This may seem like a very clichéd thing to blog about, especially in the context of Korean society, or education, especially because it seems like such an obvious thing to criticize, even to the newbie. Even fresh off the plane, people from other countries talk about the lack of creativity here, the regimented education system, the reliance on rote memorization, and so forth.
But most of the time, the conversation is superficial and remains stuck just under the surface of the completely opposite. It remains a conversation that requires little actual knowledge about the structure of the education system here, its history, or any number of specifics that my choir someone to actually do some research or even read a book about the subject. Unfortunately, the "problem of Korean education" or "lack of creativity amongst Koreans" receives little deeper treatment than can be found in beer conversation after work.
"They should just get rid of the college entrance examinations altogether!" Well, "they" have before. Or the other one I've heard, "they should just make hagwond illegal!" Well, they have been before. And ALL kinds of private education, including private tutoring, have also been illegal at one time or another in recent Korean history.
Oftentimes, these conversations reek with cultural condescension and outright ethnocentric arrogance. Does some noob fresh off the plane and here less than three months really think that such revelations have never occurred to Korean reformers, government officials, or specialists in education, such as teachers or principals, or to the students themselves? Take, for example, our own screwed up education system in the United States. In the final analysis, the major source of disparities between school districts and individual schools has to do with the division of resources from property taxes. Why don't we just "fix" these things and get on with it? What the hell is America's problem? The solution is "obvious," right?
Well, without getting too deeply into it, we have a particular problem of race, class, and other differences that prevent people from doing just that. "You want MY tax money going to pay for THEM?!" America. Just recently got over integrating public school systems -- does anyone really think that the richer are going to pay more than their share for the poorer of American citizens? Especially if they're black, Latino, or some other undesirable Other? And that's without even going into the very American allergy to anything that even remotely looks like what people consider "socialism." Can you imagine getting that one even past city council, let alone the state legislature, or God forbid turned into something like a national law? Forget about it.
But this is just the kind of unsophisticated thinking that many outside observers apply to the Korean situation. This is why many Koreans tend to get irritated upon hearing this kind of simple criticism. Of course, we also know that national pride stokes the fires of defensiveness, but that's not the whole story.
And that's where the problem lies. As outside observers, we should think about the limits of our observations, the fact that probably many Koreans have had them already, in combination with the fact that, in general, our actual knowledge about the details of the situation, "problem," or what have you does not run very deep. So that's why, when one throws one's hands up in utter frustration, while saying, "This is just so freaking obvious! Why doesn't anyone change the system? Why isn't anyone doing anything?" Well, that's probably because you're right. It's IS absolutely, positively, FREAKING obvious. And yes, we need more than the observations that even a non-educated outsider can make in order to solve these mostly complex and intricate social problems.
Because the reason that social problems remain entrenched is not because of ignorance of their very existence, but has to do with that very fact --- they are ENTRENCHED. They are not easy to fix because, and I know this seems obvious, they are not easy to fix; it is not usually because Koreans are woefully ignorant of the problem's existence. To the extent that some Korean folks are not looking at the problem from a particular angle, or a new approach, the outsiders point of view may be useful. Additionally, people in their own societies tend to be like fish accustomed to the water in the bowl: air show in your society and the system that there may be something that go unnoticed, or willfully ignored. For example, it seems that many Koreans don't like to talk about the scale of prostitution in society, the large role it plays in the economy, and the resulting cultural embeddedness of prostitution as a normalized societal institution. Often, in that case and in my own classes that I teach on the subject of social problems, the screens. I talk with find themselves quite shocked when forced to confront the issue openly and without embarrassment.
But that particular social problem is linked to embarrassment about not only the topic of sex, but a very deep cultural shame about this being a public topic of conversation that puts Korea in a negative light. But the education system issue, however, does not suffer from some deep rooted social stigma against people talking about it. It's simply a deep rooted societal problem with no easy, obvious answers. And pretty much what any new to Korea, fresh foreigner is going to come up with in his or her head as a grand solution to one of Korea's fundamental social woes is probably something Koreans have already thought about, and more often than not, something that has already been tried.
