By Mayte and Jorge
Over the past years, the school received negative feedback on the inclusion of Korean students in school. Teachers, staff and parents, realized that the Korean community did not feel welcomed by the Brazilian students, in consequence, their friend groups did only include Korean classmates. Because of this issue, we decided to interview 2 students from Korea, about how they feel about the school and Brazilian students, and how they think the issue can be improved. We did not include names in the interview, to make people more confident and more transparent in their answers. To balance out the interview we chose one student that has been in EAC for years, and a student that had just arrived.
The first student interviewed has been in EAC for almost 3 years, he feels like his culture is not extremely included and valued in our school community. He said that many Brazilian and American holidays are celebrated in our campus, however, there are many important holidays in Korea that are not even talked about. It was stated during the interview that even though there are many things to be worked on, he does feel welcomed in EAC. He has come to Brazilian friends, which he believes are very friendly and kind to him. Moreover, he told us that it needed a lot of time to adapt to a new country and culture but he feels that every student does their best to give him the best experience and make him feel comfortable. When asked what specific things could help him and his community include more of the Korean culture and continue with the buddy system. Because the system helped him know the school better and be able to meet more people.
After discussing with the first student, we invited the second one to join. He just arrived at EAC, so he could not answer all the questions yet. The boy was from 10th grade, and this was his second time living in Brazil. The first time he got to experience the country was in Manays, when he was really young. Succeeding in locating himself in Manaus, he then went to Vietnam. He said that when he was located in Vietnam, It was a better experience of sharing cultures due to the fact that both Vietnam and South Korea are closer countries to each other and share similar cultures. Something really helped him get more comfortable in the different places he lived is the time difference in each country. Since the time difference between Brazil and Korea is about 12 hours, it is harder for him to communicate with his friends and family. On the other hand, in Vietnam it was only 2 hours difference, this is one of the reasons why he felt it was easier to adapt in Vietnam. The tenth grader told us that even though he has been in EAC for a short amount of time, he feels extremely comfortable on our campus. His buddy was very kind and helpful, such as the counselors and the principals. He said he believes to be a person easy to talk to and make friends with. In consequence, he already has many Brazilian friends that try to include him and activities. Last, He was put into a whatsapp group which he felt extremely comfortable with, however, he doesn’t understand what people understand since they only speak in portuguese. And that is the only thing he be;ieves can be improved about the students in his grade.
The discussions with the Korean students can be extremely helpful to improve the well being of our community. By having the interview with them, we could see the areas that can be improved and the areas that are successful. Moreover, by publishing the article for the school to read, other Korean kids can feel more welcomed and comfortable in doing brazilian friendship.
EAC PRESS 