The future of my students is rather grim. These poor kids go to school from around 8:00am to 9:30pm (or later!) five or six days a week. This is their life in elementary school. Now, let’s look what happens to them later in life.
Middle School (Korean Middle School grades 1-3 or US grades 7-9)
Korean middle school is competitive. It’s not like the academic wasteland of American middle school. These kids are already shaping their futures.
In Korean middle schools, students take a midterm and a final every term for each subject. This sounds pretty normal until you learn just how important these tests are. Also, the kids take around 10 different subjects at school. The midterms and the finals are definitely high stakes, high pressure exams.
A student’s middle school grades directly correlate to what type of high school they are able to attend. So, if a student has amazing grades, this student is eligible to go to one of the elite high schools. In turn, the high school they attend and the grades they receive in high school determine not only what colleges they can attend but, also, what majors they are eligible for. Then, their college and college major determine what types of companies and jobs this student can apply for. (Korean jobs are very alumni and “Old Boys Network” driven.) In short, the grades from middle school exams set students up on a life long path of success – or failure.
The students and their parents are well aware of all of this. So, when exam time rolls around, the students stop attending their academies. They use the time where they would normally be attending academies and doing academy homework to study for their middle school exams. When they come back from their exams, the poor kids look exhausted!
High School (Korean High School grades 1-3 or US grades 10-12)
High school in Korea is notoriously torturous. I have very little experience with high school students because high school students do not attend academies. They simply do not have time do this. If a student or their parents do choose to have the student attend an academy, the student must get permission from their school to do so.
A high school student’s day is extremely long. It is not at all unusual to see high school students walking home from school (school school not an after school academy) around midnight. Typically, they get home around 10pm. The reason for this is that they have a long, standard school day and then are expected to remain at school for some type of self-study or tutoring for several hours.
As I mentioned in another post, Korean high school seniors go to school on Sunday. All students in Korea go to school on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturday of the month. But, high school seniors also go to school on Sundays. I’m not sure if it is every Sunday or every other Sunday. Either way, this is completely unheard of in the Western world.
The reason that high school is so rigorous is the college entrance exam. Think back to your high school days, when you took the ACT or the SAT. If you were like me, you may have glanced at a prep book, got a good night’s sleep, took the test, and then proceeded with your Saturday. That is absolutely nothing like the Korean college entrance exam.
The Korean college entrance exam sounds like the most nerve wracking, anxiety ridden test in the world. It is NINE hours long! On top of this, it can only be taken once a year, during a student’s senior year. If a student fails the test, they have two options:
1. Forgo college altogether.
2. Repeat their senior year and take the test again.
Currently, a student only has these options. A former middle school student of mine told me that there is a proposal to allow the test to be taken twice in one year but, that his senior class will be the first class to have this option.
The college entrance exam is a huge deal here. It is such a big deal that flight schedules are rearranged as to not interfere with the listening portion of the test. Also, many Korean mothers drop their kids off at the testing center and then immediately head to church or to a temple to pray for the day. This test is definitely hardcore.
Once the test is over, a very unfortunate thing happens. Teen suicides spike in the weeks after the test. South Korea already has one of the highest rates of teen suicide in the developed world. It gets worse right after this test.
College (4 years)
College is surprisingly relaxed in South Korea. This is the one time when American students work harder than their South Korean peers. It is thought that college is so easy here because of all of the rigorous study that students must do to get into college. An easy college experience is their reward for such hard work in their early years.
South Korean parents also relax during this time. Most parents in Korea are pretty strict by Western standards. High schools are almost all single sex institutions and parents like it that way. Dating in high school is a huge no-no. Students are to be focused solely on school and anything that distracts from that is forbidden.
Once in college, Korean students are pretty much free to do whatever they want; even if they still live with their parents. The drinking age here is 18 (or maybe 19) and Koreans of all ages love to drink.
(There are some very serious and very difficult colleges in Korea but, most are pretty relaxed.)
Professional Life
Once a student leaves college and enters the working world, the relaxation time is over. Koreans have some of the most hardcore work ethics in the world. The average Korean only takes three vacation days a year. Now, these three days are in addition to whatever holidays or weekends that their job normally gives them but, still. Two weeks is standard in the US and four to six weeks is the standard in many European countries. Ten hour work days, five to six days a week are also standard in Korea.
