Hyera Byean, a Korean middle school teacher, has come to Annandale for a month to learn about the teaching in the US. On January 9, she made a presentation about her trip, and her home country of Korea.
During her visit, Byean has been in Ms. Tomisato’s class, and she started off her visit by showing a video of Gangnam Style by Psy, a popular Korean Pop (or K-pop) star. She uses K-pop stars in her teaching to interest students, and showed a few of her examples.
She continued with her celebrity examples by introducing famous Korean sports stars, such as Son Yeon-Jae, a Korean gymnast, and Shin-Soo Choo, a Korean baseball player playing for the Cincinnati Reds here in the US.
Introducing Korean food was also included in her presentation, talking about popular foods such as BiBimBap, a healthy food with noodles in a pot, and Ramyeon (Also known as Ramen), a spicy Korean noodle dish.
She then showed a video on the history of Korea, which was shown at the G20 summit in 2010, which explained how Korea became a more powerful country, as well as what their people and their country are like, at least in terms of its history.
“It is impossible for me to explain what Korea looks like,” Byean said.
She also explained the school day of average high school children in Korea, which has a much more rigorous education system than the U.S. The school day starts at 7:00, with 50 minutes of class time and 10 minutes of break time for a few hours until lunch, which is usually around an hour. Then, class goes until 5:00, however, there is a self-study time when students study at the school until around 10 to 11 at night. Some of the Korean students even go to a higher institute at a later time, not getting home until 1 or 2 AM. “I teach middle school students, so they don’t go to a study time until 10 or 11,” Byean said.
