<p>do you guys know that korean students spend an average 12 hours a day at school and this is just for elementary school students. For the most part, Kids in the final year of high school spend their normal school days as follows:</p>
<p>6AM-7AM Wake UP and GO TO SCHOOL
7AM-10PM SCHOOL
10PM-2AM EXTRA SCHOOL (THAT PARENTS PAY FOR)
3AM- GO BACK HOME
3AM-6AM Homework & miscellaneous (USUALLY SLEEPING TIME)
REPEAT 200X (INCLUDING HALF OF ALL THE SATURDAYS)
TOTAL OF 20 HOURS a DAY DEVOTED TO EDUCATION</p>
<p>ISNT THIS JUST CRAZY!! I truly feel pity FOR THE kids who have no interest in learning but are forced to follow this horrendous daily torture(even for kids who love learning). NOTE I JUST CAME BACK FROM A TRIP TO KOREA AND I SAW MY RELATIVE GO THROUGH THIS. THEIR VACATION IS NOT UNTIL THE END OF JULY.</p>
<p>The Benefits of this system: Virtually nothing. This system doesnt do anything but create intense competition and stress for COLLEGE. And the worst thing is that Korean universities tend to be a LOT more relaxed and easier than High school was. SO their working intensely hard during their teen years rather than in their college years. Don't you feel that this system is kind of dumb and pointless?
The korean gov't recently recognized this as a problem but such a problem is hard to fix. Since its korean society in whole that is to blame. AND I THOUGHT I HAD IT HARD WITH 3 AP CLASSES.
Please post your comments about this crisis.</p>
<p>The educational systems in Japan and Korea (in particular) have always struck me as overly stressful. Those who don't fit in either leave their countries or they spend their lives as social outcasts.</p>
<p>Not too nice. </p>
<p>Read up on the "hikikomori" phenomenon in Japan to get an idea as to how it's affected the bigger neighbor. Some suggest it's only a matter of time until Korea follows suit.</p>
<p>there is a saying in korea if you sleep 4 hrs a day you wont go to college and if you sleep 3 hrs a day you will its just how hard Koreans have to work just to get into college</p>
<p>Isn't the educational system somewhat stratified though? In that different people are exposed to vastly different curricula (and school systems) depending on, say, their relative rank in class.I know that non-American countries have vocational high schools.</p>
<p>This is really untrue, at least according to my Korean friends. The middling high school students still have their leisure in Korea, although they spend more time on schooling than we do. The time table that the OP listed only applies to the top notch students in Korea.</p>
<p>Sometimes people just narrowly look at the extreme cases in Asia, since that sort-of matches their Asian friends' performance in school. This is simply because that, usually, only the top academic Asians can come here.</p>
<p>Dunno about Korea. Here in India though, for the top students (where a top student is determined by the marks he can get on an exam), this type of schedule is not far off the mark.
This is especially true of those who are applying for engineering colleges. A lot of kids just turn into robots who can solve hundreds of math, phy and chem problems in a few hours but have little idea how to apply their knowledge to real life.</p>
<p>thats a bit harsh really...im from india...and i although ive heard of people who study 15-16 hours a day, i personally know none...exaggeration is commonplace...i agree that asian students work more hours than their counterparts in the west but whts said above to my opinion is blasphemy...</p>
<p>@wasup - I never said that OP's description was accurate. I just said it wasn't far from truth when it came to the TOP students in India (for the average student, the description is way off the mark). As an example, my cousin (who got into IIT - Indian Institute of Technology) used to sleep just 4-5 hours a day and spent the rest of the day practicing math/phy/chem problems occasionally going to school. </p>
<p>After he got into IIT, he has lost any interest he ever had in math/science and does only the minimum necessary to get good grades in IIT. There is no intellectual exploration or personal initiative AT ALL. And I have known quite a few people who became like that. Calling such people "robots" could be an exaggeration but my basic point was that such stress really kills any love for learning or intellectual exploration.</p>
<p>haha...well sid..i know of a few people who got into IIT as well...and they had their sleep..heck i got IIT, albiet a high rank...and i know how many hours i slept lol...</p>
<p>Well, I never said each and every student who gets into IIT is dull. Just that many of the students (and not just those who get IIT) turn dull, IMO.</p>
<p>I'm a Korean and moved to US during junior high.
