Kindergarten graduation was last Friday. Now, I know what you are thinking. They must have looked so cute in their little cap and gown singing their one song off key and not in unison while some kids are picking their noses and others are doing their own thing. Let me just tell you that Kindergarten graduation in Korea is so much different and that the only part of this that is true is the fact that they looked super cute. They don’t mess around here and kindergarten graduation is NOTHING like the kindergarten graduation’s I am used to back home- IF there even is one. This ceremony has been something that we have been preparing for the past 2 months. It was HUGE and lasted 3 hours!
We started the ceremony with the traditional giving of the diplomas and everyone was in their cute cap and gowns. Each student was called up and given a present and their diploma by the owner of our school and then bowed and sat down. Then all of the Kinder teachers were called out on stage and the students sang a thank you song to us in Korean and gave a speech in unison thanking us for teaching them and letting the future students know they had to be just as good as them in the future.
Then we started the fun part. It began with the majority of students getting to play traditional Korean drums. This was really cool and the students did so well!! Then it was time for each of the graduation classes to shine. Each class (there were 6 classes) did a play and a song.
Stanford (my everyday class- basically my babies) were the first to go. Their play was the Korean version of “The Little Mermaid” It was cute but very hard to understand, as were most of the plays. Their play included snippets of music from a Korean pop band- 2NE1 and 50 Cent’s “Inferno”. Yeah, that was interesting and really inappropriate but it did make all of the foreign teacher’s laugh as you can imagine. This was the first of several inappropriate things to happen.
Then Princeton class went. Their play was by far the best one. It was titled “Broken English” and had students speaking Konglish then being corrected with the real English word. It was really funny and cute. In the middle of their play they had one of the boys do a dance to “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake. Inappropriate? I think so. Then the whole class danced to “Stupid Cupid”. The kids did a great job!
Next was Columbia class, a second year 6 year old class who gave advice “from around the world” to the new students coming in. Then they danced to “Beautiful Day”. That has become one of my new favorite songs and they were super cute doing it.
Then all of the classes came back on stage and sang and danced to “Summer Night” from the movie “Grease”. The girls all wore red bandannas around their necks that had suspicious leaves on them. It was cute though and a good showcase of all of the graduating students.
Following the Grease production, Oxford class came on and did a play about a lion with hiccups. The kids were all dressed up as different animals and I couldn’t get over how adorable they all looked as jungle animals. They danced to “Everybody Has Music Inside” which is a song that easily gets stuck in my head, but I love so that was ok.
Next was Cambridge class with their rendition of “Peter Pan”. I am still not sure exactly what was going on in this play but Caroline got to make her debut with her couple of lines in Korean. She was good and the parents laughed as apparently she used some Gwangju slang.
After Cambridge class we watched all of the graduating boys perform some Taekwondo in a Taekwon dance. It was super cool. All of the boys showed off what they had been learning in PE and it made me think that we should take Taekwondo back to the US for our PE.
Following the Taekwondo was Harvard class’s play. They did a play about a traditional Korean family but I honestly have absolutely NO clue what the play was about. Erica and Jason got to make their debut as a swallow and a monster. It was hilarious to watch them say their many lines in Korean and know that they nor any of the foreign teachers knew exactly what they were saying.
The last class to perform was Berkeley class. Their play was about sharing and playing together which was a good message. That class is full of the cutest kids ever so when they danced to “The Locomotion” it definitely didn’t let me down.
After Berkeley class all of the girls who were graduating sang and did 2 songs in sign language. They performed “Winter Wonderland” and a Korean song to all of their moms about how much they loved them. Or at least that’s what my six year olds led me to believe. It was neat to see them perform a song in a different language as well as in sign language.
Then Jake and one of the Korean kinder girls did a short skit that was half in English, half Korean and basically it was the funniest act in the show. It was about how to trick a foreigner into getting married over here. Step one was meet a foreigner at the airport and tell him you will show him around. Step two was teaching the foreigner how to speak a little Korean and trick him into saying I love you. The last step ended with the foreigner down on one knee and the little Korean girl putting handcuffs around him and taking him away. It was really funny and had the whole crowd laughing.
After that hilarious skit came another. This skit involved 2 boys but one of them was dressed up in a dress pretending to be a girl. It was a skit involving a “beautiful senorita”. Other than that, I am clueless as to what was happening in it as it was in Korean, but it was funny none the less.
Next came a miniature variety show where select students danced to several different Korean pop songs. There were a couple groups that had foreign teachers in them and guess who got chosen to be apart of one of those lucky groups. That’s right- this non-dancer here got up in front of so many parents and children and danced! AHHH! It wasn’t too bad actually. The dances were hilarious though so you will definitely have to check them out.
The last act was the foreigners making fools of themselves, but it was fun. First, we all had to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves. Then we all chose a winter Olympic sport and acted it out in groups of two. Caroline and I did Alpine Skiing. Then came the interesting part. We all wore matching Superman sweatshirts and sang IN KOREAN and danced. It was pretty hilarious to watch I am sure. Most of us just kind of mumbled the words, because let’s be honest, even if I HAD memorized them I wouldn’t be saying them right because speaking Korean correctly is RIDICULOUSLY HARD!!
The show finished with all of the students and teachers on stage singing and swaying to the song “I Have a Dream” from Mamma Mia.
The show was lots of fun even though it had been a lot of work up until then getting it ready. The kids looked adorable in their crazy outfits they had to wear but everyone did SO WELL. There were no missed lines or missed entrances and I think the kids ended up having lots of fun with it. Tanya also said this was the first year where parents actually came up to her and commented on how good the show was which is exciting. I am glad I got to be apart of it. You can see all of the pictures I took as well as almost all of the acts I videoed on facebook. Make sure to check them out because I promise you will die laughing!
