The International Schools Review Forum

Can anyone give me some real cultural info on Korean Kindergarteners?
I have worked with the older kids in other countries and think they are great. Are the kindergarteners eager to learn and have some self control, or is it a culture that let the little ones run wild until a certain age? If so what age?

Are you talking about teaching kindy at a hagwon or at an international school? If you are talking about a hagwon, you could end up teaching preschoolers at a low wage. In Korea, you may be told that you are teaching a group of 5 year olds (Korean age) but in reality they are between the western ages of 3 and 4 depending on the time of the year that they were born at. I never taught in a Korean kindy but have had friends that did. Some love it and some hate it. I think Korean kindy is more a preschool and kindy all rolled in one. Sorry, I can't be more of a help.

Thanks. I am talking grade K at an international school that is heavily local.
I don't have a sense of the culture. I'm in a culture now where there are no rules until age 8 or 9 and it is making me crazy teaching the little ones.
i need to find out how Koreans view this. I am definately talking about age 5 (by western counting). Why did some of your friends hate it??
Thanks.

I've been told that Korean kindergarten within an elementary school is highly structured. I'm not sure about how their behaviour compares to western children of the same age. What I can tell you is what I saw in Korea. I've been in bars where there have been young children running around the bar at midnight. I used to hear children playing outside my apartment after dark. But I cannot say for sure exactly how much freedom Korean children are allowed to have. I'd recommend posting your query on Dave's esl cafe. There are lots of expat parents on that board that actually have their children in the public school system and some in international schools. I think you may get a better answer there.

As for why people hated working at Korean Kindys- They had to change a lot of diapers and clean up accidents, snotty noses etc...

The students are overall better behaved than North American kinder students are. My daughter did JK in Korea and I was impressed with how well the students behaved. This is in contrast to SK in Canada at a public school, where some kids weren't so well behaved.

Something else you should know, the kids will probably have already gone to hawgwons and most likely know how to read and write Korean, and probably English by JK.