Tongue surgery as a key for                education in the "bigger world".

South Korea is well-known about extremely intensive education politics. It is not surprise anymore to hear that Korean students study very hard spending almost whole time from early morning till the late night in order to get better scores on examinations for being successful in admission to prestigious universities and correspondingly for finding a highly paid good job. In other words, education field in south Korea is considered as a very big and important part of people's life with the reason to achieve career development, to base lifespan in good conditions or simply saying, to have a "happy life" as they believe. 

In this article I would like to share with you my small researches about Korean cosmopolitan striving through the English language issues. Have you ever hear about "lingual frenectomy" or "tongue surgery"? It is quite interesting and delicate topic to discuss. 

- So what is "lingual frenectomy" and how does it related to education in South Korea? 
The fact is that in Korea the knowledge of English language is very valuable. There are not  so many countries like Korea which make tremendous focus on English as a marker of globalization. 

However there is a small issue, most of Koreans have some challenges with English pronunciation. So the reason of tongue surgery, which is quite popular for Koreans,  is to make an ability to pronounce English.  A lingual frenectomy is the removal of a band of tissue connecting the underside of the tongue with the floor of the mouth.* The surgery takes about ten minutes overall. 

 'One Korean doctor, Jung Do Kwang, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said: "Korean mothers have a fervour for education and think it will make their children fluent in e
English" '* This show  how South Korean mothers make an accent on surgery for flawless English and we can see that many mothers agree on surgery for good English pronunciation, what demonstrate an Korean obsession about education.

References:
"Mother's Management of English Education in South Korea" So Ji Park and Nancy Abelmann
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingual_frenectomy
*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-108751/Childrens-surgery-speak-better-English.html
and some more if you want to know more about:
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/18/news/adfg-tongue18

                  RUMORS OR TRUTH?

     DOG MEAT CONSUMPTION IN SOUTH                                       KOREA

      Probably many people all around the world heard about one of the most famous stereotypes of Korea that Koreans consume dog meats. And perhaps many of them have not hear anything special related to dog meat topics in China, Philippines, Vietnam even though eating the dog meat in those countries is fairly normal behavior. Then here is the question why only Korea is so well-known about dog meat?  

     The Mayor of Seoul in 2001, at the time when the FIFA World Cup was to be started in Seoul, announced in public that there will not be a taboo on selling the dog meat anymore. This action, as I think, was the main reason how the dog meat consuming stereotype in Korea appeared in the global view. 

  There are few famous Korean cuisine with dog meat like "Bositang" and "Gaegogi" which contain dog stew and considered as good for health dishes. One interesting thing is that there is a special season for eating dogs, usually at hottest days of summer when it helps to balance internal body temperature well and for more internal organs benefits.

   Actually eating dog meat in South Korea is as common as in China. In fact approximately half of Korean population have eaten dog meat at least once and only 2% eats it regularly meanwhile in China there are a dog meat festival. The Chinese dog meet cuisine is even more abundant.  

Korean cuisine

 The cuisines of different countries are so diverse.

       All around the world there are many countries where people still consume dog meat, cat meat and many other types which many people might find disgusting but let's see it from the other side, for instance, when you were born your parents fit you with common resources from your country and of course you don't really think about what you eat as long as your community consider that normal. Thus geographical position plays a big role in what kind of animal meat or even insects people consume. In some countries eating snails/snakes/rats/sparrows/monkeys/sharks/alive octopus/horses/dogs and so on is common while in some it is considered as repugnant. Likewise the dog meat in Korea is ordinary however not that much extreme as whole world think.    

       

        Here is some more examples of particular kind of Korean cuisine:

Alive octopus 

Silkwarm pupae

References: "Food and Korean identity in global context" Boudewijn Walraven

The Korean Crisis.

