Must be the school
- teodora_xx7
- Sep 21, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 25, 2018
For the first discussion, I want to argue the importance of high schooling in Korean work context. I will be using two clips from episode one and two of the Korean drama called Chief Kim (김과장). The first clip is shown Kim Sung-Ryong in an interview for a prestigious company and the second clip shows is the other employees judging Kim Sung-Ryong resume.
As Kim Doo Hwan and Choi Yool argues that : the the competition to enter a prestigious middle and high school was highly intense (2015). People are intensely competing to enter prestigious school and then famous companies. The first video shows the interviewer says that the male actor took the rough road: Kim Sung-Ryong attended a commercial high school and a night school as if the kind of school the principal actor went will affect the results of the interview. The interviewer says that he does not care about the results of the first exam. Kim Sung-Ryong was deemed too “different” for them to hire. We can see that companies have high standards that is reflected in their process of hiring.
But it is not only the companies that care about high status but the “normal” employees too. In this second video, we can see a group of employees judging the resume of Kim Sung-Ryong. They are using the fact that the principal actor is not deemed fit to do the job correctly to insult him and diminished him. They act this way, only using his resume to judge his character, agreeing to not treat him with respect. In class, we saw how Koreans respect is an important aspect of their culture and the fact that they did not deemed Kim Sung-Ryong fit for their respects is quite enormous. This conclusion was only based from where he is from and what school he attended. The last point to discuss it is how the small group of employees thought that the company was punishing them and give them a rough time because a person like Kim Sung-Ryong was hired.
In conclusion, I briefly talk about the importance of high schooling in Korean work context using 2 clips from Chief Kim. The first argument was that companies has high standards for prospective employees and if it does not fit, they are not scared to let down plus even the employees follows those high standards and judges people under them.
Questions for Discussions:
1. What are the differences of school importance in Korean modern work context and Western modern work context?
2. What do you think about the competition to enter prestigious schools and the stress that goes with the competition?
Reference:
Choi, Yool and Kim, Doo Wan. “The Irony of Unchecked Growth of Higher Education in South Korea: Crystallization of Class Cleavages and Intensifying Status Competition”. Development and Society 44, no. 3 (2015): 435-463.
Hello everyone,
This is a very good analysis from Teodora that incorporates elements from the scenes into a well-structured discussion. I also appreciate the clips! Be careful of your citations though. Also watch your romanization rules - character names should conform to RR standards.
This was a very insightful discussion to observe, especially because everyone has significant experiences to share with regards to education. Especially since we haven’t discussed education SPECIFICALLY yet, seeing the connections you’re making, it’s a very good start.
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