Unbridled Private Tutoring Costs in Seoul

An article in The Korea Times sheds light on some of the current practices taking place in the world of private tutoring in the wealthy Gangnam district of Seoul.  Beginning last August, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education conducted an investigation of underground private tutoring.  Of the illegal cases it uncovered, it chose to publicize one in which a chief tutor hired fifteen others, some of whom were regaled as "star tutors" and charged parents as much as 10 million won ($8,000) per month for private lessons.  Classes were held in apartments or studio apartments that were converted for the purpose.  Students paid 1.7 million won per month for math tutoring while the cost for English, Korean, science and social science classes was about 1 million won per month.  Classes were held eight times a month at 90 minutes per class.

In legal terms, the problem was not the amount of money involved, but rather that this group operated an actual hagwon without reporting it to the education office.  (Click on the illustration to see a full size version)

Educational Exchange with Korea: The Pyongyang Project

I've been aware for some time now that the United States has limited educational and cultural exchange with North Korea.  Last year I had the opportunity to discuss this at length with one of the participants in Syracuse University's exchange program with Kimchaek University in Pyongyang, a long-running program.

My thanks to Brian in Jeollanam-Do for calling my attention to a new study abroad program involving North Korea.  The Pyongyang Project is a non profit academic endeavor that started in 2009 as some young academics and their advisors forged a long term relationship with the Korean International Youth and Children's Travel Company (KIYCTC) in P'yongyang, and worked with North Korea's Ministry of Education, Kim Il Sung University and the DPRK Foreign Ministry.

This is an encouraging project and will be an interesting one, indeed, to follow.

LinkedIn versus Facebook in Korea

As elsewhere around the world, social networking in South Korea is in a rapid state of flux, in no small measure because of the proliferation of smart phones and the social capabilities that mobile devices make possible.  As noted in earlier posts, social networking via Cyworld arrived half a decade before Facebook appeared in the U.S.  However, with the arrival of Apple's iPhone near the end of 2009 and the rapid proliferation of Android devices, both Facebook and Twitter began to gain significant market share here.

Gigaom has an interesting article entitled "LinkedIn and Facebook:  Personal Versus Professional in the Identity Wars."    Like many users of internet services, I've found myself much more comfortable with LinkedIn than with Facebook, precisely because the former deals with professional identity rather than close family or personal ties. I suspect that Korean users of both services have noted this difference as well, especially since the boundaries between personal and professional, culturally speaking, are different in Korea than in the West.  This much can be seen from the rather dramatic differences between Cyworld and Facebook.  When it comes to social networking, it seems apparent that one size doesn't fit all.