Reflection on My South Korea Experiential Learning

I have always thought of South Korea as a very developed country. From what I saw the past few days, it had proved me right. Although South Korea is advancing towards the economy at a very fast rate, it had not lost its’ culture and tradition unlike India. In some parts of South Korea, cultural plays were still carried out and traditional costumes like hanbok are still worn. Globalization is now occurring in South Korea; hence the South Korean government has provided many incentives to the heritage centres and villages so that they can be preserved.

Some common areas between Singapore and South Korea are that they are very prepared

 against threats such as terrorism and natural disasters. In South Korea there is the Daegu Safety Theme Park, where the public can go in and learn some safety measures in times of a terrorist attack or when a natural disaster strikes so that they are able to handle the situation better. Similarly, in Singapore, there are videos shown in MRT stations on how to counter terrorist attacks and the learning of social studies creates awareness among the students. Furthermore, South Korea and Singapore are urbanised cities with many skyscrapers.  Both South Korea and Singapore economies have went sky rocketing due to globalization even though they were once under the Japanese Occupation. However, differences between Singapore and South Korea is that South Korea still depends on their own agriculture for food and that Singapore depends mainly on imported goods from other countries. This could be due to the limited land size of Singapore. In addition, South Korea there is the English Village where the kids can learn and speak English. I was totally amazed by the majestic infrastructure of the English Village which Singapore does not have.

One of my most memorable experiences was at the Daegu Safety Theme Park where I learnt some life-saving skills such as CPR and get to experience some ‘earthquakes’. I have also enjoyed the 4D video shown at the end as it was pretty much exciting. Secondly was the interaction with the Korean students. I was impressed by the band performance they put up for us. Their school hours were almost twice as much as ours and they took more subjects than us. Hence, they must really be able to handle the stress well. During lunch, I manage to have the experience of queuing up where the lunch lady would then place the food on the tray and that everyone would have the same food. Perhaps our school could also have such a cafeteria. Lastly, was the trip to the Hahoe Village where I get to see how interior of the traditional Korean houses look like. Also, the wishing tree located there where we are supposed to write and a wish on a strip of paper and tie it onto the tree. It was interesting as such things do not exist in Singapore.

I have learnt to be more appreciative of my own culture and tradition after seeing what the Koreans had done. Moreover, I learnt that having a sense of urgency and punctuality is very important as it may lead to some serious consequences depending on the situation. Moreover, I should treasure what I have now as the students in Korea are working twice as hard as us. As a student, I learnt the importance of getting a degree or a certificate to remain in this competitive society. However, what is of most importance is the character and attitude.

Melvin 3E1