Guidebook gives tips for going abroad

‘Students, parents should be careful not to make mistake’

More than 200,000 students who left Korea to study abroad at a young age have come back, but many have had difficulties, especially due to a lack of preparation.

Jeon Yong-hoon, 31, a professional counselor working at a counseling center in the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), said he has met many students who failed to adjust to the school curriculum when they came back.

“It is mainly because students as well as their parents usually don’t take the differences between the school system of a foreign country and Korea into consideration before they leave,” Jeon said.

He said there are usually no problems for students who go abroad until they enter college. However, most follow their parents’ working as sojourning employees or public servants abroad, so they have to come back in one or two years and end up having to go back to local schools again.

Jeon published a guidebook, “How to Transfer to Schools Successfully After Study Abroad,” to help those who have been going through difficulties.

“I thought how I could be more helpful for the students and parents to reduce the risk of failure. Hopefully, the book will help many students,” Jeon said.

The book includes 3,000 cases of actual counseling Jeon dealt with since 2011, when he began to work at the SMOE.

Most parents and students face problems when they want to transfer to regular schools in Korea after staying several years abroad.

“Most parents didn’t think too much at first. Let’s say there is a fifth-grade student who goes to the U.S. with her parents and she just finished the first semester of her grade, Jeon said.

“Her parents plan to stay there for a year and half for work, and they just assume that their daughter will get into middle school when they come back to Korea because she is to finish the second semester of fifth grade and two semester of sixth grade in America,” he added.

In Korea, children go to middle school after six years of primary school, which is a compulsory schooling. The parents simply thought if their daughter attends school in the U.S., it will be automatically calculated as a normal semester in Korea as well.

The counselor said however, the situation can go against parents’ assumptions.

“First of all, parents should consult with employees like me at the local education office before they leave, so that they can get all the necessary papers filled in,” Jeon said.

Sometimes, parents are confused with the different school systems and make a mistake, like the fifth-grade girl’s case. Jeon pointed out that if the parents miss submitting adequate papers about their overseas stay, the school has to consider the student as being absent without any notice.

As a result, the girl had to go back to elementary school even though she finished the curriculum in the U.S.

Another example are the problems resulting from miscalculation of a semester, the counselor said.

The first semester starts from March in Korea, but it begins from September in the U.S. Although the student finished the first semester at any grade, he or she has to begin the first semester in September again so that it can be counted as a second semester under the Korean system.

“It’s important not to forget skipping or lowering the grade and semester,” Jeon said.

Some parents decide to skip one or two semesters in order for their children to spend some time learning English, but that’s not a good decision because we don’t count the gap year as a normal semester the student takes,” Jeon said.

He mostly feels sorry when the students blame the confusion on their parents.

“They are children. Most of them didn’t choose to go abroad themselves, because it was their parents’ decision. Therefore, they try to find someone who gets the blame,”

Jeon said that’s why parents have to talk with the counselors in the education office and use the guide book so that they can be better prepared

“Most parents ask about the school system when they come back, but it’s too late at that point,” Jeon said. He added that they have to know more about the transfer process when they plan to go abroad, and the guide book will be helpful.

Jeon published the book with his colleague counselors voluntarily. He donated the guidebook to the SMOE and it will be distributed to 17 local education offices nationwide after adding detailed contents for each province.

As for what made him to publish the book, he said he always wanted to do something to help others one way or another.

“I was struggling to get a job after I was discharged from military service due to a neck injury. All of sudden, I felt I became useless person,” Jeon said.

Whatever his social status, he said he promised himself to become a helpful person at that time.

Jeon’s other goal for this year is to publish another book about students at Myongji Middle School where he, as a mentor, has helped them find career paths. By Bahk Eun-ji The korea times