To Koreans, rank is really important. Everyone has a place: first, second, sixth, tenth. Find anyone with a talent (especially athletic) like swimming, badminton, or dancing and each of them will tell you what their rank is. "I got sixth at the world ballroom dancing championships."--Mi Hyang (my dance teacher). "My partner and I are ranked number two in our province for badminton."--Mr. Kim (my co-teacher and badminton coach). "I'm number one on my swim team."--Hansu (my swim partner). But rank goes beyond sports. One of the fist 10 questions you are asked is what university did you go to? Each one has it's own special rank. What class are you in? Class 2-3? 2-5? The first number is the year, the second is the class number. Classes 1 and 5 and the best classes--the ones with the highest test scores. What high school do you go to? Each school in the city is ranked by test scores and student compete to be accepted by them. You've never seen competition until you've come to Korea.
Are those real?
Young Korean women are obsessed with plastic surgery. I'm truly surprised by the amount of people seeking plastic surgery in Korea. Ask any girls class and more than 95% of them will tell you they want "double eye lids" (that's western style eyes) or a nose job. My Korean teacher friend, Hyeon Suk (the girl in my photos), told me she wants a double eyelid surgery, a nose job, and a chin tuck. I tried to explain to her what a cosmic waste that is of money seeing how beauty is temporary no matter how much surgery you have, but it was impossible to persuade her. Korean culture has so heavily ingrained it's women with the belief that beauty is key to happiness that so few girls are satisfied with who they are. Confidence is at an all time low in Korea and the plastic surgery business is booming. In fact, there is a whole section in most women's magazine dedicated to just plastic surgery ads and testimonies. I even saw an ad to reduce the size of a woman's vagina after giving birth! (Sorry guys, I didn't want to think about that either but I think it's important to mention if you want to know the full scope of the culture.) It's on commercials, in magazines, on the streets, and now the subject of movies! There was recently a movie made in Korea (a really popular one too) about an overweight girl with an amazing singing voice who always gets overlooked because of her appearance. What does she do? Has surgery. How does it change her life? Oh, she becomes a famous singer and lives happily ever after because she's now talented and beautiful. Now every overweight, slightly less than beautiful girl in Korea wants surgery so she too can become famous and successful.
The Korean Education System
Korean teachers are quiet; Korean students are quiet. Students don't share their opinions in class. Apathy for school is tolerated as long as the student comes to class and takes their tests. After classes (6 pm) students leave for dinner for one hour and then return to school for individual studying until 10 pm. Homeroom teachers have to stay at school one night a week and supervise the halls during study hours. Talking is prohibited. Between classes (during the day), students run wild. Average cups of coffee consumed by the average student: 12 per day. Average number of students I have to wake up in each class: seven. Korean teachers typically ignore sleeping students. If it won't be on the entrance exam, you won't study it in class.
The University Entrance Exam
Thursday was probably the most important day in millions of little lives all across Korea. On Thursday, every third year high school (that's a senior equivalent) student took the University Entrance Exam (like the SAT). This exam is so important that the air force prohibits flights over cities in the morning so that students can focus on their listening and writing exercises. To prepare for the test, every school in my city (and many families as well) purchased a smiling pig's head (apparently a smiling pig is significant). Wednesday, on the roof top of every school in my city, students from the third year along with teachers and school officials set up a table with food and the head, and stuffed the pig's mouth with envelopes of money as a sacrifice to Shamanistic gods with prayer for good test scores. I wasn't invited to attend and in many ways I'm glad. I don't think I would want to witness such occultic rituals. Courtney, however, was invited to her school's and she took these photos and shared with me. She also confessed to being just a little freaked out when they all started bowing and praying to the pig head. I asked my co-teacher about the ritual and she said that these days many parents, teachers, and students don't participate in the ceremony because of religious beliefs while still others do regardless of their faith and in the name of tradition. And yet there is still a small fraction of people in Korea who do regularly practice Shamanism though they probably won't admit it if you asked (Shamanists are kind of discriminated against in Korea). What do you think? Would you have attended if invited? What would you have done?
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