Getting a touch of U.S. class

Students spend month learning English in a local elementary school

Sean Carter, former teacher in the Clark County School District, left teaching temporarily to pursue a job that offered more money. When he returned to the profession, he ended up bridging a cultural gap between Korean and American students.

Carter moved to Korea with two bags full of belongings. The rest he sold or left behind.

He admitted it was difficult to get used to living in a totally different country where he didn't speak the language. Seeing the way schools operate there was also a big surprise. Students attend regular school several hours per day and then attend academies for certain subjects, but Carter noticed that the students weren't learning English at an accelerated rate.

"Over there they go to the (English) school for maybe three days a week," he said. "When they go home they don't speak English often. I thought if they were immersed for a whole month, they might be able to improve their skills tremendously."

Carter decided to make a monthlong English immersion for Korean students a reality. Bonnie Ballard, who Carter worked under when she was an assistant principal at Will Beckley Elementary and who is the current principal of Hal Smith Elementary, 5150 E. Desert Inn Road, was eager to help as host for a group of young Korean exchange students.

After gaining approval from the regional superintendent in the area and ironing out any legal details necessary, Ballard said the school was ready to incorporate the foreign pupils into the school's regular classes.

The Korean group spent the entire month of January learning American traditions and educational style. This is one of the first times a group of exchange students has been introduced into a local school at the elementary level.

"The school they were at in Korea was a language school," Ballard said. "Kids in Korea go to public school from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and, in order to move on, they have to take tests.

"A lot of parents will send them to private schools to learn math and English, such as this school, after regular school. A lot of them spend about 12 hours a day in school and then they have homework."

Before the exchange students arrived, Ballard sent out an e-mail that asked her staff to host students. They agreed to house two children per family. Ballard made sure to place the students in families with similar aged children.

"I e-mailed them with descriptions of the family," Ballard said.

Students were placed in various classrooms, two per class, according to grade level. For research purposes, an English Language Learners instructor was asked to test the exchange student's English knowledge at the beginning and end of their stay at Smith.

Although there are few Asian-language speaking students at Smith, Ballard said her students are accustomed to hearing several languages spoken in the classroom, the only difference was instead of hearing Spanish, they heard Korean.

Teachers at Smith wanted to make sure the Korean students got the most out of their immersion experiences, so students were encouraged to speak only in English. Ballard said another important component of the trip was the host families taking students on tours around the city.

"I recently took four of them to see the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay," Ballard said. "We were walking by the M&M factory and they saw a Korean Barbecue restaurant that flashed in Korean. They were so excited to see their language."

Asian students often are stereotyped as being quiet and studious, according to Ballard. She and her staff were surprised to learn how similar they actually are to American students.

"These kids are just like ours," said Ballard, who had to give detention to two of the students for talking in class. "Some of them are chatty and silly, while others are quiet."

Both Ballard and Carter said the biggest adjustment the students had to face was the change in food and how relaxed the learning environment is compared with Korean schools.

"They mostly eat kimchi and rice," Carter said. "They even eat that for breakfast sometimes. So that was a difference. Also, the schools are so different because it's so laid-back here. Over there, they're still allowed to slap their hands with a ruler."

The parents of the Korean students were just as eager to send their children as Ballard and staff were to host them. Learning to speak English in Korea means getting a leg up on the competition.

"They're gung-ho about it," Carter said. "Anything to get them ahead over there, they want to do. If you learn to speak English well, you can get into special high school and then a special college, and you're pretty much set. It's totally competitive."


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