Rainbow School links Turkey, Korea

Elementary students take class at the new Rainbow International School in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul Monday. By Moon Gwang-lip

Burak Saglam, a 11-year-old Turkish boy, was shy but all smiles Monday as he listened, along with two Saudi Arabian students his age, to a teacher from New Zealand inside a newly-constructed four-story school building in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul.
Formerly the only non-Korean fifth-grader at Bonghyun Elementary School in Bongcheon-dong, Seoul, Saglam was attending an opening day class at the Rainbow International School, the first international school founded by Turkey in Korea.
The school’s founder is Burak’s father, Esref Saglam.
“I am happy here learning with good students from good teachers,” Burak said in slow but clear Korean.
“I am also happy because I will have Korean friends soon here. I am looking forward to seeing them.”
His closest friend is a Korean, Burak said.
Aside from its main purpose of nurturing young minds, the school aims to improve the cultural bridge of friendship between Korea and Turkey. The nations will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties this year, said Esref Saglam, 39.
“Turkey has several brother countries in the world, and Korea, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away, is the only one among them sharing neither a border nor the Turkish culture,” said the elder Saglam, formerly a physics teacher in Trabzon, a city of 275,000 people in Turkey that has been an important meeting point for international trade and cultural exchange due to its strategic location on trading routes.
“All the people from Turkey and Korea that I meet say they like the other country, but I found that they have little knowledge about each other,” Saglam said. He said that while working as an education consultant in Seoul, he has met many Turkish businesspeople coming to Korea.
“This school will give opportunities to students of the two countries to understand each other better,” Saglam said.
“When they grow up and hopefully become influential figures in their own country, they will be able to help solidify the mutual friendship of the two countries.”
Currently, however, there are no Korean students in the school.
Under the law pertaining to international schools, Koreans are allowed into international schools if they have lived overseas for five years or more, or have a non-Korean parent or permanent residency in a foreign country.
But Saglam expects to have Korean students soon.
He said Korean parents, along with parents from Western countries, are calling the school to inquire about its program.
The school has now six students ― one from Turkey and five from Saudi Arabia. They are learning from five teachers, representing the United States, New Zealand, Turkey and Korea. The new school has a goal to attract about 75 students, or 15 in each grade, Saglam said.
The school also has a plan to add a middle school program in the future, the founder said.
With English as its main language, the Rainbow School has a curriculum similar to several other international schools in Korea.
It also has no religious program, according to Saglam.
Rainbow School wants to provide what some other international schools do not offer, Saglam said.
“We want to teach students, not based on a certain dominant culture, as some international schools established by Westerners might be doing,” Saglam said.
“We want to put together every desirable trait from many cultures ― it could be Turkish or Korean ― and teach them to our students so they are equipped with a balanced and global way of thinking.”

By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Writer [joe@joongang.co.kr]