Author: Sheyann Barnett

It has already been a week since I came back to NYC and already those eight weeks are done. Before I begin, let’s catch up on one of my favorite memories from the last full week.

On Monday and Tuesday, we travelled to Gwang-ju, a soutwestern city in South Korea most known for its pro-democracy uprising in May 1980. We visited Soswaewon Garden and later visited the memorial for victims of the Gwang-ju uprising. They were citizens who risked their lives to protest for democracy, who were innocently targeted and killed under the command of Chun Do Hwan.

5.18 National Cemetery Entrance

Paying Respect to the Deceased at the Memorial for Gwang-ju victims.

On this trip, I expanded my comprehension of Korean language, culture, and history to ask myself questions about democracy, dictatorship, sacrifice, hardship, death and memory. While looking at graves in the memorial cemetery, I kept asking myself: “Who has the right to remember? As I walked around the memorial with the team I kept thinking about community, change, and love.

It surprisingly made me think of the late Nipsey Hussle, an inactive member of California’s Rollin’ 60s Crips gang turned Grammy nominated rapper, father, and entrepreneur. Aside from his untimely death, Nipsey turned his life around for the better and uplifted his community plagued by high crime rates. He was a poet that talked about entrepreneurship, love, an end to gun violence, family, and loyalty. How?

I began to question myself and my purpose. While contemplating my life and preparing for Duke Engage, I saw an old tweet from Nipsey that I have since come to live by- “The game is gonna test you, never fold. Stay ten toes down. It’s not on you, it’s in you. And what’s in you, they can’t take away.” And this quote ultimately became the soundtrack of my experience during Duke Engage South Korea.

And I found truth to this in my students at Jiguchon. My students are the smartest,  funniest, cutest, amazing, best cha cha sliders ever. Some of my jits speak Chinese, Thai (Forjune), Bengali, Vietnamese, Tagalog (Eunice) and Korean. Some, no many- love to play video games (all the boys in middle school and the GOAT- Changlim.) They love to talk our ears off during lunch. Calvin and Lisa LOVE to insinuate romantic linkings in my team while cajoling me to eat their Kimchi. Some of them love to pick their nose AND try to stick it on me- shout out to my baby 준위!Some  love to take piggy back rides and teach me Chinese  – go 미연! Some play Taekwondo and like to eat PB&J sandwiches (shoutout Robert). Some love Black Panther *WAKANDA PHOEVA (in Tony’s voice). Some of my kids fight each other. Some of my kids are easily injured (shoutout to 만세). Some of my kids love to sing and dance (shoutout to Annie, Sophia, and Martha). Some of my kids are silent and quiet. Some of my kids want to translate and love learning (나영, 지영, 소령). Some are loud and funny (Erin’s mini-her, Lisa). Some cry. Some laugh. Some smile. Some mean grill. Some give love effortlessly- shoutout to the noors of my eyes- Chris and Hyeon-seo.

Movie date with a student, Hyeon-seo.

But all of them are worth it.  Every single one.   So much heart and personality. All my kids are courageous. And I am so grateful  I’ve gotten to experience such amazing kids and even more blessed to have received love and given love to them. And  I hope they remember, life will test them, but they have to stand tall and firm. It isn’t on you, it’s in you. It will be so hard, but you can do it. And that’s that on that.

Final Day with Jiguchon Middle School

To the Kim 선생님들,

Thank you for entertaining my craziness, laughing and hugging me. For guiding us and teaching us. You have truly been a part of a remarkable summer of growth for me. I have learned so much about life and education from you guys. My bestie, 김헤영 선생님 and my soon to be agent manager, 김은영 선생님, make sure to turn the TV channel to watch me sing “Just Because” by Anita Baker(do you remember my singing on the bus from Gwang-ju to Seoul ㅋㅋㅋ)  on Korea’s Got Talent. 그다음에 뵙겠습니다.

Now to my team. Aigoo. The children, first, of course.

Martin:

Oh boy. I sometimes don’t know what to say to you.  What an eventful eight weeks it has been.

lesson planning and sending TJ hearts

TJ (who ya wit?-새우- I mean 재우):

 Will I ever not call you 새우?  And to that, I give a resounding “balls no” to.

En route to Ganghwa Island.

