Korean Job Discussion Forums

[World Traveler]

The Korean school year starts in March rather than September.

That means Korean students (K-12, university freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, etc.) are either half a year older or half a year younger than their Western counterparts.

In America, a child with an August 31st birthday would be one grade ahead of a child born the next day. Is it like that in Korea? A February 28/29th birthday is the cutoff day? I assume so, but it could be December 31st (the day before the new year) or something else.

Anyways, at that young age, such a small amount of time can make a big difference in a child developmentally. It's worth noting Korean kids in grade 3 (or any other grade) aren't the same age as Western kids in the same grade.

Do you find Korean kids to be more mature or less mature than their grade equivalents in the West? Hard to tell. Physically, many seem pretty big for the grade they are in, so I'd have to go with Korean students are older than those in the same grade in America. Anyone know the answer to this?

[thrylos]

Technically, Korean kids are half a year ahead. They have to be 6 years old (western age) to start 1st grade (in March). It used to be that any child born before March 1st could start 1st grade. The government recently said that they need to be 6 by Dec 31 of the previous year to begin in March.

My kid had to go through with this new ruling. Birthday is in mid-February, so technically couldn't start 1st grade this March. A couple of interviews with the teacher and principal to show development and ability and was allowed to begin 1st grade this March. Although the youngest in the class, no problems, except for the 'onni'/'opa' BS and all that entails, even though most classmates were born a calendar year before mine.

We wanted to start 1st grade this year, as we already went through 3 years of 'yuchiwon'/kindergarden and there was no point in 'wasting' a year or finding another one for an extra year.

If we were in the States, we would have had to wait 'till September. But even there, they will make exceptions to kids born in Sept-December, they don't necessarily need to be 6 to start 1st grade.

[Lazio]

No, they are pretty much the same age here as back home.
I was 6y 11m old when started elementary school and the few that I know from that class were all between 6y 3m and 7y 0 m.

In Korea kids enter elementary school when they are 8 years old Korean age. Jan. 1st. is the turning point for this age counting and not the traditional Lunar New Year.

That 8 years means they are between 6 and 7 western age. More precisely since they start school in march they would be between 6y 3m to 7y 2m. That is exactly the same as my example.

There are some cases when kids born in January or February are going with the previous year's kids. This happened with thrylos's child. But his child was already ahead hence already did 3 years of kindergarten. Must have started kindergarten at Korean age 4 while all kids start at Korean age 5.

[T-J]

Korean students are older than American students in respective grades.

The Korean school year starts six months later than the U.S.

Students are six months older at the start of the school year in Korea than they would have been had they started the prior September in the U.S.

[T-J]

Double post

[denverdeath]

I started when I was 5 back home. Had a later birthday. Was turning six that year.

It's not terrible, but I've a bit of an issue with the way it's done here. My daughter was 2 WEEKS OLD when she was deemed two years old in Korea. On the first day of grade 1, at least in my kids' school in Busan, they separate boys from girls and line 'em up from shortest to tallest. For my oldest boy, it was ok as he was the third tallest or sth. But my daughter was lucky, I believe, to have been given the second shortest height.

Ah well. Tis what it is.

By the time HS is done? I'd say Westerners are leaps and bounds ahead of Koreans in both good and bad ways when it comes to mental, and probably physical, and def streetwiseness development.