All posts tagged: Education

Why do Koreans graduate so late from uni?

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Image source: Ipsi Myungmoon Jungle-go Im my class of 70 students, only three graduated on time, that is, within the span of 4 years (or 8 semesters). One graduated a semester early by cramming his credits. About half of them graduated after 9 or 10 semesters. Even weighing in the fact that Korean men serve in the military for 2 years, Koreans, both male and female seem to take at least two semesters off prior to graduation. This year, entrants from year 2010 (for women) and from 2008 (for men) should be graduating – but only 10 students from 2010 did, all of them women. At the graduation, there were 10 students who started university between 2004 and 2007. So, where are all those students? What are they doing, burrowed in somewhere, playing Starcraft and League of Legends? You will find them at the library, at the reading rooms, at the hagwons – all cramming for some exam or another. What for? The GRE? Are they all going to grad school? No. They’re preparing to pass several …

LGBT Poster vandalized on university campus…yet again!

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Korean LGBT folk have it pretty bad. In fact, they’re not too surprised to be targeted, teased, or discriminated. It’s just the way things have been, and continue to be. A gay friend told me that back in the early 2000s when he was in university, LGBT societies would get student Christian groups gather in front of their club room, sprinkle holy water on their door, and sing gospel songs “in order to save those poor souls being led astray by Satan”. This doesn’t happen anymore, maybe due to the fact that since then, LGBT societies would be given “anonymous” club rooms on campuses, disguising their namecards on the door or by merging many of their activities with the women’s rights groups. But university LGBT societies have constantly been unable to even welcome newly admitted students, like many other societies and clubs do – mostly because some crazy individuals acting in the name of the Christian religion keep vandalising their posters and placards. Although this is not the first time such an event has occurred, this …