Tuition Fees

  University tuition payment in Korea is quite different than it’s in Saudi Arabia, in the term where not all of university students have to pay for studying. Students are between regular students (full-time study) or part time students. For regular student the college gives each one a monthly allowance to cover one’s need like accommodation, transportation, meal or books cost. To receive money from the government during your university attending period is not always a positive thing. It has some advantage and disadvantage upon students.

When my Korean friend heard of this, the wish if the were like us but I don’t think they realize the negative impact.  Being studied at a college in Saudi Arabia, I would say that if all of your fees are paid by the government then you will not be as hard studying person as you should be, I mean when a person pays from his/her packet, we see them always trying to have the most of benefit or education they can get from school. In other words “no gain without pain”. Add to this, one a student do a part time job, he/she will get a good experience that in some case make that person better in his/ her filed. No deny that by doing a part time job you will get exhausted and tired but this pressure makes you make strong and responsible for tomorrows life. As I heard from my friends who graduated and being working in some companies that the school life is less stressing than job.

But what I think stress the Korean students the most is that they actually need to spend more time to study in order to challenge others who don’t do part time job. Studying in Korea is very tough specially when most of the students if not all fighting to get the best grades. So when a student got a chance to study more and spend more time in library preparing for exams while the other one is working to save money for the semester’s fees its not fair and it resulted people to protest and demonstrate against this issue.

 I have just read this news that I would like to share with my Korean friend. It says that the government said it would budget a total of 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) next year to lower fees by just over 15%. Further cuts will be made in 2013 and 2014 after pressure from opposition parties announcing they would introduce legislation to halve fees, support low-income students and reform private college foundations which back the majority of the country's higher education institutions.

Evaluate of Mr. Ahn

         Thanks to Lee Taejan and Ho Insu for bringing a political subject to talk about, Mr. Ahn candidacy. I like the issues related to politics and since we have a complete different rolling system in Saudi Arabia, it was very interesting to know some about the political situation in Korea.

      I have searched and read more about Mr. Ahn. Apparently he is very loved by lots of Koreans for his upright personality, social entrepreneurship and attitude. A smart person with a wide knowledge and experience fighting for the next elections to be the president of the republic of Korea.

      Briefly talking about him, he has been a medical doctor for 14 years. Also, during his graduating schools he was interested in computer. Later on he established a software company to make more than 10 billion won in annual sales. His name start getting famous and his fame start growing rapidly since he started to give lectures to the public on social affairs during 2009.

     Many of youths and even older people are influenced by the social evangelism of Ahn through his public lectures, books and TV talk shows. He concurs with President Lee on his call for a just society and win-win relations between large and small businesses but they deplore the leader’s inability to take practical steps to achieve these goals while the system continues to harbor conglomerates.

What kind of problems or obstacles disrupts him to reach presidency?

   Well, first of all, he does not have much experience about politics. His occupations as a professor, researcher, programmer, physician, entrepreneur and a doctor create kind of concern in his society because it is obvious that he does not have a political experience. So it’s controversial wither a smart person like him going to be a dynamic politician and a great president of Korea or not.

      It was in his hand to deal with big political parties in Korea but he rejected. He said earlier ” refused them all because I didn’t have confidence in myself to survive well in the political circle and I don’t enjoy exercising power. I want to contribute to the society in a practical way.”

      It’s a fact that he is losing the support of these big parties but at the same time his honesty, ambitions and his particular way brings him close to the people and keeps him on the list of the as a predictable coming president.

 

Audition Boom

        Reality TV shows are getting very popular all around the world. A successful idea will attract hundreds if not thousands of people to be either the competitor or audience. For example “korean’s got talent”. The idea of this program originally goes to the British version (Britain’s got talent) released in 2007, and has spawned over 30 countries. Got talent franchise is the fastest growing international franchise. I will be soon talking about some examples of those who jump and rise to the recognition they get around world through these programs.

These programs are all about proving yourself, challenging yourselves to achieve your dream. Lots of people turned from poor to rich, normal people sore to stardom like being under the spotlight. Few minutes on one of these shows could turn someone’s life completely and change their situation. Especially when we live in the world of technology and development where any event can be spread to people from all over the world in a very short time. Internet, TV, newspapers, mobile phones….. etc play a significant role in the world of media.

Back to the subject, here I would like to start talking about the young English girl Connie Talbot who rose to fame in 2007. This young girl never took singing lessons. She became very famous for her incredible and fascinating voice. She signed with Rainbow Company to release her debut album in 2007. Her album is being sold worldwide and the number of the viewers’ hitting her You tube video are increasing so rapidly to be one of the most viewed 15 videos of all time.

Children get confidence to be on similar shows and give spectacular and incredible performances. Take Faryl Smith, George Sampson, Aiden Davis and the list keeps going.

One of the interesting question given by the presenters in class was “ Do you think it’s fair to show the applicant’s private history or background?”, well, some of the applicants have lived a hard life for being very poor or  being orphans or any other case, I find it really unfair to be sympathetic and let them pass for their hard miserable life. I don’t deny that it’s extraordinary and spectacular to see a person with a difficult circumstances talented or doing something stunning with out learning or taking lessons or without being supported, but the point here is that it does not mean that you highly evaluate them and forget about the other competitors who also have dreams and have been working hard to be stars and proving themselves with their talents. To show one’s background is important for the program and for the audiences as well but it’s obvious that it effects the evaluation when it touches peoples’ hearts, which will result in an unfair polls.