Korean Job Discussion Forums

[noelinkorea]

And all four of those countries' languages belong to the (somewhat controversial) Ural-Altaic language family, a very exclusive group...a link perhaps...

[chi-chi]

Still less than Japan. In Japan they actually had to start billing people's families when their loved ones jumped on the train tracks. (no lie).
I think that on a state by state basis, Alaska's must be pretty damn high.
Lack of sun is the one thing these places have in common. Like the sun setting at 4pm in winter in Japan. Finland and Hungary, lack of sun. Korea is pretty damn bad too, in the winter.
Just something I noticed.

[Real Reality]

Couple Meets through Online Chatting, Commits Double Suicide
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504060030.html

[redbird]

[Plutocracy]

[Real Reality]

Student Dies in Suspected Suicide Case
By Kim Rahn
A student council head of a science high school in Seoul died in an apparent suicide from severe stress over deteriorating scholastic performance, according to police Monday. Lee reportedly had a conversation with his mother until midnight and went to his room as usual. But about an hour later, he sent text messages saying "I'm going first" through his mobile phone to some 30 friends and jumped out of the window, according to police.
Korea Times (April 11, 2005)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200504/kt2005041115175810230.htm

[Deconstructor]

I just saw a report on CBC Newsworld about suicide in Japan and how young people are isolating themselves and leading hermit lives before they blow their brains out. I suspect something similar is taking place in Korea.

Suicide is a complicated phenomenon and no one really understands its root causes. I read one good definition of suicide: when the horror of life exceeds the horror of death, that is when one commits suicide.

I suppose that it is also possible that since many Koreans generally lead an unexamined life and don�t really see its worth one way or another, it is not too hard to end that which one is indifferent about.

PS-Did you guys know that one of the highest rates of suicide is in Quebec? Life here is pretty good and more relaxed than most places in North America, yet...

[stvwrd]

Some interesting Suicide correllaries (taken from Durkheim by way of my memory):

Generally, cold climates have high suicide rates and low homicide rates while warmer climates have lower suicides and higher homicide rates than the colder climates (however, generally suicide rates are much lower than homicide rates are in terms of aggregate data, with possible exceptions of extremely isolated areas like Alaska, where, coincidentally, my parents are teachers in a small village in the middle of nowhere).

In the U.S. at least, and I believe most western countries, affluent white males have the highest suicide rates. (Social anomie, or, the social condition, not an internal one, that arises as society moves away from the traditional way of doing things, as well as the relationships and community therein, and towards a more modern way of life; look up Gemeinschaft and Gesselschaft if you don't already know about them. This leaves people with no roadmap of what to do when something happens that puts them in some kind of emotional crisis. No one to turn to, sort of thing).

Note that Durkheim did not claim that anomic suicide was the only type of suicide. He most likely would have taken into account the same cultural factors in Korea that many have already hinted at, while simultaneously noting Korea's rapidly changing society and economy.

Just a few things I remember from the final research paper I did for my Bachelor's degree. I also remember when we took an informal poll and discovered that 100% of the capstone Sociology class said they had contemplated suicide at one time or another. But maybe that was from living in Lamoni, Iowa. I'd like to see the same poll given to Sociology graduates in San Diego or somewhere else cool.

My memory on this stuff could be a little hazy though, as much of my idealism that blossomed studying Sociology has been turned jaded and cynical by two years of Public Administration graduate school. We did talk a lot about one famous Sociologist at my MPA school: Max Weber. His specialty? Bureacracy. Naturally, he went insane before he died.

[jajdude]

[quote="Deconstructor"]I just saw a report on CBC Newsworld about suicide in Japan and how young people are isolating themselves and leading hermit lives before they blow their brains out.[quote]

I saw a related show on BBC before. It said something like up to a million Japanese kids in middle/high school simply refuse to leave their rooms for months or years. The parents put their meals outside their door. They talk to no one face to face, just on computer or phone. They just stay in their room for a long time! Up to a million teenagers in Japan! Sounds unreal, but that's how I remember the report. It's scary. Could it possibly be so many? Missing school and refusing to go outside or talk to anyone directly? Just computer, phone, TV, and that's life for months or a year or more? Sounds like self-imposed prison. Many said they just don't want to deal with society.

[Real Reality]

Schoolboy 'Killed Himself Over Bullying'
A note left by a middle school student identified only by his first name Hwang, who took his own life, describes how his classmates bullied him. A schoolboy who was thought to have committed suicide because he thought he was ugly in fact killed himself because of bullying at his middle school, his father said Tuesday.
Chosun Ilbo (April 13, 2005)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504130015.html

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I suspect the face-saving thing has a lot to do with it. Look at the young people. They get BS reports from school, super-BS reports from hogwans, their parents have no idea about how they act most of the day, and then they fail their matriculation examinations and life is over. People aren't honest about problems, and there's little attempt to fix, rather than cover up, problems. I'm not at all surprised.

[crazykiwi]

dont know about the rest of new zealand, but we have the highest YOUTH suicide rate in the world (western?). so i guess i isnt just being a "hermit" kingdom at all. youth are killing themselves all over the world. why? the only people we can really ask are all dead.