Byeo-Ri

Here's a picture of Stephenie and her KU buddy, Byeo-Ri. Since my own buddy doesn't speak English well, Byeo-Ri has been helping me much with adapting to life in Korea. She is the nicest Korean buddy in the group, and a funny friend as well. The day before meeting us exchange students, she actually had her long hair cut into bangs so that she would look cuter. And because her grasp of English is not that good too, she was always using her translator on the phone to find the right English word she wanted.

According to her, Korean students take university life very seriously, because they believe that the university that they attend will determine their future in life. That is why everyone studies very hard in order to get into the 3 best Korean universities, known as SKY universities (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University). It can get very stressful, as the high school students need to take up to 8 subject papers in just one day for their university entrance examinations. For Byeo-Ri, she took the high school examinations twice so as to get into KU. For her school, not getting into the SKY universities meant that the students become failure in life.

In Korea, students will go to the school that they applied to to check the results of their entrance examinations. For Byeo-Ri, she went to the KU gate to see if her name was pasted on the acceptance sheet at the front gate of the university. She said the minute she saw her name, she broke down immediately. And her parents were so estatic that they held a celebration party when she got back, and all her neighbours in the neighbourhood came to her house to congradulate her.

This is how important a top university matters to a South Korean. Interesting huh! Wonder why Singaporeans don't find it as proud to get accepted into NUS.