Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Seoulman69]

I am interested to hear from the parents on this forum of mixed race children. How are your children doing at school? Are they fitting in or are they bullied? If it makes you feel uncomfortable to post here then feel free to send me a PM. I am also interested where your child's school is. Does anyone's child go to the Sarang school in Seoul?

[No_hite_pls]

Great question. I am also interested in the responses.

[T-J]

Our son is in fourth grade at a public school. Doing fine. He has liked all his teachers. He gets along well with the other students and has some really nice friends. He enjoys school.

[Captain Corea]

My daughter is in kindergarten here (2nd year), and enjoys her school. It took some time to find a good one, but we're relatively satisfied with it.

In regards to being 'mixed' and such, she gets called so quite often on the playground. Nearly every day she's called a foreigner or American (she is neither).

She doesn't like it, but it rarely prevents her from going on her merry way to play.

[Stan Rogers]

My 2 kids are doing fine in school. No problems to speak of.

[fosterman]

[brier]

Jr is in his first year of kindergarten. He spent two years in daycare previous, and he has adjusted well to kindergarten. His Korean is fluent, but I'm concerned about his English.

[Dodge7]

[Dodge7]

[Seoulman69]

Thanks for all the replies. I am happy to hear that many of the kids are doing well and are not experiencing much bullying. The school system here does seem to be a bit oppressive with the amount of work they do so I can understand Fosterman's decision.

[fosterman]

[Poker]

[Steelrails]

Tis true. When I start my family its back to the states for Kindy. I'll bring em back to Korea at some point, but reality dictates that having English as the primary language is more desirable than Korean, although being in a 3rd party country would be an interesting option.

The reality is that no amount of rules will overcome the environment. I don't want to be the American in Korea version of the 'Immigrant in America' who insists on Hindi in the house as their kids just roll their eyes and hide stuff from out-of-touch daddy. If they live in Korea, they'll want to be like the other kids and will prefer things in Korean. That's just how kids are. That will be fine at a later point, but they need the English environment so they aren't third rate at it.

But yeah, the whole idea of being in a non-Korean and non-English country is intriguing. Obviously they'd get both, primarily English, at home. But in socializing they could get development in whatever the third language is. I'd imagine that in that situation they'd have sufficient skill in both English and the third language, and since kids have a natural responsiveness to mom their Korean would probably be passable as well (And if they lived in an area with plenty of expat Koreans they could get some Korean skill at Korean church/school or with socializing). Not to mention the sheer diffusion of English means they'd pick up some in the outside world and from books and media.

Ugh. I hope that isn't China. I don't think my lungs can hang. Somewhere Spanish speaking would be nice. Maybe Chile. Knew a few Korean-Chileans, cool people, none of them had that American chip on their shoulder some American gyopos have.

[Nismo]

[LuckyNomad]

My first son is just two years old now. He has been in a preschool for a little less than a year. I don't think the kids his age are old enough to quite get that he is different. Though they are often surprised when I pick him up at the bus stop so it must click in their heads.
To elementary school kids my sons are 외국인 babies. And then I have to explain to them that their mother is Korean. To which the question is always, "Koreans can marry foreigners? What?!" Yes! Go ask your parents about it and I'm sure they'll be happy to explain the facts of life to you.
To teenagers they are 혼혈. Teenage girls will say, "I envy them. They don't have to get plastic surgery." Uhh, yeah..
To adults they are either labeled as cute or simply exotic looking and everyone has to point out that they look like their father and that is the reason they are cute(wife hates hearing this every time she steps out of the house) . To nobody in this country are they Korean. Apparently you have to win a gold medal or become a famous celebrity to gain that status. That's when the country will claim you as their own.

As far as languages goes, from the time he started talking until a couple of months ago, my first son's dominant language was Korean. I've always read to him in english and we both use Korean and english with him but his mother used to use more Korean with him than she does now.
Now that he can use sentences we both put a lot of effort into using mostly english in the house. We also have him watch all his favorite shows in english using BTV. These days his english is at least equal to his Korean.