Korean Job Discussion Forums

[charlieDD]

That's what a local English daily said. A young Korean showed me the article as I stood on the subway the other morning to ask me what some of the passages meant ( and as a way to get a free English lesson on his morning commute ).

The article was saying Koreans spend $10 billion a year (or will soon?) on overseas education and that the inbalance in this account could have a destabilizing effect on the Korean economy. Well, . . .

First, if the Korean economy is that fragile . . . .

Second: So, the exchange is purely one way? There's no return on the investment? Young Koreans don't come back to Korea with a world-class education, able to speak an international standard language, full of new perspectives and ideas (some seriously borrowed, to put it lightly, from the research done at the universities they attend or the professional training year they do at a company)? There's no benefit to Korea?

I had to when I read that !

[Dev]

It's good ole Korean protectionism I think. They wanna keep the money in the country.

That to me seems to show a real lack of self confidence. I think Koreans have some good ideas that they can sell to the world. Just look at their movies - often winning awards overseas nowadays. The problem is so many things in this country are mismanaged like the film industry. The police should be cracking down on the downloading of movies (Korean ones at least) and especially the sales of pirate dvds. However, they don't do anything and the Korean film industry loses a chance to grow.

This " keep the money in the country" is an ancient technique that the Koreans employed 30 years ago when no one could take Korean currency outside of the country. The fact that they're trying to employ that technique again by discouraging Koreans from going overseas for an education shows a real lack of creativity in dealing with the stresses of international competition economically speaking.

[Ya-ta Boy]

You are missing a key element. Any money that comes INTO Korea must stay IN Korea. That's a given. International markets must be open to Korean products while Korean markets remain closed to international products.

You seem kind of naive.

[charlieDD]

[quote="Ya-ta Boy"] International markets must be open to Korean products while Korean markets remain closed to international products.
quote]

Actually, the government is working to get Korean money overseas in the form of capital investments in order to lower the demand on the Korean won (by increasing its supply when Korean won is exchanged for dollars or other currencies needed to make the oversease investments).

While one hopes a capital investment will see the money come back someday, plus some, with education the money goes overseas and what comes back is hopefully intellectual and social assets in the form of educated, skilled and enlightened young Koreans. By describing the outflow as a net loss, the source of the claim is saying that the money spent on overseas education is no better for the Korean economy than money spent on imported luxury goods.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Edit to previous post: There was supposed to be a after the 'naive' crack.

I entirely agree with you. There seems to be an attitude that any money spent outside the country is like throwing the money down a rat hole.

In some cases it is true. I don't think Koreans generally are getting their money's worth on English lessons abroad. The money spent in foreign hakwons in San Francisco, Vancouver, Sydney etc could be more productively spent here in up-grading the training of Korean English teachers (and reforming the whole system).

Then after the students have a better English base, send them abroad for training focused in their field. Just the exposure to another culture is beneficial, not to mention the education, training, experience in science, medicine, business... How can you measure the value of the intangible benefits?

[lastat06513]

World-Class Ideas????

As soon as those "returnees" come back onto Korean soil, all those ideas and ideals get sh*tcanned by all those hardcore "traditionalists" who want to keep Korean ideas "pure" from outside influence.

The only reason a person even goes overseas or even has the drive to learn English is to either get into one of the top-5 universities or into one of the top-3 corporations in Korea. Once that is achieved, those thrifty ideas don't matter much anymore....