Educational Reform

We had a class discussion in my American society and pop culture class about the educational system in America in comparison with that in Korea. It was interesting to note how vehemently antagonistic the students' attitudes were toward their own education system. Apparently, despite ranking quite high internationally, there are (as expected of any country) some shortcomings. 

Korea, as a nation, or perhaps, Korean mothers, are obsessed with educating their children. Often, women get married, have children, and become housewives, unlike the developed countries of the "West" where women return to the workforce soon after childbirth. Since the women have no work, they devote their lives doting (or perhaps obsessively monitoring) their children. These days, women only have one child... maybe two children... so they devote all the extra time and money on this(these) one (or two) child(ren).  Not only do the children go to school, but they are socially compelled to attend complementary schools in the afternoon, called 학원s (pronounced: hogwuns). At these 학원s, students study everything privately from English to History to Science to Math to Art. You name a subject, there will be a 학원 for it. 

Kids tend to attend not just one type of 학원 either. From what my students tell me, they attend at least three of these 학원s unless the family is really financially strapped for cash, in which case they will usually send their child(ren) to English 학원. In middle school, students usually go to these 학원s right after school, which end around 10:30p.m. They return home circa 11:00p.m. and do their homework until early morning, barely get five to seven hours of sleep and go to school the next morning. 

High school isn't really better. The students don't (they are not allowed to) go to 학원 after school since they are forced to stay in school until at least 10:00p.m. Some students are known to stay in school until nearly midnight. They go back home, do some homework, get barely five to seven hours of sleep and go to school early the morning after. The question is... is it worth it?

While Korea's rapid development over the last few decades is astounding, I can't say that the 학원s are helping all too much. The average Korean child spends 15,548 hours studying ENGLISH before entering university. If you count the other subjects that students are forced to study at the 학원s, the number would be even ridiculously higher. For English alone, Korean families spend approximately $15,000,000,000 on private education (학원s, tutors, camps, intensive courses, etc.). Despite all of this time and money, the Republic of Korea ranks at around 90th in terms of national average TOEFL scores (77/120).

There are some students with outstanding English skills, but I realize now, although some of them may be able to speak understandably well, understand almost everything, and read more advanced text, in terms of writing ability, even at the university-level, they are still somewhat lacking. They may know all the grammar rules and terms, yet they don't quite know how to implement them into their writing. Perhaps the way they teach English is flawed since, after 15,548 hours of studying one language for several years should surely be enough to become an expert in said language. It's an interesting topic and cultural difference perhaps, a culture that I am still in the process of learning.

Today's Random Picture: 

Cruising Through Life

Today I turn twenty-four years old. I received a card from my sister sent via U.S. Express talking about the number twenty-four and its amazing capacity for divisibility. Divisible by twenty-four, twelve, eight, six, four, three, two, and one, my sister hopes that I, too, will find this type of balance in life.

Currently, I can't help but think that such divisibility, such balance, already creeped its way into my normally unplanned and spontaneous life. In hopes of earning money for my continued studies (the end is near, but yet, still far), I accepted a job offer from a university in Korea where I currently work as a guest lecturer teaching a handful of related subjects.

My daily schedule has never been so "normal" in a long time. I wake up, go to work, start teaching at nine o'clock in the morning, have a few breaks, teach, and so on until the late afternoon. Once I return home, I prepare my lesson plans for the next day, usually until the late evening and go to sleep around midnight. Today was no different, though my students somehow found out about my birthday and pooled money to buy me a cake and a gold necklace. 

Tomorrow, I'll get together with my friend Cathy and her friends for a small birthday celebration, to which I'm very much looking forward. I actually don't feel any different, being twenty-four. All I can say at this point is... only a couple more years left of brain plasticity and cheaper plane tickets! 

Today's Random Picture: 

Thank You for Removing Yourselves from the Gene Pool

2010 DARWIN AWARDS

Eighth Place
 In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

Seventh Place
A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran", accidentally jogged off a 100-foot high cliff on his daily run.

Sixth Place
 While at the beach, Daniel Jones, 21, dug an 8 foot hole for protection from the wind and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom, when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach used their hands and shovels trying to get him out but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Fifth Place
Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed as he fell through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth to keep his hands free rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

Fourth Place
Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

Third Place
After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.

HONORABLE MENTION
Paul Stiller, 47, and his wife Bonnie were bored just driving around at 2 A.M. so they lit a quarter stick of dynamite to toss out the window to see what would happen. Apparently they failed to notice that the window was closed.