Also, sick days don’t really exist in Korea. You are expected to go to the doctor before work, take some medicine, and then get yourself into work. I have taught with a stomach virus, a sinus infection, and the flu. My coworkers have done the same because there is no alternative. This system is terrible because all we do is teach pretty sub-par classes and infect students and coworkers.
You would think with all of the advantages that Korean education provides that, somehow, the work environment would be better. All I can think of is that since everyone does it, it is not special and, therefore, doesn’t get you anything extra. I really don’t know. Also, it is very possible that the benefits of all of this extra education just haven’t kicked in yet. Korea was quite poor a generation ago so, going from Third World to First World in a generation might also be the reward that the current workers have enjoyed. Only the future will tell what sort of work environment my students will enjoy.
One problem that I see with Korean workers is that differences are not celebrated. My students feel that only doctors, lawyers, and engineers can be rich. It blows their little minds to tell them that people with successful businesses have the potential to be far richer.
In Korea, having your own business is looked down upon. I had one student, Ryan (I wrote about him in a post from 2009). Ryan’s father is a veterinarian with a small shop that is a vet’s office/groomer/pet shop. I’ve been in there before. It is always packed with people dropping off and picking up their pets to be groomed. All Ryan’s dad, Dr. Choi, does is the vet work. He has a small staff that does the grooming and runs the shop. To me, Dr. Choi looks successful. He has his own business, a staff of three employees, and supports Ryan and his family quite comfortably. They go on nice, international vacations, Ryan’s mom doesn’t have to work, and Ryan and his brother each go to six (expensive) academies. Despite this, kids would make fun of Ryan’s dad. They called him “Shop Keeper” and said that Ryan’s family must be poor because Ryan’s dad doesn’t work for one of the big, multinational Korean companies.
The goal of most Koreans is to get a mid-level job with one of the huge Korean companies. They all want to work for LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, or Daewoo. They feel that these jobs are their tickets to a comfortable life. As a result, it is extremely difficult to get a job with one of these companies. The hiring process is very competitive.
It really is hard to predict the future of my students. The first generation of students with a comparable type of education are just now going into college. It will be interesting to see how things play out for them.
Here are students walking into the exam center for the College Entrance Exam. One tradition is for the younger siblings of the test takers to cheer them on while they walk into the testing center.
A Coveted Job: Workers at a Samsung plant.
The Most Coveted Job In Korea: Kia's Executives celebrating their 10 millionth export(My last post was about my job and a little about the hagwon industry as a whole. Now, I want to share the other side of this: the students. )
Students in Korea lead lives that are incredibly different from students in the US. As part of a lesson on schedules/times/calendars, I asked my students about their weekly schedules. What they told me was kind of terrible.
It’s actually mindboggling what these little kids go through. Here is a composite of one elementary school aged class’ weekly schedule:
*Note: The students whom I spoke with were young elementary students. Middle schoolers often go to academies that end at 10:00-10:30pm.
Monday
8:00am-2:30pm: School
2:30pm – 3:15pm: Go home and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
3:15pm-3:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
4:00pm – 6:00pm: English Academy
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
6:30pm – 8:00pm: Math Academy
8:00pm – 8:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
8:30pm – 11:00pm: Dinner and Homework
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Tuesday
8:00am-2:30pm: School
2:30pm – 3:15pm: Go home and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
3:15pm-3:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
4:00pm – 5:30pm: Science Academy
5:30pm – 6:00pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
6:00pm – 7:00pm: Korean Language Academy
7:00pm – 7:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
7:30pm – 10:30pm: Dinner and Homework
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Wednesday
8:00am-2:30pm: School
2:30pm – 3:15pm: Go home and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
3:15pm-3:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
4:00pm – 6:00pm: English Academy
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
6:30pm – 8:00pm: Math Academy
8:00pm – 8:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
8:30pm – 11:00pm: Dinner and Homework
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Thursday
8:00am-2:30pm: School
2:30pm – 3:15pm: Go home and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
3:15pm-3:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
4:00pm – 5:30pm: Science Academy
5:30pm – 6:00pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
6:00pm – 7:00pm: Korean Language Academy
7:00-7:15pm: Walk to the next academy
7:15pm -8:00pm: Music Academy
8:00pm – 8:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
8:30pm – 11:00pm: Dinner and Homework
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Friday
8:00am-2:30pm: School
2:30pm – 3:15pm: Go home and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
3:15pm-3:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
4:00pm – 6:00pm: English Academy
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
6:30pm – 8:00pm: Art Academy
8:00pm – 8:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
8:30pm – 11:00pm: Dinner and Homework
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Saturday
8:00am-12:30pm: School (every other Saturday)
12:30pm – 1:15pm: Go home, eat lunch, and drop off the school back pack. Pick up the afterschool backpack.
