Korean High School!! ♥

Last Monday was my first day of Korean school! It was the beginning of the second semester (school starts in February here, I think). I am in first grade high school, which is the equivalent of 10th grade in the US. Since I'd be a senior in high school in the US, it's backwards sequentially, but academically, maybe not so much. 

School starts at 8AM. Sort of. That's when we have to be there. But we end up spending 30, 45 minutes socializing before the teacher comes in. Then we have class. I copy notes from the girl next to me and spend the time not understanding 95% of what the teacher says. It's very tiring, actually, not understanding. But school is interesting in so many other ways that I can't say I'm entirely bored yet. 

Korean education is not like American education. You probably guessed that. High school (and middle school) students study very diligently and stay at school until 9PM or so. They might go to academies after that and sleep at 1 or  2AM. (By the way, I don't do that. I'd expire). That's what it seems that most people think about when considering Korean school. So...

...Because of that preconception, the culture of the school is really, really surprising. It's not at all bad, just not what I had expected. It's very comfortable. One of my friends said, "Our houses are not our homes. [School] is our home." When you spend 13 hours each day at school, mostly in the same room, that feeling is likely very valid. And it shows. Girls (our school is separated by girls and boys, so our class is all girls) use the classroom essentially as a bedroom. They bring pillows, blankets, makeup kits, cell phone chargers, and flat irons to school. During class, 25-30% of the students are texting, applying makeup, or sleeping. And between classes is when it gets really interesting. For example, twice I've seen girls giving and receiving hair cuts in the classroom. Maybe trim is a better word, but you get the point. 

In school, we wear school uniforms (교복). Almost every middle and high school in Korea has a uniform. Since they are distinct by school, I won't put a picture of mine here. We also wear slippers in school. Not really slippers, but like this: 

....but mine are pink.

We have many classes, as well. For example, we have 4 different science teachers (who each teach a different type of science). However, there are only seven periods each day, so we study each subject 1-4 times per week. So far, the classes that I've understood the most are music, biology (yep, I'm shocked, too), social studies, and English class (Hehe... But it's mostly in Korean, anyway). 

Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, we haven't had a lot of homework yet. In fact my only homework so far has been memorizing math vocabulary and equations and getting a paper signed for class assignments next year. Hopefully I didn't just jinx the good fortune by mentioning it here. Anyway, there may be more homework later because the exchange students will start Korean language class soon. But these days I get home after 5PM and by the time we have dinner and clean up, I'm quite ready to sleep (I don't know Korean very well yet, so just being immersed all day is exhausting) . So, minimal homework is a blessing for now (By the way, I'm guessing that the reason for the lack of school homework is simply that students study really hard on their own, anyway. It seems that the other kids are doing self study after I leave school. That's why they stay there until 9PM). 

I really enjoy school. It's good to be with kids my age (well, sort of, they're 2 years younger, but it doesn't make too much of a difference) and to make friends and speak Korean. My classmates are very nice to me and they don't seem to get annoyed with my cluelessness of Korean or of their school. They share their notes, teach me their language, and hold my hand to show me around the school. And when I can't understand something, many of them speak English to some extent and can try to translate for me. The teachers are also super welcoming and supportive and tolerant of me, which is good, because I'd be lost otherwise. Lately, my math teacher has been giving me basic translations of her lessons so that I can follow along. So, basically what I want to say is that I'm happy and thoroughly enjoying school!