David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
The Suneung World Cup final
David Tizzard talks with his students. Courtesy of Tizzard
By David A. Tizzard
By David Tizzard
Halo walks into the room clutching a chocolate milkshake in a desperate attempt to rid herself of a hangover from last night's boozing. She is filming something for television today yet yesterday's clothes still cling to her with a sense of familiarity.
She is a 19-year-old studying Japanese at a Korean university. Her unashamed blue hair hangs down way below her shoulders.
As we begin discussing her views on the Korean “suneung” university entrance exam, it doesn't take her long to swear comfortably and fluently in English. She's exasperated by her own memories and those a whole new batch of hopefuls are to be exposed to.
She is, in essence, the very personification of a middle finger to the standardized model. She rejects both the accepted appearance dictated to her and the academic path she is supposed to tread.
Despite this refusal to acquiesce, or perhaps because of it, she possesses a sharp instinct and acute awareness of what's going on around her. She scores high on her papers and often outperforms her peers.
And she is most opinionated when it comes to Korean education. She is no stranger to the Daechi-dong system and yet holds it in great contempt.
Ultimately, she wants a change in the entire education paradigm. Not just a change in the number of tests, the order of exams, or how many airplanes detour over the city on the day, but rather an entire reshaping of the national consciousness.
“It's got to be OK to fail” is the one message that seems to reverberate from her. It's OK not to wish for the Sky Castle and everything else that comes with it. That's someone else's dream. Or nightmare.
There needs to be more options in life. More flexibility. More chances for one to find oneself.
And if the “sa-ba-sa” lifestyle really is here, it's got to apply just as much to education as well as one's choice in Netflix dramas, cosmetics, or type of ddeokbokki.
While every society has a Halo, it would be wrong to see her as unique ― at least when it comes to her views on this topic. She is joined for the conversation by Sein and Su-ah.
While both are far more reserved in appearance, they share the same level of intellect. And, moreover, they also have strong opinions on what should happen here.
Sein likens the preparation for suneung as akin to an Olympic event or World Cup final. The test may be taking place this Thursday but the serious work began long before.
Of course every student has been building up to this moment for years ― the fear and trepidation drilled into them late at night or early in the morning any time their head glances sideways from their dull, algebra, and grammar filled textbooks and toward that highly addictive and gorgeously appealing smartphone world.
Yet Sein recounts how one month before she had to start “training.” Your mind and body, after all, have to be ready to sit a whole day of tests. A day that will determine ― for better or for worse ― your next four years, at least.
So you start eating differently. Not just the superstitious stuff like no seaweed soup ― though that's still just as real among this generation ― but rather trying to achieve one's fighting weight. Do you need to be slender and light? Or thick and warm?
Everyone has a different idea, but it's all geared toward that test. Music is abandoned. Friends are put on hold. Hobbies are simply unthinkable.
It's the kind of thing that Rocky would be proud of ― all Sein needs is some snow-covered steps and some frozen pig bodies to punch.
She also reflects with some remorse how this period doesn't just affect the young students but also the mothers and fathers, too.
If a student does not perform well on the test, for many this reflects just as badly on the mother as it does on the one who sat the test: A rather unfortunate continuation of the collective punishment so desperately unneeded.
Sein wants the entire concept of university to be changed here in South Korea. Students often arrive for four years at a location they did not choose, to study a major in which they have no interest, and serves to do little to help them develop anything of themselves.
There needs to be more “living outside the box.”
Su-ah agrees with all of this. In fact, she speaks more than the other two. She took the suneung exam twice and thus has perhaps the most to say.
Watching her friends go off to university while she relegated herself to another year of near-torture was a terribly hard decision to make. Yet she felt she had no choice.
And she's not alone. Some students will re-sit the suneung exam two, three, or even four times in a lamentable attempt to achieve something they are told is worth it.
Imagine the opportunity cost of that. An 18-year-old spending three years in such conditions ― in the “free” Korea.
Su-ah wants a change in the high school system. It needs to start earlier for her. And she is probably right.
High school is essentially a waste of time, with students using that time to catch up on sleep before heading to ridiculously expensive “hakwons” late into the night. People will queue for hours just to get the best teachers at these academies ― they will spend stupid amounts of money, they crave the “skill” only available in Daechi.
This, in turn, creates inequality. It widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. But no one really wins. The kids, rich and poor, are still stuck as the Floydian “brick in the wall.”
A system was recently introduced in which Korean high school students can take a semester off to “find themselves.” Yet, you know what they do with the time? Yep ― straight to Daechi.
Thus, while the three girls all believe that a different area is most requiring of change, they are fairly unanimous in wanting something to happen.
But will it? Should it?
Perhaps one answer would be, “Who cares?”
Let people do the suneung test. Let them sacrifice their childhood. Their mothers' free evenings. Their hard-earned money.
It's their life after all. But your life is “your” life.
Do what you want, blue hair or not.
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University. He also presents economic and cultural issues on “Business Now” on TBS eFM (101.3FM) live every Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.