Suicide in Korea - Page 14

On May 26 2011 09:07 Danglars wrote:
Dare I say the South Korean goverrnment should look into more faith-based outreaches as a support network for students trying to deal with the stress? I know religion is frowned upon on these boards, so I don't expect much assent to be given. Give somebody a higher purpose to live pursuing, and you'll find motivation increase and a desire to continue on despite failure. Trying to put this as succinctly as possible; hope the gov't decides to encourage this kind of approach.

On May 26 2011 08:46 Watershed- wrote:


Having well rounded individuals with original ideas does not go well with a collectivist society and a powerful state. There is a reason the education system is fucked up: Mainstream institutions can't survive otherwise.

On May 26 2011 02:58 thabanana wrote:
to much pressure inhibits creativity, why work hard when one idea can be as strong as a whole day of work.

why use a hammer and a chisel all day when you can build a jackhammer... and do the same work in 1 hour...
asian = work work
white = work think work

On May 26 2011 09:54 Tsuycc wrote:
I feel like a HUGE asshole.
When i get a shred of homework, i will bitch till the cows come home

and these guys are saying that feel that they dont have the ability to laugh freely?

Even though This is a sad topic, in which it is. I think people should look at this and notice how much they take their academics for granted. For me personally, This makes me not want to complain about homework and do it now.

On May 26 2011 09:10 white_horse wrote:


lol are you really suggesting that the government recommend faith-based action? Now I don't have anything against religion or religious people but that is ridiculous. It's called separation of state and church. Either you are trolling or this is a totally ridiculous idea of trying to spread your ideology on other people.

On May 26 2011 10:47 xarthaz wrote:
What academics what granted? grinding for tests and writing papers for the sake of papers? For the sake of having trivia sound bites for cocktail chats during company christmas parties? Bloody hell useless. It is all based on fear and social pressure to fit the mold and obey the man. Because that is what the Prussian education system by its intentioned end is.

I offer an alternative challenge. Try thinking about how different your psychological development wouldve been in absence of the 12+ years of compulsory education

On May 26 2011 10:58 Danglars wrote:


Well are these state-sponsored universities? Hasn't been mentioned yet. Perhaps you would be more receptive if I put it in the eyes of private contributions towards this end. I am having trouble understanding your lack of prejudice against religion or religious people when you aren't against the sharing of ideology. Get the firebrand of the pejorative words, "separation of church and state," thrown at any thought of showing someone a non-secular reason to live. I'm recommending a look at these programs in universities, whether or not the funding is privately-sourced or publicly. The suicides mentioned by the OP point to the need for more than just availability of psychological counseling for students.

On May 26 2011 11:35 Deadeight wrote:



I find it hard to reply with a well formed argument against this because, to me, it's just wrong. I'm an atheist, and object to any sort of promotion of (what is in my mind) just 100% wrong. On top of this I think it's immoral to take advantage of someone in a delicate emotional state and push a load of (what is in my mind) lies on them. I tried to word that so as not to be offensive, but sorry if it does offend anyone.


But speaking amorally (or immorally, or perhaps just pragmatically, whichever way you look at it) it probably is a good idea. Most people who "find god" in later life do it during an emotionally difficult time, and for whatever reason it can help them. Religions tend to take a dim view of suicide, and can help give a "purpose", and maybe help re-align their priorities to something less materialistic and more spiritual.

On May 26 2011 12:18 Danglars wrote:


I see your viewpoint. I fully believe that if every single religion out there is mistaken that there is a purpose to life and a supreme being, then I hope anyone adhering to them gradually finds that the truth that they believe in is false. If this student struggling to find purpose after rejection at SKY or failure to graduate Seoul University finds a faith that isn't reality but gives him purpose, I hope he comes to realize this later in life. I fully see that you believe proselytizing to people in a 'delicate emotional state' is immoral. Ideally people are able to rationally think about what they believe without outside influence. The current situation in Korea, as described by OP, doesn't allow for that situation, sadly. Then again, if there is a God (or gods) that gives His followers a purpose, then how pitiable is it to never be exposed to it before the student ends his life.

