Korean Students Speak

From a young age, Korean students are trained to memorize mountains of information with the hope of attending a prestigious university one day. In this strict, regimented education system, there is little room for creative thought or personal expression. Last fall, some of my peers sought to address this very issue by creating an online project called Korean Students Speak. The premise of this project is simple. With a marker and blank piece of paper, students can creatively voice their opinion to the world.

Fulbright teachers all across Korea have united under this cause by launching the project in their own classrooms. The results have been overwhelming positive. The website now has over 1000 followers, and there are scores of powerful messages being shared and reblogged all over the Internet.

I did this project with my students during the week of May 21-24th and I was blown away by what my students had to say. The themes of their messages varied anywhere from hilarious to hopeful to  heart-wrenching, but each was powerful in its own way.

Many other teachers had difficulty convincing their students to agree to take a picture. But I had the opposite problem. My students jumped at the chance to advertise their face and message to the world.  Their eager participation might have something to do with the fact that their speaking tests were the following week. They knew that yours truly would be the sole person grading them, so they probably wanted to suck up to me. But as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with that.  ;)

One of the biggest surprises was seeing my lowest level students maximize the English that they do know to write meaningful statements. I expected that my high level students would write profound messages. But my low level students also impressed me with their thoughtful words. Just goes to show you that language is only a barrier if you allow it to be.

By the end of the week, I had amassed over 300 photos. I wish I could share all of them with you, but due to space limitations, I chose about 30 from my collection to post on my blog. I hope you enjoy them, as much as my students did making and posing for them. I am so proud of my students!

And lastly, I leave you with my KSS message. I think it very much speaks for itself. Whenever I'm not in the studying mood and just want to go to bed after a long day at school, I think about my poor students who are tolling away in preparation for the big exam, which is over TWO YEARS away. Sigh, in comparison to my students, I feel like an ultimate slacker.

Although I am the one with the distinguished title, my students have taught me so many important life lessons. I truly admire their determination, courage, and strength. Every day, I try to live up to their example and inch closer to my personal goals, one flashcard at a time.