Bullying in South Korea

Filed as: TLDR // Responses: 109

To begin with, sorry for the constant disclaimers in these videos. We know the crowd of commenters here on our site are a lot more civil than different crowds on different sites, so these disclaimers aren’t really relevant to you lovely people :D It seems like you here understand that we’re just talking about our experiences, and not as Korea scholars. So, yay to you guise! We really like the discussions that happen on this page and really want to thank you for your contributions :D

Anyhow, on with the show: we’re getting a lot of serious topics this month for our TL;DRs and today is no exception. Today’s question is from eaguyao001 from San Diego, California who asks,

“have you seen bullying as bad as they make it out to be in Korea? And if so, what do teachers normally do about it?”

Now we weren’t too clear on who this “they make it out to be” actually refers too, so we just assumed it meant Korean media, such as dramas, movies, and comics, aka “manhwa” 만화 in Korean or “manga” in Japanese. It’s true that any avid watcher/reader of Korean or Japanese drama and comics – such as myself, Martina – will know that high school life is a very, very common theme, and within this theme of school often comes the topic of bullying. Now we all know bullying exists in all parts of the world and at all age levels, so is bullying different in Korea, and if so, how?

Well the idea of bullying being “bad” in Korea, suggests that maybe it’s not as bad somewhere else, and frankly, we don’t think it’s possible to say one countries bullying is worst than the other, because bullying is equally terribly everywhere. So I don’t think that was the intention of the question (was it?). We’re thinking that the question was asking whether bullying is as prevalent in South Korean schools as it is in its depictions, which we really can’t answer. We taught at one school each, and our schools were in no way the norm. So the most we can talk about here is what we noticed in bullying in South Korea.

Our main point of interest deals with the school environment itself. We feel like Japan and Korea are similar in this way since both countries have ridiculously long school hours (7am – 11pm or later, Monday – Saturday) and in turn, the classroom becomes a second home. Students pretty much live at school; they brush their teeth after each meal, change into slipper shoes, personalize their desk with colourful seat cushions, pencil holders, and bring pillows to sleep on.

This is very different from how we experienced high school, both as high school students, and as former high school teachers in Canada. Since you moved classes between every subject, your desk was just an impersonal place to sit and be used by the next student. Our lockers were the only personal part of our high school career, and those were locked up tightly and often decorated with photos of friends and/or stuff we liked.

Korean students, on the other hand, have a single homeroom class that they stay in for the whole year. It’s the teachers that move between the classrooms. The students might leave that classroom once or twice a week to visit, for example, the Foreign English teacher’s classroom or the music room, but most classes are taught in their homeroom class. They also have little shoebox sized lockers, but they are located inside their homeroom classroom and many students don’t even bother to lock them. This environment creates a very important difference between how bullying occurs in North America and Korea. An attack by a bully in Korea can be aimed not just at you as a student, but also at all the stuff you deem important, the stuff you use to make you feel happier in your second home, the second home you study in for 16 hours, with the same students for the whole year. If you are being bullied by a classmate, there is no escape from them since you have to see them all day everyday. We’ve heard cases of shoes being vandalized, tacks hiding under seat cushions, or insults scribbled on desks.

We have heard stories from our Korean co-workers of students secretly fighting and bullying others in the washroom or outside the classroom for money or food, but personally, we’ve never seen that at our former schools. Possibly because we were at very good schools that were very focused on grades and studying, possibly also because our experiences with the students were a bit limited, since we had to teach around 22 different classes per week or so. However, even if you’re at a school that caters to students who are super duper focused on grades, there are forms of silent bullying that we actually have experienced, such as certain students being made 왕따 (wang-dda) which basically means they are made a social outcast and completely ignored by EVERYONE. Even if you don’t personally have a problem with this person, interacting with them will make you a wangdda and then you too will be isolated. In turn, students feel that it’s best to just ignore them as well. This most frequently happens to students who don’t find a social circle to fit into right away. Even if you’re made wang-dda in 1st year highschool, it can continue throughout your whole three years in high school. We were told some students will move schools in an attempt to escape their wang-dda labelling. A wang-dda student can experience bullying from silent ignoring all the way up to physical fighting. It depends on the school and the type of bullies present.

So what can teachers do to prevent this from happening? It seems like not much. When we talked to our Korean co-workers about it, they said that most students will just cast their eyes to the ground and not speak during their interrogation. Whole classrooms can be scolded for their bad behaviour but everyone just remains silent. Sometimes addressing the issue can make life worse for the bullied student, so many teachers feel like ignoring it is the best method. Just one of the big problems we see with Korean school system is that there are no guidance councillors available of any sort. There is no one for the students to confine in when they are stressed out or upset, and seeing a councillor or a psychologist outside of school just isn’t available and is really looked down upon.

