment for orientation was to pick and answer two questions. These will be weekly assignments and are called cultural adjustment checks. Our responses had to be 500 words. Here is my assignment.

4. What are your top three goals for this Orientation? You might consider professional, personal and cross-cultural development.

My top three goals for orientation are as follows:

1. To learn as much of the language as possible.

2. To develop new relationships and friendships with other ETA’s.

3. To learn as much about the Korean culture as I can.

1. I am challenging myself to learn the language, first off because I have never done anything like that before. I want to learn enough to be able to get by in Korea, and to be able to be at least partially independent. I also want to learn this, so that I am better able to communicate with my students, co-teachers, and host family when I get placed.

2. I have already had the opportunity to meet a lot of cool, interesting, and intriguing people during the first couple of days. By sharing many of the same experiences, I think we will bond. I want to continue to grow these relationships, and maintain them not only for our time here in Korea, but also when we go back to the states.

3. To accomplish this goal I have been trying many new things. This includes the food (I have tried all of the foods at each meal) and the extra-curricular activities. I am psyched to learn taekwondo and how to cook Korean style! Additionally, I would love to attend new festivals throughout the year, hike a few mountains, and go shopping in an underground shopping mall, as well as in Seoul.

5. What is your greatest motivation for coming to Korea on this grant? Explain.

My greatest motivation for coming to Korea is to teach. I want to learn about how their educational system works by being on the inside. It is so interesting how Korean students in general can do so well on standardized tests. With the educational system in the United States pushing standardized testing, I think we have a lot to learn about how to prepare our students for them. At the same time, when Korean students are so worried about preparing for testing, I wonder what they are giving up to accomplish their goals. It will be interesting to see how students balance their school work with extra-curricular activities, family time, and friend time. I want to learn from Korean teachers effective, new techniques that will be useful to use as a teacher back in the United States.

As an agricultural educator, we have a lot of opportunities to share time outside of school with our students. We coach our students to help prepare them for contests, we help them with applications and record books, and we have the opportunity to travel with them. I am hoping to get involved in some way to give these opportunities to my students here in Korea. At this time, I don’t know exactly what that will be (maybe coaching or helping with applications), but I want to give my students here as much individualized attention as I can.

P.S. We had ham this morning for breakfast!!! I have never been so excited to see ham in my life :-)