Sleeping on floors and enjoying spicy foods will be the order of the day for four CQU Mackay Education students who are set to travel abroad to teach primary students in December.

Education Associate Professor Bruce Knight said eight other CQU students would form the contingent of pre-service teachers travelling to Ulsan, South Korea.

“International teaching experiences like these provides ample evidence in support of CQU receiving the recent Premier of Queensland Export Award 2002.

“Our visit to South Korea was the result of links we made with a former CQU colleague and allows us to show why we are a market leader when it comes to exporting our knowledge.

“Third and fourth-year students will be teaching 15 children aged 11-14 years at Ulsan College and this provides a wonderful opportunity to put their Australian university practices into an overseas educational setting,” he said.

“I would expect the CQU students and those in Korea would enjoy sharing and exploring cultural differences.

Education student Steven Fussell was excited by the prospect of living with a local family in the major industrial city for four weeks.

“The students are coming to us as part of a winter camp and they are looking to improve their conversational English,” he said.

“There will be a translator in the room in case we have troubles, so I am looking forward to sharing the Australian culture with these children.

The children will present an open-day for parents and community members as part of their studies.

Photo: CQU Education students Amanda Kay, Steven Fussell, Rebecca Williamson and Ken Harvey prepare for their four-week Korean teaching experience.