1:15pm-1:45pm: Wait for the academy bus / ride the bus to academy
2:00pm – 3:30pm: Math Academy
3:30pm – 4:00pm: Buy a snack from the convenience store and walk to the next academy.
4:00pm – 6:00pm: Tae Kwon Do Academy
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Ride the academy bus home.
6:30pm –9:30pm: Dinner and Homework
9:30pm – 10:30pm: Free Time
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Sunday
For elementary and middle school students, this is a day without school or academies.
High school students do no attend academies at all because their school day is something like 12 hours long and extremely intense. High school seniors do, however, go to school on Sundays.
Kids use Sunday to play, watch TV, and do their homework for the week. It’s actually really sad to ask kids about their weekends. They get so excited about doing things like playing their favorite computer game for two hours.
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As you can see from all of the various lessons and classes, the kids end up very well rounded. They have a huge knowledge base that spans many different subjects. They all play an instrument and they all can do something artistic. Plus, they can do the quadratic formula at 10 years old.
This type of schedule has another benefit: no time to get in trouble. With this schedule, the kids are too busy and too tired to bother doing anything horrible. Yeah, they do kid stuff like throwing paper balls or eating too much candy from 7-11 but, nothing that will destroy their lives. I kind of think that this is one of the reasons why South Korea has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the world.
While there are benefits to this type of education system, there are definite downsides. One huge downside is that the kids are exhausted. You can see it in their eyes. A lot of the kids look like if they are still for two minutes, they will fall asleep.
Another huge downside is that the kids are sort of broken. Their imaginations and spirits are crushed. When they are in elementary school, they still have some of it. But, by middle school, they are student robots. They have pretty much no creativity. They don’t want to participate. They just want to tick another item off of their academic to do list and get out of there. It’s pretty disheartening for all involved.
Luiz once had some of his students do a writing assignment. Their topic was “The Perfect Day.” The paragraphs that the kids turned in were bleak. Their perfect day was like an average Saturday for a kid in the US. They were all something like this:
On my perfect, I won’t go to school or academy. I will watch tv and eat lunch with my family. Then, I will do one hour of homework. After that, I will play with my friend for two hours. Later, I will take a nap and then play computer games.
The kids were not given any restrictions on their perfect day. It didn’t have to be a realistic perfect day. They could have written anything they wanted. Sadly, all they wanted was a little rest. Seriously, what elementary school kid wants to take a nap? Even stranger, what kid does homework on his perfect day?!?!?
Sometimes, I feel guilty for teaching at a hagwon. I feel like I am helping the Korean Education System beat the kids down. I try to focus on the fact that nothing will change if all of the teachers are people who agree with this system. But, it’s not always a consolation when a kid is crying because she’s exhausted and didn’t get to study for the test and, her mother will punish her for getting a low grade. I’ll try to comfort the kid but, I have no experience with this. I didn’t go to schools 12 hours a day, starting in 1st grade. Also, I’m not the one who will get punished. This kid is upset because she is nervous about going home (a terrible situation for any child to be in) while I get to home and relax.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the future. The first group of kids largely educated in the hagwon system are just now going to college. I guess the real measure of the hagwons’ usefulness will be whether those students make their children go through the same thing. I seriously hope that they don’t.
This picture was taken at 8:05pm. The two yellow buses are hagwon buses.
Here are students getting onto their hagwon bus to go home at 8:15pm.
Here are students waiting for their hagwon bus back home at 10:10pm.
Here are more students waiting for their hagwon bus back home at 10:15pm
Here are seven buses from various hagwons waiting to take students home. This picture was taken at 10:30pm.
