Books in English w/Free Shipping: Awesome
The name of the site is www.bookdepository.co.uk. The main problem for people who live in Korea when ordering from Amazon.com is the shipping and customs. Well, on this UK-domiciled site, the shipping is FREE. There are e-books as well (of course).
As readers of the Seoul Gyopo Guide know, consumer choices are limited in Korea, which is a major problem for native Koreans and foreigners living in Korea. Hopefully, more reasonable selections continue to be developed, and if nothing else, push down the domestic prices of goods in Korea, which are too high generally. Some of that is intentional, because being frugal is not necessarily a good thing to be in Korea, but that will change with time. Maybe.
The Lost Seoul thanks the 10,000+ post visits from over 70 countries around the world in January. Please continue to visit, and follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Thanks!
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Annoying Things About Korea #8: There Remains Doubt Whether Native English Speakers Are Better Teachers
How is this even a question?
I found this on Facebook today and candidly, it is difficult to know where to begin. Anyways, here is the question that I found:
Reading: There is little doubt that native Koreans are very good at reading in English. Very good. Many of the subjects that Koreans study, especially at the university level, are written in English. Engineers and medical students read texts written in English. As a result, a native English speaker may not add a huge amount of value when compared to a Korean teacher that was educated abroad.
Writing: There are many non-Korean, native English speakers who do not have perfect English skills. For example, it is well known that American students are poor at writing. However, a native English speaker will have far better writing skills than a native Korean who has studied for a few years as a student (유학생). The reason for that is that many of the most basic difficulties for a native Korean speaker will not be corrected in just a few years. Thte Seoul Gyopo Guide has posted frequently about how native Koreans should study English. Specifically, there are specific forms of sentences that do not exist in Korean, but they do in English. It is doubtful that non-native speakers will have full command of these types of sentences. Even if a foreign teacher doesn't know precisely why a sentence is correct, he/she will be able to point out that it is wrong. A native Korean teacher? I doubt it. I highly doubt it. If I re-posted every example of grammatical errors on blogs posted by English "experts" in Korea, I would overload any server, anywhere.
Speaking: The question as stated above is, mildly speaking, absurd. Let's put it this way: Would I be more likely to learn proper Korean pronunciation from a native Korean or an non-Korean Australian person that studied Korean at school, listened to 소녀시대 (SNSD) on the weekends, and came to Seoul for Yonsei University's language school during the summers? 웃긴 것 치지마 십시요. For native-English speakers, this translates roughly to "Don't be funny." which in turn, in English would be similar to "Don't make me laugh." It isn't even close, and really doesn't deserve discussion. Really.
Conclusions: If Korea is unhappy with the English proficiency of its elementary-school students, then it needs to first focus on how Korean students study the language. The Korean custom of memorize, memorize, memorize is very good in many respects, and can be very helpful in reading. However, in writing and speaking, a native teacher is required.
The Seoul Gyopo Guide has pointed out the inadequacies of English teachers in Korea; it is a shame that many of them are native Koreans, that Koreans that have studied abroad have tried to portray themselves as "fluent" when they are not, and that they themselves make simple grammatical errors. If that is the case, how are they to teach others? Even if it is the case that foreign teachers are far from perfect when teaching grammar and writing, there is no doubt that they will almost always be superior when teaching speaking. When these types of questions are written by coalitions of official educational institutions in Korea, it is no wonder that the pace of overall improvement in English proficiency in Korea is progressing slower than expectations. If it is an open question regarding the usefulness of foreign teachers due to some other reason, such as teacher dissatisfaction, school system budget difficulties, etc, then those are different issues. If anything, there needs to be greater allocation of funds to teachers of young elementary school students, and leave the middle and high school English education up to the student and hagwons.
Please "Like" this post and/or follow me on Twitter. Comments/suggestions welcome.
I found this on Facebook today and candidly, it is difficult to know where to begin. Anyways, here is the question that I found:
The Independent Registry of Schools in Korea wants to know what you think about using Native Speakers to teach English in public schools. Does it help or hurt?For simplicity's sake, let's just break this down to reading, writing, and speaking, and see what we conclude.
Reading: There is little doubt that native Koreans are very good at reading in English. Very good. Many of the subjects that Koreans study, especially at the university level, are written in English. Engineers and medical students read texts written in English. As a result, a native English speaker may not add a huge amount of value when compared to a Korean teacher that was educated abroad.
Writing: There are many non-Korean, native English speakers who do not have perfect English skills. For example, it is well known that American students are poor at writing. However, a native English speaker will have far better writing skills than a native Korean who has studied for a few years as a student (유학생). The reason for that is that many of the most basic difficulties for a native Korean speaker will not be corrected in just a few years. Thte Seoul Gyopo Guide has posted frequently about how native Koreans should study English. Specifically, there are specific forms of sentences that do not exist in Korean, but they do in English. It is doubtful that non-native speakers will have full command of these types of sentences. Even if a foreign teacher doesn't know precisely why a sentence is correct, he/she will be able to point out that it is wrong. A native Korean teacher? I doubt it. I highly doubt it. If I re-posted every example of grammatical errors on blogs posted by English "experts" in Korea, I would overload any server, anywhere.