  

Only by the history timeline of Korea starting from Japanese occupation, Second World War, Cold war and finally Korean civil War we automatically can expect the poor economic conditions of Korea at that difficult for it period. At the end of the Second World War Korean peninsula was occupied by the Soviet forces on the North side of the 38^th Parallel and by the US army on the South of it. Thus each of two global powers had a half of Korea in hands. 

    After separating Korea into South and North Koreas one was collaborating with USA and another with USSR and China correspondingly. According to the deplorable circumstances both Koreas were born in crisis and pursuits of each was to stabilize the economic position.

   Behind the Civil War when both Koreas were ruined, South Korean economy was rebuilt with mostly US aid and investment however economy of North Korea couldn't achieve that by the reason of the Vietnam War in which North Korea concluded an agreement on free aid to Vietnam. In addition hostile relations between Soviet and China were not making better the position of communistic Korea and convinced it to be self-reliant. Furthermore the dissociation of USSR and fiasco of communism in Europe was a tragedy for North Korea. This all is an unlucky issues on the way of developing its economy. 

 The South Korea was caught up in the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, which left own consequences to its economic but even so, the country has become one of the world’s largest economies. 

              Religions in Korea during its 

                  economic development.

   The past of Korean religion starts from the ancient shamanistic traditions of worshiping to the heaven which symbolized a god. As time goes by religion was supplemented by Buddhism and Confucianism.

   

  Deeply saying, Confucianism was supported by last dynasty of Korea, Choson Dynasty (1302-1910) as a political ideology and suppressed the Buddhism, which despite to all the pressure is still one of the leading religion in Korea at modern time. In other words Choson Dynasty ruled more than 500 years and almost all that time there was a propagation of Confucianism. Nevertheless marks of Buddhism like temples can be easily found in cities of Korea still running. 

Geumsansa Gold Mountain Temple 

Near the end of Dynasty’s rule while Confucianism was collapsing in the country appeared new western religion, Christianity. 

Churches in Sanseong, Seoul

   After the civil war in Korea (1950-1953), when Korea divided into two different countries, when both of them were economically ruined the religion status was established as Christianity and Buddhism in South Korea and atheism in North.

   Since that time religion status in South Korea haven’t significantly changed. Therefore during the drastically developing period of republic of Korea in 20^th century Buddhism and Christianity were stabilized coexisting with Shamanism, Confucianism and Islam as well.

The Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon, Seoul

   The position of South Korea under the American Umbrella made a bridge for Christianity to come to Korea at the time period of its difficult economic development. Up to now Christianity is one of the major religion of South Korea.

References:The Koreas, 2nd edition, Charles Armstrong

Introduction to "Understanding Korea" course

             

               Understanding Korea

     This is my first blog ever and it is going to be all about Korea. Currently I'm studying in South Korea and I would love to share all the knowledge and experience I faced and I will face later on. During the four months I will write about the topics which I'm interested in by the help of Korean community.

•    Topics I'm interested in:

1. History of Korea, Interrelations with China, Japan

2. Modern International Relations (Programs for foreigners in Korea)

3. Behind Scenes of Powerful and Impetuous Progress of Korea

4. Diversity of Religion in Korea

5. Special Features of Korea (Korean Dramas, K-pop, Plastic Surgery etc)

6. Curious Stereotypes of Korean Community and Culture

•  Expectation for further active learning about Korea:

   From the "" Understanding Korea" course I expect to receive interesting, useful and unique information about Korean Culture, Community, Social Behavior, Traditions as much as I can and make a chance for others who are eager to become more familiar with Korea overcoming the distance case.

• Motivation in acquiring the knowledge of Korea:

  One of the the main reasons is that my ancestors were from Korea however by the historical issues many Koreans were immigrated to Russian Federation and later to many other countries in Central Asia and I'm the person with Korean blood, Russian Culture, Kyrgyzstan Citizenship kind of the result of such a long, complicated story.

  Accordingly I have a great chance to deeply learn, analyse and share about. If you are interested in my researches as well as I do, like and subscribe :)

 

References:The Koreas, 2nd edition, Charles Armstrong