The is an SBS Radio initiative to encourage and celebrate a love of learning languages in Australia. Visit to enter.
This year marks ten years since Campsie Primary School commenced its Korean Bilingual Program.
Run for students from Kindergarten to Year 6, the program is taught through a Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, where students learn regular curriculum content, such as history, maths and science, in language for five hours per week.
Out of the 700 students enrolled at the school in Sydney’s south-west, 196 are taking part in the program, and only a quarter have Korean heritage.
The program has been so successful that it's up for ‘Best co-curricular program’ at the 2019 Australian Education Awards.
Principal Berlinda Cook says its success is down to the hard work of teachers, parents and students.
"The category of 'best co-curricular program' we thought was the best fit because the program underpins a lot of what we do at the school. It is also integrated with every single class and lots of other school programs,” she says.
“I think one of the biggest advantages for students is the skills that they are learning for their future, the skills of teamwork, cooperation, intercultural understanding not only academically but also socially and emotionally because they are really feeling good about their learning.”
The students who take part range from various cultural backgrounds, according to Deputy Principal Sarah Jones.
“The other 75 per cent come from other language backgrounds. There’s a huge variety, Chinese, Indian, Nepalese, Arabic and Vietnamese,” she says.
“Pretty much every one of our 49 different language backgrounds that we have at the school is represented in our Korean Bilingual Program.”
Campsie public is one of a small handful of NSW schools that offer the bilingual program to students.
Principal Berlinda Cook and Deputy Principal Sarah Jones Source: SBS Korean
Its exclusiveness has seen parents travel outside of their catchment zone to attend the school.
“We actually don’t live in the area. We drive out of the area to come here to this school because our kids are from Korea. They are adopted from Korea and we wanted them to understand their birth country and their birth culture,” says parent Justine Flynn.
“But most importantly to learn their language so that when they go back home when we all go together with that they can understand the language and be connected to culture.”
Parent Sung-duk Shim says teaching her child the Korean language and culture is "extremely important" because there are few opportunities to do so in their formative years in Australia.
Parents who have spoken highly of the program (SBS) Source: SBS Korean
“The reason I sent my child to this school is that this school has the only Korean bilingual program in Australia. When we passed by, my husband found the advertisement about this program and he said we have to send our child to this school,” Ms Shim says.
“I married an Australian and I have only a few opportunities to teach Korean culture to my child. But, by sending my child to this school, our child will be able to learn Korean culture and language without going to Korea."
Facilitator Eun Yeong Yoo says the program teaches students skills they will have for life.
Facilitator Eun Yeong Yoo (centre) Source: SBS Korean
“If these students continue to speak and learn Korean in high school, they can improve their Korean communication skills. If they can go to Korea as an exchange student at university for about a year, they will have the ability to speak Korean fluently in a much shorter period of time,” she says.
“Students who have been taught in the bilingual program since childhood have the advantage of learning language and culture. Also, studies showed that these students will have greater cognitive skills, math skills and creativity than other students."
The proof is in the pudding
Former student Kade Humphreys-Jones participated in the program and says he has become fascinated by Korean culture as a result.
“I enjoyed the bilingual program very much. It was very fun. I also really liked the food. The tradition and culture were very cool,” he says.
“I think it can help me very much in the future of communicating with other people. It can help me a lot of travelling and be able to communicate, being able to make new friends and participating in Korean activities and culture.”
Fellow Campsie alumni Amelia Rustamsir says "there are a lot of benefits through this program", such as being able to use the language in a Korean restaurant or to navigate through the Asian country.
Current students say the program is the most exciting part of the day.
(왼쪽부터) 캠시 공립 초등학교 학생 남소희, 카리사, 프리알, 칭칭, 소른 Source: SBS Korean
So Hee Nam says: “Personally I think learning Korea is so amazing. I love learning Korean culture together with Korean history.”
Soren Stonebank says: “Being in a bilingual class itself grants a lot of opportunities and also that to explore different cultures. A few other fun things that I did were some slide presentations and some of the Powerpoint activities that the teachers hosted. It was pretty good.”
The school held an assembly on August 6 to mark the program’s 10th anniversary, where students performed K-Pop skipping, Taekwondo and with performed with Korean traditional instruments.
The SBS National Languages Competition 2019 is an SBS Radio initiative to encourage and celebrate a love of learning languages in Australia. This year we encourage Australians of all ages who are learning a language, including those learning English and AUSLAN to participate by sending us a drawing or writing that shows us ‘How does learning a language make a world of difference?’.
10th anniversary for the Korean bilingual program in Campsie Public School Source: SBS Korean
