culture

Many children have been known for having prodigious talents in their kindergarten days. Among them is Kim Sung Jin of Tongmun Kindergarten No. 2 of Taedonggang District, Pyongyang.

Surprising is the outstanding piano-playing skill of him who performs any solos with graceful movements of hands and free interpretation. But more surprising are his mathematical ability and memory to provide in a foreign language correct impromptu answers to several-digit addition and subtraction problems presented in a foreign language at 0.8 second intervals.  

According to his mother Ho Mi Gyong, the kindergartener was fond of memorizing numbers and read books on common knowledge or TV programmes on common scientific knowledge and asked unexpected questions at the age of four, surprising his family members.

When he was at the lower class of the kindergarten, he used to answer the questions hard to solve for his peers before anyone else and correctly remember what he had learnt.

“Closely observing Sung Jin, I came to know that he has excellent memory, keen observation and logical thinking and wanted to cultivate his talent in bud,” said Ri Yun Jong, a kindergarten teacher.

The kindergarten taught Sung Jin how to play the piano first.

Before long, he overtook the children who began to learn piano earlier than him. 

His teacher helped him develop visualization capacity through abacus education and then demanded he do addition and subtraction calculations while playing the piano. She also taught him a foreign language.

Thanks to her tireless efforts, Sung Jin easily calculated several-digit addition and subtraction problems while skilfully playing the piano and reached the level of giving correct answers in a foreign language to the problems presented in a foreign language at a fast rate.

He fully exhibited his talents at the 14th national contest of kindergarten children with amazing talents last year to be rated excellent as a child with high command of a foreign language, prodigious memory and great mathematical ability.

His teacher said he fixes the Rubik Cube in a minute, likes reading very much and is very good at composition.

“I am happy that I’ve trained a child with extraordinary talents like Sung Jin,” said Ri Yun Jong.