Living in Korea for a Month: Korean School, Summer Classes, and Everything My Boys Learned
We usually try to avoid going to Korea in the summer.
My husband and I both grew up in Korea, so we know exactly what a Korean summer feels like - hot, humid, sticky, and sometimes just plain miserable. Since we usually visit Korea at least twice a year anyway, we've always preferred going during the more comfortable months.
But this year, I made an exception.
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to send our younger son back to Korean kindergarten for one more month.
Our first Korean school adventure actually happened the year before, when both of our boys attended school in Korea for a month. It was March, the beginning of the Korean school year, and I still remember walking the boys to their very first day of school and watching it snow.
This time was a little different.
It was June.
And it was very, very hot.
But after seeing how much the boys loved their experience the year before, I couldn't let another opportunity pass. I wanted our younger son to experience Korean kindergarten one more time while he was still young enough to fully enjoy it. So despite the weather, I packed our bags, booked the flights, and off we went to Korea for the summer.
"But We Don't Live in Korea!"
In December 2024, a letter arrived at my parents' house informing us that our older son needed to enroll in elementary school because he would be entering first grade the following March. Since we happened to be in Korea visiting my parents, we went through the paperwork and orientation and got everything ready.
Then we flew back to California, and the boys went back to their regular schools.
In the meantime, I casually started mentioning their upcoming Korean school experience.
"Wouldn't it be fun to go to school in Korea?"
"You could make friends there and see them whenever we visit Grandma and Grandpa!"
I was basically doing months of advance psychological preparation. 😂
The boys, however, were not nearly as excited.
"But we don't live in Korea! Why do we have to go to school when we're vacationing?"
In their minds, Korea was where we went to visit grandparents, eat delicious food, and have fun. School was something we did in California.
It took quite a bit of sweet-talking, explaining, persuading, and probably a few questionable parenting sales tactics to convince them to at least give it a try.
And then March came.
Of course, getting two young kids all the way to and from Korea was its own adventure. We've done enough long-haul flights with them by now that I've learned what's actually worth packing -- and what just takes up precious carry-on space. I shared our screen-free airplane activities for ages 2-4 separately, along with the travel toys and games that have actually worked for our family over the years.
Why Korean School Was So Important to Us
For us, this wasn't really about academics.
Of course, learning how to read and write Korean is important. But our motivation goes much deeper than that.
My husband and I always speak Korean to our boys at home. We basically insist that they respond to us in Korean, even though they would much rather answer in English. 😂 They understand Korean quite well and can speak it reasonably well, but reading and writing have always been a much bigger challenge.
To us, language isn't simply a tool for communication. It's connected to culture - how you communicate, how you understand the world, and how you connect with the people you come from.
We also want our boys to be able to communicate with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives in Korea as they get older.
So yes, we want them to be able to read and write Korean. But more importantly, we want Korean to remain a part of who they are.
And we thought there was no better way to strengthen that connection than to let them actually live it.
Our Older Son Goes to First Grade in Korea
I'll be honest: I was nervous about sending our older son to first grade in Korea.
He could speak and understand Korean fairly well, but he could not read or write Korean. At all.
Meanwhile, if you've spent even a few weeks in Korea and met families with young children, you probably already know that Koreans take early education very seriously. Almost too seriously.
It's not unusual to meet preschoolers who already know how to read and write Korean and English. By kindergarten, many kids are already reading books and writing sentences.
So imagine how nervous I was sending a six-year-old American-raised boy who couldn't read or write Korean into a Korean first-grade classroom.
I was worried he would feel behind. I worried that other kids might make fun of him.
Thankfully, neither happened.
In fact, his classmates seemed more fascinated by him than anything else. They thought it was pretty cool that they had a friend who was a native English speaker.
And then something amazing happened.
After his very first day of school, he came home and wrote his name in Korean.
By himself! I couldn't believe it.
Then he started writing individual Korean words, then sentences. By the end of the month, he was reading Korean cartoon books.
One month.
