A NYT article I came across while cleaning out the old newspapers and found online. It was written more than six years ago. Has the condition changed in Korea?
http://www.kbvidyalaya1944.com/koreans-revel-in-a-brutal-study-regimen
Koreans Revel in a Brutal Study Regimen
By Sam Dillon
The New York Times / Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Seoul, South Korea:
It is 10:30 P.M. and students at the elite Daewon prep school here are cramming in a study hall that ends a 15- hour school day. A window is propped open so the evening chill can keep them awake. One teenager studies is standing up- right at his desk to keep from dozing. Kim Hyun-Kyung (in Korea like China, the last name is written first), who has accumulated nearly perfect scores on her college entrance exams, is preparing for physics, chemistry and history exams.
My comments: 15 hours! It means the students have only two hours for relaxation if they get a eight-hour sleep.
“I can’t let myself waste even a second,” said Ms. Kim, who dreams of attending Harvard University, Yale University or another prestigious American college. And she has a good chance. This spring, as in previous years, all but a few of the 133 high school students from Daewon Foreign Language High School who applied to selective American universities won admission.
“Going to U.S. universities has become like a huge fad in Korean society, and the Ivy League names Harvard, Yale[,] Princeton- have really struck a nerve.” (Ivy League universities are eight oldest and very famous universities on the east coast of USA) said Victoia Kim, who attended Daewon and graduated from Harvard last June. Despite the rigorous regimen, some students seem to enjoy the challenge. Parents of these students tend to be wealthy doctors, lawyers or university professors. Ms. Kim’ father is a top official in the Korean Olympic Committee.
My comments: Which eight? See Ivy League Univerisity (https://www.studential.com/applying/studying-abroad/USA/ivy-league-universities)
Ms. Kim developed fierce study habits early, watching her mother scold her older sister for receiving any score less than 100 on tests. Even a 98 or a 99 brought a scolding. “Most Korean mothers want their children to get 100 on all the tests in all the subjects,” Ms. Kim’s mother said.
My comments: A legion of tiger mothers!
Ms Kim’s highest aspiration was to attend a top Korean university, until she read a book by a Korean student at Harvard about American universities. Immediately she put up a sign in her bedroom: I am going to any Ivy League!” Even while at Daewon, Ms. Kim, like thousands of Korean students, took weekend classes in English, physics and other subjects at private academies, raising her entrance exam scores by hundreds of points. “I just love to do well on the tests,” she said.
My comments: She doesn't have other hobbies?
But other pleasures are frowned on. Schools like Daewon suppress teenage romance as a waste of time. “What are you doing holding hands?” a Daewon administrator scolded an adolescent couple recently. “You should be studying!” Students do not seem to complain. Park Yeshong, one of Kim Hyun-Kyung’s classmates, said attractions tended to fade during hundreds of hours of close- quarters study. “We know each other too well to fall in love,” she said.
Daewon has one major Korean rival, the Minjok Leadership Academy, three hours’ drive east of Seoul, which also has a spectacular record of admission to Ivy League colleges.
How do they do it? Their formula is relatively simple. They take South Korea’s top scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize com-position and other skills crucial to success on the entrance exams and college admissions essays, and –especially this-urge them on to unceasing study..
Both schools seem to be rethinking their grueling regimen, at lest a bit. Minjok, a boarding school, has turned off dormitory surveillance cameras previously used to ensure that students did not doze in late-night study sessions. Daewon is ending its school day earlier for freshmen. Both schools reserve admission for highly motivated students.
“Even my worst students are great,” said Joseph Foster, a Williams College graduate who teachers writing at Daewon. “They’re professionals; if I teach them, they will learn it. I get e-mails at 2 a.m. I’ll respond and go to bed. When I get up I will find a follow-up question mailed at 5 a.m.’’
My comments: Passion!
South Koreais not the only country sending more students to the United States, but it seems to be a special case. Some 103,000 Korean students study at American schools of all levels, more than from any other country, according to American government statistics. In higher education (after BA level), only India and China, with populations more than 20 times that of South Korea’s [,] send more students. “Preparing to get to the best American universities has become something of a national obsession in Korea,” said Alexander Versh the American ambassador to South Korea.
Korea[n] applications to Harvard alone have tripled, to 213, up from 66 in 2003, said Willian Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions. Harvard has 37 Koran undergraduates, more than from any foreign country except Canada and Britain. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have a total of 103 Koran undergraduates; 34 of them are from Daewon or Minjok.
Students like Ms. Kim are very busy. She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6.50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help her classmates clean the classroom. Between 8 and 12 noon she attends classes. At lunch she joins other students all, like her, wearing blazers, in a chow line serving beef and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip.
My comments: Good that the students know to do the cleaning.
She then attends more classes on a wide variety of subjects. In the evening she has sports for a couple of hours and then dinner. Classes again begin in the third shift at 7.30 p.m. In between she also prepares a to-do list for the next day. At 10.30 p.m. the final bell rings and Ms. Kim heads for a bus to take the journey to her home. In all she has spent 15 hours in the school.
“I feel proud that I’ve endured a tough day. I am already looking forward to tomorrow,’’ she said.
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