Differences Between North American and Korean Students

Filed as: TLDR // Responses: 201

This week’s TL;DR is on a topic we often talk about with each other and is a little bit more serious than most of our TL;DRs. The question we were asked this week is about the differences between Korean students and student life, and North American students.

A while ago we remember reading that Obama praised the South Korean school system by saying that

“Our children – listen to this – our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year,” Obama told a gathering at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here. “That’s no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy.”

It’s clear to anyone who has experienced both the North American and South Korean school system that there are huge differences between the two, and while Obama may say that the South Korean system might give South Korean students a competitive advantage, we find that the South Korean system has some serious disadvantages, as well as some serious advantages, that don’t make it a clear cut winner over the North American system.

Flat out, we can say that the South Korean education system is definitely more competitive. There’s a sense of urgency in the South Korean education system. Students start studying from a very young age for their University Entrance Exams, which are a super huge deal in determining the rest of their lives. That kind of importance of education isn’t really prevalent in the North American system. You can get into a good university with mediocre grades (Simon’s a perfect example of this), and if you don’t get straight A’s on everything, it’s not the end of the world. Here in South Korea, though, getting perfect grades is a must if you want to succeed.

Even those students that don’t care about studying hard will still go through the motions with the other students. A student picking fights, doing drugs, skipping class and so on is just about unheard of here in Korea. Now of course, you can find example of a naughty Korean student, but they are so few and far between compared to what we’re used to back home. From our experiences as teachers in Canada, we had difficult students in every class, while as teachers in Korea, we barely had any difficult students. Our co-teachers would complain about some difficult students, but their complaints are about disinterested or tired students, rather than violent or rude students.

So what is the difference between Korean students and North American students to create this giant huge behaviour gap? Well, we have various theories (including how Korean parents take a super active role in their daughter/son’s school marks) and one of them has to do with differences in the concept of individualization. North America is all about finding yourself, speaking up, thinking out of the box, debating, and essay writing, while Korea is all about fitting in, listening to your teacher’s lecture, knowing the one right answer, and succeeding on multiple choice tests. Being able to form creative answers based off a student’s ability to synthesize material is important in North America, while in South Korea it’s almost unheard of.

So they point of our ramble here is that Korean students end up becoming very focused on studying and they consider it a full time job, while North American students are lots of other things apart from students. They hold part-time jobs, they date, they go out with friends, they play on the basketball team, and oh yeah, they do their homework. Korean students don’t do as much as North American students do, because they go to school almost the whole day. They study a LOT more than North American students. A LOT MORE. Sure, South Korean students hang out with their friends, but not to the extent that North American kids do. There aren’t house parties here where people awkwardly socialize and mingle and mate. There are gatherings at the PC room with some of their friends.

Anyhow, we really have a lot of things to say about this, and we can ramble on with examples of differences forever, but the bottom line is that even though Korean students are must better behaved than North American students, we still don’t think either system is perfect. Korean students work way to hard. You teenage year is the time to make mistakes and to grow up and discover yourself, but how can you do that if you spend all your time walking around in a daze because you just study ALL DAY? Plus, you don’t really study as much as memorize, which we think is not as good as say, struggling to write a thought provoking essay. So which system is better? We don’t know, but we wish could take a little bit of each and mix it to create this awesome middle system.

Wow, we said a lot…we definitely need to hear your opinions and experiences on the subject. Let us know!

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Anonymous

Me and my wife just found your channel! we think you are the greatest we have a white pekingese from goong dong near bucheon named kobi (nose rain) who has been orange for awhile (tail and ears). Thanks for the hilarious and educational videos.
Anonymous

Me and my wife just found your channel! we think you are the greatest we
have a white pekingese from goong dong near bucheon named kobi (nose
rain) who has been orange for awhile (tail and ears). Thanks for the hilarious and educational videos.

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

White peeks are the best! We see a bunch of them around Bucheon. Even saw one with a blue tail :D

zyna orong

Maybe it’s cuz I teach after school, but my kids are crazy compared to what you described kids acting in a classroom. I see both sides though because I co-teach with my Mentor Teacher, and the kids are much more behaved and more interested in their class. I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot myself and what you guys mentioned is true. Apart from my students acting up here and there, they all really do work as hard as every other student in Korea. It’s crazy amazing how much Korean students study! But there are things that they can get from North American way of education.
Anonymous

I wonder if you guys could do one about korean attitudes vs american attitudes? Because i read online that seungri isn’t liked that much by korean netizens because he’s cocky, but i love his confidence. Also, what are some likeable and socially accepted characteristics of women?
http://twitter.com/GangsignKim Gangsan Kim

I wish there are more people like you in Korea. If the Korean education changes, i would definitely go back to Korea. I miss Korea a lot..
http://twitter.com/rehcslaf Kevin Lee

lack of discipline does not mean creativity…
discipline doesn’t mean lack of creativity…

I just hope south Korean students are aware that they could fall into the trap that this video is referring to…the generation that experienced this pain owes next generation to change the system…just like the previous generation’s effort to establish something better than that they had.. fair is fair.
http://twitter.com/Dubu_Bekah Rebekah Tan

I think you should check out the education system in Singapore… its kinda in the middle ( exclude violence)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Eungsin-Kim/100003128742015 Eungsin Kim

I agree your opinion between kore and north american student ! and korean basic education sistem have a big problem, exemple I had rearned english in school for 10 years but I could’t speak english well… exactly I only could speak english that words”Hi, how are you, fine, How old are you?” in foreigner however I stuied english alone for one years….just read english book by myself,,,,,reading book better good than 10years in korean school english education that is curle magic lol lol lol
Veronica Chun

