|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
|
 Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:04 am Post subject: SK: The One-Shot Society...beginning to break down |
 |
|
This is an interesting read, and provides a huge number of indisputable facts that make Korea look very stressed. Any comments?
http://www.economist.com/node/21541713
Just a few:
| Quote: |
| In one survey a fifth of Korean middle and high school students said they felt tempted to commit suicide. In 2009 a tragic 202 actually did so. The suicide rate among young Koreans is high: 15 per 100,000 15-24-year-olds, compared with ten Americans, seven Chinese and five Britons. |
| Quote: |
An incredible 63% of Koreans aged 25-34 are college graduates�the highest rate in the OECD. Since 1995 there has been a staggering 30 percentage-point increase in the proportion of Koreans who enter university to pursue academic degrees, to 71% in 2009.
This sounds great, but it is unlikely that such a high proportion of young Koreans will actually benefit from chasing an academic degree, as opposed to a vocational qualification. A survey in August found that, four months after leaving university, 40% of graduates had not yet found jobs. |
| Quote: |
| Since 1960 the fertility rate in Korea has fallen faster than nearly anywhere on earth, from six children per woman to 1.15 in 2009. That is a recipe for demographic collapse. |
| Quote: |
| Parents engage in an educational arms race. Those with only one child can afford higher fees, so they bid up the price of the best hagwon. This gives other parents yet another incentive to have fewer children. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Stout
Joined: 28 May 2011
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yes, yes, and yes.
Hopefully they'll find a way to transition to something more sustainable.
Oh, and eat the first-born and all subsequent heirs of ch'aebol families and descendents of Japanese collaborator scum. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
The Floating World
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Location: Here
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| The suicide rate among young Koreans is high: 15 per 100,000 15-24-year-olds, compared with ten Americans, seven Chinese and five Britons. |
Wow that's quite a high number of American 15 - 24 yr olds feeling that way, compared to half as many young Britons, for example...
Wonder why so high, just curious. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
| The Floating World wrote: |
| Quote: |
| The suicide rate among young Koreans is high: 15 per 100,000 15-24-year-olds, compared with ten Americans, seven Chinese and five Britons. |
Wow that's quite a high number of American 15 - 24 yr olds feeling that way, compared to half as many young Britons, for example...
Wonder why so high, just curious. |
Would it have anything to do with the state providing for people/not providing them so that they don't need to/need to work?
(Welfare system)?
Just thinking and typing. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ssuprnova
Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Location: Saigon
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:56 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Ms Kang made her parents proud by getting into Yonsei, one of Korea�s leading universities. But once there, she rebelled. She hung out with radicals and read Marx and Foucault. She went on protest marches, waving a placard, inhaling tear gas and almost getting herself arrested. �I kinda enjoyed it,� she says, �I felt I was doing something really important.� |
| Quote: |
| Small wonder the government is worried. President Lee Myung-bak talks of the need to create a �fair society�. That means, among other things, changing attitudes to educational qualifications. He says he wants employers to start judging potential employees by criteria other than their alma mater. In September he promised that the government would start hiring more non-graduates. �Merit should count more than academic background,� he said. |
The same president from the same government that's bending over backwards for the chaebeol is preaching about merit? Spare me...
| Quote: |
| Ms Kang cannot live on what she makes as a musician, so she takes temporary jobs. She is one of many. Among the young, the proportion of jobs that are part-time has exploded from 8% in 2000 to 23% in 2010; the proportion of workers under 25 on temporary contracts has leapt from zero to 28%. This is partly because cash-strapped companies are backing away from the old tradition of lifetime employment, but also because many young people do not want to be chained to the same desk for 30 years. |
So... Japan all over again?
| Quote: |
| They also shunt older people into retirement when they still have much to offer. (The chaebol tend to promote by seniority, which sounds good for older employees but isn�t. There are only a few jobs at the top, so when you reach the age at which you might become a senior manager, you are either promoted or pensioned off.) |
Why is this a negative? If anything, it's good for the youth... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bekinseki
Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Location: Korea
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ssuprnova wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Small wonder the government is worried. President Lee Myung-bak talks of the need to create a �fair society�. That means, among other things, changing attitudes to educational qualifications. He says he wants employers to start judging potential employees by criteria other than their alma mater. In September he promised that the government would start hiring more non-graduates. �Merit should count more than academic background,� he said. |
The same president from the same government that's bending over backwards for the chaebeol is preaching about merit? Spare me...
|
You'd be surprised how heavily he's backpedalling. Probably not in policy, but in what he says. The three things he spends the most time paying lip service to are:
-environmentalism
-narrowing the gap between rich and poor
-improving relations with North Korea
Basically, three things that are bad because of him directly. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
