Studying Is Serious Business

Jiro

Jiro

If You Know What I Mean
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Zakaria: Why all of South Korea went silent – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
Those of you who watched our recent education special saw the exhausting study habits of South Korean students. The culmination of that pressure was last week when almost 700,000 South Korean high school students took the test they had spent all those hours working toward.

It was a wild scene outside test centers as younger kids cheered on the heroic test-takers as they arrived. Police motorcycles even whisked the late ones to school.

But when it came time for the high schoolers to begin the grueling nine-hour exam, silence was the order. Planes were grounded, honking was banned and teachers refrained from wearing squeaky shoes for fear of distracting the students. Relatives prayed outside the school gates for good results.

Why all the fuss? Well, it's widely believed in South Korea that this test determines which college a student will go to, which company they will then work at, the size of their eventual paycheck and even whom they will marry. That's pretty intense pressure.
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:eek3:
 
bae go pha. Mo hae?
Kpride. Do you have it?
 
The ones that didn't make the top cut of the class are the ones who become cool and get popular on TV/kpop and they also become masters at Starcraft.
 
I wonder what happens if one of the testers have a cold and can not control a cough or sneeze. :shock:
 
I'm all for studying but this is out of hand. In the U.S., students get plenty of chances. Everyone should be allowed to go to school whenever motivated. No wonder suicide happens there.
 
That's pretty hardcore! They are taking this educational stuff pretty serious in the Asia region.

Babyblue- what about one's inability to hold up a fart? Just my wild guess!
 
I still find it amazing that one's life is determined by a piece of paper. My dad was a top student. He was the only person from his village to go to college and he graduated from top high school.... top college... and top score in English. That's why he landed an executive job at this corporation in Korea which is equivalent to IBM+Exxon+GE+GM combined which enabled him to work in company branch in NYC which is why I'm here in USA.

I'm just glad that I was raised here... It breeds creativity and thinking outside the box.
 
sallylou said:
I'm all for studying but this is out of hand. In the U.S., students get plenty of chances. Everyone should be allowed to go to school whenever motivated. No wonder suicide happens there.
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Suicides happen here too because lot of people were not able to succeed in life since they didn't finish HS or college and they can't afford to study.
 
Jiro said:
Suicides happen here too because lot of people were not able to succeed in life since they didn't finish HS or college and they can't afford to study.
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And believe me, there have been times that I have been so down and out that it wasn't far from my mind to try it.

I'm actually considering quitting my job on the farm one way or another after the holidays and after my boss is recovered from his back surgery which is on Dec. 12.
 
deafbajagal said:
Ok, out of curiosity...how does the test determine who they marry?
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no parents are going to let their daughters marry some guys with no future or have a background like a simpleton. that's how the mindset is in there and it's a sad harsh truth.

My mom is from "aristocrat-like" families in city and my dad was just a poor villager although his family was the wealthiest one in his village because his father owned a fishermen store... the only one in his village. But it's still embarrassing and it's beneath them to wed a daughter to some villager. My dad would never be able to marry my mom if he didn't have a great education background and impressive employment status to begin with. My dad left his family and everything behind to study in Seoul and that's how he met my mom.
 
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