Hi Everyone!!!
Finally another post...
I have been bad about updating, especially since we hit our “busy season”.
Korean students get the month of January off for public school vacation, so the
private academies get swamped with new and old students coming during their school
time. Finally, back down to my normal work hours, so I will try not to neglect
my blog.... as much.
Scott and I are just one
week away from having been here 6 months already! It still seems like I am that
"happy tourist" from time-to-time, but in reality we are pretty much
settled in now. But with the comfort of being "settled in" comes the
discomfort of having to take my rose colored glasses off and actually see
Korea.
The Gilded Age of Korea:
Right now, Korea has a
booming economy; they are listed in the G-20 Major Economies. The Korean people
are making good money compared to their cost of living. They are able to
sustain their family on one income and live a rather lavish lifestyle. Women
stay at home with their children until they are able to send them off to
academies (5 years old) and school where they will remain until 9-10pm, which
gets VERY expensive, but they can swing it. It is also common for them to live
in nice, new apartments (houses aren't really a possibility here) and drive BMW
and Lexus cars.
This may sounds really
great, but there are some real problems arising in Korea.
First, as implied
before, Korean children push themselves very hard to be good in school. They
study until those late hours because they want to succeed and make their
parents proud. After graduation, some go to Ivy League in the US, Seoul
University, Busan University or some other local universities and get their
degree. However, the students coming out of college are where Korea is seeing a
problem. All of those students that obtain that fancy degree don't want to
"settle" for any job. It has created a bubble of unemployed
University students. Many of my students want to get degrees in "global
this" or "global that" but don't want to leave Korea.
I think that
Korean's are becoming accustomed to a lifestyle that cannot sustain itself.
They have had so much gain in the last 20 years that it seems that the bottom
will never fall out and they are living that way. I think that anyone in the US
can understand this, but it is eye-opening to really watch the whole thing
happen. I was too young to really see or understand the economic crisis that we
call the last 10 years, but now I think Korea is headed there and I am
beginning to see it..... Did I mention the rose colored glass have come off?
****I named this section
"The Korean Gilded Age" because behind that G-20 label and the BMW's
there are some real social problems that are going to have to be dealt with,
but Korea can't fit it in during their 60 hour work weeks. ..... And.....
I'm a history teacher at heart! <3
Technology is become an epidemic in Korea.
A big social problem
that I am seeing is my students' ability to "socialize". I can't
count on your, mine... South Korea's entire populations' fingers AND toes the
amount of times my father has lecture me on the decline of the American youth
because of text messaging! Let me just reassure him and you now, IT CAN GET
WORSE.
While teaching in the
US, students rarely were on their phone in class..... compared to Korean
students. Korean students ONLY communicate to one another or their parents
using texting (Kakao) or some kind of technology.
You walk down the
street, 90% of the people are on their phones!
60% of drivers in South
Korea..... WATCH TV WHILE DRIVING! And they find that 'ok', just think about
what else they find 'ok' to do while driving... Definitely includes
texting!
Women in Korea.
It may sound nice to sit
back and be a stay at home mom—with no kids, but most of the time it came at a
large price…. Their own careers. It’s not just the Korean men that go away to
college and get those fancy degrees; more women are going to college in Korea
than ever before. They aren’t just studying the humanities either; they are
going hard after science and math and keeping the men in Korea on their toes.
But, once they get to a certain point in their relationship where it’s marriage
and kids or career, marriage and kids always takes the cake. This problem
has gotten progressively better, but women don’t have a fighting chance against
most Korean men when it comes to jobs because Korean men HAVE to go to the
military for 2 years, thus they get this “+” mark on their resume that sets
them above any woman.
So, why not become a
stay at home mom that holds a degree in “bioengineering for the nuclear age”
and live off an allowance from your husband?!
******Disclaimer: They
had a woman's movement about 30 years ago and they haven't really made any
upward progression since then. So they have the ball rolling….
And there is me. I am a
woman AND a foreigner… that’s 2 strikes already. One of the most
disheartening things that I have come into contact with is how some Korean MEN
treat foreigner women. I have been yelled at, starred at, cat
called, solicited for sex and stalked.
The older generations
haven't had the education of the younger generations, they weren't taught
English and get rather angry when being spoken to in English. An example, is
when they can't explain themselves, they will just begin
to angry shout at you. I think my next sentence in Korean that I am
going to learn is: "Hey Bro, yelling at me in Hugal doesn't make me
understand it better. I'm not yelling at you in English." I will see how
that goes over....=)
Also, because I am seen
as a foreigner woman, I get starred at by a lot of the men. (I am sure you are
thinking, "get over yourself, they probably just haven't seen a blonde
haired girl before" and let me tell you, that is the case 98% of the
time.... However, when they stare/lick their lips/start to salivate, it's not
just the "foreigner shock" anymore.) Some men will follow me and make
"kissing" sounds or that sound you make when you are trying to get
something out of your teeth.... It's creepy and they don't understand that just
because I may not speak THEIR language, the creepy stalker language is
universal.
From All of This Shidagae (trash in Korean) There is Gold:
I am sorry for having a post about the
"bad" stuff, but this isn't to complain or to even "vent"
about Korea. Anthropologically I think it came out pretty well. I really have had rose colored glasses on and thought it was
"okay" to be treated subhuman because I was a foreigner, but it
should never be the case. Never have I been more aware of how my minority
students must feel/felt. If I don't "learn" anything about lesson
planning or how the public school systems works from coming to Korea that is
fine with me, what I will have learned is a lesson in compassion, kindness and
understanding… and those three are things that make the best teachers.
My next blog will be about the awesome stuff -- Shark Diving and Tokyo. I may have to make a blog2 so I can upload more pictures so stay tuned.... And I hope I haven't driven you away.