If there’s anything we missed out on, or any other stories you care to share about this topic, please do let us know in the comments below. Yeah!

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Lux magelet

7Am to 11pm? Is this for elementary or high school students? How many classes are there in a day? How do those idols who are still in school have the time to be idols if they have schedules like that too? I just can’t imagine being in school for so long, I know in some Asian places they have regular school and then afterwards it’s clubs or prep classes (at another academy) but… do they do homework there too? Are teachers actually working for that long as well?
momo87

wow weird… I only school for 7 and half hours (7 to 2:30) and then every 2 days in a week we have extracurricular class like sports or foreign languages for 1 and half hours. School is from mon-fri. In my country we dont really have issues about bullying, it’s a pretty rare case actually. I myself never see bullying action in front of my eyes. It’s shocking to know bullying is exist in South Korea, it’s scary and inhuman. I hope government do something about this, this is a huge issue.
Now thinking about it, if i ever marry a korean guy I dont want to raise my children there, who knows what will happen to my child?
queenmarsha

I think the problem is that most South Korean students don’t know how to be independent or leaders in high school. It’s the lack of socialization and extracurricular activities. In the U.S., having a strong personality with a wide range of friends in school will often make for a great ally for the bullying victim.

The school tells us not to fight back because it brings annoyance and chaos to authorities, but American parents often tell their kids to “Never start a fight, but always end it.” In South Korea, it’s seen as a vice because you always have to be thinking about the ‘group.’ But this is fallacious thinking. How can you think of other people when you cannot even take care of yourself? And I still think it’s unfortunate that standing out in the classroom is seen as a bad thing. This limits creative and independent thinking. Why suppress who you are just to please others? What kind of life is that? South Korea needs to evolve from being so dependent on the group to accepting its unique and independent citizens. I can only imagine how many talented geniuses in South Korea have been prevented from reaching their full potential just to appease the mindless masses.

http://profile.yahoo.com/TTDJ6OUFORRXGBIU4PPBOAMADU Mike

wow. you’re completely misinformed about america. bullying is rampant in america, just as much as it is in korea. except in korea, i don’t hear about mass killings from a bullying victim like cho seung hui or columbine. whatever reasons kids get bullied in korea, add onto that institutionalized racism, extreme homophobia or fear of anything not considered “manly” and a cultural ideology that rewards physical and mental domination and you’ve got american bullying. american kids are like wild animals compared to korean kids. this is not an exaggeration. i actually believe korean society is much more civilized than american society. they’re not quite to japan’s level yet but it’s getting there.

you might find things wrong with the korean school system but don’t relate it to bullying which happens everywhere. and what you don’t seem to know is that korea is still a young country. korea was a dirt poor country 40 years ago. but just like americans did during its industrial revolution, koreans put their heads down, work, choose jobs that are practical and don’t value individuality as much as the group. but just like every other country, after they have been developed for a while and can afford to sit back and look around, that is when is koreans will have the chance to explore their individuality, become artists, musicians, whatever.

americans are known to be dumb. the school system is obviously flawed here too. the huge economy that america built, a good portion of it through exploitation of minorities and its own citizens, is stagnating while korea’s economy is considered a miracle and is like the 15th largest in the world despite being so small. education and innovation are the main drivers of growth in every economy. koreans must be doing something right. don’t be so quick to judge other countries.

http://profile.yahoo.com/TTDJ6OUFORRXGBIU4PPBOAMADU Mike

“eat your kimchi” is racist. these are pretty cool white people but like everybody who doesn’t experience racism, including the koreans reading or whoever from a homogeneouss society, they have no idea when something is racist. every american knows you don’t tell a mexican to “eat your beans” or a black person to “eat your watermelon”. and you don’t do it to asians either because asians are degraded in the same way. ”eat your curry”. “eat your sushi”. in no way do i think these guys are racist but just misinformed.

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Simon and Martina

You don’t understand the origins of the name of our site, “Eat Your Kimchi,” and so you’re very much misinformed about our site name stemming from Racism. If you’d like to know how we came up with the site name, view our interview with Arirang TV’s “Heart to Heart.” Otherwise, I’d ask you to, please, do your research first before you level such a severe accusation.

Thanks :D

http://twitter.com/melrichardson_ Mel ♡

ah that sucks! at my school we have 5 counsellors for students of all ages to see
kanika_Tamashii

This makes me wonder. Does bullying ever occur outside of the high school age? Can adults be bullied as well? I’m still young and live in Canada so I haven’t really experienced that kind of thing at work yet, but it makes me wonder. If a student is labeled as Wang-dda throughout their high school careers, will it bleed out into their adulthood? How would adults treat workplace bullying?