Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kepler]

[mindmetoo]

I look at it as a question of economics. If you're born in america and want to reach out for the brass ring, you pretty much only have to know where NYC or LA are. And you need to speak english. If you're european, you need to know where a range of nations are and be fluent in 2 or 3 languages. Even Canadians need to look beyond their own borders to reach for the brass ring. America is the big show and people are not motivated to waste time on smaller shows that may have a lesser pay off.

[Khenan]

That's pretty much it... You can live your entire life without leaving the U.S., and for many people, there is no reason to do so. Why bother learning about places or people you're never going to go or meet?

...I think I just made myself sick.


P.S., yes, Americans hate knowledge. A lot of people in the States have no value for education. Not sure how many, but lots. It's a generationally-perpetuated problem, as I'm sure many of you have seen before. Parents with no education often fail to instill in their children a sense that education is worthwhile. Learning is hard, takes a long time, and apparently (they learn from their parents) it isn't necessary either. Also keep in mind that less educated people often have more children - compare to the average birthrate of 1.3 children per couple who both have college educations.

That's right - college grads need to start pumping out the babies!

[nicholas_chiasson]

300,000,000 people...and we can make sweeping statements. Yet if someone uses the word 'western chicks in korea' a number less then 300,000; people start shouting "you shouldn't generalize."
-anyone care to explain?

[Fresh Prince]

[JMO]

You should learn where iraq, iran, saudi arabia and isreal are on a map by the time you go to high school. I don't think it is a class thing. There is something wrong with the education system.

[RACETRAITOR]

There has been a huge cultural backlash against post-secondary education, in Canada as well. Universities are seen as a liberal institution, and intellectuals are considered pompous rather than well informed. I kind of see where this is coming from and agree to a certain extent.

Just look at this board; we're all university educated, but this board has some of the most immature, simple-minded people I've met on the Internet (and I'm registered on several skinhead websites).

[luvnpeas]

[Gnawbert]

Michael Krasny on NPR had a good segment with Susan Jacoby and others the other day that discussed this very topic.

You should be able to download the podcast here:

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R802201000

[Khenan]

I guess what I was getting at before was that in many american homes, education and learning are not emphasized as important or valuable tasks. Sure, I'm generalizing, but let's take a look at what data informs my generalization.

First, you've got the frequent and unanimous reports based on studies of american students' knowledge that shows how little they know re: topics such as geography and politics. We can ignore math and science, which many american students are also very poor at, because we can assume that those students will never be using math or science skills in their jobs, and they are thus not necessary. Yes, the same can be said about geography and politics; i.e., that the students will never use them, but I think most of us would agree when we say that they *should* be using them to be able to make informed decisions as world citizens. Many studies (I should cite, but I'm not going to take the time - sorry) have shown deplorable general understanding of even *american* geography and politics amongst the american youth. Many of them cannot correctly label a map of the U.S. or identify key political figures aside from the president.

Second, I speak from my experience teaching high school students in Seattle. I had several AP-level seniors who could not point out Iraq on a map. Many of *them* (and realize that this was the cream of the crop in the school) had a very strong and vocal disdain for school and education in general. Even though this was a college-bound course, many of them were not going to college after high school. They were forced into the advanced classes because if we didn't force people in we wouldn't have a high enough enrollment to afford having the advanced classes at all.

Returning to my point, kids often reflect the values that they learn at home, from their parents, and school is not valued at all in many american homes. As I said in my previous post, this problem is self-amplifying, because uneducated people as a rule will have more kids than educated people.

In summary: We're boned.

[IncognitoHFX]

[Gnawbert]

[Khenan]

[IncognitoHFX]

I remember my experience working at a call centre and speaking to hundreds of American clients all day. Most were decent, just normal people frustrated over a phone bill (they were frustrated but they were normal, afterall).

But now and then I'd hear something I just didn't believe. There are a few people I'm probably never going to forget.

The first was a guy from Michigan. We were not allowed to tell our customers where we were located but he took a guess and realized I wasn't American. I told him, at the time, that the call centre was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He didn't know where that was, which was no big deal, so I just told him that I was in Canada. Low and behold, he didn't know where Canada was either! He's from Michigan! There isn't even land between him and Canada!

He knew *what* Canada was, but he admitted that: "Canada... Canada... I don't know where the f*ck in the world that place is".

The next couple I remember was a man and a woman from Alabama calling in over poor service. When I started to explain the issue, the man (probably in his 50s) told me to speak slower and I did. I spoke very slowly and clearly, and after a few minutes I could hear him talking to his wife and saying: "I don't understand a wwwwwerd this guy is sayin', do you?" (I was on speaker) "No, but y'know, all of these call centre people are in the middle east and what not so your probably talkin' to some Arab fella".

I just couldn't believe it. My accent is North American Standard! It's like they don't even own a TV or a radio!

The last guy I remember (there are dozens more but I don't feel like talking about them) was from the Northern US, and I forget where. He asked me if I was in America and I told him "no, I'm not". So he called me a "freedom-hating-towel-headed-terrorist" and demanded that I patch him through to an American and not one of my "camel jockey little buddies".

Yes, there are ignorant people everywhere. The call centre I worked at before this one involved me calling locally and out West to do political surveys, and sometimes I'd get people who weren't very pleasant, but speaking specifically about geography I don't remember speaking to any Canadians who didn't sound like they were relatively sure where countries were.

One of the questions involved Afghanistan, and many people who responded could tell me relatively where it was and some could even name the countries bordering Afghanistan. The question was: "do you support the war in Afghanistan" and the most common answer was "no, but I support the troops".

However, I got more politically charged answers from the Americans I talked to even though I wasn't asking them political questions (cell phone tech support for god sakes!)

I don't know whether or not Americans are more ignorant than Canadians, or people from other countries. I think they're probably the same, Americans are just louder and more proud of their ignorance.

[Dome Vans]

It's the only country I know that only has four words in their language. Any immigrants just need to learn:

Dude
Sucks
blows
awesome

That'll get you by anywhere. Especially on this forum.