From: zoon@cs.umd.edu (Sungzoon Cho)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean
Subject: Re: chat - similarities
Date: 30 Jul 92 13:23:58 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1992Jul29.190110.9728@udel.edu> shin@krusty.ee.udel.edu (Jeong-Gyun Shin) writes:
>
>Reading s.c.asian.a one can notice a thread regarding pride one confers
>on degree (PhD etc) one gets from Ivy league schools, etc.  Well, I
>cannot help noticing similar amongs Koreans and thereafter generation.
>Notice that I am not directing it to anyone in particular, but 
>merely pointing out some possible similarities among East Asians.  
>
   I don't know other asians, but yes, many Koreans value very highly
 the education they have gotten (or their aquaintances have :-)).  
 I believe that it came from the Confucius tradition where a scholar
 is respected most (then farming, engineering, and commerce, the 
 least respected).   

   It seems that this trend has pros and cons.  Education-craze is 
 considered one of the most important aspects of Korean society which
 helped her to achieve industrial development since the 60's.  
 Well-educated cheap labor has been the major source of resources 
 in Korea, not just in factories, but also in offices, IMO.
 What are the cons ?   Oh, there are too many to name a few. :-)
 There are too much pressure on high school students to pass the tough 
 college entrance exams.   The highschool curriculums are designed 
 to help students to score high in the exams, rather than to broadly
 "educate" them.  Too much financial pressure on parents who feel 
 obliged to send their kids to expensive cram schools in the evenings 
 and weekends.

   But, the biggest problem I find is that a young person is given 
 only one chance, i.e., one has to enter a good college right after 
 high school.   If you did not do well in high school so went to 
 a not-so-good school, your chance of getting a quality education 
 afterwards (even if you "change" your mind and try hard) is very slim.   
 You could be labeled  as "unsuccessful."   

>Did anyone have an experience of meeting middle to old Korean lady never 
>seen before and minutes later, lady starts talking about PhDs and MDs
>among her offspring, nephews and nieces, not forgetting to mention school 
>names (specially if big time ones) in between?  
>
   In most cases, those ladies' lives were devoted to supporting their
 offsprings and husbands, not theirs.  That's their LIFE.  What else
 can they talk about ?   What else do they have interests in ? 

>The thing I wonder is, does it have any correlation with desire for 
>structured society Koreans are used with (I mention structured society
>for having seen cases where complete stragers are introduced to each
>other and one of first thing they do is to talk about their school,
>graduation year, position in a firm, age, marital status, etc so to
>kind of establish scale of their standing and then carry on conversation
>if they see some similar standing between them).

    I would say "hierarchical."  Yes, many Koreans feel very uncomforable 
 with strangers until they are "introduced" (yes, given most of those info).
 And if you are the  host of a party, it's your job to do introduction, 
 which can take quite a long time and energy (With 10 strangers, you have 
 go through 45 introduction sessions :-)).   In fact, in Korea, it's rare 
 to invite  your friends from other sources in one party.   It's just 
 too much work and not worth it.   Also, there is no guarantee for newly
 met people to intermingle well.  So, you throw many different parties 
 for different groups.   In short, I found Koreans do not have social skills
 (I mean the ability to lead a conversation with a stranger) which 
 most Americans seem to have.   In such a closely-knit society as Korea, 
 maybe you do not have to do so.

    Sungzoon Cho
 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean