Jenny Owen Youngs--"Fuck Was I" (mp3)
There's a funny scene in the great Dudley Moore movie Arthur where he's drinking with a soused guy at a bar and the guy is lamenting the fact that in our country kids are learning how to dance while in communist Russia, kids are being taught how to fight. Trying to commiserate/gently mock him, Arthur responds, "I wish we had some communists here."Welcome to Korea, where children are in school for the summer.
It's worth pondering. What are our students doing right now? Working jobs, hanging out, going out at night.
A Korean student, a rising senior, is old enough to go out and drink Soju all night long. But he doesn't, she doesn't.
A Korean rising senior is taking classes in a hagwon like the one we're in. Korean seniors are in classes 2-3 hours a day focused just on SAT reading. They are in classes 2-3 hours a day on SAT essay. On top of this, they are memorizing 300 words a day, 1500-1800 words a week, perhaps tens of thousands of words in a summer.
It sounds silly, doesn't it? It can't possibly work, can it? Well, none of us think so, but when I ask students, they will acknowledge that while they don't retain these words for the long term, that they do know a lot of words when it comes time to take the next SAT.
The younger children are following a similar regimen, though more likely focused on the SSAT that will help them to get into a good American boarding school sometime in the near future.
On top of this, many of them (like our students) are doing extra AP prep work in areas like history that are a struggle for them. They are taking writing classes, working with me, for example, on college essays. My summer students here will walk into the fall with 5 college essays already written.
It does make you wonder, doesn't it? I mean, I wouldn't want our students in general or my child in particular tied to a regimen like this. But, I am also teaching 6th graders--yes, I have a class of 4 sixth grade girls who are very fun, very active, very willing to work and very smart. On top of it all, they have superb English, far better than most of their senior year counterparts. This means that in the next 1/2 generation, Korean students are going to be working the same summer regimen, but not to make up English deficiencies. Instead, they will likely be achieving absolute mastery of many elements of standardized testing.
Right now, the American boarding school market for Koreans has tightened up. But if these future applicants can bolster their SSAT scores even more and can pay their own freight, are top schools really going to turn them down?
It does make you wonder, doesn't it? I mean, I wouldn't want our students in general or my child in particular tied to a regimen like this. But, I am also teaching 6th graders--yes, I have a class of 4 sixth grade girls who are very fun, very active, very willing to work and very smart. On top of it all, they have superb English, far better than most of their senior year counterparts. This means that in the next 1/2 generation, Korean students are going to be working the same summer regimen, but not to make up English deficiencies. Instead, they will likely be achieving absolute mastery of many elements of standardized testing.
Right now, the American boarding school market for Koreans has tightened up. But if these future applicants can bolster their SSAT scores even more and can pay their own freight, are top schools really going to turn them down?
Oh yeah, and every single student in the hagwon plays an instrument.
Thom Yorke live comes from one of Neil Young's Bridge Benefit concerts. Jenny Owen Youngs is available from Itunes.
Thom Yorke live comes from one of Neil Young's Bridge Benefit concerts. Jenny Owen Youngs is available from Itunes.
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