Introduction from Grown-Up Sarah Mack, 11 Years Later
Hello all!
My name is Sarah Mack, and I am the director of the Seoul SPARKS program in Korea. I have been working in international education in Korea for many years now, and I actually came to Korea as a high school exchange student myself back in 2013 when I was fifteen years old! More than anything else, I love helping ambitious high school students study abroad in Korea and have amazing educational experiences here.
A lot of students ask me how high school is different between Korea and the US, and even more than ten years later I often refer them to this video I made at sixteen with my friend Carol-Ann. Even now that I am an adult, I think this video actually has some decent points in it! So here is the video in its unfiltered glory, as well as a transcript below.
Enjoy!
From,
Grown-up Sarah Mack
Video Transcript - "Korean vs. American High School (Exchange Students Study Abroad Perspectives"
Sarah Mack (USA)
Hey there guys, this is Sarah from SarahsSeoulSearch, and my beautiful friend Carol from French Canada. She's awesome. And we're broadcasting from none other than our school library, as you can see.
Today we will be discussing the differences between Korean and American high school.
1 - Schedule and Calendar Differences
Sarah Mack (USA)
I guess we should start at the beginning with some schedule differences. Korean school starts in March and it usually ends in late December to early January-ish.
The first day of school is normally March 2nd, but if that day is a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, then it'll start the following Monday. That's actually what happened to us. We started on March 4th.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yay!
Sarah Mack (USA)
And there are two vacations, one in August, I believe, and then one in the winter, which runs through the Lunar New Year all the way to the end of February, which is when you start school. And I think the reason for this is you become one year older during the New Year's celebration, so I think this makes it easier to put people in the right grade. Everyone in the same grade is going to be the same Korean age.
I'm 16 in America, but in Korea I'm 17, and every first grader is going to be 17.
You're what, 18 here?
Carol-Anne (Canada)
No, I'm 19 here, but in Canada I'm 17.
I should be in 3rd grade, but I'm actually in 2nd grade.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yeah, because 3rd grade would not be fun at all.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Too much studies.
Sarah Mack (USA)
The 3rd graders, poor seniors, they never get to do anything fun. The 2nd grade is all going to be 18, and 3rd grade is all going to be 19 years old.
The high schoolers are usually in school from 7.40 to 5 o'clock, which is when we get to leave, but everybody else has to stay until 10 p.m. for yaja (야자). Or they can leave and go to hagwon, which is basically the same thing, only they get to study a certain subject intensively.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Until 1 a.m.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yeah, one of her friends has an English hagwon after yaja, and then he stays there until 1 in the morning.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Which is really late. So he's coming back home at maybe 2.
That's terrible. Which means that he's not sleeping a lot. Yeah.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Korean kids are perpetually exhausted for things.
2 - Korean students wear uniforms (even at public school).
Sarah Mack (USA)
Every school starting in middle school is going to have a uniform, and usually they'll have a summer and a winter uniform. We're wearing our winter uniforms right now.
Pretty hot, as you can see.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
But some people actually are not wearing this thing, and only are not wearing the tights.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Nonconformists, I guess.
3 - Korean students do self-study unsupervised.
Sarah Mack (USA)
As you can see in my other video, A Typical Day at School in South Korea, there's a 50-minute study session before the actual classes begin, and kids are left totally by themselves.
They don't have any teachers supervising them, and they're essentially trusted to get their own work done without teachers on their back telling them what they have to do. And I think that's actually pretty impressive.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Because this school has been here for over 100 years, and nobody has managed to burn it down yet (laughs).
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Which is pretty good.
Sarah Mack (USA)
That's pretty good, because if you left a bunch of ninth graders alone in a classroom for 10 minutes in America, it would be terrible.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah, it would not be good in Canada either.
4 - Korean students take way more classes, and there are fewer electives.
Sarah Mack (USA)
So every student takes about 16 classes, but since the schedule is different for every day of the week, the classes rotate. The schedule, in my opinion, is not reliable.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Sometimes they're just like, "oh, okay, today it's not going to be like usual, so let's take this period and put it at the third period when it's supposed to be the first one, and just mix everything up."
Sarah Mack (USA)
Normally, it's the same thing for every day of the week, but sometimes they'll just throw you a curveball, and they'll just tell you, "Oh, by the way, you're not taking this class, third period, you're actually taking it right now, and get ready." and everyone just scrambles to get their books, and it's crazy.
I have 16 classes, which is a lot more than what I took in America. It's about twice the course load that I took in the States.
I'm just going to read it off this paper, because I can't remember them all off the top of my head, as stupid as that sounds.
