Korean Job Discussion Forums

[byrddogs]

[thebearofbundang]

I'm Canadian and my wife is Korean.. This study doesn't surprise me much. We've come to the same conclusion ourselves over the past 10 years which is why we've decided to send our children through the Korean education system over the Canadian one.. We will monitor the stress placed on our children carefully, but feel it gives them the best chance to be successful..

As for Scorpion.. Saying that there have been no Noble Prize winners over the last 50 years from South Korea explains a lot about how you think..I'm pretty sure this study was done over the past 5 years, meaning the noble prize winners who benefited from it would have to be about 22 years old? Not a lot of them around.. Maybe it's time to go back to the All Mighty country you come from? Why don't you?

[Privateer]

We all know what a mess they make of English but I dread to think how badly the average UK student would do in Korean class if that was suddenly on the curriculum.

Also, Koreans do much harder maths problems than the equivalent grades in the US at least - not sure about other countries - and they have done very well on international science competitions too. You can still say they learn a lot despite all the objections about copying and fudged results.

Given that the educational and social system here so strongly values conformity - even more than the average school system does elsewhere - this does not mean Koreans will produce actual advances in maths or science or any field, because conformism and obedience to authority kills the pure academic curiosity you need to break new ground. There's also so much economic and social pressure to succeed and raise the next generation.

US and other western leaders will continue to praise South Korea's system, however, because they have an agenda of cutting education spending and passing the costs on to the public. SK's government spends the lowest per capita amount on education of all developed countries, while the reverse is true for SK's population. An example to us all.

[geldedgoat]

[12ax7]

Test scores and tertiary education attainment do not necessarily indicate quality of eduction.

The index should have also taken into consideration whether people are satisfied with the education they received. It's not insignificant.

[Steelrails]

[geldedgoat]

[Privateer]

[Steelrails]

[T-dot]

The rankings are probably based on graduation rates and % of population with a tertiary education.

Korea does have a problem with their public education system, but so does most of the world.

I have no idea why people are making assumptions based on the english level of their students. Unless Im mistaken, this is not a ranking based on english proficiency.

[Dave Chance]

Korea followed in Japan's footsteps, and that's all there is to it.

The guy who set down the blueprint for education and the economy, Park Chung-hee, fought for the Emperor and modeled everything in Korea on Japan's zaibatsu (chaebol)-controlled system.

In the 80's after Japan started pummeling the US economically and started buying up significant US companies and properties, certain measures were introduced into the rules of international finance which torpedoed Japan's advance; they were too much of a threat.

South Korea doesn't have the mentality or heart to actually go toe to toe with the US, and are only too glad to play the role of supporting little brother, as the elite have been doing since Joseon, first to the Chinese, then to Japan (whom were aided in their takeover of Korea by Joseon elite eager to maintain position and power), and of course more recently the US.

So as the younger brother who is ever so eager to show up its former colonial master, South Korea has done well to connect the dots and sell the cars, computers, pop idol music et al in the same manner (plus the aid of the F5 key) that Japan did. Your average Korean citizen is to be applauded for bearing down and putting in the time and effort.

But on the whole, congratulating them for ranking 2nd in the world for their educational system has a rather hollow ring to it, especially considering the lack of government investment placing the burden of cost on the Korean household, and that in this system kids are obligated to study morning to late at night; is this the type of thing to hold up as a shining example to the rest of the world? Is life all about selecting the right answers on math and science tests because your parents had enough money to send you to an elite academy? We know the flip side is an astonishingly high rate of suicide for young people, addiction to video games, bullying, et al as well as arguably a lack if aptitude in broad-based thinking/ability to reason independently later on in life (especially regarding international issues; if the Korean media says it's true, and CNN seconds it, there is no further discussion or inquiry).

Well Park Geun-hye can carry on with what her father set down after she's elected, even though she's declined to have one-on-one TV debates with her strongest rival (there will be a 3-way debate including a candidate who has zero chance of winning). After all, since she does the Gangnam Style dance at her political rallies, who needs to consider how her policies stack up, or whether she can keep up with her strongest rival in an in-depth discussion on issues regarding education and the economy? We know such things take a back seat to image and media-generated 'official polls' (not to mention surveys like the one concerned with this thread) in Korea.

[Privateer]

[Dave Chance]

[geldedgoat]

[Steelrails]