A child who had been completely unable to read or write Korean suddenly could.
I don't know exactly what made the difference. Maybe it was the complete immersion. Maybe it was being surrounded by classmates who were all reading and writing. Maybe it was simply being in an environment where Korean was no longer something Mom was trying to teach him at the kitchen table - it was the language he needed to use everyday.
Whatever the reason, something finally clicked.
The First Two Weeks Were a Little Rough
The first couple of weeks weren't completely smooth.
One day, our older son came home and told me:
"Mom, nobody plays outside during recess. Everybody has to stay in the classroom and read a book."
I was shocked.
So I went and asked the teacher.
It turned out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
The first graders were kept inside for the first two weeks while the school taught them safety procedures and helped them become familiar with the school and its facilities. It wasn't that the school didn't allow recess. It was simply part of their transition period for new first graders.
Still, he wasn't completely convinced. 😂
He spent those first couple of weeks complaining about having no recess and having to read too much.
But once the regular routine started, he absolutely thrived.
He made friends, learned Korean slang, learned to read and write, and started picking up all those little ways Korean kids communicate.
And after school, he wanted to follow his friends to their Taekwondo and art classses.
So we let him.
He loved every minute of it.
He enjoyed his month at the school so much that when our departure date got closer, he started crying at night.
He didn't want to leave.
"I don't want to leave."
"I want to live in Korea."
"I miss my friends in Korea."
He said those things over and over for a long time.
Even now, every once in a while, he'll randomly ask me:
"Can I ever go to Korea school again?"
His classmates knew he was leaving about a week before we left, and they all wrote him little goodbye notes. They put all the notes together in a nice box for him to take home.
He still has that box.
And I think that might be one of the most meaningful souvenirs he has ever brought home from Korea.
Meanwhile, Our Younger Son Was Having the Time of His Life in Kindergarten
Our younger son was barely four when he started Korean kindergarten. Because his birthday is in January, he was able to enroll as a younger TK student.
It was a public kindergarten attached to the same elementary school his brother attended, which made drop-off and pickup incredibly easy.
And he loved it.
Every day when I picked him up, he came home with something he had made.
Pixel-block creations. Origami. Paper rockets. Art projects. Science experiment kits. Sometimes surprisingly sophisticated little projects that I wasn't expecting from a four-year-old.
He learned Korean children's songs and came home teaching them to us. His vocabulary grew noticeably in just one month of full-time exposure to Korean.
The kindergarten also had an after-school program that ran until around 5 p.m. The kids stayed in the same classroom, and an after-school teacher came in to lead different activities.
Our younger son especially loved the afternoon program because there was so much time for crafts and hands-on activities.
Even now, he'll randomly tell me that he wants to go back to Korean kindergarten because he wants to "make new things." 😂
The Daily Book Program Was One of My Favorite Things
Another thing I loved about the kindergarten was their book program.
The kids could choose a book from the kindergarten's collection every day and bring it home to read. Every Friday, they got to bring one book home to keep. The school also kept track of which books each child had borrowed and sent home a list of the available books, so parents could request specific ones.
And yes, of course, I brought all those Friday books home with us. 😂
So even after we returned to California, we had a little collection of Korean children's books that reminded us of their school experience.
And Then There Was the School Lunch
Oh, the school lunch.
If you know me, you know I am not a huge fan of LAUSD school meals. I pack lunch and snacks for my kids here, which means they generally eat cold food because they don't have a way to heat it up at school. Even with a thermos-style lunchbox, there is only so much you can do.
Korean school lunch was a completely different experience.
A typical meal included rice, soup, several side dishes made with vegetables and other ingredients, and usually a special drink, fruit or dessert. The rice itself was often mixed with beans, grains, or vegetables, and most importantly, the food was cooked on-site and served warm.
Every day!
And they send you a photo like this every day so you know what your kid ate that day.
My kids pretty much devoured their lunches.
They even tried kimchi for the first time at school, and now they occasionally ask for it at home.
Then Came Summer 2026
After having such a great experience the year before, we wanted to do it again.
