Hillary Clinton likes hanboks....Is this news???

Oh My God....this is some really LAME news! Must be another SLOW day in the Korean newsrooms!What more can I say?
Traditional Korean Dress Fascinates Sen. Clinton


Nova Sued For Not Paying the Rent
Now the landlords are getting into the act. According to the Nikkan Sports, a landlord in Kyoto has filed a lawsuit demanding 1.35 million yen in rent in arrears.

The school, which is in Shimgyou ward, Kyoto, is three months in arrears with the rent. A lawyer for the landlord says that this is probably the first case where Nova has been sued for not paying the rent.
From Let's Japan



More proof that you should always be careful who you date. "Hell hath no fury like a schoolgirl catching her salaryman boyfriend watching porn!"

Jealous schoolgirl torches 32-year-old, longtime lover's Tokyo home
Mainichi Daily News

A 17-year-old schoolgirl who burned down her 32-year-old Tokyo lover's apartment has been arrested, police said.

The second year private high school student, who can't be named because she is a minor, was arrested for arson of an inhabited structure.

The girl admits to the allegations against her, saying it was sparked by her feelings for her 32-year-old company employee lover of over two years.

"He had adult DVDs and a note with another woman's name on it that made me mad," police quoted the schoolgirl as saying.

She is apparently apologetic.

"I've done something terrible," she said.

Her boyfriend has pledged to support her.

"I suppose I've got to think about her feelings, too, and I'm thinking about marriage," the 30-something salaryman said.

Police said the girl set fire to candy wrappers in a trash can in the man's apartment in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, on the morning of Sept. 20, gutting the 17-square-meter room in which it was located. The boyfriend was out at the time, but the girl suffered minor burns.

The couple had lived together in Osaka Prefecture for the past two years, but had been torn apart when the man was transferred to Tokyo in April. Since then, the schoolgirl had traveled up from Osaka to meet him. There had been talk of the couple separating. On the night before the arson, the schoolgirl torched an adult movie she found in the man's apartment.



This is the COOLEST "scare crow" machine (and the only one) I've ever seen!! I came across this vid last tonight...it was taken in rural Japan.

That's from softpapa...



Educational problems of credential-fixated society
Korea Herald

Following is the fourth in a series looking into the so-called "credential society," a trend that prioritizes a person's educational background, instead of his or her actual ability and career performance. The series will explore solutions to deep-rooted problems, and seeks to cultivate a "meritocratic" society.

Park Soung-hee, 44, is a typical Korean mother, whose 16-year-old child takes a variety of private lessons at different hagwon, bringing him home around 11 p.m.

"Mothers have no choice but to put up with private lessons because everyone is doing so and a lot of the times, school teachers seem incapable," she said.

A 2007 OECD report showed that 7.2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product is spent on education.

According to recent research by the Korean Educational Development Institute, Koreans spent about 13.6 trillion won ($14.8 billion) on private tuition last year. That is 2.85 million won per student.

This "education fever" stems from a society that highly values the name of the university people attend. An individual's educational credentials are regarded as the most important element in determining the person's future, as in his or her job, salary and even marriage, regardless of what potential and capabilities the person may possess.

The tendency dates back to the traditional Confucian attitude in the pre-modern era, and was strengthened in the process of industrialization and nation-building led by a few elite groups since independence from Japan in 1945.

In such an atmosphere, students are forced to make the utmost efforts to get into prominent schools. But students are given only one ultimate opportunity - the national college entrance exam.

"Spending four years at a prominent college may determine how much the students will be able to benefit for the next 40 years," said Kang Joon-man, a journalism professor at Chonbuk National University. "With that factor in mind, who would not strive to get into a good school?"

"It is true that Korean society is crazy about obtaining the best credentials. However, those records are only for show and they don't really match with the person's abilities," said Kang, the author of "The Kingdom of Seoul National University."

Destruction of public education

Because the students' lives depend on a single exam, it is negatively affecting public education.

The educational curriculum at schools tends to focus around the subjects that constitute the College Scholastic Aptitude Test, according to Byun Hye-won, an English teacher at Gyeonggi High School in Seoul.

"The subjects that don't appear on the college entrance exam are likely to disappear or take up a smaller percentage of the school curriculum," she said. "Since the curriculum is so test-oriented, I see many points lacking in students, especially when I see them have a difficult time listening to high quality lectures."

The government has launched the After-School program at 99 percent of public schools nationwide to offer high-quality educational programs at low cost to normalize public education and to tackle the over-the-top spending on private education, government officials said.

However, many parents claimed that what their children learn at school is just not enough.

"It's not sufficient for my child to get into the university he's aiming for only with what he's learning in school. This is why he's taking expensive private lessons and classes at private institutions," said Ji Kyung, a mother of a high school senior.

Ranking of schools

In Korean society, the easiest method to join the elite, which can secure high-profile jobs, is to graduate from a top school.

Government data showed that more than half of high-ranking public officials - ministerial level and higher - are graduates of the nation's top-ranked Seoul National University.

A history professor at Hallym University also said people tend to show different attitudes toward a person after learning what school the person attended.

"Of course there is a significant amount of meaning in the kind of education one can get from a specific education institute," said Kim Dong-hoon, a Kookmin University law professor and administrative director of 'Hakbul'less Society Movement. "Just as we choose to buy certain products because of trusted brand names, it is more than natural that people respect graduates of certain schools."

Because of such reasons, people will likely rank the schools and put them into categories, depending on their locations and levels.

"Students attending schools in the middle and low categories will feel like they are inferior beings compared to those who attend the top schools around the nation, which may tag along with them throughout their lives," Kim said.

According to a survey headed by Jung Tae-hwa of the state-run Korea Research Institute of Vocational Education and Training, over 57 percent of Koreans have an inferiority complex regarding their credentials and more than 70 percent said that having graduated from lower-tier schools made them feel deprived.

This leaves universities in regional areas with fewer students, which also means less regional development, according to critics.

"Most of the highly-skilled students in rural areas take off to the cities after finishing high school," said Kim Hyung-gon, a professor in the mass communications department at Tongmyong University in Busan. "This performs a great part in slowing down regional development."

Due to unbalanced regional development a major economic gap results as a great number of students coming from other regions seek better jobs in Seoul.

Society of professors

This societal phenomenon is seen in the academic field as well, many educational experts said.

Many universities reportedly prefer professors who graduated from their schools, indicating that it is important to be a graduate of a prestigious school to gain employment there.

A large number of professors at schools in the rural areas have the desire to find a permanent teaching job at a school in the metropolitan area, according to Kang of Chonbuk National University.

"Many of them are willing to quit their current temporary jobs at any time to find a better working environment with more options," he said. "Professors at regional schools, who have received education at the top schools in the nation's capital, will most likely consider the rural areas as regions populated by a lower class of people, so they will do their best to move away."