Speaking: The question as stated above is, mildly speaking, absurd. Let's put it this way: Would I be more likely to learn proper Korean pronunciation from a native Korean or an non-Korean Australian person that studied Korean at school, listened to 소녀시대 (SNSD) on the weekends, and came to Seoul for Yonsei University's language school during the summers? 웃긴 것 치지마 십시요. For native-English speakers, this translates roughly to "Don't be funny." which in turn, in English would be similar to "Don't make me laugh." It isn't even close, and really doesn't deserve discussion. Really.
Conclusions: If Korea is unhappy with the English proficiency of its elementary-school students, then it needs to first focus on how Korean students study the language. The Korean custom of memorize, memorize, memorize is very good in many respects, and can be very helpful in reading. However, in writing and speaking, a native teacher is required.
The Seoul Gyopo Guide has pointed out the inadequacies of English teachers in Korea; it is a shame that many of them are native Koreans, that Koreans that have studied abroad have tried to portray themselves as "fluent" when they are not, and that they themselves make simple grammatical errors. If that is the case, how are they to teach others? Even if it is the case that foreign teachers are far from perfect when teaching grammar and writing, there is no doubt that they will almost always be superior when teaching speaking. When these types of questions are written by coalitions of official educational institutions in Korea, it is no wonder that the pace of overall improvement in English proficiency in Korea is progressing slower than expectations. If it is an open question regarding the usefulness of foreign teachers due to some other reason, such as teacher dissatisfaction, school system budget difficulties, etc, then those are different issues. If anything, there needs to be greater allocation of funds to teachers of young elementary school students, and leave the middle and high school English education up to the student and hagwons.
Please "Like" this post and/or follow me on Twitter. Comments/suggestions welcome.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The American Envy of the Korean Education System (Part 4): Why Do Koreans Stop Studying?
Note: This is Part 4 of a series. Parts 1-3 can be found here.
Why Do Koreans Stop Studying When Entering University?
There are many, many possible explanations. If you go to Seoul National University or nearby Yonsei University in Seoul, as well as the subway stations that surround the various universities in Korea, you will find the identical scene everywhere you go. Lights, lights, and more lights which are illuminating shopping, restaurants, and PC rooms. What do you not see? Tired students carrying books. If you go to the top universities in the U.S. (except Stanford which The Lost Seoul still contends is like fantasy-land), you cannot find those scenes. That is quite remarkable: even New York University, right in the middle of Manhattan, is strikingly quiet except on one street (8th Street). In England, Oxford is deadly silent. Why the striking difference? In Korea, the students are PLAYING, not studying. This part of The American Envy of the Korean Education System looks for a partial explanation.
Possibility 1. Korean students are burned out. It is true that the average student that has entered a college in Korea has studied much more than a student that has entered the same-caliber college in the U.S. An American student has endured 3-4 years of high pressure, high-intensity preparation. In Korea, that student has been doing this since the 6th grade, at the minimum. That means 2-3 extra years of high-intensity studying.
Possibility 2. No Hagwons Means No Need to Study. Korean students have been used to the hagwon system for more than 10 years each. All of a sudden, there is no hagwon drill master wtching the performance of a Korean student. There are no drills which supplement classroom lessons.
It is a fact that many top hagwons are more difficult than the school a student attends. It is no wonder that a Korean student may feel liberated when entering college, and uses that freedom to...do anything else except study.
Possibility 3. There is no "next step" in Korea. For American students, the path to a top graduate school, like Harvard Law, or the University of Chicago MBA program, will require very good grades while in college. If you want to become a medical doctor in the U.S., not only do you need good grades, but you need to be involved in extra-curricular activities like laboratory work or volunteer work. Importantly, there are separate, high-competitive entrance exams such as the GMAT and LSAT to enter graduate programs in the U.S.
In Korea, you apply to a college which may automatically qualify a student to the graduate school. For example, a student can apply to Catholic Medical School in Korea at the age of 19 before entering university. That means that there is no additional pressure to perform in college for Korean students. Now, this system is currently under review. For example, entry into law school in Korea is being transitioned to a system similar to the U.S., which means that a person needs to graduate from college first, and then apply to law school separately. Whether this system becomes universally accepted in Korea is yet to be determined. In short, the lack of a "next step" with a new application process in Korea may lessen the need for Korean students to perform at the undergraduate level.