But most of the time, the conversation is superficial and remains stuck just under the surface of the completely opposite. It remains a conversation that requires little actual knowledge about the structure of the education system here, its history, or any number of specifics that my choir someone to actually do some research or even read a book about the subject. Unfortunately, the "problem of Korean education" or "lack of creativity amongst Koreans" receives little deeper treatment than can be found in beer conversation after work.
"They should just get rid of the college entrance examinations altogether!" Well, "they" have before. Or the other one I've heard, "they should just make hagwond illegal!" Well, they have been before. And ALL kinds of private education, including private tutoring, have also been illegal at one time or another in recent Korean history.
Oftentimes, these conversations reek with cultural condescension and outright ethnocentric arrogance. Does some noob fresh off the plane and here less than three months really think that such revelations have never occurred to Korean reformers, government officials, or specialists in education, such as teachers or principals, or to the students themselves? Take, for example, our own screwed up education system in the United States. In the final analysis, the major source of disparities between school districts and individual schools has to do with the division of resources from property taxes. Why don't we just "fix" these things and get on with it? What the hell is America's problem? The solution is "obvious," right?
Well, without getting too deeply into it, we have a particular problem of race, class, and other differences that prevent people from doing just that. "You want MY tax money going to pay for THEM?!" America. Just recently got over integrating public school systems -- does anyone really think that the richer are going to pay more than their share for the poorer of American citizens? Especially if they're black, Latino, or some other undesirable Other? And that's without even going into the very American allergy to anything that even remotely looks like what people consider "socialism." Can you imagine getting that one even past city council, let alone the state legislature, or God forbid turned into something like a national law? Forget about it.
But this is just the kind of unsophisticated thinking that many outside observers apply to the Korean situation. This is why many Koreans tend to get irritated upon hearing this kind of simple criticism. Of course, we also know that national pride stokes the fires of defensiveness, but that's not the whole story.
And that's where the problem lies. As outside observers, we should think about the limits of our observations, the fact that probably many Koreans have had them already, in combination with the fact that, in general, our actual knowledge about the details of the situation, "problem," or what have you does not run very deep. So that's why, when one throws one's hands up in utter frustration, while saying, "This is just so freaking obvious! Why doesn't anyone change the system? Why isn't anyone doing anything?" Well, that's probably because you're right. It's IS absolutely, positively, FREAKING obvious. And yes, we need more than the observations that even a non-educated outsider can make in order to solve these mostly complex and intricate social problems.
Because the reason that social problems remain entrenched is not because of ignorance of their very existence, but has to do with that very fact --- they are ENTRENCHED. They are not easy to fix because, and I know this seems obvious, they are not easy to fix; it is not usually because Koreans are woefully ignorant of the problem's existence. To the extent that some Korean folks are not looking at the problem from a particular angle, or a new approach, the outsiders point of view may be useful. Additionally, people in their own societies tend to be like fish accustomed to the water in the bowl: air show in your society and the system that there may be something that go unnoticed, or willfully ignored. For example, it seems that many Koreans don't like to talk about the scale of prostitution in society, the large role it plays in the economy, and the resulting cultural embeddedness of prostitution as a normalized societal institution. Often, in that case and in my own classes that I teach on the subject of social problems, the screens. I talk with find themselves quite shocked when forced to confront the issue openly and without embarrassment.
But that particular social problem is linked to embarrassment about not only the topic of sex, but a very deep cultural shame about this being a public topic of conversation that puts Korea in a negative light. But the education system issue, however, does not suffer from some deep rooted social stigma against people talking about it. It's simply a deep rooted societal problem with no easy, obvious answers. And pretty much what any new to Korea, fresh foreigner is going to come up with in his or her head as a grand solution to one of Korea's fundamental social woes is probably something Koreans have already thought about, and more often than not, something that has already been tried.
In the end, it's quite arrogant to assume, as a foreigner and a newbie, that after 2 weeks of thinking about the subject, all social problems would be solved if people just thought like you. It's also arrogant to keep stubborn and unwavering opinions without having done much thinking about the subject, nor any background reading, anything. You just sit there at the bar with your beer and have the answer.
Isn't that what we often get on Koreans' case for?
Just something I've been thinking about lately.
