Giant colourful posters scattered around the school advertising foods of all kinds, pink and purple balloon arches in the hallways ,and beautiful giant posters depicting an autumn tree displayed on every wall. Yip its that time of the year ... Time for the Geunhwa school festival. Tomorrow afternoon my school shall hold the opening ceremony for our two day school festival and with all the preparation and excitement that’s floating in the air I cannot wait to see the final results. As I find school life in Korea totally intriguing and vastly different to school life in South Africa I have decided to do a quick comparison between school fairs in South Africa and School festivals in South Korea. I can only speak from experience at my school in South Africa and my school in Korea so please forgive me if the information does not hold true for other schools.
My SA School fair vs South Korean school festival
My school in South Africa held a school fair every year and it was without a doubt the highlight of my year. From amazing food stalls that were run by the parents , to games stalls and fun fair rides it really was one of those memorable events . However there are many schools in South Africa that do not have such an event but, in the land of the morning calm where everyone follows the trends ( God forbid you don’t )every year , every school in South Korea will hold a school festival.
Although the my school festival in South Korea seems to be similar to that of my school fair in South Africa there are a few major differences and school budget seems to be at the top of that list. There seems to be no shortage of money when it comes to holding such an event. Giant coulourful posters and hundreds of beautiful colour pamphlets have been printed displayed and distributed all over the school ( many of these pamphlets have already ended up in the trash). Now in South Africa I vividly remember having to colour in a school poster and sticking it on our parents car. No fancy colourful posters or pamphlets were distributed. School festivals in Korea also seem to take place during the week and not over a weekend like in South Africa.
Another major difference is who gets involved in the events. Back home the school fair was run by the parents. Parents would run the food stalls and organize the majority of the events. Here , it's the students and teachers who are responsible for running the event. No sign of any parents getting involved. Many students will be running food stores selling all sorts of yummy goodies from traditional Korean food to slices of pizza ,whilst others will take part in a class dance ,musical performances and the Mamma Mia play. They have spent endless hours preparing for this event. From filling trolleys with food at Homeplus to practicing , dance routines and learning an entire english musical , they have all been working incredibly hard.
Unlike my school in South Africa where school clubs didn’t really get involved in the school fair the school clubs here have all prepared something for the festival . I have only recently come to learn just how many school clubs we actually have. ( blog post to follow ) .
Activities and events to enjoy at the festival
The festival will have a variety of activities and exhibits and im starting to stress if I will have time to see everything.
According to my hand written festival schedule that one of my students kindly wrote out for me these are the must see and do events :
Science exhibition
Dokdo Exhibition ( Yes ,Dokdo that dear island that South Korea will never give up)
Drinking milk competition ( calcium overload)
Catholic group band performance ( Catholics can be rock stars too)
Traditional Korean fan performance ( yes we have a club for this )
Watch the Great Gatsby in the Geunhwa "cinema "
The students are not the only ones who will be involved with events and activities . I have been working on a few projects myself for the festival
Mamma Mia musical
Not only will I be ensuring that the girls remember all their lines which has taken 3 months to master , ( yes in English ) but I have now also been cast in the play. I shall be dancing around on stage to none other than the well known " dancing queen". How apt. ( blog post to follow) I cannot express how excited and proud I am of these girls.
>Crayon pop dance with the principal
For those of you have not had the pleasure of being exposed to this song , let me enlighten you . Crayon pop is one of the many "cutie" k pop girl groups in Korea who have somehow ( God only knows) become an overnight sensation thanks to their most ridiculous song " bar bar bar" . In a nutshell it involves girls wearing helmets and jumping up and down in tracksuits ( the mind boggles). A group of teachers have decided that this is the song we shall be dancing to for our 800 students ( KILL ME NOW) So on Friday I shall once again be on stage jumping up and down. The best part of this little act ? Our principal and vice principal shall be joining us on stage for what will no doubt be a very entertaining " #burrymyselfinahole" " #facepalm" moment . Do yourselves a favor and watch the video . It's a laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMqL1iWfku4
Golden bell
Lastly I will be helping out with the Golden Bell competition. This competition is based on books and requires students to answer questions about the books. As there is an English component I shall be responsible for asking the English based questions. I’m interested to see how the students cope with this.
So the next two days look like they will be anything but dull and despite the fact that I am probably going to look like a giant tit on stage during Mamma Mia and Crayon pop im so glad that I have been able to get involved in such events .