Possibility 4. Males are "Preparing" for Military Service. The Lost Seoul believes that the mandatory military service, while it may be necessary, services as a barrier to progress in other areas for certain males. That is not to say that the military is not valuable. Korean men form unbreakable bonds with one another by collectively going through the difficult times during their military service. Certain men, who lacked personal responsibility traits, can mature and gain those traits during military service. Nevertheless, other males, who already possess these qualities, could use their time more productively by pursuing their personal and professional goals, at the very time in life when both physical and mental capacities are at their height. Knowing that military service awaits, one reason that Korean men don't study during college is because they all know that their freedom will soon be suspended for 2 1/2 years.
Possibility 5. The "Mrs." Degree. There is no doubt that this is fading away in Korea, and quickly. Given the fact that there is no mandatory military service, the fact is that the women of Korea can use this time to develop themselves personally and professionally. However, certain schools such as Ewha Women's University (이대) still have that lingering reputation as being a wife-preparation college. In the past, perhaps this was true, but now, The Lost Seoul doubts that this is a serious reason for the lack of studying by college-age students in Korea.
Final Answer? The Lost Seoul's best guess is that it is Possibility #1 and Possibility #2 explain most of the reason. Korean students have already studied for 3 extra years when compared to American students in order to enter into a highly competitive university. No hagwons are available to apply additional pressure upon students. Some of this is changing now, as hagwons also exist at universities. Nevertheless, these hagwons are not nearly as prevalent at college as they are during a Korean students' high school years. These two possibilities also explain Korean students' relative failure at Ivy League schools, after graduating from Korean high schools. Perhaps some of this is due to English, but there are other foreign students from other countries that do not have the same failure rate at American universities.
Conclusions. Korea caters to the mean, while the U.S. caters to the extremes. While the average student in Korea may test better, the top students in the U.S. have almost unlimited resources at their disposal. This is largely explained by the need for Korea to elevate an entire nation since it has many limitations: lack of geographical size, lack of energy/natural resources, history of subjugation. The U.S. knows none of these limitations. The U.S. has the resources to attempt the extreme, and champions individual rights. In general, Korea does not know these concepts. This may change as Korea has risen from one of the world's poorest nations to one of the richest. We cannot know this. We also cannot suggest changing Korea to mimic the U.S. would be a positive for Korea as a whole. It would be convenient to pick and choose the best aspects of each system, but each system, its strengths and its weaknesses, reflect the nation's history and political influences. In short, there are small aspects in which the Korean system can and should be emulated, but the entire system cannot be duplicated.
However, there is no doubt that students in the U.S. would perform better if not ingrained with attitudes such as "I am no good at math" as if that was a blessing or gift: Korean students know and have proven that just practicing more diligently will largely compensate for any slight differences in natural ability. American students give up well before they will ever know if they could have attained any goals.
On the other hand, Korean students need to learn the American saying "It is not how you begin, but how you finish." Those Korean natives who know this are currently trailblazers in their fields. Hopefully, Korean students will learn from their example in the future.
Why Do Koreans Stop Studying When Entering University?
There are many, many possible explanations. If you go to Seoul National University or nearby Yonsei University in Seoul, as well as the subway stations that surround the various universities in Korea, you will find the identical scene everywhere you go. Lights, lights, and more lights which are illuminating shopping, restaurants, and PC rooms. What do you not see? Tired students carrying books. If you go to the top universities in the U.S. (except Stanford which The Lost Seoul still contends is like fantasy-land), you cannot find those scenes. That is quite remarkable: even New York University, right in the middle of Manhattan, is strikingly quiet except on one street (8th Street). In England, Oxford is deadly silent. Why the striking difference? In Korea, the students are PLAYING, not studying. This part of The American Envy of the Korean Education System looks for a partial explanation.
Possibility 1. Korean students are burned out. It is true that the average student that has entered a college in Korea has studied much more than a student that has entered the same-caliber college in the U.S. An American student has endured 3-4 years of high pressure, high-intensity preparation. In Korea, that student has been doing this since the 6th grade, at the minimum. That means 2-3 extra years of high-intensity studying.
Possibility 2. No Hagwons Means No Need to Study. Korean students have been used to the hagwon system for more than 10 years each. All of a sudden, there is no hagwon drill master wtching the performance of a Korean student. There are no drills which supplement classroom lessons.
It is a fact that many top hagwons are more difficult than the school a student attends. It is no wonder that a Korean student may feel liberated when entering college, and uses that freedom to...do anything else except study.
Possibility 3. There is no "next step" in Korea. For American students, the path to a top graduate school, like Harvard Law, or the University of Chicago MBA program, will require very good grades while in college. If you want to become a medical doctor in the U.S., not only do you need good grades, but you need to be involved in extra-curricular activities like laboratory work or volunteer work. Importantly, there are separate, high-competitive entrance exams such as the GMAT and LSAT to enter graduate programs in the U.S.
