Goyang Foreign Language School

On Monday afternoon we visited Goyang Foreign Language School to get a first hand look at Korean education. Goyang is a high school that attracts students from all over Korea. There is a highly competitive application process to be admitted to the school. Students who are not from nearby areas are housed in school dorms. My escort for the afternoon was the lovely & engaging MiJin.

Goyang has three grade levels- what we would consider 10th, 11th, & 12th grades, but they refer to them as 1st, 2nd, & 3rd grades. MiJin is a second grader. She is studying English and Mandarin at Goyang. She lived in China for four years, so she has a bit of an edge. All of the students have a major and minor (They call them "first major" and "second major"), and either the major or minor MUST be English. Their other language choices are Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin. Students here study a LOT. Since their college admissions are focused solely on test scores it is critical that they score high. Most of the students here desire to attend one of the SKY universities in Korea. The SKY universities are Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University. They are public univeresities and competition to get into these highly desirable schools is fierce. Third graders are housed separately from the other students and they have no free time. The schools’ hours are from 7am -11pm. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served at school. MiJin does not live on campus and takes the bus home every night, arriving about 11:30. Then she gets up at 5am to start all over again. She says she envies American school kids because they have a choice to do things other than study all the time. The students at Goyang have a high rate of acceptance into the SKY universities, but unfortunately, there is a high rate of suicide amongst teens in Korea due to stress. At the school I teach a lesson on George Washington Carver, and I give the students an activity to do in which they have to determine which products Carver produced using peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes.

The kids really get into it, turning it into a competition. Gwynne then teaches them a lesson on the elements of culture, and afterwards we distribute the little trinkets we brought for them, and our day there is done. This was an enriching experience for me and one I hope to repeat someday.