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Fourth suicide at KAIST prompts scholarship changes
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Milwaukiedave



Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Illysook wrote:
I saw the article in the Korea Times this morning and it was like the English language was being blamed for the suicides. I'm accustomed to their yellow journalism but geeesh, they are really grasping for straws there!


It's good to know from a second source that's what's being said. It is a big pile of crap of course that it is English language classes which cause the suicide. The reason reason was Koreans.

Swampfox10mm wrote:
Milwaukiedave wrote:
Unfortunately it will just mean that the parents will ship their kids off to hagwon for more time. My niece spends every waking damn hour of her poor life either at school or hagwon. I asked her mother (my sister-in-law) how she can have a social life. The answer pretty much gave me the sense that her mother didn't think she need one.


According to Koreans I know, hagwon IS a kid's social life. Not sending them to one deprives them of a social life because most every other kid does it.


Just another way the parents manipulate the poor kids until they go to university. Then when the carpet is pulled out from under them, the "adults" wonder why the hell everything goes wrong.
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NohopeSeriously



Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sbp59 wrote:
One of the biggest problems is that this culture doesn't seem to teach coping skills or dealing with adversity.


Coping is seen as a weakness in Korea.


Last edited by NohopeSeriously on Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:41 am; edited 1 time in total
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ESL Milk "Everyday



Joined: 12 Sep 2007

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You cope by succeeding.
If you fail, you might as well kill yourself.
Unless you're a peasant, of course.
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young_clinton



Joined: 09 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

oldtrafford wrote:
University students here are by and large a brainless bunch, they'd barely pass a British Uni course!! Only a genius gets an A!!!


Those must be the Koreans that go to the US and get university jobs. We had a Korean biology professor at the University I went to. I had another uni professor that stated Americans are pussies when it comes to hard sciences. Thats probably another reason Koreans come to American Uni's. The ones that are brilliant in hard sciences come.
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UknowsI



Joined: 16 Apr 2009

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Milwaukiedave wrote:
Illysook wrote:
I saw the article in the Korea Times this morning and it was like the English language was being blamed for the suicides. I'm accustomed to their yellow journalism but geeesh, they are really grasping for straws there!


It's good to know from a second source that's what's being said. It is a big pile of crap of course that it is English language classes which cause the suicide. The reason reason was Koreans.

They were not talking about English language classes, but science classes taught in English. The university has a policy that all classes should be taught in English regardless of subject. It should be quite obvious how this can be difficult for some students, but it can't take the sole blame for the suicides.
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BoholDiver



Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Or take any blame at all.

Anything but take responsibility. That's what I see here. Truman would not be proud.
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UknowsI



Joined: 16 Apr 2009

PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found this article to be quite good: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/04/137_85131.html

English lectures and scholarship rules are just superficial problems which hides the real underlying problems.
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NohopeSeriously



Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea

PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Parents don't take the blame when little elementary schoolboy Minsu or high schoolgirl Mina did something wrong at school/hagweon or at the national suneong test. They think the teachers or instructors have the sole biggest responsibility for everything for their education.

You can see this in two valid perspectives. 1) It means that parents and their kids are like dumb clients of the education system. 2) or they're like slaves of this rigid unproductive education system and they can't think for themselves properly.
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raptorsfan



Joined: 16 Jul 2009

PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Korean students get a free ride. Back in my uni, only 6% of students receive an "A" with less than 1% receiving A+. On top of that, Korean students can retake as my courses they want. With no offence to anyone, Korean universities are a joke with the exception of SKY+KAIST. There's a reason why Korean unis are ranked so low internationally.
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Hugo85



Joined: 27 Aug 2010

PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

raptorsfan wrote:
Korean students get a free ride. Back in my uni, only 6% of students receive an "A" with less than 1% receiving A+. On top of that, Korean students can retake as my courses they want. With no offence to anyone, Korean universities are a joke with the exception of SKY+KAIST. There's a reason why Korean unis are ranked so low internationally.


International rankings have very little to do with quality of undergraduate education apart from the faculty to student ratio.
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freddy teacher



Joined: 01 Jan 2011

PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

the korean education system is a joke. if u dare compare a korean university to a western one, especially a good one, u should be banned from this forum.

if korean students learned how to study properly and how to use their brain for things other than finite concepts, they wouldnt need to study so much...

damn, if i studied english for 20 years and sounded like i just took my first class, id kill myself too.

there is a reason koreans abroad only become accountants...

koreans are robots and they are trained to do as they are told without any questions. their problems stem from their language and their culture.

once they learn to use their brains, they stop their cultural stupidity, and learn to speak english well enough that they can declare it their primary language...then, and only then will they succeed.
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ED209



Joined: 17 Oct 2006

PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

UknowsI wrote:
The university has a policy that all classes should be taught in English regardless of subject. It should be quite obvious how this can be difficult for some students, but it can't take the sole blame for the suicides.


Also imagine listening to a professor using broken English to explain quantum theory or micro-biology. Even the best English speaking students could find themselves struggling.

I'm not totally against the university teaching subjects in English. But if it is trying to emulate foreign unis then it also needs to offer ESL/EAP support to students and professors.
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raptorsfan



Joined: 16 Jul 2009

PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
International rankings have very little to do with quality of undergraduate education apart from the faculty to student ratio.


ummm, no...
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NohopeSeriously



Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea

PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We forgot another huge problem: there are way too many students attending 4 year universities to sustain this domestic macro job market.
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vw08



Joined: 08 Dec 2010

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NY Times just posted an article on the issue

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23southkorea.html?hp
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