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Carlyles Ghost
Joined: 04 Jul 2007
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 Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:54 pm Post subject: H.S. Students kill themselves |
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| Two sisters, distraught over the results of their CSAT's climbed to the top of a 25 story building and jumped. The Joong-ang daily noted that one of the girls texted her parents bfeore they jumped and apologized for not being a good daughter. The sisters apparently scored low in math and science but high in english. The teachers here at my school say that this sort of thing happens each year. The story made me mad but I don't know who or what I should be mad at: two sisters jumping to their deaths over their exam results. Christ. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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| It happens every year. Last year a boy killed himself the morning of the exam before it even got under way. Often the students and their parents are living under delusions that they're much better students than they really are. This year the marking system was especially harsh because students had to score well in all subjects to get an over-all good mark. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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| What I find ironic about this story is it shows the absurdity of having a slogan "Soul of Asia" when in reality, it appears that Korean society seems to have no soul; I know this is rather harsh, but when the only thing that matters is test scores and money, it seems that a soul is lacking in this country. |
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ceesgetdegrees
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| In fairness to korea, sadly, kid's all over the world kill themselves. My country (new zealand) offers the average kid/teen an idyllic upbringing, lots of sports and outdoor pursuits to keep them healthy, good food, an open society. Given this, it still leads the suicide stats for males between the ages of 16-24. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
| What I find ironic about this story is it shows the absurdity of having a slogan "Soul of Asia" when in reality, it appears that Korean society seems to have no soul; I know this is rather harsh, but when the only thing that matters is test scores and money, it seems that a soul is lacking in this country. |
I agree with what you're getting at. The school system is designed to crush a person's soul by the time they're 12. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| ceesgetdegrees wrote: |
| In fairness to korea, sadly, kid's all over the world kill themselves. My country (new zealand) offers the average kid/teen an idyllic upbringing, lots of sports and outdoor pursuits to keep them healthy, good food, an open society. Given this, it still leads the suicide stats for males between the ages of 16-24. |
I think the indigenous population sort of skews this number, doesn't it? I remember reading about the high number of suicides amongst a certain Polynesian tribe in the book "Blink". That book discussed in detail the contagious nature of suicides. For example, it has been shown that if it is reported in the news that a single women driving a car committed suicide, in the next few days, there will tend to be a disproportionate number of suicides in the area amongst single women.
Sounds nutty, but it's verifiable. What this also means is the suicide rate amongst Koreans is bound to go up, not down, unless something drastic is done to stop the trend. I'm not hopeful that anything will be done. What's good for the chaebols is good for all, seems to be the way things go. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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| RACETRAITOR wrote: |
| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
| What I find ironic about this story is it shows the absurdity of having a slogan "Soul of Asia" when in reality, it appears that Korean society seems to have no soul; I know this is rather harsh, but when the only thing that matters is test scores and money, it seems that a soul is lacking in this country. |
I agree with what you're getting at. The school system is designed to crush a person's soul by the time they're 12. |
This is all very sad. Perhaps if students were more valued for themselves rather than test scores suicides would decrease.
I have exercises in which I encourage individuality and creativity but rarely do I get something very original. If anyone has had more success in promoting this, I'd be interested in hearing about it. |
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Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd be willing to bet that the suicide rate among students is higher in Japan than Korea. No stats at my fingertips, though. |
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ultra
Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Location: Book Han Gook Land Of Opportunity
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Ed Provencher
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:03 am Post subject: |
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"Suicide battle"
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/1791/Suicide_battle.html
Suicide statistics graph is provided by a study conducted by The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Stats are from 2002. Korea is fourth on the list below Japan. Japan has more male suicides and fewer female suicides than Korea. The numbers are close in both cases.
"Korea Has The World�s Highest Suicide Rate"
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704230029.html
English Chosun cites a more recent report from the OECD in April 2007.
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| The biggest factor is stress," said Yoon Se-chang, a professor of neuropsychiatry at Samsung Medical Center. "High competition since elementary school explains the high suicide rate in Korea." |
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| "The increasing suicide rate is related to the rapid socioeconomic decline such as the increasing rates of unemployment and divorce since the financial crisis of 1997," said Lee Hong-shik, the president of the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention. "In the past, families served to ease such shocks. But these days, without the family protection, people feel more despair and more impulse to kill themselves." |
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Faunaki
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:39 am Post subject: Can't stand her |
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I can see how those students must have felt. Today my co-worker, whose daughter just wrote the tests, was miserable and moody. I asked what was wrong and she told me how her daughter only got second level in math. She didn't even praise her daughter or mention any other scores. Just the math. She acted all pissed off like the girl didn't study every frickin day for months on end.
Can't stand to be around that woman. Glad I'm not her daughter. |
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CeleryMan
Joined: 12 Apr 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| Buy LG cause "Life is Good!" |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:10 am Post subject: |
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the girls were twins..
crazy!!
but one thing I dont get is this..
if you look at everyone in high position today in korea.. managers, lawyers, doctors, politicians EVEN THE PRESIDENT of korea.. you name it
all those people NEVER EVER went to a hakwon!!
but they still run the country today..
many of them didnt attend SNU.. or graduate with honors or even graduate! KOREA KOREAN MOTHERS are the ones to blame for this..
they are so ignorant!! they didnt even attend hakwons! but they make their kids study till 1am and NEVER play or watch TV!!
they are destroying the country.. |
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Roch
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:12 am Post subject: |
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| itaewonguy wrote: |
the girls were twins..
crazy!!
but one thing I dont get is this..
if you look at everyone in high position today in korea.. managers, lawyers, doctors, politicians EVEN THE PRESIDENT of korea.. you name it
all those people NEVER EVER went to a hakwon!!
but they still run the country today..
many of them didnt attend SNU.. or graduate with honors or even graduate! KOREA KOREAN MOTHERS are the ones to blame for this..
they are so ignorant!! they didnt even attend hakwons! but they make their kids study till 1am and NEVER play or watch TV!!
they are destroying the country.. |
Even the youngsters who play sports in a serious manner are at it for most of the day and receive an even lower level of training in school than their counterparts who are enrolled in post-secondary track education.
We are not supposed to think critically about anything in this, our so-called host nation. The T.J. Heckleburgs from this lovely, open nation patrol Dave's after all - no doubt taking a break from scouting for boys and looking for toys - and will destroy anyone who dares question this oft-Orwellian society.
R
Last edited by Roch on Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:31 am; edited 3 times in total |
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semphoon
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: Where Nowon is
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:21 am Post subject: |
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On of my students (about 11 years old) was feeling down so I spoke to him about his life. He told me he goes to soccer academy. I mentioned that "must be fun." He said he hated it. Its so stressful - one on one lessons and getting shouted at for making mistakes.
Even things that should be games to kids are turned into stressful situations. |
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