I take math... I take three different physics classes with different teachers. I take biology, sociology, geography, English, Korean history, college prep, art, music, consumer and domestic science, gym, religious studies, and clubs, which you can choose for yourself, but basically every other class is decided for you. You don't really have a choice.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
You don't really have a choice. And in second grade, it's basically the same. Yeah, basically the same, except that we can choose between Chinese and Japanese, so I'm now doing Chinese. It's pretty fun, so it's okay. Even if it's really hard. There's also East Asian history, literature, and ethics.
5 - In Korea, the teachers switch classrooms, not the students.
Sarah Mack (USA)
So there's a 10-minute break between each class, and for the most part, students don't have to switch classes. The teachers will usually switch classes instead. Sometimes teachers can show up a little bit late if they have something else they need to do, or if they finish their lesson early, they can leave early.
And sometimes if they don't deem it necessary, they don't have to come at all, which kids are like, "Okay," and they'll just study.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah, start studying by themselves, which is pretty good.
Sarah Mack (USA)
In America, if the teacher didn't come to class, kids wouldn't be studying! No, they would not study.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
The school would be on fire.
Sarah Mack (USA)
The whole building would just be gone.
6 - In Korea, students ask questions after class, not during class.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
When the teacher is actually in the class, it's mostly lecture-based, because there's many people in the class. Teachers need to be really, what's the word?
Sarah Mack (USA)
Efficient?
Yeah. Since there's so many kids, if everybody was asking a question, it would take forever.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Kids are mostly silent and listening the whole time, and they can run after the teacher after the class is finished, and then they can ask the question if they want to.
7 - In Korea, the teachers all work from the same room.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Teachers usually don't have their own offices. They all share one big office called the Kyomushil (교무실). Usually they'll all have their own little cubicle with a desk and their books.
The kids can go there during breaks and ask questions if they have to. This is actually a pretty useful system.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah, I think so too.
Sarah Mack (USA)
It makes it a lot easier for the teachers to collaborate and for students to find the teachers. It also allows the principal or anyone who needs to make an announcement to just put it out there without calling a meeting and making a big deal out of it.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
There's kind of a lot of teachers, so if everybody has to gather at the same time, it can take a long time.
8 - In Korea, there is more studying on your own vs. homework that you turn in.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Compared to the amount of studying that the Korean kids have to do, there isn't really a lot of homework, except for a couple of classes. Math, usually I have a lot of math homework.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
I have math homework too.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Math homework is typically around 100 to 200 questions a week, and it's not very fun. Kind of really hard.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
It's really hard for us to understand, and even for Korean kids.
Sarah Mack (USA)
The Korean kids can't do it. We can't even understand the instructions, so we're just sitting there trying to translate the instructions.
For the most part, other classes just assign readings, which sucks for us, because reading is probably the hardest part, in my opinion.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Mine too. In a class, there's almost no work. The teacher is speaking, that's all.
You listen, and you... Kids are taking lots of notes in their workbooks, but there's no activities and nothing in that kind to do.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Teachers aren't going to give you a worksheet to work on at the end of class.
You sit there and you listen, you take notes, and you study those notes. Exams in Korea are really, really, really important. Most of your grades are determined by that.
9 - In Korea, exams are the end-all, be-all.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
If you end up not doing good at one exam, you're going to feel really bad, because every exam is really important. They're actually doing exams right now, which is why we're in the library.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yay!
10 - At Korean high schools, corporal punishment is allowed.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Another point we wanted to cover was that corporal punishment is allowed in Korean high schools. At my school, it's fairly rare. You don't see kids getting beat every day for stupid things.
Teachers will sometimes carry around their sticks menacingly, like, "Don't talk during class!"
The stick literally translates from "사랑의 매". It literally means "stick of love."
They're not going to beat you half to death. They're just doing it because they want you to succeed. The teachers genuinely do care.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah, they do.
Sarah Mack (USA)
They're not going to yell at you for slacking because you're annoying them so much, because they want you to do well on your exams and to get into a good college, so you can succeed later in life.
However, it sometimes does happen, especially around exam days. If you're late on an exam day, you're probably going to get punished.
The first time I actually witnessed someone being punished in this way was today, because a girl was late for her exam, which is a big no-no.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Don't do that. Exams, like we said, are really important here. Don't be late.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Her teacher swatted her one time on the hand. She was okay.
It was more embarrassing than physically painful.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
I don't think it really hurt that much.
11 - At Korean high school, you can be fined for showing up late.
