Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
CAMBODIA TRIP SFBS, their Footprints in Cambodia - Nick Choi
Last week, from November 3rd to November 8th, 20 students, accompanied by three teachers of Seoul Foreign British School (SFBS) devoted themselves to service in Cambodia. In a parentsfree and electronics-free 6 days trip, the students found themselves enhancing the lives of Cambodian children while improving their own mindset and character. November 3rd, 2019, the 20 SFBS students began their 6 days journey. For the majority of the members, this was their first time participating in a voyage away from their parents for this long. Their passion could be estimated by the exclamation of one student: “Aye, it’s lit fam!” Bracing for the upcoming 5 hours flight, the students tried hard to keep in their overflowing enthusiasm. Students arrived in Phnom Penh at 2 A.M. Although fatigued by the long flight, the children found themselves unable to sleep at ease from the bizarre environment around them and their excessive excitement. However, the students haven’t been able to utilize their phones during that night (as they had been generally doing), so they had to find other ways to entertain themselves during their insomniac life on the first day. To highlight one of these ways the students attempted to spend time with, Sungjun Hwang and Nick Choi found themselves recreating scenes from famous dramas and recording them. During the first-day orientation, students met their tour guides: Sothea, Sanhong, Gage, and Madelynn. Along with the teachers, these guides supported the trip and assisted us during their service days. The trip was managed and planned by Rustic Pathways, a youth travel program, in cooperation with Buddhism for Social Development Action (BSDA): BSDA’s partnering school and initiative were also where the students spent their service days in.
Photos by teachers and Audrey Bae
On the second and third days of the travel, students participated in tours to immerse themselves in the Cambodian culture and learn about the history of the Khmer Rouge. Students were devastated by the heat of Cambodia, yet they remained passionate about the learning opportunity. Students were especially shocked during their visit to the S-21, a former high school that turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. In there, students met survivors of the massacres and interacted with them. With this, students were able to further absorb themselves into the trip, and hear direct stories about the Khmer Rouge. Other than the S-21, students visited the royal palace and the killing fields, also to have enhanced background knowledge and understanding of Cambodia before serving. In the fourth and fifth days of the trip, students were divided into two groups for service. One group was assigned to a school in Cambodia and the other was sent to The Happy Happy Centre, a 1
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place for afterschool learning. Although in two different places, the students and teachers involved in the service all had the same job to do: create and place cement. The work was challenging for both the students and the teachers. Shovelling and carrying buckets in the burning temperature, a student attempted to express their pain in a comment: “I can’t feel my back. Not even joking I actually can’t.” Despite the difficult labour, students were gifted with selfsatisfaction and pride from the results of their works. In the short length of two days, the members of the trip were able to complete a basketball court and a school pathway! Following two days of hard work, the students were given a daylong reward for an entertainment tour in Cambodia. Once again immersing themselves in Cambodian culture students entered the busy marketplace to purchase souvenirs and join the Cambodian shopping culture. Certain students were particularly pleased to buy fake versions of Gucci and Rolex products at a low price, others found pleasure elsewhere. Students then were given the chance to explore a large Cambodian mall. Given their free time, they were given the opportunity to explore the vast area. In conclusion, the fifth day was a day joyful for all of the students. After the trip to Cambodia ended, the students were tired yet pleased. Their final feelings after completing their journey could be shown in what one of the students said: “In the beginning, you know, we kind of treated this lightly and fooled around a little. But after we actually did the service it really does feel good.” The students and teachers of SFBS showed courage and determination and have made significant improvements for Cambodian children, the outcomes of this trip are worthy to be congratulated.
