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DALLAS -- Kevin Yoo began high school four years ago by saying good-bye to his parents in South Korea and moving to the United States alone.</p>
<p>Kevin moved in with an American family, complete with a boy his age. He dropped his Korean name, Jihoon. He played football and soccer, and ran track at a private high school, where he is a senior set to graduate next year.</p>
<p>He's not alone. Increasingly large numbers of Korean youths are moving to English-speaking countries to study.
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<p>More</a> Korean families sending kids to study in the U.S. | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press</p>
<p>We hosted a Korean student for a semester last year. It opened our eyes to the whole phenomenon of Korean students being sent to the US by their parents, not as "exchange students"--which ours ostensibly was--but for years at a time.</p>
<p>Some of these Korean parents are trying to game the system by doing multiple "exchanges" where they pay no tuition or room and board, although they may--like our student's parents--pay an agency. (The agency used by our student's family was, IMHO, ripping them AND us and the local school system off and giving them very bad advice.) A lot of students are enrolled by these agencies at small religious schools that will accept just about any kid who can pay tuition. They then live with a succession of families, or sometimes in a group house run by Korean adults or Korean college students. Sometimes they live in such a group house and go to the local public schools (probably for free). There's a whole network.</p>
<p>Our student was in no way prepared to be away from his family and friends, or to go to school in English. His academic preparation in Korea was spotty, although he went to a private boys' school, and had been dominated by rote memorization. He had a desire to go to a top US university such as MIT, but didn't begin to understand what was necessary to get in. In my estimation he would be lucky to succeed at the local community college. I felt very sorry for the kid. I would actually have kept him, but he could not attend our high school for free when it became clear that he was not an exchange student, and they are not currently accepting tuition students due to over-crowding.</p>
<p>The kids who do best are probably those who are sent to well-run boarding schools, but few Korean families are apparently willing or able to pay for them.</p>
<p>Great article, thanks!</p>