In Korea, you apply to a college which may automatically qualify a student to the graduate school. For example, a student can apply to Catholic Medical School in Korea at the age of 19 before entering university. That means that there is no additional pressure to perform in college for Korean students. Now, this system is currently under review. For example, entry into law school in Korea is being transitioned to a system similar to the U.S., which means that a person needs to graduate from college first, and then apply to law school separately. Whether this system becomes universally accepted in Korea is yet to be determined. In short, the lack of a "next step" with a new application process in Korea may lessen the need for Korean students to perform at the undergraduate level.
Possibility 4. Males are "Preparing" for Military Service. The Lost Seoul believes that the mandatory military service, while it may be necessary, services as a barrier to progress in other areas for certain males. That is not to say that the military is not valuable. Korean men form unbreakable bonds with one another by collectively going through the difficult times during their military service. Certain men, who lacked personal responsibility traits, can mature and gain those traits during military service. Nevertheless, other males, who already possess these qualities, could use their time more productively by pursuing their personal and professional goals, at the very time in life when both physical and mental capacities are at their height. Knowing that military service awaits, one reason that Korean men don't study during college is because they all know that their freedom will soon be suspended for 2 1/2 years.
Possibility 5. The "Mrs." Degree. There is no doubt that this is fading away in Korea, and quickly. Given the fact that there is no mandatory military service, the fact is that the women of Korea can use this time to develop themselves personally and professionally. However, certain schools such as Ewha Women's University (이대) still have that lingering reputation as being a wife-preparation college. In the past, perhaps this was true, but now, The Lost Seoul doubts that this is a serious reason for the lack of studying by college-age students in Korea.
Final Answer? The Lost Seoul's best guess is that it is Possibility #1 and Possibility #2 explain most of the reason. Korean students have already studied for 3 extra years when compared to American students in order to enter into a highly competitive university. No hagwons are available to apply additional pressure upon students. Some of this is changing now, as hagwons also exist at universities. Nevertheless, these hagwons are not nearly as prevalent at college as they are during a Korean students' high school years. These two possibilities also explain Korean students' relative failure at Ivy League schools, after graduating from Korean high schools. Perhaps some of this is due to English, but there are other foreign students from other countries that do not have the same failure rate at American universities.
Conclusions. Korea caters to the mean, while the U.S. caters to the extremes. While the average student in Korea may test better, the top students in the U.S. have almost unlimited resources at their disposal. This is largely explained by the need for Korea to elevate an entire nation since it has many limitations: lack of geographical size, lack of energy/natural resources, history of subjugation. The U.S. knows none of these limitations. The U.S. has the resources to attempt the extreme, and champions individual rights. In general, Korea does not know these concepts. This may change as Korea has risen from one of the world's poorest nations to one of the richest. We cannot know this. We also cannot suggest changing Korea to mimic the U.S. would be a positive for Korea as a whole. It would be convenient to pick and choose the best aspects of each system, but each system, its strengths and its weaknesses, reflect the nation's history and political influences. In short, there are small aspects in which the Korean system can and should be emulated, but the entire system cannot be duplicated.
However, there is no doubt that students in the U.S. would perform better if not ingrained with attitudes such as "I am no good at math" as if that was a blessing or gift: Korean students know and have proven that just practicing more diligently will largely compensate for any slight differences in natural ability. American students give up well before they will ever know if they could have attained any goals.
On the other hand, Korean students need to learn the American saying "It is not how you begin, but how you finish." Those Korean natives who know this are currently trailblazers in their fields. Hopefully, Korean students will learn from their example in the future.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Will the iPad Threaten Bandi & Luni's?
Will the iPad Threaten Bandi & Luni's?
In today's Korea Herald, this article appeared. The article desribed the tablet PCs that have been released by Korean corporations, as the iPad is being introduced in Korea. In the US, the iPad has become very popular in a very short period of time. The Lost Seoul has been critical of the iPad, which has no USB ports for storage, and it is very expensive given the functionality. That said, it is of course beautifully made, and for those that are dedicated to Apple products, there will be demand.
One feature of the iPad is the ebook reading capability. It is stunning. In addition to the eBook reader made by Apple, Amazon's Kindle software is available for free as well. There are other very capable programs such as Stanza which is free (The Lost Seoul uses it for the ipod Touch).
For Korea, ebooks represents a large opportunity for readers, particularly for Koreans that want to learn English. Books which are written to help learn English can be packaged with sound, and be read on the iPad. In addition, the price of eBooks is much lower than paperback. For many of the books aimed at ESL learners, this is a great development, in that Koreans can purchase the best books at a lower price. In addition, textbooks, where are largely in English, can be purchased online.
