By Kim Bo-eun

Two out of three Koreans in their 20s and 30s have no plan to visit a teacher from their past on Teacher’s Day on May 15, according to a poll.

In the survey jointly conducted by job website Incruit and online research institute EZ Survey, 62.8 percent of 400 university students and office workers aged from 20 to 39 indicated no intention of visiting or contacting their teachers on the day designated to honor them.

Of the 37.2 percent minority who said they will observe the day, 22.2 percent plan to visit their teachers, while the remaining 15 percent replied that they would just call them.

The survey showed that university students (27.5 percent) were more inclined to meet their teachers than those who are working (17 percent).

The survey showed that the 89 respondents who said they would visit their teachers had set an average budget of 55,000 won to spend on a gift.

A quarter of the 251 respondents not intending to do anything said it was because they “weren’t ready,” implying that if they were to visit their teachers, they wished to be able to better present themselves.

Among the remaining respondents, 18.7 percent said they were too busy, 15.9 percent cited concerns about the teacher not being able to remember them, and another 15.9 percent did not have any teachers they wished to visit.

Other reasons included not being able to reach their teachers (12.7 percent), and living too far away (9.2 percent).

Another survey conducted ahead of Teachers’ Day showed that 79 percent of respondents had never observed the day.

Lee Eui-yong, head of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Daejeon University surveyed 139 college students — sophomores and above.

The study also revealed that 50.7 percent of the students didn’t have any professors they would like to receive counseling from, while 45.3 percent said they had never talked for more than 10 minutes with any professor outside of the classroom.

“Relationships between professors and students have become distant due to the fact that universities are merely places at which students prepare to get a job, and because they are only interested in getting good grades,” said Lee.

“The traditional relationship between teachers and students has changed into a relationship between service providers and customers, due to factors such as the teaching evaluation system,” he added.

As for methods to improve student-professor relationships, programs such as mentoring or counseling need to be implemented, according to Lee.

“We should also alter the lecture-style teaching method and incorporate greater mutuality based on dialogue,” he said.