Over $11 Billion Spent on Hagwon

A woman from Seoul's wealthy Gangnam district who spent over $11 billion on a hagwon education for her son says she now regrets the expenditure, despite the prestige it bought her with her neighbors at the time.

Kim, 53, said she began paying for extra English classes 22 years ago when her child reached the Korean age of 1, just after being born. She admits that at the time there was little understanding of foreign English teachers in Korea, so even though the fees were expensive for the rare commodity, she was hopeful that within a year her son would be fully bilingual, and possibly even have lighter skin.

However, despite an arduous program of hagwon study which later included private lessons at home with a foreigner - even though it meant having to let him into her husband's apartment - she said that by the time her son was 2 year's old he was still taking several hours to complete homework assignments that should have taken minutes, despite the beatings.

Deciding that more intensive and expensive study was needed, she sought out the most exclusive of teachers at the hagwon, and within a few years the combined cost of the fees, special English language textbooks written in Korean, and exclusive hagwon branded-clothing designed to maximize a child's English language potential had risen to almost $50,000 per day, which fortunately her husband – the CEO of a construction company undertaking government contracts – was able to afford.

Kim – who speaks no English herself – was assured that her eldest son was making good progress after he won the Seoul Inter-Hagwon Muck-UN for five years in a row with a series of rousing 20 word or less speeches, but she now thinks that the gifts she gave the hagwon judges to ensure her son received favorable consideration not only helped him win, but also hid the fact that he still couldn't really speak the language.

Her son eventually went to the prestigious Seoul International University after a gift to the institution, but the downturn in the construction industry meant that her subsequent hopes for him becoming a doctor or a judge had to be set aside for the only remaining career that offered the hope of making the $11 billion back – becoming a politician.

While a health issue resulted in her son being exempted from mandatory military service, it has at least enabled him to take the first steps in his planned public career, by taking a position arranged for him by his father at The Korea Times as an intern. But Kim says that she is now bitter about being forced to spend so much on private education, and wants the government to crack down on poor-quality teaching by foreign English teachers.

Related Links
Over $11 billion spent on hagwon
Is Your English Instructor Really English?
Gram of Pot Now as Cheap as a Gram of English

Disclaimer: Please note the links above are generated automatically by our software and may not always be directly related to the news article.

Psy Wins Korean Grand Prix

History

Global Korean rap sensation, who has taken the world by storm with his hit song "Gangnam Style", won today's Korean Grand Prix in a sensational result that promises to raise the profile of Korea and establish an entirely new approach to the sport.

A so-called 'Formula One' race is traditionally won by the first person to pass a black and white patchwork flag which represents the history of the sport – checkered. However, there has never been a Korean participant in the race because of its anti-Korean rule which requires drivers to wear tightly enclosed helmets – a fact that obviously puts anyone who eats kimchi before wearing one at a considerable disadvantage due to fog buildup and attendant health risks. Drivers are also not allowed to drink alcohol before entering their vehicles in Formula 1, potentially negating years of driving experience a domestic competitor would have gained on the streets of Seoul.

But the coordinated attempt by these other countries to prevent a Korean victory backfired spectacularly today when Psy was invited to wave the checkered flag at the end of the race, and in doing so became the first person to actually pass it as he waved it around, narrowly beating Sebastian Vettel, who is not Korean.

Formula One teams reacted angrily to the surprise result, but replays from Korean television clearly showed Psy - who everyone knows has more horsepower - passing the checkered flag before the nosecone of Vettel's slow European car. As such, the rules of the sport clearly define Psy as the winner.

It is believed to be the first time a Korean has won a Formula One race, although records on the sport only go back three years because before this there was no race held within the country so it wasn't worth bothering with.

Related Links
Psy to Wave Checkered Flag at F1 Korean Grand Prix
S. Korean sensation Psy to perform at F1 Korean Grand Prix
Korea's Second F1 Grand Prix Declared a Success
Crowds Wait in Vain For Korean Formula One Driver to Lap Circuit
F1 Driver Denied Entry to Korea Under Tough New Visa Restrictions

Disclaimer: Please note the links above are generated automatically by our software and may not always be directly related to the news article.

Military Criticized for Trying to Cover Up North Korean Invasion

South Korea's military has come under fire after a trying to cover up a North Korean invasion which it has been revealed took place on Tuesday last week.

The invasion by a North Korean soldier was originally said to have been seen as he crossed the demilitarized zone (DMZ) which divides the country - and he was then forced to surrender. However, after gaps in the story wider than those in the border emerged, investigators discovered that the North Korean invader was not detected until he knocked on the door at a guard outpost and the South Korean soldiers inside took him into custody, after going to the bathroom.

The investigation team disclosed that the 22-year-old North Korean soldier had crossed the heavily-guarded border in uniform, climbed barbed wire fences, hitched a ride to Seoul with a group of soldiers who had just been relieved, went sight-seeing around the Blue House and traveled around the Seoul subway system before finally making his way back to the border where he declared his intention to defect.

Questions are now being asked as to how the North Korean soldier evaded detection for so long. A surveillance camera is installed at the outpost to monitor activity in the DMZ, but according to unconfirmed reports it was not recording the border crossing at the time as it was pointed inside the outpost to discourage bullying among soldiers.

However, the military have attempted to play down the case, saying that the outpost was on a heightened state of alert at the time following the reported sighting of a North Korean submarine in the East Sea earlier in the day, so the soldiers were hiding in line with standard operating procedure.

Although defections across the land border are rare, two other soldiers from the isolated Koreanist nation have made their way across the heavily-armed border this year alone, sparking allegations of lax security. In one of the incidents, the defector even drove to safety having apparently spent several months building a road to another South Korean outpost.

Related Links
Military criticized for lying about NK soldier's defection

Disclaimer: Please note the links above are generated automatically by our software and may not always be directly related to the news article.