Cheer up, you can do it!
By Choi Tae-hwan
At around 4 a.m., before the break of dawn, it was as if she was in the middle of a fierce competition to survive a six-year-long marathon of the university entrance examination.
Her goal was to be the winner by being the first to cross the upcoming finish line in the November Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test. She knows the axiom that the person who laughs last laughs best. She eagerly works away at her studies. She foregoes all of her leisure time and hobbies, including watching TV, participating in entertainment performances, maintaining her shapely figure, and even sleep, almost everything she has wanted to do in her teenage high school years.
What a dreadful high school life she has! What an unbelievable life. She must work hard for eight days a week without a single break!
As a father as well as a teacher I’m proud of my lovely daughter who puts forth all her mind and energy into this marathon of the stark university entrance competition in Korea. This reminds me of one native English teacher's words of bewilderment. ``What an incredible eighth wonder it is for Korean high-school seniors to be able to survive their unbelievable high school life!"
After an early dawn study session of three to four hours, my daughter finally goes to bed for a short hour of rest before heading to school. She devotes herself to attending regular classes, complementary classes, and a self-guided study session from early morning until nearly 10 p.m. Then she walks up to my parked car through a throng of high school girls rushing out of the school building, with her school bag full of books strapped to her back and another small cloth bag of reference books thrown over her shoulder.
Upon arrival back home, she has made it a habit to go to bed for a short rest before waking up at 2 a.m. for early morning time. In doing so, the teenager has thrown away nearly all that she cherishes. She has no time whatsoever to watch soap operas or entertainment shows, nor even time to enjoy the spring flowers in full blossom with family or friends.
I asked my middle-school students to answer what would they do right now if they had some free time. Almost all the students answered that they would sleep. I was so sorry and embarrassed to hear that all they wanted to do in their free time was to sleep. Almost without exception, Korean middle and high school students are living a hell-like existence that focuses on an exam-centered life at school and private tutoring institutes. Even at home, they are unable to live a rich and fulfilling life as regular teenagers.
Korean students are under a great deal of stress, considerably more than their American, Chinese, and Japanese counterparts. For example, 87.9 percent of Korean students get stressed out during the school week, compared with 81.6 percent of American students, 82.4 of Japanese students, and 69.7 percent of Chinese students. What is worse, 72.6 percent of Korean students feel stress due to studying, higher than 54.2 percent for American students, 44.7 percent for Japanese students, and 59.2 percent for Chinese peers.
Shockingly, 56.9 percent of Korean students get only six hours of sleep on average, compared to 22 percent of American students, 46.5 percent of Japanese students, and 29.5 percent of Chinese students who get the same amount of sleep. Korean students have weak communication skills because they are engaged in fierce competition with other students for survival in high school and university entrance exams.
Now my daughter is lost in her studies during the middle of the night until 6 a.m., as she strives to earn a high score on the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test that she will take in November, so she can enter the university and department of her choice. All I can do for her now is to encourage her. I can also give her a shoulder massage to help her overcome her sleepiness and stay wake.
While proudly thinking of my daughter I ask myself, ``During the next 30 years, will my daughter’s children and her children’s children ever be free from this heavy yoke of a stressful life of studying at school and home?" I also hope she will be happy by attaining the goal of crossing the finishing line of her long marathon by the great efforts she will have put forth with all her mind and energy until she can finally shout, ``I made it! I did it!"
The writer is an English teacher at Jeonnam Middle School in Gwangju. He can be reached at cth0707@hanmail.net.