"Neighbors from a far /교실에서 만나는 먼나라 이웃나라"

Introduction:

I participated in a volunteer activity called “Neighbors from Afar/교실에서 만나는 먼나라 이웃나라" orchestrated by Seoul Metropolitan Government. The main objective of this activity program was to enhance mutual understanding and respect between Koreans and foreigners living in Seoul.

In this regard, I visited Unhyun Elementary School, to deliver lecture about my home country Pakistan (파키스탄). The audience of lecture were Grade-5 elementary students.

Details:

The lecture start time was 9am in the morning; therefore I had to leave early from Kyung Hee University (경희대학교) Suwon Yeongtong. The journey was pretty smooth because of good transportation system. It took one hour to reach Anguk Station. We were greeted by school staff as well as couple of pleasant shouts from kids! The school was located at nice place with green lawns and trees surrounded by tall building. Mr. Donghoon Shin told us that hat we will be joined by JoongAng Daily news reporters for covering this lecture. A representative from Seoul Metropolitan Government also joined us.

Miss Hee-jin Kim, JoongAng Daily news asking questions to Kids!

I was expecting kids to be naïve regarding their knowledge about Sub-continent (South-east Asia) in general and specifically Pakistan. However, my first impression totally went wrong when I saw flag of Pakistan posted on white boards and also the greeting from kids “Asalam u Alakuim”. This wasn’t the end of story when I saw kids holding notes about Pakistan which they gathered via internet and other resources. Most of the kids have drawn flag of Pakistan so elegantly and neatly, that I would have not drawn too. The class started with kids sharing their knowledge about Pakistan. It was their homework assignment and they did pretty well.

Group photo with Kids!

During the second half of presentation I shared slides about Education, Armed forces, Food, and cultural. In my opinion Kids liked armed forces, food and cultural (music) the most. Last but not least I would highly appreciate the English skills of Kids. It was pretty amazing to see them understand everything that I uttered. Sarah was supposed to help me out with explanation but it turns out that Kids don’t need any help. They were reading the slides themselves and helping each other to demystify its meaning! I concluded the presentation around 9.45am, and remaining fifteen minutes were given for question/answer session. Kids asked some pretty interesting questions. For example：　one of student asked why Pakistan is not well developed though they seem to have everything i.e. manpower, natural resources. My answer was “it is because of lack of good leadership, peace and harmony”.

Spring time in School!

Location of school was beautiful

Pakistan is 6^th most populated country ａｎｄ　２ｎｄ　ｌａｒｇｅｓｔ　Ｉｓｌａｍｉｃ　in world　with poverty and illiteracy rate on higher side. To further worsen the situation; Pakistan was hit by two major disasters which badly impacted its economy. However, the youth of Pakistan is very talented and I hope that sooner or later we will start progressing at rapid pace. A nation is not developed in a day or month; it takes years of effort to make it happen. I will take some inspiration from one of top 12 economies of world (Korea) and try my best to work for welfare and well-being of my country!

At the end of class, I was interviewed by Joongang Daily reporter Miss Hee-jin Kim and asked me few general questions about why I joined this program and how ｗａｓ　my experience. This pretty much concludes everything.

“Long Live Pakistan”

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Mr. Donghoon Shin for providing me this wonderful opportunity to deliver lecture at School. Everything was nicely planned and organized. Lastly, I would appreciate efforts of Miss Sarah Kim for helping me out and becoming part of this program.

Youtube Video :