On Friday, we had some extra time in class, so I had my students write their first letters to my former Korean students! I explained to the kids where Korea was, showed them on the map and showed them pictures of the students to whom they were writing. Of course, in their little minds, Ohio seems as far away as Korea. They didn't really get that it was across the world!
I had them color a Halloween picture and write Happy Halloween. I also tried to have them write "안녕하세요?" (hello in Korean). They enjoyed trying to write in Korean and then proceded to "play Korean" at recess. It was pretty hilarious listening to them make up these weird sounds, calling it Korean!
I took a long time explaining that it takes a long time for our letters and pictures to get all the way to Korea. I told them it may be a very long time before we get letters back. That night when I got my mail, there were letters from Korea! The teacher had sent them last week and they just happened to arrive the same day I sent out ours! I think I'll keep the letters for another week so they don't think I was lying about them taking a long time :)
The Korean letters were awesome! Sadly, the 6 year old Koreans' letters were better than my 6 year old Americans' letters! It's amazing to me that the Korean kids can have such good handwriting, vocabulary and grammar in order to write in a foreign language by the time they are 6! Korea must be doing something right!
Anyway, it will be fun for both me and them!
1 comment:
This is such a cool idea! I'm glad you're giving your students a taste of cross-cultural experiences at such an early age :)
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