<p>ahaha... I'm also Korean.... and I would've taken that exam yesterday if I had been living in Korea.... ugh feels so weird because it seems like yesterday that I was in 6th grade in Korea and saw this happening in mid-November and now the students of my age including my friends just took it... X_X</p>
<p>singapore has something similar called a levels as well.... and it's damn stressful</p>
<p>ar31791, that was not very good logic.</p>
<p>Another reason why the Korean education system is so crutched is because "hakwons" (a.k.a. academic institution) have become such a dominant part of the culture. Some people think hakwons are merely tutoring schools, but it's like night school that you pay for. And literally every Korean student attends one, or pays for private tutoring, because of the pressure to be competitive. So obviously, more money is flowing to the hakwons than schools. Many people have full-time jobs at hakwons, and most of them pay better than public schools. Thus, teachers, knowing that everyone attends hakwons, don't teach as well as they should. They don't really care about the students beyond test scores - why should they? They aren't paid enough to break up fights and etc. </p>
<p>Even so, I have found that Korean high school students are much more kinder and sweeter than American high school students. Beyond competition for test scores, Koreans have a much higher standard of character and respect for others. Thus, when they meet Americans for the first time, they believe Americans to be very forward and disrespectful. </p>
<p>Sigh... I hope I've enlightened some people and broken some stereotypes...</p>
<p>^ while I agree with your first paragraph, i must say that the reason why "korean h.s. students are much more kinder and sweeter" is completely subjective. korean culture is still heavily based on confucianism, respect for elders, respect and formality towards others, etc. in some ways, korean culture is still very much an honor culture - people are formal, don't say they dislike anything outright, etc. there's no honesty in that. i'm sorry to be making generalizations but american's aren't afraid to say things like it is. i quite like the american way of life, as a korean myself.</p>
<p>and most korean families send their kids to american boarding schools if they can afford it. it's so much easier getting into an ivy league if you attend an american school rather than if you are overseas.</p>
<p>For college admission, it's something along the lines of they rank you based on GPA and test scores, and then admit the top X students. It's much easier to get into college, any college, from here than there, even Korean colleges. There are ways of getting into places like SNU International Studies/Business with just a TOEFL score. </p>
<p>It's a cultural thing-for example, in Korea, it's considered rude to look someone senior to you straight in the eye when you're speaking to them or they're speaking to you. Here, it's considered rude to NOT look a person straight in the eye when you're speaking to them of they're speaking to you. If you look a teacher straight in the eye when you're talking them here, the teacher gets the perception that you're being honest. If you look a teacher in the eye when you speak to them in Korea (or dare to even speak to them when not spoken to-terrorists have more rights in Korea than students), you'll get a slap upside the head. And possibly lots of verbal abuse about being polite and such. I've lived here long enough to make eye contact when I'm speaking to someone, and many of my friends from elementary school that I met this summer think that that's "intimidating". We're a much more socially "horizontal" culture than theirs is. Theirs is very hierarchical. I would say they're more afraid of speaking their mind than "kinder and sweeter," because some Korean students are complete ******bags.</p>
<p>"tsh-I believe that any system can be fixed, recreated, rebuilt. England and Belgium have a much smaller landmass and we don't see the same problem there either. The corrupt, incompetent politicians are too lazy to fix it. They can start with the way they teach English-my friends that went through the whole system in Korea could probably score a 650 on the TOEFL, but can't speak a word in anything resembling fluent, and are impressed when I can speak French. Don't you learn a language to speak it? You haven't learned a language if you can't speak it. You've learned a language test. Very different."</p>
<p>Futurenyustudent - you are wrong. Belgium and other relatively small European countries have much more wealth in terms of money, natural resources, and reputations in foreign affairs whereas Korea has nothing. So it's not about politicians being lazy...it's just that the system cannot be fixed. Keep in mind that Korean economy is going through the ABSOLUTE WORST state as we speak. If we had a more "effective" or "lenient" education system, competition will die off and we'll have students like some kids in America that are like, "Oh, I don't need college, I'll just work at McDonalds and hopefully own 37 restaurants by the age of 32 and be a millionaire." NO! Alright? You realize that having no natural resources narrows down job opportunities A LOT. Plus, This country's arithmetic density is FAR beyond either ENGLAND's or BELGIUM's therefore exacerbating the situation even more. Overall, I cannot possibly see a change in the Korean education system in the near future; It will probably never happen unless we strike oil in Daejeon or something</p>
