Hello all, Sooyoung, Jian, and Jaehoon here reporting on Korea’s Chuseok holiday and recent classroom celebrations. This weekend is a major holiday called Chuseok in Korea. Chuseok celebrates the year’s harvest and lasts 3 days. It was originally called ‘Hangawi.’ During Chuseok people traditionally visit relatives who live far away and make songpyeon, a soft and flavorful Korean rice cake. In addition, young and old people wear hanboks, a traditional Korean clothing. Hanboks can have many different colors and patterns. Children often receive money from their grandparents, uncles, aunts, and others during this holiday. They put this money into lucky bags and they can spend it on whatever they like. This means it is a delight to have a GIGANTIC family! The coolest thing about Chuseok is that we do not have to academies (Yeah!). You may not heard about this, however, South Korean children are some of the most stressed children in the world (studies have proven it)! This is because of endless after-school academies and massive amounts of homework. The worst thing about Chuseok is that we can’t go to school (crying children...jk). Today at Younghoon, we had a fantastic Chuseok celebration. We made songpyeon to celebrate the holiday. Some of us made songpyeon shaped like characters and some of us made songpyeon with a lot of delicious stuffing. The stuffing of songpyeon is sesame seeds, black beans, mung beans, cinnamon, pine nut, chestnut, jujube, and even honey! In addition, most of us wore our Hanboks. Our classroom looked like a rainbow with stripes, butterflies, dragons, and even flowers dancing around the room! We also played some exciting Korean games like Gonggi and Jegi chagi (Korean hacky sack) . At recess, we enjoyed dancing and singing Ganggangsulae . Our classmates will do many different and exuberant things during Chuseok. Sangjun is going to Jeju-do (an island that is in the southern part of South Korea) with his family. Jian has plans to go to Japan and just relax with her family and cute little puppies. Sooyoung has quite a big family, and Jian does too, which is fortunate for us since we can get a big amount of MONEY! Euiju says, every year, she makes songpyeon with her friends. She really enjoys making songpyeon and she even thinks the relationship between her friends gets better when they make it. She is probably going to do that again this year. Juwon is going to a foreign country. Yongseok will visit his cousin and grandparents. As you can see, Chuseok is an important holiday for Koreans and our families. Let us know what your favorite holiday to you celebrate with the people you love in our comment section. Happy Chuseok!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Last week, 3-1 students talked through Skype to Canadian kayaker K.C Fraser, a friend of Ms. B. K.C will go to the Summer Olympics as part of Team Canada and she feels extremely proud of herself. K.C talked about winning a gold medal during the Pan Am games and also about how she hopes to do even better in the Rio Olympics in Brazil. Students showed outstanding effort asking questions and even answered questions about Korea. To start, Minjoon asked, “When did you start kayaking?” “I started kayaking at the age of 14,” K.C told us. Next Yun asked, “Why of all the fun sports, did you choose kayaking?” K.C. replied, grinning,” There was this teacher who was in the Olympics and I really respected him. The dream just came out like that!” Everyone was impressed. In addition, Jeonghyeon asked, “How do you kayak?” This was a tricky stunt for K.C, on the other hand, she gave a small description of kayaking. The students followed K.C.’s actions , and the classroom burst into a laugh parade. Next up, Yongseok asked about what K.C. eats before racing. Everyone knew that Yongseok would ask a question about food! Haha! It was so comical. One of the final questions, asked by me, was about how she stopped herself from giving up when things were hard. “Although I have wanted to give up, I thought about the fun I had kayaking and I didn’t want to finish the sport being sad or being mad. I wanted to be happy. I pushed myself everyday and put myself in very uncomfortable situations. Because that is how you become the best. You have to scare yourself everyday,” K.C replied. K.C asked us some questions about Korea’s landscape and food. She told us how much the Facebook message we had made for her on Canada Day meant to her! Everyone wished her good luck. This was one of the most exuberant days in 3-1. Learn more about K.C. here! By Sooyoung P.S Video to come! |
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