First time visitor to PPrune due to the Asiana accident.
Quick intro of myself. I'm Korean American, born in S Korea in early 1970s. I finished elementary school there and then immigrated with my parents to CA, US. First I want to make it clear I'm speaking for myself only, not Korea/Koreans/Asiana.
#1247
http://www.pprune.org/7931852-post1247.html
Yes S Korea's educational system emphasizes rote memorization partly because of old tradition like Confucianism/Asian culture. But the REAL reason imo is because of lack of fund when the system was built. You need to remember that the current govt/education/nation of S Korea was formed in 1948, destroyed during the Korean War and slowly rebuilt over the decades. In 1953, S Korea was the poorest nation on the planet. So the nation really could only afford to build the education system with the lowest cost possible, one based on rote memorization. With 1 teacher teaching a class of 60+ kids, there really is no time but simple multiple choice exams. Now I hear S Korean schools have much smaller class sizes, due to more schools (due to richer economy) and lower birthrate. They have been trying to change the culture, but it's hard, just like everywhere else.
Once an institution is built, inertia takes over, just like everywhere else.
About the comment on S Korea having no civil aircraft, yes that is true. There are various reasons, including lack of infrastructure (small nation with lots of hills so land is EXPENSIVE), national security reasons (danger of defection to N Korea, N Korean spy spying from above although Google Earth made this moot, etc), and no reason for using private aircraft for traveling. S Korea built up quite a few regional airports as a result of politicians looking for votes, only to see them become unnecessary due to high speed trains crisscrossing S Korea. Check
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | South Korea's abandoned airports
Who knows, maybe Asiana will 'form' a flying club with a few cessnas and force their pilots to fly them. That'd be nice.
And about the low-skill pilot with thousands of hours, I'm reminded of the American pilot who was in command of Air France 447 at the time of crash. I certainly don't mean any disrespect for him but low-skill, high-hour pilots are everywhere.
#1332
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...ml#post7932452
I think there's no Korean pilot (or wanna be pilot) responding to the Korean mindset bashing going on here because of the following:
1) a mature Korean with competent English skill with real interest in aviation would be gainfully employed (or busy studying) and thus has no time to engage in the debate, especially on a site little known in Korea. If expats/foreigners raised this issue in naver.com, then there might be more lively debate.
2) even if a Korean competent in English had the time, he would be unwilling to engage in the debate because he knows it's already a lost cause. With all the sensationalistic headlines at places like cnn.com (PILOT ONLY had 34 HOURS of EXPERIENCE!) & 60+ pages on this very forum pointing fingers at the Korean mindset, no wonder no Korean has responded. Why bother?
Lastly, if you are interested in more nuanced (real life) discussion of Korean culture/politics/education/etc that is easily accessible to non-Korean, I recommend this blog: 'ask a korea'. Just google 'ask a korean'.
Many here may have already heard about the book 'Outliers' and the KAL story. Well, Ask-a-korean blog is a far better material for understanding how Korean mind works, imho.
He's Korean American, practicing law in DC. A great writer. Many entertaining/informative stories about Korea there. His opinions are his own.