In January 2017, Tolworth Girl’s School hosted five students and two teachers from Gwanak, an area of South Korea quite near the capital city of Seoul.

Between being given a tour of the facilities at Tolworth, including joining a Design and Technology lesson, and moving on to their next activity, the students and staff were given some time to ask and answer some questions of the students who had showed them around.

The opinion expressed most by the visiting students, of which there were two girls and three boys, was that English lessons, no matter the subject, were far more practical that what the students experienced in Gwanak. A few of the students went as far to say the British system was better , with opinions ranging from slightly impressed to envious of the choices British students have in their lessons.

There were more comparisons made between English and South Korean schooling, and another prominent difference was that school days in South Korea are considerably longer, with one of the female students, Hayoung Kim, telling us that her school day was from 7:40am to 4:30pm – nearly nice hours long and two hours longer than the normal Tolworth school day.

As the British students had an opportunity to pose questions, the most topical and pressing came to be, “what do you think about Donald Trump?” of which the answer was a collective sigh from everybody.

Woojin Shim, an aspiring diplomat, was the first to elaborate; “He gives horrible speeches…he’s going to complete change the policies in the USA, and he wants to return to the days where the USA was the biggest power in the world. We’ll need to wait to see what he does, and try and limit what he can do to change the rest of the world.”

Woojin also kept on top of UK politics, saying he thought Theresa May was a strong leader, and that Britain should favour a hard Brexit.

However, less popular was the idea backed by Youth Parliament, of allowing Votes at 16; Hayoung Kim said “I don’t think Korean teenagers are that interested in politics. They would probably not vote.”

The rest of the Korean students seemed to agree, telling us that even with the age of voting at 19, it was difficult to encourage voting, and that a lot of people their age had no interest in politics or voting.

Once the subject of British politics was out of the way, conversation moved on to British media, TV, and books. Sherlock Holmes (and the recent Sherlock finale) made him a popular talking point, and the favourite English detective of all of them, while Harry Potter also ranked highly in the Best of British, while another less PG favourite was Game of Thrones. Interestingly, Shakespeare was another favourite of the students, with Hamlet, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet being especially mentioned.

As for their futures beyond their visit, the careers goal of each student varied greatly; Jaehyeon Lee wanted to study a degree in Biology, while Sungjin Lee wanted to go into Neurobiology. And on the more humanities orientated aspect of the spectrum were Seungyeon Yang, hoping to become a journalist, Woojin Shim, the aforementioned diplomat, and Hayoung Kim, with aspirations to become a concert pianist.

The most interesting answer of the day came when every student divulged what they wanted to be when they were younger. Sungjin Lee confidently told everybody that he had wished to be a police car, rather than a police officer, and subsequently mimed the siren and flashing lights of a police car.

Overall, the students (and teachers, John Lee and Mi Sun) from Gwanak were a cultured and engaged group of people. Tolworth Girls’ School is incredibly grateful to have played host to them, with Frankie Chong, Angela Dolamulla Hewa Kankanange, and Mrs Marillat giving especial thanks and best wishes for the future from Tolworth Girls’.

The few hours that the visiting staff and students spent at Tolworth revealed not only the cultural differences in education, but the more common similarities. Tolworth Girls’ School is pleased to have hosted everyone from Gwanak, and hopes to maintain the links forged between students who lived nearly 6000 miles apart.