In my class, if you're late, I don't know about your class or other classrooms, but in mine, it's working that if you're late in the morning, at least, you have to pay 500 won, which is almost like 50 cents, which is not a lot, but if you're late often, it can be irritating.
You can buy ice creams, and people here love ice creams.
Sarah Mack (USA)
They love their ice creams.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
They think, "I could have had ice cream today, but I can't because I was late this morning."
Sarah Mack (USA)
Don't be late or you won't get ice cream.
12 - At Korean high school, teachers are highly respected.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Teachers are really, really well-respected, at least at our school.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah.
Sarah Mack (USA)
From what I've heard, in most schools in Korea, teachers are very much revered because it's a really hard position to get into. You have to work really hard to become a teacher.
People tend to just respect adults and people who know more than them around here.
Every time you see a teacher, you're supposed to bow to them. You don't have to go all the way down, but while you're passing, that probably looked weird on camera. It's okay.
You just kind of have to nod your... torso.
13 - At Korean high school, university rankings are king.
Sarah Mack (USA)
In Korea, there's a very, very high emphasis on getting into a good university. The three universities that you're probably going to hear about the most are the SKY Universities, which is Seoul [National] University, Korean University, and Yonsei University. I'll hear these names thrown around regularly in class, so you're going to hear a lot about them if you come here.
They're the most prestigious colleges in the country, and their acceptance rates are extremely low. If you thought a 7% acceptance rate for Harvard was low, then you're wrong. Because about 1 in 200 applicants makes it into Seoul University, which is insane because a lot of people are applying.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah.
Sarah Mack (USA)
I generally think that most of them have the study skills and the knowledge to succeed in these universities, but there's just so many applicants that the colleges probably don't know what to do. It's probably more luck than skill.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
That's why exams are so important here.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Colleges look first at your exam performance, especially the third-year exams, which is basically the biggest test of your life. It will determine what college you go to, what job you have, so you have to do very well.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
If you miss that exam, if you're sick on that exam, you're screwed.
14 - At Korean high school, attendance matters A LOT.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Another thing that they look at on college applications is attendance, which I find American schools really don't look at at all. But in Korea, by law, schools have to be open 220 days out of the year.
I'd say most schools are probably open closer to 365 days a year because a lot of kids come to school even during the summer, which hopefully they're not going to make us do because that doesn't sound like fun.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Not at all. If you miss two days in a row, it's really not good for your college application. You can miss one day, but even if you're really, really, really sick, you have to be back the second day.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Basically, unless you're literally in the hospital dying or at a funeral, then you're coming to school.
15 - At Korean high school, there might be squat toilets.
Sarah Mack (USA)
There's one more thing that we wanted to mention, which is extremely important.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Extremely important!!!!!!
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yes - the bathrooms.
Just about every toilet in school is going to be a squat toilet. You better know how to use one before you come to school.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Don't hope for having real bathrooms because it's not going to happen.
Sarah Mack (USA)
It will not. It's not fun. Bring toilet paper.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
For some reason, in almost every bathroom, there is no toilet paper. I don't know the reason.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Unless you're at your house, have some toilet paper with you because chances are the bathroom that you're going to won't have any.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Even in public places.
Sarah Mack (USA)
It's not very fun to find yourself without toilet paper too late.
We cannot stress this enough because I didn't believe it before I came here.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
It's true.
Sarah Mack (USA)
I heard about the squat toilets online. I was like, "It's not going to happen to me. No way.
Korea is way too civilized to still be using squat toilets."
Don't get me wrong. Korea is completely civilized!!! But they do use squat toilets and they are extremely uncomfortable for us foreigners.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Take some advice from us and get yourself some toilet paper.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Hopefully, you enjoyed this video.
Hopefully, it wasn't too long, which it might have been. I apologize.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
I apologize to you guys too.
Sarah Mack (USA)
We really wanted to get some comprehensive information out there. These were things that surprised us when we got here.
We don't want that to happen to anyone else.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Particularly, the bathrooms.
Sarah Mack (USA)
The bathrooms, number one.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Never forget the bathrooms.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Never forget. You will regret it.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Yeah, really.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Thank you for watching and make sure you subscribe down here.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Subscribe to Sarah's channel.
Sarah Mack (USA)
SarahsSeoulSearch. So clever. Even though I don't live in Seoul.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Jeonju.
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yes, Jeonju. That's where it's at.
Hopefully, we'll be seeing you in our later videos.
You'll be seeing us, actually.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Oh, me too?
Sarah Mack (USA)
Yeah. Oh, of course.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
Okay.
Sarah Mack (USA)
I mean, if you want.
Carol-Anne (Canada)
I'll see you around.
Both
Bye!!!
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