Photos by Mr. Lozneanu, Ms. Grant, and Ms. Gochar 2
Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
Cambodian or Korean: Who Really Has More Advantages? - Samuel Minjoon Kim
There are two boys: one from Kampong Cham, Cambodia, where he lives with no running water, no proper toilet and of course, no electronics. The other boy, in contrast, lives in Seoul, Korea, living in a wealthy family and using his electronics at home for about 5 hours a day. If they went to the same school with the same conditions, who would study better? Would it be the Korean boy: with all the resources and technology? Or the Cambodian boy: with an inadequate amount of opportunities? Research shows that the use of electronics has surprisingly many negative impacts on teens. First, technology causes some psychological issues. The technology could cause distraction when studying. A book written by Professor Rosen of California State University showed an experiment on high school students to detect how technological distractions affected their study habits. He found out that the student could concentrate on one school task for a mere 3 minutes at a stretch. The students that “multitasked”, or checked Instagram every 5 minutes, tended to be bad students and also earn very low scores on quizzes or exams. He reported that even without the constant reminders provided by notification lights and sounds, they were internally preoccupied with whether anyone was trying to get in touch with them or commenting on their statuses. Technology causes a loss of patience. A huge study was done by UMass Amherst, that surveyed 6.7 million users of technology, showed that viewers would abandon online videos if it wouldn’t load in 2 seconds. Most users would stay in a news article page to only read 20% of the article, according to the survey of the Nielsen Norman Group. Also, with a society of everything being instantly available, we do not feel the gratitude for everything being instant, which could lead to anxiety and frustration. And that could lead teens to make bad decisions later in life. Also, teens that are addicted to the internet lose grey and white matter in key areas of the brain associated with cognitive control and goal-directed behaviour. The damage of the brain differed according to the length of the subject’s addiction to the internet, which Cambodian children can’t afford. Second, technology causes social issues. Using only technology and not actually socializing with real people could cause serious socializing problems. An antidote to this problem, according to study author Clifford Nass is for children to spend more time interacting face to face with others and therefore learning important skills in emotional recognition. Also, the use of technology could cause a sense of isolation. As people use technology and the internet more and more, people tend to have less time meeting other people face to face. Less meeting each other in a nearby cafe, fewer neighbourhood meetings, and just more and more time being alone with technology leading to depression and insomnia. However, we can prevent this by being with one another more often, and maybe having our eyes off our screens for an hour. Do you realize that over 70% of the Korean population experience digital eye strain at some point in their life? The overuse of electronics causes health issues. A critical one would be vision and hearing loss. Aside from psychological and social issues, spending a large amount of time in front of our screens would definitely damage our eyesight, with all the blue-ray our eyes absorb. And as for the hearing loss, with all that time with airpods and earplugs in our ears, it may feel like dancing in the streets to us, but it is a torture for our ears. Overuse of earbuds can cause hearing loss and tinnitus, the loud ringing in our ears. Also, the sensitive hair cells in our inner ear would never grow back once damaged by all the time with our earbuds on. Furthermore, when people use technology, they tend to bend down looking at their computer or phone screens. When this happens, our head is no longer supported by our whole body, but only with our neck. This puts an unnecessary amount of strain in our necks, which could lead to neck pain or tension headaches. Laptops create an especially bad position for our necks. Also, when texting, we tend to hunch our backs and bend our heads over the phone, in which it also puts our neck in an unhealthy location. On top of that, when we use technology quite a lot, we tend to sit down (we don’t use our laptops standing, you know). When we sit down too much it has a very high risk of being sickened by cardiovascular diseases, and surprisingly, 20% of all deaths are due to the reason for long sitting. However, there is a small solution to this. An Australian study found out that even short, not particularly strenuous breaks would help lead us one step further from heart disease. Now, who do you think will achieve better grades? Who won’t have all the psychological, social and overall health issues? Even without all the resources that the Korean boy could afford, because of the sad overuse of technology, the Cambodian child is bound to be the better student in the same conditions.
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Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
Cambodian Fashion - Mina Laursen We all know what to wear to a party. We even know what to wear for a night out or to basketball practice. But what do we wear to Cambodia? In Cambodian culture, it’s considered disrespectful to show your shoulders and knees. Therefore, the local Cambodians dress in a very civilized way. Their national costume is called a Sampot and it consists of a large piece of cloth wrapped around the waist so it covers the legs and it should reach down to right above the ankles. The cloth is usually made of silk and dyed either red, yellow, green or black. Used to cover the torso, they have a longer scarf looking piece of fabric going across the chest. Very similarly to the Thai national costume, the Cambodian’s also have a gold headpiece.
In Cambodia there are specific colors of clothes they are advised to wear. On Sunday it’s red, Monday it’s dark yellow, then purple, light green, dark green, blue and dark brown. Khmer people strongly believed that by wearing 7 colors in 7 days it would take them to success, happiness, harmony, health and luck. The red often has connotations of bravery and a courageous way of living. The yellow means equality, purple means honesty and loyalty. The 4
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light green is supposed to represent justice and neutrality however the dark green means hope. The blue means forgiveness, tolerance and friendly. Lastly, the brown is supposed to represent sadness.
An important accessory in Cambodia is the Krama. The Krama is a traditional garment with many purposes including being used as a: scarf, bandanna, to cover the face and protect the skin from the sun, and as a hammock for children, and to cover the mouth and keep dust away from your lungs. In the more rural areas it can also be used as a way to carry crops and to cover certain parts of the body while showering since they only have access to bucket showers.