On May 25 2011 08:58 ZiegFeld wrote:
It's survival of the fittest in a world of limited resources. Nature's natural selection at work, there really isn't anything to be done about it.

On May 25 2011 11:24 jackblack2323 wrote:


I totally agree man.

Nothing against Koreans though, I just don't show any sympathy for anyone weak enough to just give up and commit suicide; Korean or not.

I think humans are messing up natural selection by telling everyone what to do, and trying to convince the weak to be stronger.

just my 2 minerals~

On May 24 2011 08:21 imperator-xy wrote:
they are really doing it the hard way

at the same time we are doing it the real soft way which makes us fall behind those ambitous countries

On May 24 2011 10:09 Krampus wrote:
I'm a premed student at Williams College, guessing most people haven't heard of it, but from wikipedia: "56 percent of the students were expected to be valedictorian or ranked in the top one percent of their class." We're fairly selective. There is a fine line between nerdiness and insanity, and most students here are so far beyond that line into the realm of insanity that their origins are unrecognizable. What makes me so mad about this whole culture of academic perfection is that for all the hours that a lot of these students put in to get perfect grades, it doesn't really translate into any usefulness. It's all for nothing. It's a correlative effect, rather than a causal effect. The measurements that school use for efficiency's sake are only proxies for the real qualities that they are looking for. For instance, a high GPA in biology is meant to mean you care a whole awful lot about the subject, and as a researcher you would have a passion for it. 99% of what you need to know to perform at a job in say the biotech sciences, you are taught when you are hired. What school is meant to do, is give you a passion, and having a passion for something makes it so you don't have to work hard, because work is easy. There has been tons of research done on how sleep deprivation, chronic stress, and other factors that are brought about by a stressful learning environment can inflict very significant damage neurologically (look up hippocampal neurodegeneration), yet this old anxiety based system of fostering inter-student competition is still used because administrators, professors, and many others are deluded into thing that "no pain, no gain" applies well to academics. Many professors hate this new wave of students with a firey passion because they are like robots who memorize rather than learn to apply concepts, yet at the same time, teach and test in a way that fosters this phenomenon. You know when someone is discussion a particular strategy in starcraft, and you are really into the information, and you can't stop thinking about it? You could spend hours doing unit testing to figure how well something works? That characteristic is what makes a good researcher. Making flash cards of all of the unit stats, and boasting that you know how much a corrupted roach with +2 armor takes from a +1 attack roach doesn't make you a good researcher (edit: I say researcher, because I can only speak from my own experience, but from everything I have ever seen, this is the same for pretty much any profession. Warren Buffet is a pretty good example of this). When you know why you are learning something, you'll remember it for a very long time when you do learn it. If you are learning something so that you can score higher than someone else, you use learning strategies that have a short term advantage. You would think that people so focused on academic improvement would pay attention to the science of learning itself, but it's completely ignored. I think much of it comes down to bigotry and narcissism in the academic community (high schools are measured in SAT scores, premed programs measured in MCAT scores).

FYI, My sister went here as well, and took her life her junior year due to major hypomanic episode set off by academic pressure, much longer story but I'm not going to write my life story out on the innernettes. Also: I think people saying that governments should have protective measures for students under academic pressure think too idealistically about this kind of thing. No matter how you word it, any kind of support system, not would, but does bear a mark of intense shame at the upper levels. The problem here is the manner by which students are taught and tested, and the absurd fact that schools don't care very much about false negatives in test scores. When we hear about Asian countries, and to a lesser extent some western countries, that have systems where 1 exam dictates your placement, we shouldn't be thinking "wow they are harsh, that is terrible" we should be thinking "wow that is an incredibly uneducated and wasteful way of going about doing their job." They are essentially trading a large portion of the career life potential of someone who did badly on 1 exam for the ability to test people in a fast, and more cost effective way. Not a very good trade for society IMO.