Arrival of AY2013 Seoul National University of Education Global Internship Students
Eight Seoul National University of Education students arrived in Japan on January 14 for a four-week training program that will take them to Osaka Kyoiku University and two Higashiosaka City public elementary schools. The SNUE students attended classes until January 24 at OKU to learn about Japanese language and culture, as well as the educational situation in Japan. They then moved on from January 27–February 6 to intern (observation) at Nagasekita and Yaenosato Elementary Schools in Higashiosaka City.
OKU began accepting interns for the program in AY2010. The program has earned plaudits for helping to form an international perspective among students from OKU's program partner SNUE as well as for the positive influence it has on children at the elementary schools to which the interns are assigned. It has also been playing a major role in directing the interest of OKU students toward Korea and the world outside Japan more generally.
Time was set aside during the first week of this year's program for the SNUE students to talk with their OKU peers in one of the Course for School Teachers classes. The two groups of students held an animated discussion that served to deepen mutual understanding. In the program's second week,
the visiting students attended lectures in the courses on "Society," "Education for Understanding Asia," and "Korean Language and Culture II." This helped them to get to know OKU students better,
while also readying them through intensive Japanese lessons for their work in the following weeks as elementary school interns. On January 27, the SNUE students were dispatched in two groups of four each to Nagasekita and Yaenosato Elementary Schools. There, they had fun exchanges with the youngsters while also learning a good deal from the school teachers about instructional methods and ways to interact with children.