<p>I'm not wrong. Luxembourg, a city-state the size of maybe the Seoul Metropolitan Area, has a per-capita GDP of $80,000 in nominal terms, $69k in real terms. Singapore, again, a city-state maybe the size of the Seoul Metro Area, has a per-capita GDP much higher than that of Korea. Neither nation has ANY natural resources. Luxembourg's main export is remote controlled cars, for god's sake. They don't have any natural resources either. The lack of natural resources is completely an excuse for incompetence. </p>
<p>And I don't see starting at McD's scrubbing toilets and working your way up and becoming successful as an entrepreneur as necessarily a bad thing. Many highly successful people in the financial industry in the US started in the mail room. Microsoft was essentially started out of Bill Gates' dorm room. Apple was started out of Steve Jobs' parents' garage. Facebook was started out of Zuckerman's dormroom. Sir Richard Branson didn't even finish high school and started with nothing, yet he owns one of the largest conglomerates in the world. What they need in Korea is a complete culture change that doesn't make education the only way to attaining success. They need entrepreneurs like Jobs, Gates and Zuckerman to create jobs and value and wealth in the economy; they don't need to strike oil. South Korea claims to be a nation with a very strong IT industry, but it's size pales in comparison to Silicon Valley and Bangalore. Why? No innovation. That's why. The only reason the economy's much more crap than it should be is because it doesn't have its own industry. It essentially depends entirely upon the US economy for survival-the US catches a cold and Korea catches pneumonia and dies. Essentially what happens in Korea is that anyone who didn't go to college is considered a failure and then they're basically shunned by society. That attitude needs to change. You know, college just ISN'T for some people and the economy doesn't benefit by someone going to college when their talents actually lie in, say, entrepreneuralism. That person is better off skipping college and becoming an entrepreneur. You NEED those people who are willing to roll their sleeves up and create something out of nothing, and you NEED society to accept them as the successful entrepreneurs they are, if they are successful.</p>
<p>And tsh-how do you think Luxembourg built their wealth? How do you think Belgium built their wealth? How do you think the UK built their wealth? How do you think Germany, France built their wealth? That's right, FROM NOTHING. In fact, until the 1850's Germany and Switzerland didn't even EXIST. Korea's been around as a country since before Columbus landed in America. But the Swiss created their own wealth with diamonds, Finance and watches. Germany did the same with cars and other things. Luxembourg created theirs with remote controlled cars. After World War II smaller European countries and even larger countries like France and Germany had NOTHING. The whole country was basically annihilated. I think the only country that had something after 1945 was Switzerland.</p>
<p>And sometimes "fixing" requires a complete overhaul.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They need entrepreneurs like Jobs, Gates and Zuckerman to create jobs and value and wealth in the economy; they don't need to strike oil. South Korea claims to be a nation with a very strong IT industry, but it's size pales in comparison to Silicon Valley and Bangalore. Why? No innovation.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Back to the whole "reforming the education system" topic - there is absolutely no innovation because test scores are considered so highly. Extra curriculars, creativity, essay writing are all second to that test score. So, Korea cultivates students that are good at memorizing facts, but not applying them further than test scores. People think that getting a job at one of the top three corporations (Samsung, LG, Hyundai) means that they are successful. The CEOs of these corporations are hailed as gods. But these CEOs know of no innovation at all - just handling money. South Korea invented the first mp3 player, but Apple transformed it into the iPod. </p>
<p>Even people who are trying to get into art school attend art institutes that all teach the same thing. Everybody draws busts of the same Greek guy, paint the same way... its like there is a certain way that you have to paint to be considered an artist.</p>
<p>However, these are all just generalizations, and we cannot ignore the few anomalies in Korean society that have broken out of the system - Park Nam Joon, the famous Korean video artist, Andre Kim, Korea's first male fashion designer, etc. Hopefully many more to come.</p>
<p>cc에서 수능 -_-;</p>
<p>That's what I'm saying. Korea's school doesn't teach students anything substantive-they just teach tests. If they were taught critical thinking and creativity I'm sure they can make it happen, but all they can do is rote memorization. Yeah I can memorize stuff by writing it out 20 times, but does that mean I understand it? In many cases, the "what" is more important than the "why". The "what" is important in lower grades, but when you get to upper grades, high school and college, they need to start asking "why". Of course, there are anomalies, but they're rare. </p>
