Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Okay, after reading this you may not feel so bad about your university degree in Lithuanian Renaissance literature or Myrmecology. Higher education in the west, in the United States in particular, has been trending for years towards majoring in fields of study which seem odd, sound even more odd, but speak to the passions, individuality and specialized interest of our young scholars. But it seems the trend toward studying esoteric disciplines is no longer particular to western countries anymore. At the link, you’ll read that in South Korea, one can currently enter college to study fields as disparate and odd as smartphone media studies, coffee-chocolate studies, golf and sports studies, and (our personal favorite) dessert café studies. It is all part of a new and growing trend in South Korean vocational schools and technical colleges to provide fields of scholarship in areas for which there is a need or growing demand in South Korean society. Most of these subjects are currently taught at the South Korean equivalent of the junior college level. Those who graduate with these odd majors are encouraged to either transfer to four-year colleges, or go directly into the industry for which they’ve trained. In that regard, the system is pretty much the same as the junior college system in the U.S.or the U.K. And honestly, we’d love to take a class on South Korean traditional fermented food studies. (Asian Correspondent – Odd Korean College Majors)
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Wait a minute. When a cute beagle enters the picture, it’s the humans who are supposed to glow, at least figuratively. And giggle, and say “oooh” and “aaaah”, and basically fawn like silly people over the fuzzy canine. But when the dog glows, literally, you have to wonder what new kind of science fiction has now become reality. In this case, the glowing beagle is the experimental result of cloning and genetic-modification techniques employed by South Korean scientists to help find cures for such devastating diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The idea behind creating the glowing beagle is to give it the ability to artificially show symptoms of some of the nastier diseases of the 268 that dogs share with humans. Yes, it does sound a bit confusing, in that it is tough to wrap one’s mind around the idea that a dog that glows artificially when tested for a fatal human disease won’t die of that disease. Still, this is new science, and the South Korean scientists who created the dog, a female named Tegon, have only been studying her and her glowing diagnostic properties since 2009. As with anything that involves the testing of innocent animals, we hope the benefits to both animals and humans far outweigh any harm done to animal test subjects. Oh, and one other thing: Tegon’s glowing ability can be turned on or off simply by adding a specialized antibiotic to her food, or withholding it. Makes one wonder if there will soon be a market for glowing pets. (Reuters – Glowing Korean Science Beagle)
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Asia is changing. I wrote previously that Japan’s ethnic sociology is shifting. However, Japan isn’t the only country in Asia coping with evolving demographics. According to a recent article from The Diplomat, South Korea is finally acknowledging the permanent settlement of foreigners, international marriages, and their children. This is just one of the many sociological issues that South Korea shares with its continental cousin. The other is the ethno-nationalism that persists in both countries. This blood-based nationalism has, as the article suggests, restricted South Korea from sublimating its definition for what it means to be Korean in the 21st century. What the article overlooks is that this race-based brand of politics is directly related to one of its historical enemy. Scholars and commentators like B.R. Myers have argued that the myth of Korean exceptionalism traces back to Japan’s annexation of Korea. According to Myers, the concept of tanil minjok (단일 민족) didn’t appear until the Japanese brought it to Korea. The Japanese implemented a European inspired brand of race theory to co-opt a developing nationality ensuing in reaction to the Japanese occupation. Except in this instance, the Japanese occupation taught Koreans that they were both of the same “Yamato race.” The only difference, in the eyes of the occupation, is that the Japanese saw most ‘Koreans’ as subordinate due to distinctions of class according to Sociologist John Lie’s book, Multiethnic Japan. What came about is the ethno-nationalism that people see today. The reason why I bring up the shared historical ideologies of Korea and Japan is because, as I stated earlier, both countries are facing shifting demographics. The days in which someone who is born in Japan is always of “100%” Japanese are long gone. The myth of homogeneity in Japan and its discriminatory practices against foreigners is the recurrent narrative in The Land of the Rising Sun. A similar type of story is surfacing where non-Koreans and their biracial inhabitants face identical prejudices. Furthermore, Japan’s reluctance to tackle these issues could offer a framework for what South Korea should avoid. So far, I’m under the opinion that the Japanese government has done little to ameliorate the problems their immigrants face. In certain instances, some of the comments from their various Prime Ministers and politicians have done more exacerbate sentiments against its multi-ethnic residents. (See Taro Aso and Ishihara Shintaro). Similarities aside, the stark difference between the two nations is that South Korea seems to be taking the issue seriously. The only education based multicultural program in Japan that I can recollect at the top of my head is the JET Program and that’s proving to be a bungling failure in its own respect. It’s not just this, but Japanese politicians have been more than stubborn to the U.N.’s calls for legislative reforms on the matter. The creation of a multicultural program catered directly towards its inhabitants is unprecedented in its economic big brothers like China and Japan. Like Japan, China is defensive of its domestic practices. I spoke to Michelle Gamboa,...
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Rich South Koreans don’t generally think of themselves as rich, and they don’t like to talk about the fact that they have money. There is a cultural taboo against doing so, you see, and it is considered undignified. Fair enough, since in most western cultures folks don’t like to talk about how poor they are. Still, at the link you’ll read some interesting statistics compiled about wealthy South Koreans surveyed by the research division of KB Financial, the country’s second-largest financial holdings group. What really jumps out from the survey results is that wealthy Koreans (those with $950,000 or more in assets) place the highest value in terms of spending upon education. By South Korean standards, a wealthy household earns an income of just over $200 thousand per year. The KB survey found that nearly a quarter of that income is spent on schools, exam-preparation “cram” schools, and private tutoring for the kids in wealthy households. South Korea has always been justifiably regarded as a brainy country; but it appears that the wealthiest echelon of Korean citizens is doing its best to ensure the country’s smart reputation endures. (Wall Street Journal Korea Realtime –South Korean School Spending)
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