Cultist ritual

8:55am each morning at work, we do the morning exercise, aka the cultist ritual.  There's a series of beeps that comes out of the building PA system, followed by an all-too-cheery voice and music announcing it's the morning exercise time.  So each morning, the beeps come on.. then you can see over the low cubicle walls the heads of individuals slowly start popping up one-by-one... like zombies coming out of their graves.  The beeps are accompanied by countdowns displayed on TV sets placed along the walls... and on the screens, they have people demonstrating the stretch moves.  After about 8 stretching routines, we go into the high-fives......That's right, we do high-fives every morning.  "To brighten up the mood" they say....  "High-five! High-five!"  I'm slowly, day after day, increasing the amount of force I put into these high-fives... hopefully, one day I can make somebody bleed or break a wrist.  

Many Korean companies and most schools have morning exercise routines.  When I was in elementary school here in Korea, I remember we used to do the morning exercises out on the field before the school day started.  

  

There's even a NATIONAL exercise routine (called "Kook-min-che-jo") with accompanying music.  A lot of Koreans still know the sequence of movements for this 5-minute routine, which ranges from stretches and hops to squats and lunges.

Normally, I prefer to move as little a muscle during mornings so I prefer to sit on my ass while others are doing their stretches.  In general, however, I think this exercise thing is a fairly good national habit in order to start circulating the blood early in the day.

If Yuna Kim was on TV screens at work demonstrating stretch routines, I may actually make it to work on time each morning and stretch.

SKY schools? Do you take parachuting lessons there?

In Korea, WHERE you went for university matters.... a LOT.  Having a name brand degree can lead to a better job, a better wife and a better life in general.  Sure, it's generally the case in other countries, but in Korea the perks you get with a top school degree SEVERELY dwarfs those of lesser schools.  If you're talking in terms of cars, #1 school graduate would be rewarded with a Ferrari Enzo while a #15 school graduate would get a Dodge Neon... and #32 school graduate would be lucky to end up with a Fisher Price Power Wheels. 

That is why kids are forced to work their asses off to try and make it into one of the top schools.  They have to study like mad to get top scores in the national unversity entrance exam and they need to get top rankings within their high schools.  Graduating from some high schools give advantages to getting into top universities, so junior high school students have to work their asses off to get into those high schools.  Same shit goes for elementary schools which means that kids (read parents) set sights on top universities and start preparing even in elementary schools.  For some kids who get into universities outside of Seoul, it is very common for them to take one more year (or a few more) to just study and try to get into a higher-ranked school.

However, once they get into these schools, it's easy living from then on because it's relatively easy to graduate from Korean universities and obtain a degree.  Those who have graduated from one of the top three schools in Korea have their own brand.  SKY.  It stands for each of the top three schools in Korea: Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University.  (Maybe SHY in US?  Stanford, Harvard, Yale?)  People seem to ooh and ahh at hearing "SKY".  I scoff.  Not because I went to a better school or anything, but because I feel that their "title" is representative of how well they studied up to high school and not so much of how well or what they studied in undergrad and thereafter.

If you were to rank the different education backgrounds..

- Top overseas universities (only those recognized by Koreans)

- Seoul National University

- Korea University

- Yonsei University

- KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) for techies

- Ehwa Women's University for ladies

- universities in Seoul

- other universities in Korea

- 2-year specialy colleges

Well, not 100% precise, but you get the picture...

Another interesting culture shock:  Korean girls are at a disadvantage if they graduated from a top school in Korea.  A "SKY" brand would limit the size of the pool of guys from which they can find a husband, because many of them are intimidated by women with better education than theirs.  And of course, education is a MAJOR criterion of the right husband for women.  

This phenomenon is perhaps due, in part, to the size of the country where people are more or less free to relocate anywhere within Korea.  Top companies in Korea would hire graduates directly from the top schools whereas North American companies may prefer hiring local grads....

Also, you cannot ignore the power of alumni networks in Korea, especially in organizations... but this may be a topic for another post.

I graduated from a quaint university in Ontario, Canada.  Almost no one in Korea has heard of it, so it does me no good.  

Dr. Legg Ohb Lock with PhD in Constructive Physics from a SKY school