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Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
As foreigners, we didn’t follow their recommended dress code. Instead we just dressed as comfortably as possible due to the heat and exhaustion. A typical outfit an SFS student would wear consists of a long T-shirt with either jeans, leggings or shorts and trainers. Many of us weren’t prepared for the heat nor the hard physical work we had to do and ended up wearing long pants and designer clothes where they ended up ruining it on the very first day of service. Woochan Kim (9G) had a great example of an appropriate outfit for sightseeing in Cambodia. It was composed of a graphic tee, black trousers and appropriate shoes for walking long distances. Not only that but he actually took his Krama and wore it in a very stylish way around his neck. To keep the sun out of his eyes, he thoughtfully brought a pair of sunglasses so it was easier for him to focus on the activities which in this case was the killing fields. Isn’t he just rocking that bold outfit?
Tobby (Seungmin) Bae (9G) ,on the other hand, decided that on the first day of service that he would wear white Bape shirt. He then ruined his expensive shirt. However, he learnt from his mistakes and the next day wore a regular priced shirt instead. It wasn’t just Tobby that got his things ruined from all the concrete though. Many people forgot to bring trainers that they no longer wanted and ended up ruining their favorite pair of shoes.
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Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
On the last day in Cambodia, we went to a market in Phnom Penh Central Market. They had many different things which varied from glasses to jewelry, clothing, toys, makeup and even flowers and small souvenirs. Audrey (Chaewon) Bae (9O), Tobby (Seungmin) Bae (9G), Ianna Han Choi (9O), Chloe (Jiyoon) Han (9G), Jennifer (Jeongyoon) Han (9O), Mina Laursen (9O) and lastly Ina Ryang (9G) decided to buy matching elephant pants as they thought it would be really fun. It was really cheap which we realized later in the airport right before the check in when Mina’s pants sadly ripped while she was dancing. They strongly recommend these since they are super comfortable, good looking and flowy but they still advice to be careful with your movements since they break easily but it’s not that hard to fix as long as you know how to sew.
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In conclusion, Cambodian culture is contradictory from ours in many different ways and it is a very good and healthy experience to explore their way of taking their resources and using them in different ways to not waste as much product as they have a very limited supplies and how they are so grateful for everything they’re offered. Perhaps we need to do the same with our blessings.
Cambodiago, Trivago! - Jennifer Han You love food. You love to sleep. Then what is needed? Of course, a hotel and restaurant! Food and hotels are something we all look forward to during a trip. The food and the accommodation are significant in learning about the culture of the new country and it is also a way to interact with others and to create new friendships and bonds with others. For the first two nights of our Cambodia service trip, we stayed in a hotel called Salita hotel which is about a 25 minutes drive from the Phnom Penh airport. We arrived at the hotel late at night and we were all exhausted. Given 20 minutes of free time and 5 hours of sleep, we all rushed to our rooms and were welcomed by the nicely made beds. Some beds looked as if they were meant for couples as they were embellished with flower petals and animal-shaped towels. The next morning we had our first breakfast on the highest floor of our hotel while enjoying the widespread view of the city. We finished off the day peacefully and continued our trip to Cambodia. For dinner that day, we dined at a restaurant called “Romdeng Restaurant”. They offered a variety of drinks and dishes that were friendly to all kinds of diets. Fortunately, everyone enjoyed their food and the waiters and waitresses were affable and were very helpful for some of us who had trouble selecting our food. Some of these dishes were very interesting and had some traditional aspects to it such as ants and maggots. It definitely took us some courage for us to eat it but in the end, we felt we had accomplished something. On the second day, before arriving at the city of Kampong Cham, we stopped by at a small market place for some more Cambodian snacks and treats. There were endless piles of crickets and tarantulas. While snacking on them, we got to hold and carry a live tarantula. They were so
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20 November 2019
much cuter and gentler than we had expected. We checked into the Monorom VIP II hotel in Kampong Cham. The rooms were big and spacious and it was decorated with very compelling drawings and pictures. The hotel lobby was a great common area for all of us to hang out at. We got to eat our dinner at the Smile restaurant. The workers were amiable and we got to visit them several more times throughout the trip. For the next three days, we walked from the Monorom hotel to the Smile restaurant for breakfast where they offered us an array of breakfast foods. The Monorom VIP II hotel provided us with very good service and even had a meeting room with a projector installed. We got to watch a movie in the room while having pizza! Because we did not have our electronics for the trip, we were bored most of the time during free time. However, the hotel rooms were big enough to fit more than 10 people and during these free times we got, we bonded with others and learn more about each other. On the last day, we went to a different restaurant and a few of our classmates tried the “Creepy Crawly Burger” which had maggots and ants everywhere around and in the burger. The burger was topped off with an enormous tarantula that we all shared and got to each nibble off a piece from. To be honest, the tarantula was quite delightful. On the last day, we hurriedly packed our bags and went down to the lobby to check out. We could sense the disappointment and sadness of each other. Thinking back, there weren’t any times where we didn’t enjoy the food or we had any complaints about the hotel rooms. Something I think everyone needs to ask themselves is “Have I made an impact that will benefit others?” If not, ask yourself “Why not?” because every one of us have made a powerful impact for the community. To conclude, I think everyone enjoyed the different dishes they got to try and we all equally tried foods and dishes we wouldn’t have wanted to try in the first place. This trip was truly memorable and new educational experience, and the food and hotel significantly helped it to be that way.
