(English) #5 Studying in South-Korea

It has been 11 weeks now and I just survived my final midterm on last week's Wednesday and must say... Koreans study hardcore! Almost 3 months in, it still amazes me how work mentality differs from European/Western culture. At first, I was surprised of Koreans sleeping everywhere if possible, when it was the bus, metro or restaurant, it doesn't matter to them. It was after a few weeks I began to find out why.

You see, back home in the Netherlands, we get about two weeks off to study for midterms/finals. Most people have already studied quite some of the material by then, and use that time to overlook and further improve their knowledge of the material. At my school in Korea, it is always business as usual, where the students are expected to study and do their traditional curriculum. I was amazed to see a friend (Asian), to start studying at six till four am, slept a bit, made his midterm and continued sleeping afterward. To me, this was in the first instance outrageous, I couldn't comprehend why someone would submit to that.

I had studied quite a bit but felt that I wasn't following the right pace. I had to step up, and how to do that - is making more hours. My parents visited Korea during the midterms. I couldn’t study much on this subject because I consider family more important than grades. But after seeing my midterm result of that test (lowest ever), I decided to step things up. But it also made me curious, why do Koreans work the way they do? Why do they sacrifice personal health for educational success? Well, I can't speak for all Koreans, but in general, it comes down to this.

Koreans and lots of other Asian countries got an obsession with education, which origins are found in Confucianism. Until the 1980s it was only possible for poor students to work around the clock to be granted entrance to a good school. Even today, it is considered to be a golden ticket to a rich and prosperous life in Korea. Especially Teachers are very highly regarded in Korean society, whereas it isn't considered weird when one would switch his career to politics, especially when teaching at a National University in Korea (SKY).

Having a good one,

Wouter