(Layovers, weather woes, and cram schools)I’m back in Korea! Only for a month this time. (I guess “only” is an extremely relative term in this context.) Getting here was a 28-hour adventure; From waiting at LAX for 6 hours, a 12-hour flight to Beijing, a 4-hour layover, a 2-hour flight to Incheon, and then a 4-hour bus ride to Daegu, it was A LOT of traveling, but mostly uneventful, thankfully. I think I’ve really nailed this jet-lag thing because I didn’t suffer from it this time around. Pro tip: Try to plan your arrival during the day (like late morning). Sleep every chance you get on the way over and then don’t sleep until at least 10:00 P.M local time. Tried-and-true.
As soon as I stepped out of the Incheon Airport, I was hit with the kind of chilly air that seems to instantly makes your clothes shrink around your skin. It was only then that I realized checking the temperatures from my iPhone weather app while basking in the heavenly California sun was a mistake. I think I forgot what 50’s with wind feels like. I literally packed for “cold LA weather” which is not very cold at all. So, I might have to make a few “emergency” shopping trips. The day after I arrived, I started my internship right away. For those who don’t know, I’m interning at a cram school teaching English. In Korean, these “cram schools” are called hakwons. The best way I can describe them is an afterschool tutoring academy for students eager to get ahead of their studies and one day ace the college entrance exam. (So in this case, everyone). These cram schools are everywhere, literally, and there’s one for any subject you could imagine—it’s basically the business product of an education-obsessed nation. The cram school I’m working at has 1,000 students and specializes in English and math. I usually work from 2 P.M. to 10 P.M, which is definitely going to takes some getting used to… but I can sleep in every morning so I’m not complaining. Mostly, I grade papers/vocab tests, teach writing classes, private-tutor some middle schoolers, and do this this called “happy phone talk” in which I call elementary school students and talk to them about their day. The students here have four 45 minute classes—vocabulary, speaking/writing, reading, and listening. So each kid stays here from about 6:45-10:00 P.M… after a full day of school. Plus, I’m betting that for 90% of the students, this isn’t the only cram school they go to. (Not sure if Obama knew how brutal the Korean education system was when he raved about the “amazing” it is.) The world may look to South Korea as an ideal model for education, but they often overlook the downsides—the downsides that aren’t visible in the number rankings, but only in the lifeless eyes of exhausted students. Yes, South Korea consistently ranks in the top percentile for PISA tests and is one of the fastest developing nations out there. But they also lead in suicide rates and lack of creativity. I personally think a huge downfall of the Korean education system is the rote memorization and the unquestionable, unyielding pressure to study. You have to study, you have to get into a good school, and unless you are extremely talented at something else (i.e. art, music), studying is your only path to a successful life. In the states, the downfall lies in the unstandardized curriculum, which leaves education up to the teacher/school district/state’s discretion. This can be a good thing, but it can also become a huge mess leading to a lack of accountability across the board. AP, IB, and other standardized curriculums have mitigated some of these issues, but they give way to another crucial problem: teaching to the test and, thus, a lack of practical knowledge. Having gone to public school in both Korea and the U.S., I’ve always felt a disconnect between class material and real world application. I feel incredibly unmotivated when I’m doing “filler work” such as time-consuming, yet useless worksheets (i.e. POGILS) or memorizing historical dates that I will never have to recite after the test, let alone use in a future job. And yet, that's how the system works, so I shut up and did the work. These kinds of things resulted in negligible practical knowledge, except for learning how to BS things. (Which, I will admit, is a skill that comes in handy from time to time.) However, when I’m learning about things that I am interested in, and, more importantly, things that I can see myself using in the future, I could stay up all night learning the material. This is a huge reason why Minerva—which interweaves classroom learning with real-world, hands-on projects—appealed to me so much and a big factor in why I ultimately decided to transfer. As you can probably tell, I could literally go on and on about this topic, but I’ll cut it here. So ANYWAYS. 2017 has treated me well so far and I feel like I’m (for once) living in the moment, doing real stuff, and pursuing the things that make me happy. There are a lot of dynamic, mildly-stressful life-changes happening, but it’s the type of change that makes me excited about life… so again, I’m not complaining. Signing off from Daegu, SK. 9:50 P.M.
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About MeThanks for visiting my blog! My name is Megan, I work in Marketing and I graduated as part of Minerva's class of 2021. Enjoy a collage of reflections, poetry, and late-night thoughts. Archives
October 2023
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