Academic education in Korea is focused on exams. An important goal is to focus on getting high grades and passing the entrance exams of prestigious universities which could mean the difference between success and failure.
In order to get to college Korean students have to learn foreign languages like English or Chinese from kindergarten onwards. In elementary, students have to do extra studies until late at night. When they are in high school, they have to live in campus and have to study until midnight because in their third year, they have to pass an exam which will determine if they will be admitted to university.
I came to the Philippines when I was fifteen so, fortunately, I was able to escape from the intensive Koreean educational system. The Philippine educational system is quite different. Students here feel free to express their ideas and the way teachers teach is not framed or rigidly standardized. I had to adjust to this from the Korean structured system and where the priority is to get high grades and even try to improve on it every time.
I think that each educational system has its advantages and disadvantages. There is no such a thing as one system is absolutely good or bad. For me, an important consideration is whether or not a student is happy as what I found in the Philippines where students can even learn from each other.
In Korea we would always be given quizzes and we were expected to get high grades. If we did not, corporal or physical punishment could even be administered. It was almost suffocating as we worried every day about the prospects of getting low or high grades. And teachers just did not care about students who were not able to understand their lessons.
When I came here and attended a Philippine school, I was surprised at the much lower level of difficulty. If I studied a little harder, I could get high scores without much stress. I was especially surprised with the level of mathematics. What I learned in elementary school in Korea was what they were learning in high school here
So, here, I was able to study with less stress. In Korea, it was like an intense competition with each other. In contrast here in the Philippines, everyone here seems friendly without any jealousy or envy, and their appears not to be much stress because of studying.
Most Korean students are not good at expressing their thoughts to others because of their very structured way of education. I think that expressing oneself freely and studying without much stress make students happier and the Philippine education system is a good example on these.** By Jung Lily, UB Intern
