Wheelbarrows vs. Lear Jets

I had a little extra down time before my first Korean class, so I thought to myself, "Self? Why not make a half-assed post before leaving school and beginning the big weekend adventure?" And then I followed my own advice. So, here I am.

It's Friday today. The Korean kids seem to dislike Friday eventhough I try to tell them how awesome it is. They apparently have hagwon after school today, so it's not like a Friday night where they get to take a load off and down a few...orange juice boxes or something. It's really kind of sad. My co-teacher and I have discussed how Korea is currently robbing the children of being children on more than one occasion.

I learned some interesting things. Korea is currently facing a problem of having too many smart people. It sounds kind of silly, right? How can you have too many smart people? Well, Korea has a 97% literacy rate. That's astounding compared to the U.S. Everyone has at least a bachelor's degree. The cashiers at Homeplus(uh) have a bachelor's degree. The construction workers have a bachelor's degree. Not to knock those jobs, but they don't require four years of college. While this seems like a good thing on paper to have a well educated work force, it can cause some problems. A higher amount of competence and intelligence means a higher amount of competition for the same good paying job. This means that parents get their children to work harder to the point of going to after school school and school on Saturdays and constant testing. My co-teacher said she spends about 1.2 million won a month on her two childrens' school. That's over $1000 a month, not for public school, but for hagwons and special programs. This large amount of money being spent only increases the pressure put on these children. The reason people only have 1 or 2 children typically is because that's all they can afford to educate. As a result, Korea's population is on a slow decline and every city but Seoul is shrinking. Now I know why education is not as important in America. Now I know why college isn't cheap. Now I know why some kids are taught, "hey it's cool to not go to college." It's an interesting world we live in.

Do you guys remember Truckosaurus? What ever happened to that thing? Is it still around? I had a conversation about Truckosaurus last weekend and I've been kind of thinking about it ever since. It had various names, but always the same thing. I guess since the "Cash for Clunkers" thing hit, all the monster truck shows have been hard up for clunkers. A true American pastime may have died under our very noses and we didn't even pay attention or attend the funeral. Tragic.

Ok, I'm off. Fast train, here I come.