There are two potential roadblocks which, in The Lost Seoul's opinion, have prevented widespread popularity of eBooks in Korea. Below is a picture of Bandi and Luni's at COEX in Gangnam, Seoul. On the weekend, this bookstore is literally packed. The picture below does not show the full extent of how crowded Bandi & Luni's actually is.
This is the first problem: going to bookstores is the event itself, and cannot be replaced by an eBook reader. The number of leisure activities in Korea is quite limited. Students are busy studying, and fields for playing sports of any sort is very limited. These huge bookstores are full of young families who make a trip to the bookstore in order to buy books or just read the books, without actually buying. That is the point: have fun taking the trip. How can the iPad replace that experience? It cannot.
The second issue is more practical, i.e. there is not enough content (ebook) in Korea. This can hardly be a surprise to those that have watched the Korean economy. There are a great number of book publishers, and a great number of titles. Books will typically cost KRW 11,000-15,000 for paperbacks. The threat of eBooks is great because both the bookstore, and the book publishers' profits may potentially be hurt. In addition, the entire process of book writing is being altered. eBooks can be written and published through software on the Internet, with only limited contribution with the publisher of the eBook itself. Now, that does not mean that all books will be published in this way, but there is a new way to write and sell books, if you are an author. The bookstore could potentially lose a great deal of foot traffic. It would not surprise The Lost Seoul at all if the bookstores are working with the book publishers in order to limit the growth of ebooks. Working together would help both the bookstore, and the publisher. Korean consumers have experienced this type of activity many times in the past. For example, there was no logical reason for the delay of the iPhone's arrival. (Please do not believe the notion that technology was a barrier.)
Koreans interested in learning English should use eBooks as a good way of buying the best books for learning and reading.. Authors should use http://www.lulu.com/ in order to create eBooks that can published cheaply, and sold on iTunes as well as Amazon.com. The beneficiaries of this potential development? Koreans everywhere.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2010/10/133_75214.html
In today's Korea Herald, this article appeared. The article desribed the tablet PCs that have been released by Korean corporations, as the iPad is being introduced in Korea. In the US, the iPad has become very popular in a very short period of time. The Lost Seoul has been critical of the iPad, which has no USB ports for storage, and it is very expensive given the functionality. That said, it is of course beautifully made, and for those that are dedicated to Apple products, there will be demand.
One feature of the iPad is the ebook reading capability. It is stunning. In addition to the eBook reader made by Apple, Amazon's Kindle software is available for free as well. There are other very capable programs such as Stanza which is free (The Lost Seoul uses it for the ipod Touch).
For Korea, ebooks represents a large opportunity for readers, particularly for Koreans that want to learn English. Books which are written to help learn English can be packaged with sound, and be read on the iPad. In addition, the price of eBooks is much lower than paperback. For many of the books aimed at ESL learners, this is a great development, in that Koreans can purchase the best books at a lower price. In addition, textbooks, where are largely in English, can be purchased online.
There are two potential roadblocks which, in The Lost Seoul's opinion, have prevented widespread popularity of eBooks in Korea. Below is a picture of Bandi and Luni's at COEX in Gangnam, Seoul. On the weekend, this bookstore is literally packed. The picture below does not show the full extent of how crowded Bandi & Luni's actually is.
This is the first problem: going to bookstores is the event itself, and cannot be replaced by an eBook reader. The number of leisure activities in Korea is quite limited. Students are busy studying, and fields for playing sports of any sort is very limited. These huge bookstores are full of young families who make a trip to the bookstore in order to buy books or just read the books, without actually buying. That is the point: have fun taking the trip. How can the iPad replace that experience? It cannot.
The second issue is more practical, i.e. there is not enough content (ebook) in Korea. This can hardly be a surprise to those that have watched the Korean economy. There are a great number of book publishers, and a great number of titles. Books will typically cost KRW 11,000-15,000 for paperbacks. The threat of eBooks is great because both the bookstore, and the book publishers' profits may potentially be hurt. In addition, the entire process of book writing is being altered. eBooks can be written and published through software on the Internet, with only limited contribution with the publisher of the eBook itself. Now, that does not mean that all books will be published in this way, but there is a new way to write and sell books, if you are an author. The bookstore could potentially lose a great deal of foot traffic. It would not surprise The Lost Seoul at all if the bookstores are working with the book publishers in order to limit the growth of ebooks. Working together would help both the bookstore, and the publisher. Korean consumers have experienced this type of activity many times in the past. For example, there was no logical reason for the delay of the iPhone's arrival. (Please do not believe the notion that technology was a barrier.)
Koreans interested in learning English should use eBooks as a good way of buying the best books for learning and reading.. Authors should use http://www.lulu.com/ in order to create eBooks that can published cheaply, and sold on iTunes as well as Amazon.com. The beneficiaries of this potential development? Koreans everywhere.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2010/10/133_75214.html
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The American Envy of the Korean Education System (Part 3): Can America Catch Up to Korea? Also, No.
