Dreams of a Korean Summer: School and a New Cell

Ah yes, school days are upon us soon. New backpacks, lunch boxes and oh yes, a new mobile phone…

Just as she did during the school year, Jeong Hye Jin, 15, spent the long, sweltering summer commuting to her high school by day and to private classes in the evening.

Summer school was mandatory, not for students who had fallen behind, but for those who, as she put it, “have a chance of getting into good universities.” Not attending was never an option for Hye Jin, who is ranked 17th out of 430 students in the 10th grade at Young Hoon High School, in a working-class neighborhood here in the capital.

A desktop calendar in her bedroom states in her bold, clear handwriting: “Korea University Department of English Language Education. Class 2008.” (In Korea, the year you enter college is your class year.) But if getting into what is considered the third best university is her long-term ambition, there is also something closer at hand: a new mobile phone. [Read the rest]