<p>And what is with these bashing on the quality of education in S. Korea? You guys do know that S. Korea tops the charts in international student assesments? </p>
<p>I am to tired to find more links, but search OECD and TIMSS rankings on google. Those rank quality of education in various countries and South Korea has consistently ranked in the top.</p>
<p>these korean kids are smart and hard working just accept it. they have to make the best out of the education system they have even if that includes loads of memorizing. last time I checked most Asian kids who come over to the US still manage to do well in school, which goes to show these kids are actually smart.</p>
<p>everyone keeps mentioning how these kids have no time to enjoy life…umm last time i checked most american kids who want to get into top colleges don’t enjoy life much either…they may have to memorize less but a large portion of their time goes to (mostly) useless EC’s which they do only to boost their apps</p>
<p>Hmm…well, there are loads of korean foreign students in my school. And i’m telling you, these people don’t just memorize, they get their textbook and read the **** out of it, and they’re not memorizing.
But its the same in other countries in asia too. Like there are a few vietnamese people in my school too, and these people are SMART, man. Like they are an year ahead of us at math, and our school is already ahead of almost every other school in the nation(Singapore). </p>
<p>But you see, it isn’t only korea. My point is that this is happening in many asian countries. </p>
<p>How do we know that Korean students learn by memorization? But I know for sure that math teachers in my kid’s school teach more memorization than reasoning. Ask most US kids if they can derive a math formula.</p>
<p>That’s been my experience, as well. Our math education largely ignores proofs. For non-prospective math majors, geometry is the only class where proofs are emphasized. Unfortunately, if my average high school is any indicator, even geometry is now taught without proofs. And if proofs aren’t taught, then you can forget about construction.</p>
<p>My father has not done a geometric proof since he was a high school student. Yet, when I studied geometry several years back, I found that he could still prove all the theorems I learned. If this is “rote memorization,” then damn - we need more of it in our country.</p>
<p>I believe the Chinese term sibei is what we refer to as “rote memorization.” Literally translated, sibei means “death reciting.” In other words, the material is “dead” to you; it means nothing. You just memorize it without understanding anything.</p>
<p>The opposite of sibei is zhengdong, or “true understanding.” However, the problem is that how Chinese define “true understanding” is markedly different from how Americans define it. A Chinese would never claim to truly understand a concept if there was at least one question that he did not know how to do. On the other hand, many Americans claim to “get the concept” even though they have difficulty applying it to the questions.</p>
<p>Asian countries do not de-emphasize zhengdong; rather, they encourage it. They just realize that most people aren’t geniuses and need to do many problems before they can achieve that level.</p>
<p>I dont think english is a “foreign” language for koreans. In many countries, such as mine(pakistan), english is taught since first grade as a subject and all the subjects are in english too. It becomes more of a first language than our mother tongue.</p>
<p>LOL!!! English is far from being Korea’s first language. You gotta be joking me. Yes, I learned English since 1st grade, but most they teach you aren’t sufficient enough for you to be able to write, listen, read, or even speak even half decent. I remember during my 8th grade learning words like “calculator” “cook” “biology” “divide”, etc. All they teach you is vocabulary (simple ones) and grammar. They won’t teach you speaking, listening, reading comprehension, or writing except for extreme cases being those two elite high schools we’re talking about. And, those who speak English well or even score close to perfect on SAT are just very very talented, hard working students. Even 99% of Americans, who speak English everyday, score much lower than those kids. Gotta give credit to those kids who worked their butts off to get where they are today. This is getting ridiculous.</p>
<p>for a lot of Asian countries…(both South Asian and Oriental Asian)…there r distinct English Medium schools…even if there aren’t, most public school incorporate English from as early as kindergarten…thus…it’s very likely that students get fluent in English…and abt ppl who are from English medium schools…(that usu follows the British curriculum to prepare students for O’ and A’ Level exams) they KNOW English as fluently as another kid from the US…hardly much difference…other than few in writing style or such…and in fact, they tend to know more english than their native languge</p>
<p>patless88: yes you are right abt the english that is taugh in public schools…but when it comes to specialized english schools…it’s a whole new story.</p>
<p>no, specialized English schools are either elite schools like the ones in the article, who gave tests and only picked the highest-scoring students to begin with. Or, it is a foreign school which serves American-born Koreans or foreigners. Those are the only 2 cases, which constitute an extreme minority of entire Korean high schools, that teach in intensive English. Most people can’t or don’t speak English well in Korea. Most people only know simple words, very basic ones. Only the elites speak English well, which is largely due to their independent efforts and intelligence. You are confusing Phillipines or Hong Kong wih Korea or Japan. I am from Korea and lived in Japan for many years, I know what I am talking about.</p>
<p>I;m an korean who attends a public school which is far different with the korean elite schools. The level of schools where the students go are different, but the education system is same.