The American Envy of the Korean Education System (Part 3): Can America Catch Up to Korea? Again the answer is no.
Here are links to the previous posts in this series, which is going to the basis for a book I am writing about educating Korean children, and the efforts to send Korean children to English-speaking countries for high school and university.
(Part 1): http://seoulgyopoguide.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-envy-of-korean-education.html
(Part 2): http://seoulgyopoguide.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-envy-of-korean-education_23.html
It is the open question then, on whether or not the American education system can "catch up" to the Korean education system through the high school. In one short word, the answer is no. In addition to the difference in attitude of students with respect to mathematics, the difference can be seen in attitudes at home.
Now, the examples I am taking here are from Gangnam, where the premium placed on education is the highest in Korea, so the examples are going to be extreme. A student from elementary school attends how many different hagwons (study centers)? 5? That is entirely possible. Let's take a family with 1 child, and let's assume that each hagwon costs approximately 200,000 KRW (About 180 USD) a month. A Korean student attends these hagwons 11 months a year. That means 11 x 200,000 = 2,200,000 a year. That is 2,000 USD a year per hagwon, and each student takes 5 = 2,000 x 5 = 10,000 USD for each child, in addition to normal school expenses. Is there any chance that American students use USD 10,000 a year for private study centers? No. For students that are attempting to excel in Korea, the amount of money for hagwons make the savings rate for an upper middle-class family in Gangnam...zero. Every last KRW is spent on hagwons. That is for employees of Korean corporations that make somewhere around USD 75,000 a year. This is an inconceivable concept to an American. Absolutely inconceivable. Yet, for all Korean readers of this post, I am quite certain that you personally know someone that experiences this. To my fellow Koreans, please know this: the Americans that do not know Korea are shaking their heads in disbelief right now.
Let's talk about the time spent at hagwons. For high school students, studying ends in the evening, and many students return home at 10-11 PM everyday. Maybe a secondary student doesn't go on Saturday evening. However, Sunday is certainly a study day. For American students, except those at the very top prep schools, this study habit does not exist. Perhaps someone from America would say that Korean students are studying inefficiently. Perhaps that is true. Nevertheless, even at 50% efficiency, is there any doubt that a Korean student spends more time studying, and a Korean family uses far more of their monthly resources to further a child's education? There is, of course, one huge mitigating factor. A Korean student dedicates a great deal of time, effort, and money to the goal of learning English, and an American student obviously does not use this amount of time to study a foreign language.
Nevertheless, the gap between the US and Korea cannot be closed without not only changes to the official education system, but more importantly, the amount of resources that the average American family dedicates to a child's education. Is there any hope of that? No. Only at university does the "playing field" become more level.
Why has this occurred? That is the topic of Part 4 of The American Envy of the Korean Education System.
Comments welcome. I am sure that not everyone agrees with this series. Let's discuss it here. Thanks.
www.twitter.com/thelostseoul
thelostseoul@gmail.com
http://www.seoulgyopoguide.blogspot.com/
Here are links to the previous posts in this series, which is going to the basis for a book I am writing about educating Korean children, and the efforts to send Korean children to English-speaking countries for high school and university.
(Part 1): http://seoulgyopoguide.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-envy-of-korean-education.html
(Part 2): http://seoulgyopoguide.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-envy-of-korean-education_23.html
It is the open question then, on whether or not the American education system can "catch up" to the Korean education system through the high school. In one short word, the answer is no. In addition to the difference in attitude of students with respect to mathematics, the difference can be seen in attitudes at home.
Now, the examples I am taking here are from Gangnam, where the premium placed on education is the highest in Korea, so the examples are going to be extreme. A student from elementary school attends how many different hagwons (study centers)? 5? That is entirely possible. Let's take a family with 1 child, and let's assume that each hagwon costs approximately 200,000 KRW (About 180 USD) a month. A Korean student attends these hagwons 11 months a year. That means 11 x 200,000 = 2,200,000 a year. That is 2,000 USD a year per hagwon, and each student takes 5 = 2,000 x 5 = 10,000 USD for each child, in addition to normal school expenses. Is there any chance that American students use USD 10,000 a year for private study centers? No. For students that are attempting to excel in Korea, the amount of money for hagwons make the savings rate for an upper middle-class family in Gangnam...zero. Every last KRW is spent on hagwons. That is for employees of Korean corporations that make somewhere around USD 75,000 a year. This is an inconceivable concept to an American. Absolutely inconceivable. Yet, for all Korean readers of this post, I am quite certain that you personally know someone that experiences this. To my fellow Koreans, please know this: the Americans that do not know Korea are shaking their heads in disbelief right now.
