PROUD OF MY BROWN SKIN- KOREAN SCHOOL LIFE

This is your bag. This is Minji's bag. Minji, this is your bag. This is... Oh, okay. Minji, this is your bag. You put it on. Let's see. How many toppings do you have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. What's next? Three, two, seven, eight. Let's do it together. So, two big zeros. Can you do that, Jin? Good. Two big zeros is... X. Eight. What's this? Five, six, seven. Two plus two is... That's right, Minji. Four. So you guys are going to be math experts in no time. Four, five, six. So three plus three is... Six. Go ahead and do it yourself. Trace the six here. I do want to mention that I have been very busy over the past couple weeks. And I just want to instill something into our schedule with Minji and Jin. So the subjects that they are practicing at school are exactly the same subjects that we practice at home. And we use education.com, which is a really good website for teaching kids many, many different subjects. You can really see the engagement with the kids whenever they're playing the games. Especially the energy is through the roof. And this is how I keep the kids on track while I also keep my own schedule. And I love the fact that education.com is so versatile. Because it breaks down the activities enough for parents to understand. And if you want to work together as a collaboration, there's group activities for the parents to do with their kids. I love the fact that the entire program helps me prepare the kids for their study. They're doing well with English, Korean, critical thinking, science. And all the subjects that kids are going through at their age. I feel like the program is really inspiring the kids. So I wanted them to feel really connected to what they are doing. This is Minji and Jin's schedule. Let's take a look at all the subjects here. This is the days that we're going to practice each. So we have math on Mondays. Korean, English on Tuesdays. Art and dance on Wednesday. Critical thinking on Thursdays. And ballet practice on Fridays. Which is interchangeable with critical thinking. So I send the same subjects that they practice at school. And I do it right at home. Good job. Mommy! Mommy! This is your bag. This is Minji's bag. Minji, this is your bag. This is... Oh, okay. Minji, this is your bag. You put it on. Go! Whoa! You guys are back from school! Butterfly! A butterfly? You have a butterfly! Oh my god! That's so amazing! That is so amazing! Do you like school? Yeah! You do? Yeah! Why do you like school? I like friends. Are they nice? Yeah! What do they say? Oh, you're so cute! You're so cute! Oh, they do? That's so good! Wow! And what else do they say about you? Well, you play with all of us. I like you! Do you play with friends all the time? Yep! Or sometimes? Sometimes... What's your... Don't throw on this. What are your friends' names? Oh, Kimiso! Mmm, Kimiso. Kimhaee! Kimhaee? Kimiso. She's more fun. She's more fun? And is teacher nice to you? Is teacher nice... Do you want to go to school tomorrow? Also, Minji, do you feel good in school or do you feel bad in school? Good. You feel good? Do you want to go to school tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. And do you want to see friends and teacher or be alone? Be teacher and friend. Do you like ballet class? Yeah. Do you want to go to ballet class? Yeah. You do? Yeah. Okay. Me too. Can I come? Yeah. But you're so big. Why do you keep calling me big, Minji? That's not nice. I am an adult. Not big. I'm an adult. Oh, you can come. Oh, I can come? I can come now? Yeah. I can? Yeah. Why? Because I'm an adult? Yeah. Minji, come out. Jin, close the door. Close the door, Jin. Go ahead and close the door. Go ahead and turn on the light. Close the door. Yes. Wait, I have to put on your shoes. Okay, Mommy. Hi, Daddy. What's your name? My name is Minji. And what are you going to do? I'm going to do ballet. Okay, we're ready for you. Go ahead. Oh. Wow. Thank you for watching my ballet. Good, good, good. I'm curious about the phone calls with the teacher. I think the teacher normally contacts you all the time for, like, updates and how things are going in the school. So, like, how's the treatment for Minji and Jin? Like, how did it start at first? Ah. First, one, two, two weeks, other kids are very curious about Jin and Minji's look. Especially hair. Hair is different, right? Curly hair is really uncommon. So, kids come to Jin and Minji and ask, can I touch your hair? And then Jin and Minji are outgoing, right? They say, oh, yes, touch. And the kids are, oh, it's pretty. It smells good. And then Jin asks, can I touch your hair? Because other kids' long hair, they touch each other and they play. It's like first week. So, like, everyone's touching each other's hair from the first week or two. Touch each other like this. That's interesting. And maybe after one week, they are just nothing. Just be friends. Everything. Yeah, kids don't really care that they're mixed or anything, right? Maybe you're also curious about color, right? Skin color. Like how they're being treated for being mixed. Anything. What teacher sees is nothing. Oh, and sometimes they say Minji is cute. Minji is pretty. But it's really not common to say to someone else that they're pretty, right? Usually, yes. We Korean don't say you're cute, you're pretty, right? Yeah. But that's what teacher saw. Other kids come. Oh, that's what she said. You're pretty, cute. Maybe Jin and Minji have bigger eyes than her. And Minji would say, like, kids would say brown skin is cute. Yeah. Because I always teach them confidence, like, your skin is beautiful. It's pretty. I teach them this every day. And so I would ask them, like, what do kids say about your skin? I wouldn't give them, like, an answer. I wouldn't give Minji and Jin, like, an answer to say, like, my skin is pretty or something. I don't know if that makes sense, but I try to give them the questions so they can answer themselves. Oh, yeah, you got it, yeah. Not, like, a rhetoric question. And Minji