Korean Ed System

So tonight at dinner, like always when we eat samgyepsal, my host parents and I talked about the problems of the Korean educational system. Here were some shocking facts that I learned:

*The average amount spent by parents living in a rich neighborhood in Seoul on their child's private education (aka, after school cram schools) is about $2500/month (3 million won).

*One private English teacher makes $8 million/year (10 billion won) by teaching an internet course.

*At my host father's school, he gets paid $20/class (25,000 won) but that the school hires a special teacher from Seoul to come down on Sat and Sun and teach 4 classes each day, and pays them $200/class (250,000 won). (So in each weekend that teacher makes more than I make in a month) My host dad asked the students what was the difference between him and this teacher from Seoul, and they said that the one from Seoul teaches them how to answer multiple choice questions and about the probability of the correct answer. So basically, these students are learning how to take a test, and not actually learning English.

My host dad is going to teach an internet English class for 2 months on Sat nights from 9-10 and Sun nights from 10-11. YUCK! He asked me if sometime I would go say "hi" to his students. Bwahah, like I want to do that. I just found out that my host brother Jun-ho is taking an English course online Wed and Sat (don't know how long though).