South Korea:

positive vs. high suicide rate

Track 1: Utopia/Dystopia
Keawalin Sirirattanaprasert
South Korea
Public Transportation in Seoul
The Internet in Korea
24 Hours
The Speed
Delivery in Korea
Food
The highest suicide rate

Boasting numerous worlds primacies including the fastest internet connection,

super modern technologies, one of the worlds best education and health care etc.,
South Korea has a shockingly high suicide rate.
Causes
young adults between the ages of 13 to 19 Adults ages of 20-24

grades and other academic issues (39.3 work-related issues (20.1%)

percent)
economic difficulties (20.0 percent).
appearance and health (19.5 percent)

young adults chose school as their biggest worries. Last year, those between the ages of 13 to 24 responded that
their biggest worries are studies (35.3 percent), and appearance and health (16.9 percent).

The people who young adults most sought help from to deal with these issues with were friends and peers (46.2
percent). Parents were the next most sought out (26 percent), followed by those who sought to resolve their
concerns on their own (17.6 percent).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) grouping
Among 27 countries listed in the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
grouping plus Romania, Latvia and Lithuania
South Korea scored the lowest in terms of childrens
life satisfaction with a total of 60.3 out of 100 points.
Meanwhile Netherlands scored the highest with 94.2
points, followed by Iceland and Finland.
Between 2001 and 2010, the rate for youngsters aged 10 to 24 in OECD countries fell to 7.7 per
100,000 from 6.5, while that for South Koreans in the same age range soared 47 percent to 9.4
from 6.4, taking the fifth spot among the 34 member nations.
News
In South Korea, grim stories of teen suicide come at a regular clip. Recently, two 16-year-old girls in the city of

Daejeon jumped to their deaths, leaving a note saying, "We hate school."

It's just one tragedy in a country where suicide is the leading cause of death among teens, and 11- to 15-year-olds

report the highest amount of stress out of 30 developed nations.

A relentless focus on education and exams is often to blame. For a typical high school student, the official school day

may end at 4 p.m., but can drag on for grueling hours at private cram institutes or in-school study hall, often not

wrapping up until 11 p.m.

"Every high school, they do this," high school juniors Han Jae Kyung and Yoon Seoyoon tell NPR.

The 14-hour days in classrooms reflects South Korean society's powerful focus on educational achievement.
 Entry to a top university has traditionally led to a prestigious, secure and
well-paid job with the government, banks, or one of South Koreas chaebol
family-owned conglomerates such as Samsung and Hyundai. As such, its no
wonder that, South Koreas zeal for education and individuals desire to get
into a prestigious university is higher than in any other country in the world,
as Kim Hye Sook, professor of education at Yonsei University in Seoul, recently
explained to Bloomberg news.
Korean Education
Admission Schedule ( )
References
Shim, E. (2015, April 28). Suicide is leading cause of death among South Korean teens, says report. Retrieved
October 15, 2015.
High performance, high pressure in South Korea's education system - ICEF Monitor - Market intelligence for
international student recruitment. (2014, January 23). Retrieved October 18, 2015.
Schwartzman, N. (2012, April 24). Korea: Suicide leading cause of death among teenagers. Retrieved October
18, 2015.
Hu, E. (2015, April 15). The All-Work, No-Play Culture Of South Korean Education. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
YOO, R. (2014, November 5). South Korean Children Rank Last in Happiness Survey. Retrieved October 18,
2015.
Caba, J. (2013, May 3). Suicide Named Number 1 Cause Of Death Among South Korean Youth. Retrieved
October 18, 2015.
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