English Together Festival in Ulsan


by Andreya Kossar at Jeon-Ha Elementary School
One month after arriving in South Korea as an English teacher, my co-teacher told me about the English Together Festival that was taking place on the 9th of October. I was very excited to hear about it and thought it was a wonderful idea for students to have the opportunity to attend this festival and to take part in the various activities. I was also delighted that I would be able to contribute to this festival.
The English Together Festival hosted a listening, debating and writing competition as well as an English Expo, which consisted of a number of activity booths all encompassing creative ways of engaging with the English language. This allowed and encouraged students to listen, speak, read and write English in fun and imaginative ways.
For a couple of weeks in the morning before school, I met with some students from my school who were participating in the ET Festival competition. We practiced and prepared for the competition so that they would be prepared and feel confident while partaking in the competition. They all practiced as much as they could, because they wanted to do their very best.
My co-teachers and I also had to think about and organize what we would be doing for our booth at the festival. After brainstorming ideas and discussing various ideas, we decided on an Easter theme. This is a Christian Western tradition and it would be introducing a small part of Western culture. We came to the conclusion that our booth would be a craft booth and that the students would be able to make an Easter hat. Once they completed the hat they would receive Easter candy. Students had to listen to our instructions on how to make the hat and speak to us in English throughout the process. This meant that the students were able to practice listening to English as well as speaking it in an environment that they felt comfortable in. They students enjoyed being creative and taking part in the activity. Our booth was busy the whole day and we liked speaking to the students and teaching them something new.
I really enjoyed being part of the English Together Festival. Many students came, enjoyed it and learnt from it. I was pleased at how excited the students were about coming to the festival. All the booths were very busy and the students were eager to take part in as many of the activities as they could. I think the ET festival was definitely a success.
I am currently teaching at Jeon-Ha Elementary School in Dongu. I have been here for two months now and have enjoyed my time here thus far. I¡¯m really lucky to have such nice co-teachers who are always friendly and ready to help me. I have learnt that I really enjoy teaching. I find teaching English as a foreign language challenging at times, but I also find it to very rewarding. I can only hope that the rest of my year will be as positive as the first two months. I want all my students to keep learning English and keep doing their best with me.