On November 20 at 6:00 in the evening, the students of Incheon Hannuri Multicultural School (Park Hyeong-shik, principal) proudly went on stage to present the songs, instrumental pieces and taegweondo skills that they’d practiced and polished for weeks. The event, held in the auditorium of this public school, located on Nonhyeongojan-no in Namdong-gu, Incheon, was named “Invitation to Lonely Neighbors.” More than 400 spectators enjoyed the performance by the students from various countries, responding with applause and laughter.
In the photo, Rev. Evgeny (center) of the Foreigners Mission Association at Juan Presbyterian Church sings the Russian song “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu (Long, Long Road)” during the event on the 20th.
Though this is a public school, Juan Presbyterian Church (Rev. Ju Seung-jung) and the Russian Mission Association (Rev. Choi Bok-gyu, board chair) support its students with career coaching and mentoring, cultural education and other programs. They serve these children of multicultural families in Christ’s love, communicating the Gospel in positive ways. They also jointly sponsored the event on this day.
The audience included many Koreans who have lived in China or Russia and returned to their homeland, along with the multicultural families of the students. Children of multicultural families generally have a hard time in ordinary school, due to their difficulty communicating ideas in Korean. Incheon Hannuri School provides its students with systematic Korean language classes, by hiring Korean-speaking Chinese, Russian, Mongolian, Japanese and other teachers sharing students’ ethnic backgrounds.
Incheon Hannuri School opened in March last year as an integrated boarding school for children of multicultural families. It is the only Korea-based multicultural school that operates all three levels -elementary, middle and high school-, and it is entrusted with educating multicultural students from around the country who have been unable to adjust to ordinary school. Currently 150 some students from 21 different countries are studying there.
Reporter Pyeong Seon Jeon (junbs@kmib.co.kr) from Incheon, with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok from Incheon
Click here for the original article in Korean
Incheon Hannuri Students Hold Performance: Special invitation to Koreans from China and Russia
2014-11-25 16:22
