Beyond the classroom continued...

I was born on October 25th in South Korea. I was a normal Korean kid who enjoyed normal Korean things and was nagged, in true Korean fashion, by my parents to work hard and study well. But no matter how hard I tried and no matter how muchmuch money was spent on extra lessons, my English refused to improve.

Then I was presented with a choice: continue living in Korea or make a move to Australia to kick-start my attempts at becoming bi-lingual.

Initially, my life was ‘cool’: sunshine, beaches and fun, but as time passed and I grew to understand my situation a bit more I soon realised that all was not necessarily good. I missed the friends I was used to, I missed the food I was used to and, momost of all, I missed the country I was used to.

I chose Australia and my life as a migrant began.

But, I persevered. I didn’t really have a choice. And it was there, in Australia, where I met my best friends. Despite not being able to speak a simple sentence, they slowly accepted me. It was perhaps their generosity that fuelled my study of English.English. Before I knew it my English had come on hugely and I even became the first Asian house captain in the school’s history. I felt relaxed in Australia, I felt a sense of belonging, it felt like home. At this point, even my family had started ccalling me by my English name, and, to be honest, I had started to forget all about my days back in Korea, I had started to lose my cultural roots. It seemed to me like a day out of your country cost you a week of memory, and that your so-called cultuculture could simply disappear without trace. The strange thing was, I didn’t really care.

Then, just when I thought everything was going right, our family moved to Japan. I felt hopeless and heartbroken. I felt like I was being ripped away, for the second time in my life, from where I belonged.

Once again I was powerless to intervene so, once again, unwillingly I followed my parents to Japan.

InIn Japan, I lost contact with some of my friends in Australia quickly. It seems like you don’t come to your senses early enough to place a value on what really matters in life. I found that no matter what your intentions are, once you move away from a placeplace you slowly lose your grasp on it. Day by day the memories fade until it is too much like hard work to keep trying to recall them. You feel rootless, untethered, lost. A few years on, I had to leave Japan because of a catastrophic earthquaearthquake. I felt sick, not only because of the destruction caused, but also because I was forced back on the road. I felt like some kind of illegal alien being chased out of everywhere I went. I had lost my friends, my cultural root and my sensesense of identity. I had lost my Korean spirit.

Now that I’m back in my home country, I wish to retrieve what I have lost.

AFTER YEARS OF LIVING AWAY FROM KOREA, GLENN MIN, YEAR 10, GEOMUN, EXPLORES THE UNUSUAL SITUATION OF FEELING LIKE A FOREIGNER IN HIS OWN COUNTRY.

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Gong xi fa caiJanice Lee Jennifer ParkMaylene You Janice Choi

Chinese society

This is an article about how one group of NLCS students approached an unfamiliar situation with courage and took risks.

OnOn the 18th of January, in the whole school assembly, the Chinese society committee gave a presentation about Chinese New Year. It was the first time for us to talk in front of the whole school, however, it was amazing. We taught studestudents about Chinese New Year and how to say “Happy New Year” in Chinese,

which is “Gong xi fa cai.” We took risks and were successful.

OurOur link teacher, Mr Cheung, gave us the idea for our assembly. As he lived in Hong Kong, he knows how Chinese New Year is important in China and suggested that we make an assembly about it. He respected our opinion to choose to do it or not. AsAs it was our first time standing in front of the whole school and making a speech, the assembly was a real worry for me and the other committees, but we could not miss

the chance to advertise both Chinese New Year and Chinese Society to all the teachers and students.

DuringDuring our preparation, we had many obstacles. We couldn’t find all the information we needed and found it hard to make decisions about how we would present our ideas. There were problems in communication between the commicommittee, which made us feel we should just give up. Whenever we felt like that, we tried to recognise that being in a society and giving a school assembly is not just extra work, but a chance to experience real cooperation and risk taking.

We spent almost 3 months planning for 15 minutes of assembly, and those times were a special experience and a lesson for me that cannot be learnt from anywhere else: we needed to pluck up our courage to complete the assembly, andand now after the assembly, I think it was worth suffering the difficulties and overcoming the obstacles. I hope other NLCS Jeju students can become risk takers!

For Year 11, being a risk taker is very important for the IB course. All the students have to complete several presentations (both group and individual) during their IB course. Students must take intellectual risks not only in class but also outside of school. Being a risk taker helps you to screw up your courage to overcome fears and to exceed your limits; it also helps you to make better decisionsdecisions through the experience. Although the start of becoming a risk taker can be quite hard, it will in the end teach them something important, and it will give all of us a living lesson.

Why is being a risk taker important?

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Jennifer Park and Janice Choi explore one of the key personality traits of being an IB learner, that of being a RISK TAKER. According to the Southbank International School in London, being a RISK TAKER means: ‘approaching unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and having the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. Risk takers are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.’