Kate's in Korea: The Plight of the Korean Student

This past week has been the first week of Camp Fulbright. Camp Fulbright is an intensive two-week English Immersion Camp for Korean students during which former ETAs and my group of ETAs in training teach Koreans English. The entire camp is conducted in English, including games, night activities, every class and just conversations in the lunch room with friends. This past week I only taught one lesson and I will teach two lessons next week. I have also had time to participate in other camp activities including Homework Help, Night Fun and Mental Gymnastics. It has been so much fun having the kids around but it also made me realize I never fully divulged everything I've been learning about schooling in Korea.

As you may or may not be aware of a South Korean education is one of the best educations a child can receive. South Korea consistently outranks nearly every other country on international tests. The cost of performing so high is extreme. Beginning in elementary school students attend hagwons after school. Hagwons are private academies that tutor children so that they can get ahead and remain ahead of their peers. Yet, since nearly every students attends hagwon it is more or less necessary just to remain competitive with peers. Hagwons can specialize in english, math, science or they can be more comprehensive. Due to hagwon attendance elementary school children are frequently at school until dinner time and they will sometimes study after dinner at home as well. In middle school many students' schedules intensify. The school day extends later, most of the time until at least 4 (and students typically arrive at school at 7 to clean the building prior to classes). Middle school students also participate in hagwons after school in attempts to get ahead.

In high school a students' devotion to school drastically increases in preparation for the University Entrance Exam. In order to get into the top universities students must do well on this test. Many students who don't perform as well as they hope will simply defer getting a job or attending college for a year in order to simply study and retake the exam a year later (you can only take the exam once a year). An average high school students life is demanding. They frequently arrive at school at 7AM and have classes until around 5. They then may have a dinner break before returning to school for mandatory study hours or attending hagwons. When the schools close around 10PM students then shuffle to more hagwons or a private study room that the child's parents rent for them at a local library. Most high school students remain awake until at least 2AM studying every single night. In fact the ETAs teaching high school have been prepared to have several of their students sleep in their class everyday because the students are so deprived.

Many students also have Saturday classes, despite the government making it illegal in June 2011. Other students frequently suffer from corporal punishment. Corporal punishment was also recently made illegal but it is still very commonplace.

This system is complicated by the growing number of North Korean defectors who are returning to South Korea. They are entering the education system but are unbelievably ill-equipped to deal with the academic demands. Some special schools are being created to educate North Korean defectors but South Korea is still working on developing a strategy to deal with this problem. Five North Korean defectors received a scholarship to attend Camp Fulbright from the US Embassy and I was able to teach three of the students in my low beginner English class this past week. The three students were all in high school, one of the boys was actually 19, but there English was so low that they were placed in a class with all elementary and lower middle school students. It was difficult to keep them engaged and not discouraged in this setting but I am glad I had the ability to interact with them.

Last week I also had the opportunity to attend several talks. One talk was about the project Korean Students Speak that a current ETA grantee started. The ETA decided to give each of her students a blank piece of paper and challenged them to write whatever message they wanted to send to the world on it. She then photographed them and started the Tumblr Korean Students Speak. The project has now extended to over 2,000 elementary, middle and high school students both on the peninsula and on Jeju Island. The messages are heartbreaking and uplifting all at once. Korea is a very homogenous society that doesn't support individuality and self-expression. Therefore, this project is very unique and empowering for the students. As the creator said, in America even if you grow up with unsupportive parents you grow up in a society that tells you it will all be okay and being different is okay and not wanting what others want for you is okay. In Korea there is no one sending that message. Your teachers, your parents, your friends, your neighborhood are always consistently pressuring you to be thinner, smarter, more studious, etc. (In fact, I also learned that Korea has the highest rates of plastic surgery in the world and has the highest suicide rate)

Anyways, I encourage you to check out the blog and if you want to read more about the Korean Education system there are plenty of news articles available online. This is a great Times article on the difficulties North Korean defectors face. And lastly, here are just a few photos from Korean Students Speak.