This time, however, only our younger son was able to attend.
I had contacted the elementary school around March, around the same time I was contacting his brother's kindergarten. I followed up with emails and phone calls for about a month but never got a clear answer.
I had heard that some Korea elementary schools allow children in situations like ours to "audit" a class for a short period of time instead of going through the full enrollment process. We were hoping that might be an option. We were also completely willing to go through the regular enrollment process if the school would allow our son to attend for a month.
But we never got an answer.
So the day after we arrived in Korea, we went to the school office in person.
And we were turned down.
The schools didn't offer auditing, and they wouldn't accept a student for only a month.
I was incredibly disappointed.
Especially because this was the same school our older son had attended the year before.
Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't have the same experience again.
So we came up with Plan B.
Our Older Son's Very Busy Summer
Our older son is a very athletic kid, but he's also softie with a very creative side. He loves art.
So we decided to make the most of his time in Korea.
Mornings were golf and tennis.
Afternoons were art, piano and Taekwondo.
Basically, we created a full-time summer curriculum for our seven-year-old.
And here's the part that made this plan possible: the cost of these classes in Korea was incredibly reasonable.
For the entire month, his schedule looked something like this:
- Taekwondo: about $100/month for 5 days a week, 1 hour each day
- Private tennis: about $140/month for two 50-minute lessons per week
- Piano: $100/month for three 50-minute lessons per week
- Private golf: $330/month for three 1-hour lessons per week
- Art: $300/month for three 1.5-hour classes per week
That's roughly $970 for an entire month of activities, with an absolutely packed schedule.
We could do all of this for him because the classes and private lessons were so reasonable priced - just a fraction of what we'd pay in LA.
And we actually still saved money compared with keeping both kids in summer camps here, where it's not unusual for a summer camp to cost around $800 a week per child.
So although he couldn't go back to Korean elementary school, he ended up having a pretty increadible summer of his own.
I fully expected him to complain.
Instead, he kept asking for more.
He even wanted to do soccer and ice hockey, but there simply wasn't enough time.
Mom Discovered Pilates
The funny thing about driving him to all of these classes was that I couldn't maintain my usual remote work schedule.
So I decided to take a break from work altogether and become a full-time chauffeur.
Luckily, most of his afternoon classes happened to be in the same building. That meant I occasionally had two or three hours to myself - and there happened to be a Pilates studio in the same building.
I had never done Pilates before, so I decided to try one class.
And I fell in love.
It was a one-on-one, 1-hour session, and the price was unbelievably cheap compared with LA. My ambitious plan was to do 3 sessions a week for 4 weeks, which cost $450 total.
Of course, I got sick after my first session and ended up attending exactly... 3 classes.😂
So much for my 4-week plan.
But those three classes were fantastic, and now I'm determined to try again next time - perhaps with slightly more realistic expectations.
More Than Just Going to Korea
After experiencing Korean school with both boys, I know I would absolutely do it again if we ever get another opportunity.
Not because of one particular thing.
It's not just the language. It's not just the school lunch, the crafts, the books, the Taekwondo classes or the academy shuttle services that I desperately wish we had in America.
It's the whole experience.
When you spend a month in Korea on vacation, you're still a visitor. You eat amazing food, visit beautiful places, see your family, and do all the fun things tourists do.
But when you actually live there - even temporarily - you experience something completely different.
You make friends.
You go to school.
You eat the same lunch as everyone else.
You learn the songs other kids are singing.
You burrow the same books.
You learn how people talk, behave, and go about their everyday lives.
You experience the culture from the inside rather than simply observing it from the outside.
And that is exactly what I wanted for my boys.
We happened to be Korean, and we happened to have access to the Korean school system, so we took advantage of it.
But honestly, if we had the opportunity to do something similar in another country, we'd probably throw our kids into that experience too.
Because you learn so much more by actually living something than you ever can from a book, a classroom, or someone else's story.
And what you gain from firsthand experience?
That's something you can't buy.