Let's talk about the time spent at hagwons. For high school students, studying ends in the evening, and many students return home at 10-11 PM everyday. Maybe a secondary student doesn't go on Saturday evening. However, Sunday is certainly a study day. For American students, except those at the very top prep schools, this study habit does not exist. Perhaps someone from America would say that Korean students are studying inefficiently. Perhaps that is true. Nevertheless, even at 50% efficiency, is there any doubt that a Korean student spends more time studying, and a Korean family uses far more of their monthly resources to further a child's education? There is, of course, one huge mitigating factor. A Korean student dedicates a great deal of time, effort, and money to the goal of learning English, and an American student obviously does not use this amount of time to study a foreign language.
Nevertheless, the gap between the US and Korea cannot be closed without not only changes to the official education system, but more importantly, the amount of resources that the average American family dedicates to a child's education. Is there any hope of that? No. Only at university does the "playing field" become more level.
Why has this occurred? That is the topic of Part 4 of The American Envy of the Korean Education System.
Comments welcome. I am sure that not everyone agrees with this series. Let's discuss it here. Thanks.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010
The American Envy of the Korean Education System (Part 2): Is America Uncompetitive? No.
According to most studies, the American education system is uncompetitive compared to the rest of the world. After visiting 30 countries, and having lived in Europe, Asia and the United States, it doesn't seem that America is uncompetitive, but it focuses on a different set of students. That emphasis is due to the vast differences in political systems and availability of resources.
First, there is no doubt that the Korean education system is more competitive than the American system through secondary school. The reason? Simple supply and demand. The Korean population is now 50 million. The American populations is approximately 300 million. Let's ignore demographic differences for now (the Korean's average age is greater than the U.S. at the moment, and that will most likely not change for the foreseeable future). That means that there are 6 times more students in Korea when compared to the U.S. In Korea, the competition is intense for entry into the top universities as exhibited by the phrase (SKY). In the U.S. competition is very intense for the top universities. However, the number of very good universities is far, far greater than 6 times the number of top universities in the US. Depending on the exact discipline, you could easily state that the there are 10 times more high-quality universities in the US when compared to Korea. So there are 6 times the number of students in the US, but there 10 times the number of high-quality universities.
Second, serious studying, for the most part, begins during university in the US. For example, a student who gets into an average US university, but then excels at that university, has the opportunity to enter the very best graduate schools in the US. Many, many years ago, I had a friend at college. When I first met him, I wondered to myself, "How did this person get into this school?" He seemed clueless. Well four years later, he entered Harvard Law School. There is a saying "Only in America." Indeed. Could a similar tale be told in Korea? Nope. In Korea, a student that aspires to enter into the best school in the country must be serious by middle school. Otherwise, there is almost no hope. In other words, competition begins much earlier in Korea when compared to the US. That does not mean that the end result is that much different, especially for the top students. It does mean, however, that the average student has greater educational skills when raised in Korea. Once gaining entry into Korea's prestigious SKY universities, what do the students do? They PLAY. Once gaining entry into a US university and having the dream of continuing on to the best US graduate schools, what does an American student do? He STUDIES.
The idea that the US is uncompetitive is quite wrong. It is more that Koreans study harder during younger years, and Americans study harder during later years. The American system supports the best rising to the top when becoming adults, whereas the Korean education system emphasizes greater ability by the average student. The best Korean students peak before becoming adults, generally speaking.
Making matters worse is the obligatory military service served by Korean males. While you can certainly make arguments supportive of the military service, the fact is that when males are in their early 20s, is there any better time to learn? Young men have the physical ability to endure long hours of studying and the energy to pursue their dreams. At precisely that time, Korean males need to serve in the military. Americans? They are able to focus on their studies when they still have great capacity, and maturity, to learn. In that way, the Korean system, I have always believed, is quite unfair in many ways to the young men of Korea.
These are, of course, generalizations. They are observations of the systems, not of individual cases. The fact that these systems are this different explains why Korean students that attend to the top American universities do not meet the lofty expectations when in America. That is the topic of Part 3.
Let me know what you think! Thanks
The Lost Seoul
First, there is no doubt that the Korean education system is more competitive than the American system through secondary school. The reason? Simple supply and demand. The Korean population is now 50 million. The American populations is approximately 300 million. Let's ignore demographic differences for now (the Korean's average age is greater than the U.S. at the moment, and that will most likely not change for the foreseeable future). That means that there are 6 times more students in Korea when compared to the U.S. In Korea, the competition is intense for entry into the top universities as exhibited by the phrase (SKY). In the U.S. competition is very intense for the top universities. However, the number of very good universities is far, far greater than 6 times the number of top universities in the US. Depending on the exact discipline, you could easily state that the there are 10 times more high-quality universities in the US when compared to Korea. So there are 6 times the number of students in the US, but there 10 times the number of high-quality universities.