Big Papi:

Mi amor. 우리 막내. Stay golden and humorous. Trust yourself and don’t forget all the inappropriate advice I’ve ever given you.  Have an amazing sophomore year.

D:

Yktv. 7th of April- you know my venmo. Diamonds. *brings it in forever, fav*

Soswawon Garden.

Nikki da Boss:

My sweet baby girl. You and I are so bad for each other. We enable one another TOO much. Not much needs to be said. I’m down for you always. Can’t wait to show you my room while studying at Yonsei. Oh, and never will I forget your beautiful shoot.

Emily:

We are polar opposites in every sense of the word. But your tenacity and determination to get your med school apps done early is so BOSS. I wish you all the best.

Erin:

Idk girl. If anyone on this trip, I think you and I were like yin and yang. We balanced each other which definitely helped us not go fully crazy these past eight weeks. And of course, not all Koreans or Caribbean people are the same, but we are the same.

So how did a girl from the Bronx, a 6 foot something male math major from Pittsburgh, 4 southerners (a Georgian pub pol and Psych major, a Chapel Hill Pratt Star, a North Carolinian pre med Psych major, a South Carolinian pre med environmental science major), a kpop loving, applying to med school girl from the West Coast, and an Argentine-Korean soccer loving papi gracefully come together to teach English at a multicultural school in Seoul, South Korea while occasionally getting lost, accidentally dining and ditching (it got lost in translation), getting funky with it,and  laughing through it all? I don’t really know. But I don’t think it could  have played out any other way.

the alpha.

the omega.

A

N

D

every

thing

in

between

#tentoesdown.

In the blink of an eye, it is already week four- our last week at Jiguchon International school. 

First grade, first grade, ohhh first grade. This week I taught first grade with Daniel and Erin. We walked into the classroom, greeted the homeroom teacher, and were greeted with the curious eyes, runny noses, nose picking fingers, and warm smiles of Jun-ee, Ji-hong, Uk-hweon, Kiki, Hyeon-seo, TaHa, and Ji-Ho. In return we each greeted and introduced ourselves in Korean and English. And then the ball was rolling- mostly with us running after it.  

On our first day together, our kids kept us on our toes with their endless energy, their short attention spans, and their tendency to touch us after rubbing or picking their noses (shoutout to Uk-hweon and Jun-ee) in each activity- from learning the alphabet, counting numbers one through ten, etc. At the end of the day, after hearing the bell that signals lunch time, the three of us looked at each other, with our drained faces thinking the same thing: rough. 

At that moment, we couldn’t understand why Ji-ho who is so smart constantly resisted our instructions, why Jun-ee constantly rubbed his wet hands on us or tried to hug us when we let our guard down while playing Simon Says, or why Hyeon-so spoke with sadness when we were talking about our families during break time. 

But as the week progressed and our time together shortened, we slowly began to understand the whys behind the whats as our homeroom teacher gave us background information on our kids. While one of our kids was seven years old, mentally he was five years old, which explained his baby-like behavior. One of our kids comes from a rather broken, mixed family- her father lives in a South Asian country while she lives with her two older sisters and her single mother who struggles to make ends meet. Another one of our kids, feels alienated from his classmates which makes him resist our instructions. All of these behaviors and circumstances felt oddly familiar to me, my own life and experiences- it made my heart race and I began to see Jiguchon and the kids I have taught from the birds view. 

As I reflect, the majority of my kids have at least one non-Korean parent. Majority of them are from low socio-economic households. Majority of them rarely see both of their parents on a regular basis. And, majority of them rewear the clothes that they wear on Monday, again on Tuesday. Jiguchon as a school does not have a surplus of funds or teachers. But, all of my students are smart, adventurous, beautiful, loved and valued by their homeroom teachers and our Duke Engage team.

And to our kids like Hyeon-seo, Yeong-eun “Chris,” Forjune, Eunice, CIA, Calvin:  

More than your capability to learn English quickly, your ability to come to school and cooperate with the craziness of our lesson plans despite familial and financial circumstances resonates with us. You all have heart. More than me teaching you all English, you guys have taught me so much about myself and the world we live in. More than being an integral part of our summers, you guys have become an unerasable part of our lives. Despite the differences- linguistically or phenotypically- whatever forces you into silence, drawing, writing etc, I want you to know that we see you and we hear your tears, laughter, and overall awesomeness. You guys are some of the best cha cha sliders I have ever met. And I am so grateful that I experienced you all.