Korean education system needs to encourage students to find out what they are passionate about!!! Passion is a key ingredient for success and a happy healthy life! However, this aspect is very overlooked here.
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Farnham/29000912 David Farnham

I’ve been told by a lot of university professors that Koreans (and most Asian transplant students in general) have a huge problem with schooling that doesn’t involve sheer memorization. My father would try to teach general concepts and always said he had problems from these students who were so conditioned to memorization. I never understood this because memorization is such a bad method to learn things hrmm…
http://www.facebook.com/t3hk0r34n Shawn Ryu

Memorizing is studying, at least in math, and science. Which Korea puts big emphasis on, and for good reasons.
http://twitter.com/sootyxsnowpetal sootyxsnowpetal

Lol, my parents don’t understand why I drive to my friends’ houses Friday nights to just have fun. They think that I should just stay home and study!
HenryTLee

Wow, that’s really weird. I would agree with everything you guys said
except for the behavior of the students. In my experience teaching in
California compared to in South Korea over the years, I have found the
complete opposite.

Korean students are MUCH MUCH MUCH less disciplined than students I had
back home. At least 90% of the time, students are quiet and attentive
in class in America, and always raise their hand before speaking.
However, in Korea, especially middle school students, they will always
talk over you through the entire class. The ENTIRE class will just
ramble on over you as if you weren’t even there.

Now, I have a pretty loud voice, and both my and my co teacher literally
spends at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the class time just trying to yell at the
kids to get them to quiet down and listen to a lesson. It seems as
though students don’t really care about class at all because they just
have so much of it.

At the same time, (it only happened once), but when it was said that
“it’s not like students are gonna go out and break stuff. That was not
necessarily true. I’ve had students hurl a brick through a window,
literally a few foot from my desk because they were “bored” during lunch
time and felt like throwing things at the glass windows at school. Of
course, the student got in trouble. But you know, I had pretty much the
complete OPPOSITE impression when it came to student behavior.
http://profile.yahoo.com/L3COGC7FFXQWKYDSHLBTO3ESJM Chelsea

As a military brat, stationed in Korea for a few years, and then all over the US, I’d say a balance was the best. In the DoDDs schools, there was a lot of the stress on education, and the challenge of pushing yourself to do more and be more, was really strong in the school systems. As a student, I felt adequately challenged with material that the US doesn’t teach their students for years (math and science the two subjects that leap to mind) while still given the lee-way and ability to express ourselves that I appreciated in the American school systems. It was the encouragement to do well and the atmosphere that made the idea of striving hard to do well acceptable by all – no matter your sex, race, religion, or socioeconomic background, partnered with the ability to explore what it meant and how you would apply what you learned with the world around you. I like to think it was a more contextualized educational experience that I really enjoyed as a child. Playtime, group projects, papers, and Korean Culture class. (I might throw it out there that it could be the exceptional teachers I had who really knew how to strike the balance and perhaps not the system in itself. Mad props to teachers who invest and try to make a difference). And I still had plenty of time to run wild, make terrible decisions, have my first kiss and all those other things that we hear our kids tell us years later and never wanted to know. ^.^

All I know is the balance is key. Children aren’t miniature adults. Allow them to develop and make decisions but also to give them structure and discipline. I don’t know how one could create such a curriculum but good luck to those that try.
momkatmax

Sounds like the stress of being there at school from 7 to 10 or later is a major factor in the bullying.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003315040988 Kim Hee

I love koreans, how wonderful they are, the school system in korea is a little bit same with my school, strict authorities,or teachers,,,, today still i’ve got little bit stress even though it’s our monthly break, next month June 2012 is my class days again,,,, i’m not bored at all,,, even though,,, my friends keep asking me why i’m so different,,,,, “that, why i don’t let myself to have a date with,,,,and i don’t do things that is not in korea….” and why i’m always staying at my home,, always making hard work,,,,i have no time at all,,, no time to join at parties, no time to hang with them,,
i’m still stress,,,-_-
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003315040988 Kim Hee

study system in korea is not worst for me,,,, i’m not korean but ,,, i believe that every person really undergo hardships,,,, to lead them not in destruction,,, but to lead them in pretty life after that….. a person who really working hard have been blessed at the last :))
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003315040988 Kim Hee

OTHERS WANT TO ESCAPE THIS SYSTEM,, BUT ME? I CAN’T ESCAPE TILL I’M DONE SCHOOLING….. STUDY IS THE BEST TO GET GOOD GRADES…. WHEN I LEARN A LESSON WHEN I GOT BAD GRADES,,, I NEVER DO WHAT I DID BEFORE,,, IT’S TOO EMBARRASSING :/ MAJORITY WANT A FREEDOM,,, BUT LESS WANT STRICT,,, LIKE MY JAPANESE BEST FRIEND SHE LEARNED A LESSON BECAUSE OF HER PARENTS… AND I LEARNED A LESSON TOO, CAUSE OF MY PARENTS,, BEFORE I HATE MATHEMATICS,,, BUT WHEN MY DAD SLAP ME rapidly A BELT… I BECOME GOOD AT MATH… one thing in English class my teacher,,, punish us for not participating…. my leg was so numb,,
and their is a student who was punish by our language teacher that he is not allowed to sit in his chair,,,, he was so pathetic on that time,,, and their were 5 male students and one female who was put outside because they were caught not studying,,, and me and others was studying inside watching them being pathetic…..and then some highschool students who were not participating,,,, during our ceremony every morning,,,, they were not allowed to take their class,,, and stand whole period under the sun…. they were so pathetic… it’s so hot….and then the school principal,,, TROW PLENTY OF BIG HEAVY BOOKS,,, TO SOME 4TH YEAR STUDENTS… THEIR HEAD WAS HIT… OUCH….. i can’t escape! i can’t escape….