would say, the kids say brown skin is pretty. As you know, Jin and Minji have more energy, health, and outgoing than other kids, right? Other kids, right? Or Jin and Minji are center. Oh, this is center! Oh, that's right. That's right. That's why kids like Minji so much. That's right. So whenever you see their picture, from kindergarten, Jin and Minji are center. That's why kids want to take pictures with Minji and Jin. They want to picture together with Jin and Minji all the time. Oh, I see the pictures. The pictures look great. Especially, Jin and Minji are more friends. That's what teachers say. Also, Jin and Minji's personality is outgoing and active, so everyone likes. Personality matters. If Jin and Minji are quiet, and if they don't speak Korean, maybe it's hard to communicate and hang out with other kids, right? In our cases, our personal experience, I feel like when we go outside to the playgrounds or something, like, Jin and Minji are approached by people, by kids. And kids will just say, Like, what is your name? They don't really care about the skin color. Maybe they'll ask, like, are you American? Or, like, do you speak English? But, like, those are super basic questions. It doesn't, like, indicate anything. And Jin and Minji answer in Korean. So after Jin and Minji speak Korean, they become just Korean friends. Communication is a key factor. If you speak Korean, that will jump you up to the top. Really. Like, it doesn't matter what your skin color is. If you speak Korean, you jump at, like, a couple of levels of making a connection with someone. Because communication is all that really matters. That's a good point. If you speak Korean well, they will treat you as a Korean. If you're shy, but if you're active, people like. Yeah. And outgoing is also another key factor. Outgoing, right. So, like, Minji's super outgoing. Jin is outgoing when he warms up to people. So it takes him a little bit of time. He's shy at first. But once he's, you know, open, he's, like, really outgoing. I was waiting. Jin, what was that? Jin, kiss, kiss. Oh, yeah. Give me a hug. Oh, did you upload a kindergarten picture to make YouTube membership? Oh, no. Actually, I haven't in a while because I've been really busy. Oh, they are waiting. Sorry. No, I totally forgot. Because, like, I wanted to give an update every week since that's how we get our updates with each one. With the picture, so. So many good moments. Jin and Minji hang out with other kids. Play and make onion, green onion. If you, if people want to see how kindergarten really is in Korea with mixed kids, these pictures clearly shows that no one cares. Everyone is just getting along, playing, happy. We're heading over to the water fountain and you can pretty much find these all over Korea during the summertime. They typically open up during the summertime. Minji, are you having fun? Jun fell asleep. Minji, are you sleepy? Okay, go to sleep. She fell asleep. They are sleeping. Good night, Minji. Good night. Are you going to sleep? Jun, are you sleeping? Oh, Jun is sleeping. Did you have fun? Let's go. The Korean kindergarten system is really, really nice. We plan on keeping them for like the next two to three years, hopefully. And, you know, head on to elementary school. To pick a really good kindergarten, I think neighborhood is really important. And also, you know, understanding the standards and the curriculum of the school, how teachers are dealing with different situations. You want to have an understanding of how this works out so you can put your kid in there. Honestly, kids in kindergarten don't care about a foreigner. They don't care if you're different. They're too young to even think about that stuff. And even if they do, the questions are harmless. It's just curiosity. So why? One thing I love about our kindergarten is it emphasizes diversity. So like, but we get books that shows diversity. Black people, white people, Hispanic people. And it just goes like, it just shows the whole range of what Americans look like. And I like that they give us these books because all of the students within the classes get these books and they see different colors of people. And I thought that is amazing. I like that they understand that there's different types of people other than Caucasians. Jin and Minji are at the same level to other kids. We don't feel like they're lacking in their skills whatsoever. Look, it's exactly the same. Like you guys are twins. Wow, he's kind of handsome. He's more than 40? Well, you look more than 40 too. What's wrong with that? 40 is the new golden age. No, he doesn't. Why do you deny the allegations? Disaccept it. Don't deny the allegations. It's fine. Wow, it's the same face. It is truly your twin. This is what all the Korean comments were saying. That you look exactly just like him. Look, he can't even deny it. Oh my gosh, here we go again. Don't look at him. Look at me. What? What do you want? There you go, Jin. You did it, Jin. Good job. One more time. One more time? Okay, here we go. You did it. Good job, Jin. Okay, another one. You can see exactly what we're working on. So this is working on math. You guys are going to need to learn shapes later for math, okay? Okay, let's go on to the next game. Story time. Who's ready for story time? Before the sun was up, I rose and found the shining dew on every butter. But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepyhead, had stayed at home. Welcome to Dino Crush. Ray, here's the next one. Three, two, one. Good, good. Good job, Minji. You did it, Minji. Let's go. Good, good. Keep going, keep going. Yellow. One more, one more. Good. All right. Okay. Oh my god, Jin. Let's write ㄹ this time, Minji. Let's write ㄹ, okay? Now, ㄹ. ㄹ. And what's this? Dad, why did you write Jun? Then, ㄹ meets ㄹ. What's this? ㄹ meets ㄹ. Okay, Jun, let's try this. Follow this. A. Follow this. D. Follow this. ㄹ meets ㄹ. ㄹ. Minji. Yes, write Minji. Minji. It's not like this. ㄹ. I have to write Minji. Minji. Here first. No, Jun. Minji. Okay, try it. Minji.