It's 9:26am on a Thursday and I'm sitting at my computer lazily drinking my second cup of coffee, typing away, listening to the noise of my washing machine that sounds like it may take flight any second. Home on a Thursday morning, you ask? No, I'm not sick. It's KSAT Day!
The Korean Scholastics Aptitude Test (KSAT) is a high-stakes entrance exam that has major significance in Korean education. Much like the United States, your score on the test will determine what universities you can apply to, and in extreme cases, what faculties will accept you for study.
This is a day where you can wander the streets near any proctoring institute and see hoards of high-school students crying into the arms of their friends and family out of happiness, relief and/or disappointment. National suicide statistics slowly start to climb on this day and spike around the time when results are being delivered.
So significant the test, that traffic is almost non-existent today. Anyone not writing the test is at church or temple praying for their son, daughter, niece, nephew and cousin-twice-removed to fare well. Not only are the streets quiet, but the sky is noticeably empty as well.
Yes, on KSAT Day, flights are canceled during the exam administration hours so as not to disturb and consequently affect the exam scores of the nation's young scholars. It's that intense.
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Yesterday, over a lunch of sweet and sour hot dog stir fry and seaweed soup (I kid you not), Mrs. Jeong and I discussed the KSAT's. Two years ago, her eldest daughter wrote the KSAT. During the week leading up to the exam date, Mrs. Jeong and her family religiously went to her parents' grave, gave offerings and prayed for good results. The exam day came and went. When her daughter finally received her results, Mrs. Jeong marched back to her parents grave, this time with no gifts or prayers, and basically muttered a, "Thanks for nothing." Her daughter currently studies in Australia as she was not able to study her desired program in Korea because of her results. Mrs. Jeong laughed the entire time while telling me this story. Glad I was educated in Canada!
1 Comment
You need a ball winder to wind those skeins! Unfortunately they run around $50... though Lara says you can get one for 15,000 won here... A swift would also help... the swift holds the yarn whilst the ball winder winds it... it's ingenious... now you just need enough cash to make the purchase! Love the knitting page.. wish I could comment there!!! (Though I'd most likely be the only one...)
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Recently Updated...03.25 - Two posts! About Me...Out and about in the world, teaching others and educating myself. Stuff I Like...Traveling. Cuddling a cat. New toothbrushes. Friends. Socks of the Joanne Younes variety. The smell of sun-dried laundry. Baking. Archives
March 2008
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