Frankly, I think JasonLee's tone of speaking about this matter mocks our educational system; that's making me a little bitter.
First of all, we don't study 20 hours a day; 4 hours of sleep deteriorates human body and lowers the work efficiency. However, top 10% students in South Korea tend to study more than 12 hours a day.
Next, let me explain why they have to do that. If college admission can be based on personality and well-roundedness as in the United States, that would be reasonable and helpful for the students.<br>
Unfortunately, educational system in US takes so much budget for education that it is quite unrealistic for most nations. You should know that providing a variety of opportunities for every students take tremendous amount of money from the government.
Also, this type of education system requires some standarization of schools throughout the nation. However, most high schools in South Korea formed while the nation was in extreme poverty (GDP of $80 in 1960's,) so many private schools offer SUPERIOR education compared to public schools (it's beyond funny) To make it as fair and possible, college admission had to be based majorly on test scores, which force the students to study, study, and study. This applies almost exactly for Japan and China.
Now, if I was helpful for some people, I would be glad. Of course, some dedicated students follow the schedule listed above. However, I can't agree with the statement that our system has no benefits. That kind of competition and studying is quite neccessary for a small penninsula with less than half the size of California with 40 million people. In case you didn't notice, you are probably using a computer with RAM manufactured in South Korea. you see, we can't live off of printing greenbacks, running banks, and selling weapons like the United States.</p>
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That kind of competition and studying is quite neccessary for a small penninsula with less than half the size of California with 40 million people.
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<p>To be frank, I don't see how the Korean education system is THAT necessary at all. Let's be honest here, how much of what we actually learn in high school will be used in future jobs? I would say not much. Yet that begs the question why the Koreans focus a lot of their efforts on secondary school academics, but can get away with in general, relatively little work as university students? I suspect that all of this has to do with cultural attitudes, with Koreans placing a high value on pre-college level education. If the Koreans wanted to "de-rigorize" the education system, they could do it. If they wanted to set lower prerequisites in the secondary school curriculum, they could do it. They just don't want to.</p>
<p>
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In case you didn't notice, you are probably using a computer with RAM manufactured in South Korea.
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<p>I don't see how South Korea's manufacturing 'prowess' correlates in any way to its highly cutthroat education system. </p>
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you see, we can't live off of printing greenbacks, running banks, and selling weapons like the United States.
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</p>
<p>So that begs the question, why can't they? Is it because of a lack of human capital?</p>
<p>The US doesn't "live off of printing greenbacks, running banks, and selling weapons like the United States." It lives off of innovation. Where do you think that the DRAM designs originally come from? How about most of the games that Koreans are really into?</p>
<p>I'm working in Korea right now for a chaebol, and something struck me almost immediately-- militarization. The entire structure of the chaebol is like being in the military. Now, that's great for a company that just needs to manufacture goods, but it doesn't do much for a company that wants to be an innovator.</p>
<p>The schools in Japan were pretty much the same. Standardized and drab. Now, that's great if you want a work force that's just going to go, work, and get paid a good salary (***uzawa Yukichi and other important men of the Meiji era looked at Prussia and said, "good idea!") South Korea followed a lot of Japan's examples (for better or for worse...), so a lot of what you see here is thanks to Prussia in some bizarre way. </p>
<p>I think that many of my South Korean counterparts are very well educated, intelligent, and nice people. But one thing I noticed as I gave a speech about some econometric issue for the company was that none of them understood the math. And so I asked, "did any of you take statistics in school?" All nodded. "Do you remember it?" Everyone laughed and sad "no." </p>
<p>The purpose of the arduous education isn't (at least today) to teach everyone equally well. It's to serve as a filtration and signaling method. That's good in some ways. But when a country is quickly catching up to Japan in teenaged suicides, you have to ask, "is this good?"</p>