Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jeweltone]

Interesting article about KAIST...does anyone on this board work there?

http://chronicle.com/article/No-Looking-Back-Kaists/65974/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

[carleverson]

[moosehead]

I know someone who does.

very brilliant fellow, industrial engineer, retired from that but teaches English there now.

I've cautioned many of my students about their English and the proposed change-over in Korean unis to all-English all the time. to elementary and middle school students it seems far away and unreal but the day is coming. it's the one thing more than anything that holds Korean unis back as well as the country itself.

wasn't there an American high up at Kaist a couple of years back? who left under controversy because he tried to shake things up a bit? anyone recall that?

[Jeweltone]

I think it is actually Dr. Suh in the article who you are thinking of - he was the"former assistant director of the U.S. National Science Foundation" before he took on KAIST...pretty high up in the American food chain.

He definitely upset the apple cart when he became director of KAIST, and from the article, it sounds like he is definitely NOT without enemies...I hope he gets to stay on - he sounds pretty sharp for a 74 year old!

SIDE NOTE: The Chronicle of Higher Education (International Edition) is the publication the article came from, btw, and South Korea is often mentioned, so it is a worthwhile web subscription, IMHO (I am back in the USA, but I am STILL teaching Koreans!).

[UknowsI]

[PigeonFart]

I like what he said about the Korean language and innovation. I don't like this culture's deference to authority, it goes too far.

[Ginormousaurus]

Thanks a lot for posting this article.

I'm planning on doing a year as an exchange student there next year. If all goes well, I hope to do my master's there as well. However, if Mr. Suh is not reelected and the school reverts back to a more traditional Korean university, then I would have to reconsider.

[jvalmer]

Dr. Robert B. Laughlin was the president of KAIST from July 2004-July 2006. He resigned 2 years into his 4 year term. There is some debate how dedicated he was to his position and may have been there just for the money. Also, there were issues of homesickness and culture he just couldn't overcome. Apparently his wife didn't join him in Korea and stayed in the US. And he had absolutely no supporters at KAIST for whatever reason.

http://www.kaist.edu/english/01_about/01_president_05.php?pt=6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Laughlin

However, Dr. Suh left Korea at 18 just after the Korean War. He's fluent in Korean and knows what old conservative Korea was like. He's in his 70's and none of the Korean faculty can use the excuse of not 'understanding' Korean culture to force him out. Luckily he is a forward in his thinking and because of his age, and being Korean, doesn't have to worry about playing the game of hierarchy that a younger president would have too.

You just can't change culture overnight, so KAIST was wise in looking for an old Korean-American to replace Laughlin. It was a gamble, but it seems to have paid off. Since he is an ethnic Korean, he probably has high motivation that a University in his home country can succeed and compete at a world level. I hope he has a second term.

[Ginormousaurus]

[Jeweltone]

moosehead and UkNows:

You were both right and I stand corrected. Here is the story and "reprint" of the Wall Street Journal story from Dr. Laughlin's homepage:

http://large.stanford.edu/history/kaist/references/wsj/

He is a Nobel-prize winning physicist from Stanford, and he basically ran into Korean cronyism and cultural stonewalling, as others have posted.

EDITED for bad typing...

[UknowsI]

Don't expect all lectures to be in English. Some majors have all undergraduate courses in English, but many courses have never been taught in English. They are required to teach in English if there is any foreign students there, but often the material is in Korean or the professor is not comfortable with using English. If you are the only student that forces 50 other students to listen to English just because of you, you'll get some serious bad 눈치 as well. However, I would say that enough courses are in English, and you have plenty to chose from. It's not really a big problem unless you really really want to take that course about "Chemical synthesis of kimchi", as long as your lab is fairly comfortable with English.

[jvalmer]

[UknowsI]

I am not sure if you consider that article to be on Dr. Laughlin's side or not. I for one think it sounded like he did a pretty poor job from what I read. He was trying to change what gives KAIST and edge while ignoring the real problems. KAIST have relatively few undergraduate students but many good students from Korea university and POSTECH comes to KAIST for their graduate courses, which brings some much needed variation in background. If they mainly focused on undergrads they would produce excellent graduates who either flee to the US or are stuck in the same environment for another 2-8 years. And a music major being important; most people will probably end up either studying music or engineering, while what he wants is people to get a bit of both. This is better done by promoting their orchestra or various music clubs, which are already pretty good.

[Darkray16]

His administrative changes sound great. His reasoning for switching to English because it is a less hierarchal language is what they needed.

[Jeweltone]

The same thing was suggested for Korean Air according to Bramwell's "Outlier" book. Some of the crashes of the airliner were caused directly by the hierarchy, esp. in the Korean language, and it was suggested (I don't remember who exactly made the suggestion) that aviators in Korea use English for better communication.

English is not perfect, however, as we all know; perhaps Korean universities need to step up on a vocational language approach to communication. This is what I am teaching in the United States to a couple of private clients who work in various fields (in Silicon Valley) and need to communicate clearly with their American clientele. I then find myself having to teach academic English to new Korean immigrants (who typically test too high for ESL) in middle and high school, esp. writing. These are key areas that need to be addressed by Koreans in their own country if they intend to be successful in international commerce and innovation.

As for Dr. Laughlin, I suspect he came to Korea ill-prepared (as most of us did!) and ill-informed. Stanford can really come off as an ivory-tower kind of place at times - no one seems to question them too much due to their "status" - so he cannot take full blame for the several "miscommunications" taking place.