<p>And I was horrified to find out that in Korea "teaching" English means sitting there and forcing students to write out verb conjugations 20 times. That serves no purpose and is completely ineffective. Unfortunately the non-native language teachers in Korea are too incompetent to teach the English in English or French in French. My mom has an MA in foreign language education she agrees that the best way to teach a language is complete immersion (i.e. speaking it), and every foreign language class I took the teacher/prof starts with SPEAKING, not reading/writing. In French class the teacher walks in and starts talking in French. That's how you teach a language. I see Korean students who have perfect scores on the TOEFL all the time but can't speak a word of English.</p>
<p>1234d: many UK (and commonwealth nations) students take the a-levels too, not just singaporeans ;)</p>
<p>not to be rude but i dont think some people are being very stereotypical
first off, my cousin is a freshman in the kang nam district of seoul which is the wealthiest
he takes some sat subject tests because he is interested in hyp, and ended up scoring 2860 the first time he took it, he is 3 years younger than me and he is telling me how much easier it is
just to describe the test that they take, it i an accumulation of not only the math and sciences but much history and cultures of the world they have learned during their whole high school carer
kids who get into snu tell me that harvard is easy ****, and im like r u f'n kidding... well that is because they have been preparing so hard
i think we should give the studious koreans mad props because they spend about 16hrs a day avg just studying, sometimes even more, and no this is not farfetched</p>
<p>people should understand it is much harder to gain entrance into snp than hyp, although not even close to the prestige and education, the talent at snp is quite remarkable, if one had to take an iq/act/ or any of that bull crap test, i would bet my life an snp student would hav a better score than the harvard student</p>
<p>oops i mean 2360 not 2860 lol</p>
<p>glad i live in the us...</p>
<p>My paternal grandfather's and my mother's alma maters were both mentioned in the article. ;D </p>
<p>I'm so glad I grew up in America.</p>
<p>elee: You know what I call that? A POOR ROI.</p>
<p>"How do you think Germany, France built their wealth? That's right, FROM NOTHING. In fact, until the 1850's Germany and Switzerland didn't even EXIST. Korea's been around as a country since before Columbus landed in America."</p>
<p>^ Dude. did you ever take history class? Until the FIFTIES, Korea didn't even EXIST. in the context of history, yes. in the context of economy, politics, government? japan took it all away.
there's thing called the "DMZ" that American people find SOOO interesting (honestly, there isn't much interesting about it to me. except for the long-forgotten stories where north koreans shot trespassers) and inspirational and ****.</p>
<p>education is going through a riot through 이명박 oh yes it is.</p>
<p>anyways. innovation. you see, "innovation" is what comes out when the average Korean becomes 32. That is, after high school exams and college (should they just pass and not have to repeat their senior year) and after trying to find a job and grueling hours in the office or training to be a lawyer or doctor or some highpaying job, after marriage and childbirth and a kid at the age of 2. That's when "innovation" comes. But what innovation is left? Nothing except for the futures of their child. why do you think korean kids are manipulating the west coast and every single boarding school imaginable? why do you think some are even moving to New Zealand to finish high school?</p>
<p>please. American systems have it easy, I'm sorry. My school's curriculum's like meshed somewhere between the two systems (though it claims to be American) and I honestly don't know how fullon Korean students manage lives.</p>
<p>Did YOU take a history class? The Chosun dynasty's been around since 1400, which morphed into Korea. And the colonization thing they brought on themselves by closing themselves in rather than opening up to western trade, unlike Japan, which heartily accepted it. Everything that happened to them they brought upon themselves. And by the way, everything France and Germany had World War II took away.</p>
<p>Dear god, do you have no respect. You seen to think this horrible, this respect for elders, these rules. They do have rights, and I am speaking for all of Asia here, it's a pity that you are underprivileged and have not seen the world. These "test-takers" that you speak of, seem to be taking up more of our educational system. You want to get into nyu, well its not great, so you probably will. But HYP Asians, sooo, many. Choate, Westminster, any elite boarding school anywhere, Asians. The work about twice as hard as you and they are smarter in general. Those that can think outside the box get places at investment banks, they replace the intellectual dribble that lead us into the credit crunch. FYI I am not Asian, I am from the north-east, but I live in Hong Kong.</p>