Lost in Translation
Exchange student reflects on differences
Midnight, it’s time to go home now. She puts her books and study materials in her backpack and makes her way back towards home. Outside, it remains bright from the lights of the stores that line either side of the street. As she opens the door to her house, the darkness greets her. Everyone is asleep. She is used to it now. She goes into her room without any thoughts. She changes her clothes, and sits at her desk. She opens her school book where she had left off and begins to study once again. It’s two in the morning now. Her comfortable bed and cozy blanket tempt her away from her continuous studying. Her teacher’s voice drives her on, “sleeping more than 4 hours is a luxury for seniors.” She hesitates for a moment, but decides to end her studying here. She feels like she is doing something bad, something so bad that she is not even allowed to think about doing it. So, she gets up and sits at her desk again. She sighs and comforts herself, “Thirty more days. The exam is in thirty days and then I am done.” Even though she has to be at school in five hours, she keeps studying until she feels it is acceptable to go to bed.
This girl would have been me if I had not come to U.S. I went to elementary, middle and 6 months of high school in Korea. I graduated from high school in the U.S., so my time in American high school was much longer than my time in Korean high school. High school is a very important period for Korean students because they start to prepare for the college exam in earnest. This exam is called “Soo-neung” and the purpose and structure of the exam is very similar to that of the SAT or ACT in the United States. However, instead of having multiple times given to take the test, they have only one chance to take the exam. On the second Thursday of November in their senior year, Korean students have their only chance to show what they have been continuously studying so hard for. Another difference is that they can only take the exam in their senior year. If some are not satisfied with their results or want to take it again, they have to wait until the next year. It does not matter how many times they take the test, but they only have one chance per year.
In the 11th grade, Korean students are separated into two departments: the department of liberal arts and the science department. Students in the department of liberal arts focus on languages and literature (Korean, English, and other foreign languages), the social sciences (history, economics, etc.), and they also learn basic math and science. The science department is the opposite. They learn basic and advanced math and sciences, but no second language, and they are less literature and social sciences oriented. More girls tend to choose the department of liberal arts and more boys tend to choose the science department. In girls’ high school (my old school in Korea), the ratio of students in the department of liberal arts and the science department was 8 to 2. It was the opposite in boy’s school where the ratio was 2 to 8, favoring the science department rather than the liberal arts department.
High school students in Korea stay very busy not with their social lives, but with their studying. They stay and study at school after the sun has fallen, they go to the school six days a week, and most of them have tutoring on the weekends or after school. They don’t have enough free time to enjoy their youth, in my opinion, but older people say their time in high school was the most precious and enjoyable time in their lives even with all the studying.
With all of the hard work the student puts into school, it is not enough to describe in words all that happened in the three years leading up to the ultimate test of their knowledge. In those three years they make a lot of memories with their friends at school just like students in the U. S., from skipping the after school self-studying classes with their friends to ordering Chinese food to the school and eating it during class (which is not allowed).
The thought that my friends in Korea and I do not share the same memories of high school remains my sole regret in coming to the U. S. for high school. I was never able to hang out with my friends until we nearly passed out after the mid-term. I was never able to order Chinese food and eat it in the gym when we should have been in self-studying classes. I was never able to travel with my friends wearing our matching school uniforms, and I never had the chance to study with them at school until late into the evening. Because I came to America and went to high school here, I was released from the pressure and stress of studying that Korean high school entails, but I have no memory of high school as my friends in Korea have and from that my one regret remains.
