I had a hard time understanding the history behind education and why it is still so important to South Koreans before coming to South Korea. It was hard to understand why people spent so much time and money on hagwons that it became illegal for hagwons to open after certain hours. After our Korean Education and Korean History lecture during the first week, I came to a deeper understanding of not just the education system but also the Han culture in South Korea. Han in English is translated to grief, resentment, or sorrow. Because South Korea has been attacked and controlled throughout history, they have a deep hurt (known as Han culture) inside their hearts. The strategies that they had to strengthen their country to was to become educated and it worked. I came to an understand that education is important to many people in South Korea because they don’t want history to repeat itself. I made connections between the hagwon articles and history sections of the books that we read, which was very difficult for me to do at first, through listening and putting myself in the shoes of a citizen in South Korea’s fallen country throughout history. Asking questions and hearing the honest truth from both professors and students also helped me to connect the readings to the lectures.
