Kevin from Korea, June 2019

I immediately fell in love with the Canadian educational style, in which it promoted the acknowledgement of and respect for each and every students and the differences between them.

Comments

As a kid who never experienced the world other than around my home in South Korea, I was shocked with almost every aspect of Canada and its education system. In Korea, students are taught without any distinguishment; in other words, students are treated the same way and are taught the same thing, without any acknowledgement about their talents and personalities.

As such was the case, I immediately fell in love with the Canadian educational style, in which it promoted the acknowledgement of and respect for each and every students and the differences between them. This allowed me and the other international students to grow and learn in a nonrestricted environment, without any chains binding us to one road of educational systems, thereby leading us to be more creative and thoughtful than students back in Korean educations.

Adding on to this, the help from another international students and the English as a Second Language (abbreviated to ESL) class helped me to learn English with almost no problem at all. I came to Canada with next to zero idea of speaking English, and I was quite worried about coping with environment that spoke only English. Along with this, I had no friends here that I knew, unlike other students that lived here for the entirety of their life and had friends since when they were babies. However, these worries soon disappeared, as the learning of English was easily acquired in the ESL class with the help of many teachers that were kind, respectful, and patient with me, and the problem with lack of friends was gone, as the other international students crowded around me and each other and asked many questions to bring me up to speed and I quickly joined their group and became a good friend with almost everyone there. With these learning, I was able to accomplish grades that I thought was impossible for me back in Korea: over 90% on most of my courses.

Along this, because there was so much spare time after school was done (most of Korean schools end at close to night time, sometimes even later), I was able to participate in many extracurricular activities, such as but not limited to after school choir class and band, volunteering as a member of air cadet of 861 Silverfox Squadron, performing as a excellent member of Korean Drumming Team Hurricane, and acquiring swimming certificate that would potentially allow me to get a temporary job as a lifeguard in swimming pools. After all these positive learning and memories from Canada, I hope to return to Korea again - not because I got tired of Canada, but because I wish to teach others in Korea about these wonderful teaching methods and ideas that would allow more creativity and joy to sprout from the students. Hopefully, I would be able to utilize the knowledges that I acquired from here to my advantage in getting into university that I hope to get into, and even possibly use it to get into a job of my interest. 

Activities

  • September 2013 - June 2015 Concert Band at Fraser Middle
  • February 2016 - February 2017 Concert Band at Yale Secondary
  • September 2018 - June 2019 Concert Band at Yale Secondary
  • September 2018 - June 2019 Concert Choir at Yale Secondary
  • September 2016 - June 2019 Member of Key Club at Yale Secondary
  • September 2013 - June 2016 Member of 861 Silverfox Air Cadet
  • September 2013 - June 2017 Member of Hurricane (Korean Drum Team)
  • March 2018 Conversation Buddy with GPI North America 

Post-secondary plans

As I have not signed up for any Canadian universities, my current plan for post-secondary is to first off start applying for a Korean university, which start accepting applications around September. As a student who grew up in Canada for most of the time that I can remember, I hope to go back to Korea and utilize my learning from here to my advantage and be one step ahead of other students in Korea. I hope to study more of genetics and how to apply that knowledge for genetic modification, which is growing extremely fast around the world for the goodness of it. After my study has been completed, I hope to go off into institutions in which I can work with other colleagues on modifying genes so that it can be used for the sake of mankind, such as development of genetically modified food and the modification of human genes so that they are more resistant against diseases.