Akaraka, status and university elitism in Korea
A few weeks ago a small group of young Koreans approached us on a busy street of Jeonju. They were all undergrad students spending a weekend together surveying foreigners for touristic data and getting them to sign a carton cut-out turned into a giant visitors book. After exchanging names and nationalities, they were surprise to see a group as diverse as ours. It begged the question: ’how did you all get together?’ … ‘we’re all Yonsei students‘.
We knew what followed. They unisonaly wowed and after holding their voices for a few more seconds another student stepped forward and added that his cousin was also studying at Yonsei. The group nodded in approbation.
This is just one of the many situations SKY students are used to in Korea, a nation glutted with graduates. For Koreans in their early 20s, not being a student is out of the question: 82% of all high school students go to University, highest rate of all OECD countries, and out of Korea’s 50M inhabitants, 3.8M are currently university students.
2 months in South Korea
The scent of soju, yellowy dry winter days, kimchi flavour, 노레방 neon lights… South Korea hasn’t changed much since I first came here 2 years ago. Nothing has come to shock me, in the last 2 months I have effortless blended into the routines of an exchange student: compulsively planning the weekend ahead, keeping my liver busy and pretending life will never cease to be this way.
So with already enough ado, this is how things are around here.
The University
Ticking Yonsei University as my first choice couldn’t have been a better option. Not only is one of the 3 most prestigious universities, but in my opinion, it’s also the best in terms of location and student life. Still, nothing to be proud of as most Koreans see employers’ obsession for prestigiousness as the biggest burden to get a fair go in the over-qualified job market. Many around here “feel sorry” for their
Next stop: 한국
As you read this I’m on my way to my next port of call: Seoul, South Korea.
I will be spending almost 6 months in Seoul completing my last semester as an undergraduate on exchange at Yonsei University. In hindsight, 6 months packed with Korean language, society and history lessons, long nights warmed up with soju and new faces.
It’s a journey I have impatiently awaited since my first Korean lessons 2 years ago. If time allows, I will start posting my adventures, thoughts and experiences in this blog in the coming days. Stay tuned.
아자 아자 파이팅!!
Jurnalis days and selamat tinggal, Indonesia
Being a foreign journalist in Indonesia can be a daunting task, or an impediment, or an advantage but above all… unceasingly joyful. These past 4 weeks have taught me several things about my forming profession and this nation by hearing my colleagues’ experiences and interning for The Jakarta Globe.
While 4 weeks of reporting and occasional copyediting won’t uncover a complete experiential picture, I think I’ve learned a few things:
Indonesia is the place to be. No matter how you look at it. The fourth most populous nation in the planet, a 13-year old democracy with a booming economy and a constant struggle against its woeful bureaucracy; add to that religious complexity, natural disasters and separatist movements … it’s a mine for untold stories. For Australia and other countries in the region, Indonesia is also soaring as an hegemonic neighbour, trade partner and diplomatic game-changer. It’s hard to imagine a future without a global interest for Indonesia. If you haven’t considered Indonesia yet, get down to it before it’s too late.
Indonesia has a long way to go. Trying to find a solution for any problem in Indonesia is often a vain attempt undermined by the ubiquity of corruption, conservative mindsets or an inefficient bureaucracy. For my development studies peers, Indonesia is something of a test tube for humanitarian and environmental initiatives. If it works here, it can work anywhere. They see Indonesia this way because few other nations are as vast and complex. There are many things Indonesia has to eradicate: extreme wealth disparity, corruption, water pollution, extremist interpretations of pancasila… and a many others that needs to implement: accesible education, better fostering of national talents, waste management… Continue reading »
Tinggal di Jakarta dan Bahasa Indonesia kelas
The idea of living in Jakarta had been dizzying since the day I found out I was coming to Indonesia. The “most populous city in Southeast Asia” is a title that evokes imagery of chaos, heat, people, polusi, humidity and more people.
It took me a couple of days to get my head around a map of Jakarta. Hint: most places are located along Sudirman Avenue, Central Jakarta’s main artery. Only a small portion of this colosal city, but probably the only expats like us will get to see.
It’s hard to understand how a city like Jakarta works -let alone how Jakartans survive it.- I like to think of cities as well-engineered urban planned environments. Trains and buses that fit around schedules, synchronised traffic mechanisms… Jakarta is nothing like that, is more like a living organism.
Food vendors sense your rumbling stomach before you. Macets (traffic jams) learn to unjam themselves. Ojeks (motorcycle taxis) spontaneously appear on any street corner if you are running late to offer their amazing space-time bending services.
Jakarta is also a culinary odyssey. Once I overcame my fixation for the words goreng, nasi, ayam and mie (fried, rice, chicken and noodles respectively) what was left was an endless array of padang delicacies. Jakarta days don’t go without finding a new dish in your palate. You are always spoilt with food.
Unless you live on or below the average Indonesian salary. Wealth disparity is one of the most striking things about Jakarta. On the streets, million-dollar cars drive past infant beggars. Well-off teenagers throw pompous birthday parties without even glancing at the five-year old girl outside selling tissue packages to pay for her meal.
Sebulan di Indonesia: 2 Weeks on the Move
I’ve been meaning to write this blogpost since the moment I set foot in Indonesia. Regrettably it’s been rather difficult to find spare time in my two weeks of travelling and the subsequent days exploring Jakarta, learning Bahasa Indonesia and immersing myself in the amazing program that ACICIS JPP has been so far.
Indonesia is a country of unimaginable beauty, of chaos mended with an innate dexterity, of vivid humanity and slow traffic, of polusi and delighting smells and of flaunty wealth foregrounded with extreme poverty. Whatever your expectations of Indonesia are, they will die out in a matter of days, this is a land of surprises and they all hit hard.
Here’s a quick recount of my whereabouts for the past 4 weeks.
Antipodean goodbye
3 years, 2 months and 15 days.
The timespan between two flights: a tiresome one touching down in Sydney Airport ending the Kangaroo Route and the another heading for the Java Sea in just a few hours.
Three years can be hard to condensate, let alone recount. They represent a complex blend of faces, moments, experiences and lessons. Some good. Some bad. Some necessary.
I came to Australia days after graduating from high school, leaving behind what I called home for 18 years: friends, my mother tongue, parental warmth and restless curiosity for the world beyond it. What a decision that was, one of the best I will ever make.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Australia was then an exotic escape from the ordinary; a laid-back refuge for 6 months of English lessons and, if luck allowed, the perfect place to harvest a few amusing stories involving Aussie sheilas and booze. I was very young.
Spain: looping in tactical voting
“At times voting is just like funerals” – El Roto
Unhappy nation votes for change in the hope its woes will end. A very familiar tale lately incarnated by debt-soaked countries where technocratic governments and opposition leaders have raised to power in the midst of asphyxiating pressure.
Unsurprisingly, Monday’s headlines made Spain the protagonist of this politically bewitching tale, following the conservative PP party’s overwhelming victory. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba was severely punished for Zapatero’s economic legacy giving Mariano Rajoy a parliamentary supermajority like no other candidate has ever won.
But there is more to this story.
