Every day at 8 AM I have an early morning conversation class with groups of about 10 middle school students. Today with my 3rd year students I had a discussion about how high school in Korea is different from the US.
One of the questions I asked the students was whether they would prefer to have separate boy and girl classes or boy and girl schools like in Korea or have all co-ed classes and schools like in the US. I asked this question to both the 2nd year and 3rd year classes, which were a mix of boys and girls though they sat on separate sides of the room. Though I did have a couple 3rd year boys that said they would prefer co-ed, in general the students preferred having separate classes and schools. I noticed that the girls especially preferred the classes to be separate.
When I asked the girls why I received responses such as: I feel more comfortable, boys cause too many disruptions, boys cause too much trouble, etc.
Based on how I have noticed the girls act in classes where there are mixed genders, I do feel that this is the case: The girls here don't feel comfortable with boys in the room. I have never see them interact with each other even if it is a co-ed class. I've also noticed that in these classes the boys do more talking and feel more comfortable, but the girls are quiet. It seems that only when the boys are gone that I can REALLY get them talking with me. I often feel like I have to pull answers out of them to answer because it is almost like they are embarrassed to talk when the boys are in the room with them.
It is quite a bit of a culture difference from the environment where I was brought up in the US, where it is normal to have guy-girl friendships and to sit next to and interact with each other in class.
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