Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Len8]

Education in Korea is something else, and it's both good and bad I think. They study day and night when they get to highschool to get into a good university. Sorry. Many of them do. Others just study because they have too.

The system is the best they can come up with under the circumstances. They all study for a national exam that the whole nation stops for. Mothers put lit candles at buddhist shrines to invoke dieties to help their children. They have spent the last three years of their lives pampering their children to ensure that they do well on the exam, so their anxiety is understandable.


The examination is prepared by teachers in prison like conditions to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage. Those preparing the exam are kept confined until all students have finished. I have heard that all telephone calls out of the preparation center are monitered as well.


This is the only thing in Korea that is corruption free. Kinda sad in a way that such extreme conditions have to be imposed to make this so, but it's the only way individuals from all backgrounds can be tested on ability alone. The rich, the poor and the priviledged are all in the same boat to-gether.


Criticism has been levelled at the system, because the poor students having to study as hard as they do miss out on life. I don't know wether the system is good or bad. What I do know is that the smart students will always find a way to do well on the exam and have fun too. It's the others of average ability that benefit mostly from the system. They are literally dragged up to a level of competence that they would never reach without the spartan like conditions imposed on them by parents, peers, school etc.


Korean students because they are busy don't have the free time to expriment with the nasty habits of children in a lot of western countries.

There was a problem in the last exam of students cheating using text messages on handphones, but I think the've probably nipped that in the bud

[ed4444]

One of the only positive things I can say about education in Korea is that it is a good preparation for the professional world of Korea.

It consists of long but inefficient hours of commitment.

It is not a corrupt system for university selection but how can a student's academic ability be reasonably assessed in such a short time in very limited subject areas?

I also disagree with the US's SAT system on the same basis. It discourages creativity and original thought.

I do think that the lower levels of vandalism and anti social behaviour are a positive side effect of the commitment needed in education however. Teenagers from our own communities have way too much free time. Its the opposite extreme.

[zappadelta]

[hari seldon]

The only good aspect of education in Korea is that it provides us with jobs.

[Medic]

Korean mathematics education is excelent. They are taught to do quick puzzles from day one in elementry school. I remember helping some elementry students with one of their maths problems that they had to practice with to pass the test to get into a good middle school. Geeze it was at the level of stuff I did at highschool. Problems used highschool geometry and algebra.

The English exam on the CAST (The national exam for all students aspiring to go to university) is multiple choice, and that's a joke. Students should be made to write complere sentences to pass the test. In school they are taught what words to look for on the test and to not bother with meanings of the questions.

[Deconstructor]

I had teen students who would come to class at 7am for an hour, then go to their regular school, then come back to hagwon again at 7pm. A few times they broke down and cried complaining that they had no lives and studying was all they did. After that I decided to make the class easy and entertaining. Actually, I did virtually nothing, but, boy, could I create the illusion that I was actually teaching.

[jajdude]

What is about numerous Asian countries, where people spend so much time looking like they are doing something useful, but actually are just keeping up appearances? Saving face or something?

Did you ever notice when you went to school, a lot of the best students did not spend a great deal of time on studying and homework? Maybe it was easy for them? Or maybe they said, "hmm... I can put in an hour and still get a good score, or two hours for a great score.. I'll go with the hour."

[mullethunter]

the thing i wonder about with regards to the korean education system is how it treats students different learning methods; for example, some children are more visual, or auditory, etc... the way i understand it (and i could be wrong here), the korean system is modelled after the japanese system, and the method of learning is by rote memory. if that is the case my problem with that is that it's been proven to be the most inefficient (of course i realize that inefficient and korea seem to go hand in hand) way to learn anything, not to mention boring as sh@#.
another problem i find is the focus on elementary, middle and high school studies. imo, those years are mainly for teaching children socialization and enculturation more than pure academics. personally, i think university is much more important for learning, because that's where you can focus on your particular area of expertise, but of course in korea, because the university students are so burnt out from high school they just waste that time drinking and partying (of course not all of them do, but i've heard from many korean friends that the majority of them view university as fun time)
i just think that childhood is for being a child, and learning about growing up and learning how to learn, so that you'll be well prepared for university. i feel overwhelmingly sorry for my students when i look at them and think about their childhoods being stolen by their schools and hagwans and overcompetitive parents.
wow, had to get that out of the system, i feel better now. hope i made sense or was at least intelligable.

[joe_doufu]

The question is, what are they studying? What are they learning? All they are learning is how to take the tests. And all the tests measure is how well they can take the tests. I'd like to have a conversation with the kid that got the best nationwide score on the Korean university exam, and see if he can find France on a map, or design a web page, or ask in English where the toilet can be found.

ETS and GMAC in america constitute an unfortunate oligarchy, but they do take the above criticisms into consideration and try to develop better tests. For instance, the new SAT dropped that dastardly "analogies" section because it's been found not to be a very good indicator of collegiate performance. Korea needs some of this. Though, I think the primary protestors *against* a change would be the parents of high school kids who've spend countless millions of won training all useful knowledge out of their kids.

[mullethunter]

[ed4444]

Here is an example that shocked me when I was in Korea.

One of my male friends was a recent Engineering graduate from a good Korean University.

I was asking him about his course. He had never done a practical project in 6 years of University education. It was all exam based.

He got his first job with a Swedish Engineering company and hadn't a clue about how to do anything work orientated.

This kind of thing leaves Korean graduates way behind a lot of other nationalities after graduation. I would be very slow to hire one without significant experience.

[ed4444]

He is improving now though.

[khyber]

I suppose to play the Devil's advocate here.
Isn't it possible that a sound theoretical knowledge of (to carry on the xample) engineering, physics and the like is pretty damn important? I am half of the opinion that having this knowledge to build on is very very important.
Does this mean that practical knowledge is unimportant? Not at all. But to totally discredit theoretical knowledge sells true understanding short.
you may want to skip this...but i think it's a funny story...

[side note: I remember when i was getting my B.Ed...there were a couple of guys on our university football team who had written a VERY subpar {this according to their partners} essay in our philosophy of education class. On recieving their very low mark, the went to the prof's office and indirectly threatenned him with physical violence if he wasn't to change the mark...i suppose in retrospect, this story has no bearing...sorry]

anyways....
A Korean lady friend of mine is studying to become a teacher. She has to read up on all of the pedagogy and theory behind teaching...but that is ALL. I don't recall her even saying that they studied teaching tools (for instruction of management...).
But she DID say that each participant was given a full week of in school "internship". A fuuuuulll week.
THIS is a system set up to create teacher failures. Frankly, that this system creates any teachers worth their salt, says something about the society considering how messed up the establishment is.

To learn theory, as I said, is crucial to understanding how (*or the possibility of how) children interact, how they learn, what causes sociological events in the classroom etc.... This makes theory very important. When I was given tools, when I did my internship, I could SEE these very things play out in front of me. I could see how tools effected theory and vice versa. (I think) it helps the teacher to more fully realize the potential of their actions in the classroom and to appreciate development and learning.
So both of these things theory and pratical knowledge, are important.


Lastly, i think it's pretty dangerous to get too self righteous about how "effectual" and "useful" the knowledge we pass our kids:

[thorin]

Korean teachers = test coaches.

[Len8]

The guys never get a chance to play. They hit university for a year, and by the time they realise they do have freedom they're in the army. Takes a lot of them a while to make the emotional and mental adjustment to their new found freedom, and sadly for many of them they find it a little too late.