Second, serious studying, for the most part, begins during university in the US. For example, a student who gets into an average US university, but then excels at that university, has the opportunity to enter the very best graduate schools in the US. Many, many years ago, I had a friend at college. When I first met him, I wondered to myself, "How did this person get into this school?" He seemed clueless. Well four years later, he entered Harvard Law School. There is a saying "Only in America." Indeed. Could a similar tale be told in Korea? Nope. In Korea, a student that aspires to enter into the best school in the country must be serious by middle school. Otherwise, there is almost no hope. In other words, competition begins much earlier in Korea when compared to the US. That does not mean that the end result is that much different, especially for the top students. It does mean, however, that the average student has greater educational skills when raised in Korea. Once gaining entry into Korea's prestigious SKY universities, what do the students do? They PLAY. Once gaining entry into a US university and having the dream of continuing on to the best US graduate schools, what does an American student do? He STUDIES.
The idea that the US is uncompetitive is quite wrong. It is more that Koreans study harder during younger years, and Americans study harder during later years. The American system supports the best rising to the top when becoming adults, whereas the Korean education system emphasizes greater ability by the average student. The best Korean students peak before becoming adults, generally speaking.
Making matters worse is the obligatory military service served by Korean males. While you can certainly make arguments supportive of the military service, the fact is that when males are in their early 20s, is there any better time to learn? Young men have the physical ability to endure long hours of studying and the energy to pursue their dreams. At precisely that time, Korean males need to serve in the military. Americans? They are able to focus on their studies when they still have great capacity, and maturity, to learn. In that way, the Korean system, I have always believed, is quite unfair in many ways to the young men of Korea.
These are, of course, generalizations. They are observations of the systems, not of individual cases. The fact that these systems are this different explains why Korean students that attend to the top American universities do not meet the lofty expectations when in America. That is the topic of Part 3.
Let me know what you think! Thanks
The Lost Seoul
Friday, October 22, 2010
The American Envy of the Korean Education System (Part 1): "수학 잘 공부했어요?" "응?"
Korea has returned to the spotlight of the international community as a result the upcoming G20 Summit in Seoul. As usual, there is the press release about President Obama's envy of the Korean educational system. These comments, which have been made a number of times, are not useful to Americans who are trying to figure out how to close the gap between the US and the remainder of the world. The American president has pointed out the obvious facts, but does not address how to fix the fundamental differences between the Korean and American educational systems. Either President Obama is intentionally avoiding the most important differences, or he just doesn't know.
Here is the link to the most recent comments:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/10/22/2010102200924.html
The differences are too great to list. In the future, The Lost Seoul will most likely write a book aim at both Koreans and Americans to describe the most important of these differences.
Here is a glaring example of the most important of the differences: attitude.
I have asked many Koreans in Korea the following question: "수학 잘 공부했어요?" In the US, this is an actual question. According to the way that Americans think, and believe, "being good at math" is a natural-born ability. There are people, according to Americans, that are good at math, and there are others who are not. Those that do not believe that they are "good" at math essentially stop studying math early during secondary school.
When I have asked this question, the response has been universal. "Huh?" "What does that mean?" "응?" This question doesn't exist in Korea. In Korea, students just practice math and solve problems. That is it. A Korean student doesn't think whether or not he is "good" at math, he/she just continues forward without the attitudinal barrier that exists in American students.
With this as a starting point, is there any way for an average American student to compete with an Korean student? The answer should be obvious. Nope. American students have received this attitude from their parents. So before the US can even think about trying to narrow the difference in the most important subject in education, there is a desperate need for change, in the American attitude. Until then, different policies and other efforts will surely fail.
Here is the link to the most recent comments:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/10/22/2010102200924.html
The differences are too great to list. In the future, The Lost Seoul will most likely write a book aim at both Koreans and Americans to describe the most important of these differences.
Here is a glaring example of the most important of the differences: attitude.
I have asked many Koreans in Korea the following question: "수학 잘 공부했어요?" In the US, this is an actual question. According to the way that Americans think, and believe, "being good at math" is a natural-born ability. There are people, according to Americans, that are good at math, and there are others who are not. Those that do not believe that they are "good" at math essentially stop studying math early during secondary school.
When I have asked this question, the response has been universal. "Huh?" "What does that mean?" "응?" This question doesn't exist in Korea. In Korea, students just practice math and solve problems. That is it. A Korean student doesn't think whether or not he is "good" at math, he/she just continues forward without the attitudinal barrier that exists in American students.
With this as a starting point, is there any way for an average American student to compete with an Korean student? The answer should be obvious. Nope. American students have received this attitude from their parents. So before the US can even think about trying to narrow the difference in the most important subject in education, there is a desperate need for change, in the American attitude. Until then, different policies and other efforts will surely fail.
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