My friend’s school(public) open’s their school library until 11:pm for 365days
There are even academies which open till 2:00am…though I don’t attend them…
No sport activities are systemized for students…
Everybody studies. Those who do well. Those who do not…It’s so inefficient.
But these occures beacause of the confucian ideas which is widely spreaded in asia. “Studying is the only way to get out of poverty or to upper social status” they say…
The reality of Korean education makes me dream of studying abroad.
I don’t want to attend a university for 4 years like now again.
No active discussions Students just listen what the proffessor says and write it down and memory.
“Listend and Memory” is 90% of Korean education.
That’s why I decided to study abroad though there will be many difficulties following…</p>
<p>“everyone keeps mentioning how these kids have no time to enjoy life…umm last time i checked most american kids who want to get into top colleges don’t enjoy life much either…they may have to memorize less but a large portion of their time goes to (mostly) useless EC’s which they do only to boost their apps”</p>
<p>well…most, but not all, American high schools are way easier compared to high schools in Asia. I know several kids who went to really easy high schools, didn’t do much, and made it to top schools graduating as top of their class at their respective schools. I surely know several of those kids at my college, which is a top 20 college. And, these kids aren’t used to studying hard at all, so they initially struggle a lot during their Freshmen yrs.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, to those who are asserting that English is the “first language” in Korea…What Koreans learn at most normal high schools are vocabs and grammar. They give a bunch of tests, which test your ability to comprehend complex English grammar. Multiple choice questions. This is kinda similar to those learning Computer Science at colleges. Most CS programs won’t teach you to directly program computers. They rather teach you theoretical stuffs and most of their testing relies on multiple choice tests. Same situation in Korea. Students cram textbooks, learn and memorize a bunch of new words, learn many complex rules in English grammar (which aren’t taught in U.S. at all, ironically), and they take the test. But, all this education won’t prep them a bit for reading comprehension, speaking, writing etc. since these students aren’t good enough to even understand over 80-90% of the words in the SAT or can’t even read the verbal passages under 2 or 3 hours, even using dictionaries. Besides, the English education only gets serious since about 6th or 7th grade, before that, it is all joke. 1st grade to 4th grade is learning how to spell simple words. Do you honestly think that about 4 yrs of this basic English education, in which students barely learn some words and English grammar, are prepped for SAT? Like I said b4, those students we are talking about are exceptions, and they deserve every bit of credit they get.</p>
<p>So if all these Korean students do is “rote memorization”, why can’t American students also do this brainless “memorization” and score just as high on standardized tests?</p>
<p>Because this “memorization” excuse is cop-out.</p>
<p>Give credit where credit is due. These kids are SMART and WORK HARD.</p>
<p>^ agreed. Seriously, if these posters think that these kids scored high due to memorization alone, then how come so many people in the U.S. score so much lower than those kids? Since Americans are used to American education and English, they should have much easier time ‘memorizing’ the stuff. If it was this easy, then most people would score high on SATs then. Btw, SAT does NOT test your ability on memorization. Same goes for ACT. I know a kid from my hs who scroed 25 ACT despite extensive tutoring, studying, and a couple of prep courses. Some other kid got 35 ACT cold without any studying or ‘memorizing’ at all.</p>
<p>i don’t doubt ur info…in fact, if u reread…I specifically said in brackets that I ws referring to Asian schools in general (BOTH South Asian and Orientals)…NOT JUST Korea…</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s the only way to go. It if wasn’t for my father, I would still be picking rice in a small, poor village in China.</p>
<p>He had to be in THE TOP 1% just to even make it to college. The system’s slightly better nowadays, but if you were below that 1% threshold back then, you couldn’t make it. Even then, they had University entrance exams, and in return for the education, you had to work for the government. My dad did computers for defense systems in the PLA.</p>
<p>Don’t even get me started on the elites, but the only way the poor people could’ve made it was through top grades.</p>
<p>In America, the average student makes it in the top 3% of the world in standard of living just by graduating high school and getting a job. The above average person just simply needs to get a 3.0, go to college and join a frat, party 4 years, and get an office job for $30,000-$40,000 a year.</p>