By Kim Ji-soo
Staff Reporter
The word ``idol'' sounds like the Korean word ``ideul,'' which means ``children.'' The similarity of these two words struck me one night as I was watching a year-end television special wrapping up the year 2008 K-pop scene.
The program featured lively acts by various singers, including veteran trot and Korean enka singers. But the program was undeniably dominated by Korean ``idol'' singers, such as Big Bang, Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls, Super Junior, Kara, Brown Eyed Girls and Jewelry. These groups ― from the five member-strong Big Bang to the nine member-strong Girls' Generation to the five-member Wonder Girls and Super Junior, if my counts are correct ― are predominantly entertainers in their teens and early 20s. So fresh was the hair on their skin and innocent the looks on their faces that they made Rain, only 26, and Lee Hyori, 30, appear ``elderly.''
It was refreshing to see so many young people, able and happy, to present their talent in full form. The exuberance of their youth and talent seemed a far cry from my teens when we were only allowed to study and be good students. Could we appear on television? Over some parents' dead bodies.
Reminiscing about the beauty and talent of the Korean ''idol'' stars somehow led me to think about the average Korean in his or her early teens. There have been numerous articles detailing the hellish daily schedules of Korean students these days. It never dawned on me until these stories began affecting me. There have been stories about parents in Gangnam, Southern Seoul, surgically mending their children's tongues so they can speak English better. The latest ``story'' from Gangnam is that parents are now attempting surgical measures to enhance their children's brainwaves. In the suburbs, special cram schools run like military drill schools to hone academic skill. In some cases, no Internet or cell phone use is allowed, as the Internet and computer games in one of the most wired country in the world are widely blamed for taking students away from learning. These seemed like stories. But now we can find that these stories are not isolated cases, but happening in your family or to the family of your colleague or to your neighbor. And you know the news is real.
The educational zeal of Korean parents is a well-known fact. A majority of Korean families now tend to have only one or two children on whom they pour their affection and funds. These kids grow up as a generation of emperors and empresses their parents dote on and idolize. If they perform well in school, the idolization goes up a notch up. Should they not perform well, the idolization and doting slowly fades. What would you do if your idol failed you?
My perception of Korean educational zeal and its effect on children may well be extreme. As a non-participant in such matters, I can probably afford to ignore the calls of family to espouse that what kids need is a rapport with nature, creativity and freedom. I have a friend who is rearing two children in Denmark. They are both very young, one about six and the other just a toddler. She returns to Korea every year or two, so the differences are more distinctive to her. While kids who are about the same age as her son are busy attending math and English classes, her son is romping about in a one-piece jumpsuit. Incidentally, Denmark and Sweden ranked near the top in a recent annual survey of the world's happiest countries.