Columns

Learning for the love of it

There is something striking about how learning is approached in Korea. Whether it’s sports, art or even casual reading, the question is not “do you enjoy it” but rather “how good are you at it?” Take tennis for example. When my daughter was looking for tennis lessons, it was surprisingly difficult to find a “normal” instructor. For someone picking up a racket for the very first time, the idea was to try it out, experiment and improve gradually. Yet in Korea, there is often immediate expectation to learn “properly” — from a certified coach, a former national-level player or someone with formal credentials. The idea of casual, imperfect learning can feel almost insufficient. At first glance, this emphasis on quality and expertise seems admirable. After all, Korea is known globally for its high standards and discipline. Yet, somewhere along the way, something important got lost: the joy of learning itself. Learning is inherently a process. It’s messy, inefficient and deeply personal. But in environments that prioritize “elite” standards from the very beginning, le

Stock market gains will ultimately flow into housing

President Lee Jae Myung’s high-profile pledge to divert liquidity from Seoul’s overheated housing market to the stock market seems to have worked as the main benchmark KOSPI has soared past 9,000 points in recent weeks, driven largely by massive retail buying. On top of several policy changes over the past year aimed at mitigating the “Korea discount,” the local equity market has received a much-needed boost from the semiconductor boom, fueled by the unprecedented memory chip demand from global tech firms for artificial intelligence. Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which now account for nearly 60 percent of the country’s market capitalization, have soared to all-time highs since the beginning of the year. But some investors have become increasingly uneasy as to whether the semiconductor cycle may have peaked despite the rosy market outlook, while others have become nervous due to sharp market swings following the debut of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds tied to the two memory chip giants on May 27. Against such growing market volatility, many investors

Time to rein in youth social media use

Smartphones and social media have become inseparable from young people's daily lives, serving as primary gateways to learning, entertainment and social interaction. But their benefits come with growing costs: addiction, anxiety, declining academic performance, cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content. Korea can no longer afford to ignore these risks. It is time to begin a serious discussion about introducing reasonable safeguards for minors' use of social media. Recent developments in the education sector underscore the growing urgency of the issue. Newly elected superintendents across the country have embraced "smartphone-free schools" as a key policy. Gyeonggi Province plans to restrict mobile phone use not only during classes but also throughout breaks and lunchtime, while Gangwon and North Jeolla provinces are rolling out smartphone-free school initiatives and digital detox programs. These are more than educational experiments. Schools have increasingly reported that excessive smartphone use disrupts learning, fuels conflicts among students and facilitates cyberbullying. Altho