On the up and up...
vinylweatherman
There has just been an episode of "The Gadget Show" here in UK, which has said that it is not Japan, but South Korea that leads the world in gadgetry.
I've been living here for 5 years now, and it always seems to be progressing at a rapid rate. There science, chemical, engineering is off the charts. Frankly, I knew nothing about South Korea prior to coming here, and I don't think too many people pay much attention to they (outside of Asia). Mark my words, they'll be categorized with Japan (their historical enemies) soon enough. Think
LG,
Samsung, and
Hyundai (to name a few).
Sidenote: Actually, Japan is a GREAT place to visit (if you ever have a million dollars lying around).
cont...
With a piece on Robot Olympics that had 6 to 9 year olds building and PROGRAMMING robots from their laptops!!
Korea's education system is REALLY taxing and complex, and I don't think there's another country that can match the amount of time that their students put into studying (as theirs). Want "pushing-it-hard" (too hard IMHO), the high school students study 7 days a week, and basically are out of the house by 7:00 AM and come home AFTER midnight. During examination periods (like now), the students study at private institutes (academies) until 2:00 AM!!!
Actually, I've heard 3:00 AM!!!
And they wake-up at 6:30 AM!!! This doesn't apply to ALL students, but I think it would still be the majority of students. I was looking at a Middle-School #1 Math textbook the other day, and I was like... whaaaa?!!
I used to think that
Canadian Math was pretty good... whoops, my BIG ignorant mistake.
I still don't understand how these teenagers function on 3-5 hours sleep every day for 4-5 years.
I know they're excellent at memorizing everything they learn, but I have my doubts if they can have any long-term memory about what they're learning if they aren't getting any REM sleep. Being a great student is one thing, not being able to answer what their favorite movies and music is the downside.
I'm constantly reminded that because there are too many excellent students here, that it's easier for Korean students to get into Universities like Yale, Oxford, and Stanford (to name a few) than it is to get into their #1 University (Seoul University). Reason being that they can only accept so many students there each year.
Oh well, I save the rest of this stuff for my memoirs.
As the great "
cipher" used to say, "
Have a good one".
P.S. It's fun going back to read old threads (when you've got too much time on your hands).
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