Remember these two things:

1)It is okay to be different. 2) Life is going to test you, never fold. Stay 10 toes down. It’s not on you, it’s in you. And what’s in you, no one can take away.

Now for the last time lets “cha cha real smooth, turn it out,” and hug each other tight. 

지구촌학교에게 감사합니다!

To say the least, South Korea so far has been a rollercoaster -from the unwanted touches my braids feel, to the sea of eyes attracted to the skin I’m in, dietary restrictions and more- yes, rollercoaster, indeed. But atlas, a new day- a week- has come.

While walking to school, I turn up the volume of my headphones as the words of my favorite rapper, Tupac Shakur, boom into my ear: “You might be deep in this game, but you got the rules missing…”

It is week three at Jiguchon International School and we’re all excited for our new students. This week, we would be working with the non- fluent Korean speaking class- what exactly that entailed, I had no idea, but with two weeks in (kinda deep in this game of teaching), becoming more comfortable speaking Korean and a detailed lesson plan for that day, I thought I was set- that we were set.

After introducing ourselves in our respective languages, class began. I gravitated towards a table with two kids- Forjune and Eunice. Forjune and Eunice smiled warmly at me and greeted me again in Korean and I was so happy- “yes, they don’t look Korean (like me) but they speak the language (also like me). We can communicate.” My conversation with Eunice- while short, her English was amazing. But, within minutes of having a basic conversation with Jun- as we both are the two darkest in the class, asking where her parents are from- it became clear that she didn’t know a lot of Korean. “She doesn’t know much Korean, okay. She doesn’t speak Chinese, okay. She doesn’t know much English, okay. She speaks Thai, okay that’s cool. Wait, I don’t speak Thai. How do I communicate with her?” These thoughts later translated in my head- how do I communicate with my kids who do not know Korean or English?

These thoughts circled in my head throughout my first day interacting with her and teaching the class as a whole.

After struggling to effectively communicate all my questions and thoughts to her, it was finally break time. I noticed that Jun and Eunice kept quiet and stayed to themselves. While Jae-won and Joshua chased each other, Lisa played piano, Cassie and Hanly played Cat’s Cradle there sat Jun with her head down, a wave of calamity in the backdrop of the classroom chaos, reading a Thai book and Eunice observing the classroom.

Maybe they’re shy or maybe they feel uncomfortable not being able to confide in a friend in Thai/ Tagalog like how the Chinese speaking students can confide and laugh with each other. Either way I wanted to talk to them. Using Korean, I asked Jun how to say hello in Thai. Then her face lit up and for the next 5ish minutes she became the teacher and I the student. Sawadikap, hello: we sat side by side, laughing, and me repeating Sawadikap, then teacher, mom, and dad in Thai.

After that, I began drawing on a paper and they would look at my art and I,  sharing giggles and smiles. Then they started drawing, looking at each other’s drawings, enjoying each other’s company- a conversation without verbal language. Eventually, I had to whip out Google Translate but I enjoyed learning from Forjune and watching them interact.

Later that week, when breaking into small groups, we learned about their dreams. Eunice wants to become a businesswoman and wants to work very hard in school. Forjune wants to become a translator-from Thai to Korean to English and all the possible combinations there are.  

And that more than teaching them English for one week resonates with me.  The temporary goal, the task at hand is to teach them English, but as a team we want to teach and encourage them to use their other skills- to sing, to draw, to find joy in the company of their peers etc and foster the mentality of “yes I can.” And there doesn’t have to be a language for that. What we live and endure, what forces us into silence or writing, what we hold only as elusive memory sometimes is only a frustration of seeing others- their differences- physical, linguistic etc and feeling as if they don’t see us.

Language is not the only form of communication even though we tend to engage with one another in a manner that suggests it is the absolute way to communicate. Teaching has taught us to  keep ten toes down. Because regardless of how many weeks we have been at Jiguchon, we don’t know the rules to teaching- at least not all of them. As a team, we hope that if our kids can’t find comfort in seeing the diversity (ethnically and linguistically) of their teachers, we hope that they at least find comfort in enjoying each other’s company- whatever that may entail: growth matters most.

Just as we’re beginning to get the hang of this- just a tiny bit-  our last week at this school rolls in. Week four will be bittersweet for sure.