Jaesusaeng
Encyclopedia
Jaesusaeng is the Korean language
term for high school
students
who scored poorly on the South Korea
n College Scholastic Ability Test and then decided to spend a year studying to re-take the exam, hoping for a high-enough score to enter the university of their choice.
Which university a student attends has a major impact on the future career.
requires that many students become jaesusaeng after an initial poor performance on the national exam. Korea is "prepossessed by social status and reputation," and a SKY education is the main way to gain status.
The public education system is not enough to prepare students for the exam, so most must attend after school lessons at various hagwon
(cram school
s). The fierce competition for enrollment at prestigious universities is called "entrance exam war" (Hangul
:입시전쟁; Hanja
: ). When a student fails to earn an adequate score over 3 or more years, he may be derisively referred to as a jangsusaeng (Hangul: 장수생; Hanja: , literally "long life student") a play on words from the expression "Please live a long life" said to elders: 장수 하세요. The stress from constant study and no social life of as a student has contributed to an increase in suicide in South Korea
; for children aged 10 to 19 years old, suicide is the second most common cause of death.
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
term for high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students
Education in South Korea
Education in South Korea is viewed as being crucial for success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. A centralized administration oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to the third and final year of high school. Mathematics, science, Korean, social...
who scored poorly on the South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n College Scholastic Ability Test and then decided to spend a year studying to re-take the exam, hoping for a high-enough score to enter the university of their choice.
Which university a student attends has a major impact on the future career.
Social context
Gaining entrance to the particularly competitive SKY schools in SeoulSeoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
requires that many students become jaesusaeng after an initial poor performance on the national exam. Korea is "prepossessed by social status and reputation," and a SKY education is the main way to gain status.
The public education system is not enough to prepare students for the exam, so most must attend after school lessons at various hagwon
Hagwon
Hagwon is the Korean-language word for a for-profit private institute, academy or cram-school prevalent in South Korea. The term is also sometimes used to describe similar institutions operated by Korean Americans in the United States...
(cram school
Cram school
Cram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities...
s). The fierce competition for enrollment at prestigious universities is called "entrance exam war" (Hangul
Hangul
Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...
:입시전쟁; Hanja
Hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
: ). When a student fails to earn an adequate score over 3 or more years, he may be derisively referred to as a jangsusaeng (Hangul: 장수생; Hanja: , literally "long life student") a play on words from the expression "Please live a long life" said to elders: 장수 하세요. The stress from constant study and no social life of as a student has contributed to an increase in suicide in South Korea
Suicide in South Korea
Suicide in South Korea occurs at the highest suicide rate among the 30 OECD countries, having recently surpassed Japan's rate. The toll of suicide deaths in South Korea has doubled in the last decade....
; for children aged 10 to 19 years old, suicide is the second most common cause of death.