REFLECTION

  My impression of South Korea had changed over the last few days I spent in Korea. I had always thought that South Korea is a country with high technology and nothing else but after going to South Korea, I had learnt that they are not only good in technology, but in a lot of areas including sports. After the visit to the World Cup Stadium in Korea and see the number of trophies the Korea's soccer team had won, and the countries that are well-known in soccer that the Korea's soccer team had beaten, I realise I'm wrong to think that Korea is only good in technology. Moreover, since Korea is a highly developed country, I thought that almost all of the land was used for buildings.etc. However, there are many land use for trees, hills and mountains in Korea which surprised me. I had never thought that a country which is highly developed will have so many lands for all these.
    There are similarities between Singapore and South Korea. One example is that both countries have trees everywhere and are known as green city. Another example is that both Singapore and Korea are very humble and are willing to learn from others. For example Korea has improved their technology faster than expected as they are learning from Japan while Singapore improve their educational system by learning from various countries. However, Singapore and South Korea have differences too in terms of educational system and weather. Korea’s students start school at 8am but only end school at 11pm everyday whereas Singapore’s students start school at 8am but end school early at 1pm to 2 pm. Moreover, they have different school holiday because of the differences in seasons. Korea has four seasons, which is namely the summer, autumn, winter and spring while Singapore which is located near the equator only has one season and is hot! Therefore Korea is having school holiday during one or two of the seasons while Singapore is having school holiday during mid and end of the year.
   There are lot of memorable experiences in this trip to Korea. One of the most memorable experiences is the weather we encounter during the seven days in Korea. Though there is sun shining on us almost every day, we can rarely feel the heat and instead, it is damm cold, and I really miss the weather there. Another most memorable experience is the interaction we had with the POSCO High School students. They had shown me their determination to enter a university in their country during the conversation with them which I think I could learn from them.  The Daegu Safety Theme Park is also another place that gives me a memorable experience. The Safety Theme Park provides us with an opportunity to experience disaster such as earthquakes and teaches us what to do when we encounter them. Although Singapore will have very less of those disasters, I think it is good for us to know what to do when we encounter them as anything may happen to us one day.
   The trip to Korea had teaches me to be punctual, be prepared for the worst and to appreciate and be proud that I am Singaporean. I had learnt to be punctual as we are not allow to be late in this trip, if not everything will be delayed. In the Safety Theme Park, I had learnt that we should be prepared for everything so that we would know what to do when things such as disasters come. I had also learnt to appreciate that I’m Singaporean as we do not need to study for long hours and I am proud that though Singapore is just a small dot in the world map, countries like Korea are learning from us and had benchmark us as their aim in their English standard.

Huimin.