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Seoul Foreign British School Week Without Walls
20 November 2019
The Brutal Killing’s Of Cambodia - Ianna Choi *Disclaimer* This essay includes bloody or gruesome events that may be discomforting to certain readers. Please be cautious. Stop for a few minutes and just try to start imagining watching millions being murdered. Your family and friends physically but also mentally being tortured. This is exactly what millions of Cambodian families experienced. The Khmer Rouge is known as one of the largest genocides recorded in history. It wiped out almost a quarter of the Cambodian population. Approximately 2 million were killed, slaughtered, gruesomely murdered, separated from their family's and forced into labour and brutal torture. For around 4 years, the mass killing lasted. The action of this event was all lead by one inhumane man, Pol Pot. Pol Pot was a Cambodian political leader who lived from May 19 1925 - April 15 1998. Pol Pot was initially responsible for the Khmer Rouge. Many thought of him as one of the most barbarous Prime Ministers in history. He ruled the Khmer Rouge government and during his times of ruling, he managed to commit the most ruthless actions. While murdering his own citizens, Pol Pot even banned any practise of religion, he took the citizens’ religious and ethnicity into great judgement while taking control of the years of brutality. Once coming to a realization that he had the power, he decided to carry on his actions. Pol Pot completely stripped any freedom that his citizens once had. Around 1975, the Khmer Rouge rose to action, dismantling and destroying millions of homes, buildings and lives. When Pol Pot became in command, he had this mindset which was to once again recreate the “lost glory” of Cambodia. This was continued as he planned to set the country to zero by killing any who were influential or perceived threat. Pol Pot promised that the country’s peace after years of war would be once again resolved. But of course, this never happened. In fact, immediately after the Khmer Rouge rose to power 2.5 million residents were evacuated. All citizens with valuable knowledge, such as doctors, scientists, teachers were thrown from their professions and obligated to participate in cruel labour whilst dealing with extreme heat and dehydration. It is almost impossible to imagine what these people had to go through. While citizens with intelligence were forced into labour, others were put into prisons to be tortured. Pol Pot managed to transform a previous high school to an infamous torture chamber S-21 (also known as Toul Sleng) which was notorious for tormenting 20,000 citizens, with only seven known to survive. Currently, S-21 is a tourist sight in Cambodia where visitors have the opportunity to commemorate the deaths of these innocent people. Inside the S-21 were cells filled with torture devices, some of these included being lashed, electrified, beaten and many more extreme and sadistic ways of punishment. The 10
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security regulations in the S-21 included a long harsh list of unrealistic rules the prisoners had to follow on a daily basis. Examples of these rules were as followed “While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all” “If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge” These were only two of the ten rules that the prisoners had to obey during the Khmer Rouge. Another famous sight that was used in the Khmer Rouge was the Killing Field. However, the killing field was not just one designated area but a number of sites (more than 20,000 mass grave sites) where over a million people were murdered, starved and then buried by the Khmer Rouge. The largest of these killing fields was called Choeung Ek. Those sent went through a nasty 17km ride to Choeung Ek, crammed into the back of trucks, whilst being blindfolded. At their destination, soldiers smashed the victims’ heads with metal spades and pushed them into the pits of the fields. The clothes and bones of the victims are now stored in glass cases for visitors to see. As for the many skulls of these victims they are now stacked on top of each other in a closed cabinet to ensure that the lives of these Cambodian citizens are still thought of and prayed for. Finally, it may be concluded that the Khmer Rouge was an extremely impactful event and one that will be commemorated for many coming years. We pray that in the future, that something as dreadful as the Khmer Rouge will not occur or even be thought of. The result of the Khmer Rouge is quite shocking: 2 million people died. However, families will remember their loved ones forever.
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