When a Parent Meeting Feels Like a Different Country
International school here in Jeju
Last Thursday, the 27th, I went to my first Grade 2 parent gathering at my daughter’s international school here in Jeju. Sixteen kids per class, three classes, all of us squeezed around tables at a café the class parents had picked out. It sounds like a small thing. It wasn’t.
Sixteen Kids, Three Classes, One Café
Grade 2 here is split into three classes of sixteen students each. Before the coffee even arrived, the parents had already elected a lunch representative, a treasurer, and a class parent lead. Then came the calendar: which school events each of us was expected to show up for, and how.
At my daughter’s old public school, none of this happened. Parents didn’t gather to talk, vote on roles, or plan around the school year together. So sitting in that café, watching strangers organize themselves into a small team within twenty minutes, was disorienting in the best way.
What I Left Behind
I gave up a lot to bring my daughter here — the apartment, the routines, the entire structure of life on the mainland. I knew that part would be hard. What caught me off guard was realizing that even the parents’ role looks completely different in this new world.
Back in Gwanggyo, where most families are dual-income, it was almost always a grandmother waiting at the school gate, not a parent. Sports day never had a “bring your family” moment built in. Competition was softened on purpose — no visible winners, no visible losers. That’s the culture I grew up expecting from school.
Here, it’s the opposite. Every month brings something on the calendar: Aqua Day, Halloween, the school musical. Parents aren’t spectators at these events — they’re in the room, cheering, sometimes crying, always present.
The Mother Who Made It Look Easy
One mom at the table mentioned, almost in passing, that all three of her children go to international school, and her youngest — now in Grade 2 — means she’s been living this island life for ten years. Ten years of tuition, ten years of showing up for Aqua Day and Halloween and the musical, ten years of the schedule I’d just spent twenty minutes learning about for the first time.
I told her it was impressive. She just shrugged and said she doesn’t really do anything special. That shrug stayed with me longer than the compliment would have. It takes a certain kind of person to make a decade of this look unremarkable.
Showing Up, Every Month
Tips for Parents Considering International School in Jeju
International school tuition here isn't small, and on top of that, families are expected to have the time to actually show up — for aqua day, for the musical, for whatever the month brings. It's a different kind of cost than the one on the tuition invoice.
Everyone at that café table was warm and easygoing about it, like this was simply how things are done. I have a lot more of this to experience before I understand it fully. But sitting there, I kept thinking of a poem I'd read years ago — the one about two roads splitting off in a forest, and a traveler choosing the one fewer people had walked, knowing that single choice would end up changing everything that followed.That's roughly where I am right now. We took the path fewer families here take. I don't know yet what it adds up to. But after Thursday, I have a better sense of the company we're keeping on it.
Ask about parent involvement before you enroll.
Unlike many public schools, international schools in Jeju often expect regular in-person participation from parents — not just occasional visits.
Budget time, not just tuition.
Events like Aqua Day, Halloween, and school musicals happen monthly and are treated as parent events, not just kid events.
Look for a veteran family in your class.
Parents who've been through several years of this system are often the best source of honest, practical advice — more useful than any school brochure.
Expect a different school culture, not a better or worse one.
The competitive, individual-recognition style of international schools is genuinely different from typical Korean public school culture, and it takes time to adjust to either direction.
*Image Credits: Pixabay[Image Credits] All photos are personally taken unless otherwise noted
