Korean Students Speak

OK, this one is completely out of left field, but this is "Off-Topic".

My daughter teaches in South Korea. The pressures on Korean students are incredible- they study 16 hours a day (sometimes the police have to breakup study groups and send people home for studying too late). Which has earned them one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

This site is an exercise many of the teachers have been working together on. The students were given a blank piece of paper, and encouraged to write whatever they wanted to say. Only rule was it had to be in English.

Korean Students Speak

It's pretty interesting. Well, maybe not to some of you...

I didn't go through all of them, I find it interesting that it sounds like their schooling is intense. Several of them spoke of getting more sleep.

Interesting none the less.

Interesting photos. How old were these kids. 16 hours seems a little extreme.

That might explain the Korean student that went off in California.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/oakland-college-shooting-gunman.html

Sometimes you just need to let kids be kids.

I thought it was very interesting. I am friends with several international students here and they all work harder than most american students.

EvanB wrote: I thought it was very interesting. I am friends with several international students here and they all work harder than most american students.

I was going to agree with you, then I remembered graduate school. Found some international slackers there.

The woman who became my college valedictorian lived down the hall from me sophomore year. She took a photo class and upon realizing it was my major, she started pestering me non-stop for feedback on her projects. She spent innumerable hours achieving technical perfection, but had no clue how to handle the artistic side. IIRC she got an A+ in the class, but personally, I think she missed the point.

When I hear about these crazy study groups and intense binge-learning, this is what I see them doing. Not for me. I always wanted to learn because the topic was interesting, not because I wanted to achieve perfection in something. This is why I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none :) I'd be a janitor in Korea.

In reply to peter:

Somebody's gotta clean up E36 M3, no master's degree required!

It's not the quantity of hours you put in, it's the quality!

At least that's what I tell my lazy self.

Joey

I just deleted from this post a ramble about structure vs education guided by curiosity, and how much of each is needed, and how to find the best balance for a given student.

Education is a tough nut to crack.

peter wrote:

EvanB wrote: I thought it was very interesting. I am friends with several international students here and they all work harder than most american students.

I was going to agree with you, then I remembered graduate school. Found some international slackers there.

I'm sure there are more than a few international slackers out there. I am in undergrad now and only know a few international students.

ransom wrote: I just deleted from this post a ramble about structure vs education guided by curiosity, and how much of each is needed, and how to find the best balance for a given student. Education is a tough nut to crack.

May I humbly present this video? It's a little longish but very good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Interesting site. It seems to me countries like Korea and Japan are caught in this never ending cycle of pushing kids to work harder in school at younger and younger ages.

I have worked for the Korean chaebol SK for many years. It can be interesting. Even in the US the Korean Management push their kids extremely hard.

My Korean coworker makes up homework for his kids. After his kids are done with their schoolwork, they study 3+ hours more a day on what he comes up with. Saturday is test time.

They see it as the better your kids do; that reflects upon them.

Toyman01 wrote: Interesting photos. How old were these kids. 16 hours seems a little extreme.

They are high school aged students. Some are middle school. None are older.

In the past 40 years Korea has essentially converted themselves from a 3rd world country to a first. Mostly based on their emphasis on education. Education has been the foundation of the positive changes they have experienced in their society, but it has now become an obsession that brings with it incredible stress. As a teacher, my daughter's perspective is that the educational obsession is not beneficial to learning.

I have read that Koreans refer to the Japanese as "The Lazy People". I can't imagine what that makes us.

These were depressing

I thought some of them were very profound.

I have an adopted Korean nine year old daughter that is personally driven to excel. She constantly pushes and never lets up. Some days it can be tough.

Why do Korean women dominate the LPGA? Talent? They never stop. They practice all the time.

http://www.worldgolf.com/column/why-korean-golfers-are-dominating-lpga-tour-5643.htm

Is it worth it? For me, coming from my cultural background and experience, it wouldn't be. They have a different culture, perhaps it is worth it to them.
Seems they dont enjoy the intense studying, wonder what they would do if they had a choice.

SVreX wrote: I thought some of them were very profound.

My wife is Korean-American (but did a good number of school years in South Korea) and she talks about how crazy the education was over there. She said there was '0-hour' before school for studying, then school, then a second, outside of school, school that ended at midnight. It's sad, their education is quite facts based and it stifles creativity. My wife is a very creative type person and she didn't do very well. She still got into a good college though, so I guess it served that purpose...

I think the messages are profound, depressing, and then some kid pops in with a message of love. Good stuff.

I also think that half of those girls are really hot. (so ashamed)

Only half Curtis?

There is going to be some kick-ass rock and roll come out of Korea when they start to rebel.