RUNNER UP
Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from a local bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more excited, and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge, they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. They secured one end around Bingham's leg and then tied the other to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER IS....
Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief. Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves... 'Shit happens'

Today's Random Picture:

Immortal Jellyfish

There is an saying in English that goes, "There are two things that are certain in the world: taxes and death". Apparently, this articles suggests otherwise: 

It’s official: the only thing certain in this world is taxes. That’s because death, for a tiny sea creature, is not inevitable. Turritopsis nutricul, a jellyfish-like  hydrazoan, is the only animal known to be potentially immortal.

 

Once it reaches sexual maturity, Turritopsis looks like a tiny, transparent, many-tentacled parachute (only about 5mm in diameter) that floats freely in warm ocean waters. But when times get tough, Turritopsis can turn into a blob, anchor itself to a surface, and undergo a sort of reverse methamorphosis back to its youthful form as a stalk-like polyp. That’s like a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar. Scientists, who first described this phenomenon [pdf] in the 1990s, believe Turritopsis can repeat its life cycle indefinitely.

The trick to Turritopsis‘ infinite do-overs is a process called  transdifferentiation, which turns one type of cell into another. While other animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation to regenerate organs (salamandars can regrow limbs, for example), Turritopsi is the only one that can regenerate its entire body.

Not surprisingly, the immortal Turritopsi are spreading. Native to the Caribbean oceans, Turritopsi have now been identified in waters near Spain, Italy, Japan, and the Atlantic side of Panama. Even though specimens from different locations have different numbers of tentacles (from 8 to 24), genetic tests confirm that they are of the same species. Researchers believe the creatures are criss-crossing the oceans by hitchhiking in the ballast tanks of large ships.

Today's Random Picture: 

Interesting Things About the Human Body

Happy 4th of July!

A very Happy 4th of July to my friends back home in the States!!!

Hope you're enjoying the fireworks and grilling!

Today's Random Picture:

Giant "S'mores" bar?

Dehanminguk

Sixteen years can do a lot to a developing country. My last trip in the Republic of Korea sixteen years ago gave me less-than-wonderful impression. The first "real", different country (Canada, I'm afraid, can't count as "abroad"), Korea appeared to me as rather under-developed, the cities even seemed rather "rural", ice cream was bought at small convenience stores for 100₩ (or less than $0.10) with the most expensive being 500₩ (less than $0.50), and the people being rather behind the times and rather xenophobic. 

The situation couldn't be any more different now. Still adjusting to the time difference, my total stay in Korea so far amounts to less than 36 hours. And yet, the moment I stepped off the plane at Incheon International Airport, I felt that this country I visited with my family as a child sixteen years ago, was no longer the same. Moving with the crowd of people on our way to baggage claim, a surgically-clean train connecting the terminals whisked us away behind glass doors. Once a neatly dressed customs officer stamped my passport and my luggage collected, I swiftly passed through customs declarations and into the arrivals area.

Someone was already waiting for me with a sign that bore my name. That someone was from the international office of the university that hired me and she spoke fairly good English. My Korean geography being a little under par, I hadn't realized exactly how far from Seoul the university was. I was chauffeured by car to my temporary residence, the entirety of the trip taking approximately three hours. During the car ride, I was able to go through the courses I would teach and some of the best ways to travel to and from Seoul since I have a very close friend living and teaching there. 

Once at the apartment, my luggage carried up for me, I was introduced to my rather humble abode, which I would have to make my home for the next three-odd months. There is a small kitchen, to my absolute despair, has no oven, a small balcony, a small living room, small bathroom with a very strange shower (I will explain later), and a small bedroom, not dramatically dissimilar from the one I had back in Cambridge. Luckily, the kitchen comes equipped with a gas range, basic kitchenware, there is a bed, desk, drawers, and chair in the bedroom, and the apartment comes with a washing machine and refrigerator. I was also given a toaster... but with no oven, it seems as though I won't be eating much bread as I do not usually buy bread and strongly prefer baking my own. 

It was about 5p.m. by the time everything was settled. Despite having traversed across a continent on an almost 11-hour flight, I was told to quickly change and give an introductory class for one of the evening classes. I'd prepared the introductory class materials in the car and I taught for a few hours in the evening. I got back to the apartment rather late and, exhausted, fell asleep at a normal time, only to wake up at three in the morning. Unable to go back to sleep, I tried reading and preparing for classes on Monday. By the time I felt sleepy again, the sun was rising... 

In the end, I failed to stay awake and fell asleep, waking up again at around 1p.m. Right now, I should really be sleeping, but sleep doesn't seem to come (it's past midnight here). All I can say about Korea for now is that it's definitely much more modern than what I remember... and oh yes, the ice cream that used to be 100₩ is now 500₩ and the ones that were 500₩ in my memory are now more than 2,000₩. Talk about inflation!

Today's Random Picture:

BBC Meme

How Many of These 100 Books Have YOU Read?
The BBC apparently believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

Today's Random Picture: 

My Personal Count: 62

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Misérables - Victor Hugo