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Headshot Young Girl

Minjae Lee

SEO24

Korea

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Challenge

As the phrase "global village" suggests, advances in technology have brought people around the world closer together, both physically and emotionally. This is evidenced by the fact that you can go to any school in South Korea and find students from multicultural families. I'm an elementary school teacher in South Korea, and the school I work at is a research school focused on multicultural education. I have 26 students in my class, and many of them come from multicultural families, where one of their parents is from another country, such as Poland, Paraguay, China, Canada, or the United States, or have lived in that country since childhood and recently moved to Korea. Multicultural students are born with a lot of potential. They inherit cultural assets from both parents and are best equipped to bridge the "global village" and produce multicultural knowledge that can drive future trends. However, many of them struggle to adapt to school. Learning deficits that begin with language differences tend to worsen as they move up the grades, and religious and cultural differences affect their eating habits, leading to poor health. The biggest problem is that they may perceive themselves as "Stranger" even though they are Korean, which can negatively affect their emotional development. These problems are not unique to our school or to Korea; as the world becomes more global, there will be more places with similar problems. I want to help students from multicultural families adjust to school through the utilization of educational ideas and technology and help them grow into people who can contribute to the world.

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