Synopsis:

Before the retirement, Sam Bo is worrying about his fellow junior police officer, Haeri, who is showing jealousy toward other junior police officers. Not worrying about Haeri, Han Jung-O is provoking the hatred of the parents of the high school students since she has talked about different perspectives about the sexual education that the parents thought of. Sang Su keep tells Jung-O to apologize to the high school parents, but Jung-O has no doubt that she was right about giving the sexual education. Sang Su did not understand the reason why she was being so stubborn; however, after hearing the reason why she could not give up not to apologize, he is remorseful.

Discussion:

While knowing the fact that the sex education in Korean society is not common, adults tend to conceal the reality of the sexual activities to their teenagers. In Episode 14, it addresses an urgent problem that could be resolved momentarily but still is an ongoing problem. I personally believe that giving proper sex education to teenagers is an important factor to the teenagers’ lives who are growing up as the grownups. Talking about the ways of the protections of sexual intercourses, preventions of sexual assaults, types of birth control pills, and so on should not be considered as ‘embarrassing’ topics to discuss about but ought to be ‘naturally’ reviewed among the parents and children.

In Episode 14, we can easily see the perspective of Korean parents about the sex education. For example, Jung-O made the high school students’ parents infuriated because she mentioned the proper ways to educate teenagers about sex. They first asked the police officers about the ways to avoid the sexual assault or attack. And then, they answered their own question by giving an example of installing more surveillance cameras around the school. If so, would there be zero percent of the sexual assault? Of course not! Because of parents’ and teachers’ hesitation, it may lead the teenagers to get even more improper ideas about sex from all kinds of different sources such as pornographic videos, magazines and internet (Sohn and Han 2002, 46).

Personally, I attended international school in Korea and my school provided a proper sex education since I was in an US curriculum-based school with American teachers. However, there were one incident where one girl got pregnant and she dropped out of school to get the abortion. EVEN receiving a proper sex education could still lead the students to make mistakes; yet, I believe that giving out a proper sex education can lead the students to make less mistakes such as using protections. At least, students who have received the sex education tend to have less sexual activities than those who did not (Sohn and Han 2002, 55). It is impossible to drop the percentage of making mistakes to zero, but with adults’ help, adolescents can make the right decisions.

In conclusion, receiving a proper sex education is a very important factor in adolescents’ lives in order to grow up as mature adults. In order to give them the appropriate sex education, adults should be additionally educated and receive adequate training and guidelines to become more comfortable delivering such important information that could actually change students’ lives (Soh and Han 2002, 58).

Largely, we could think about these questions:

1. Do you think there are specific reasons why most of Korean parents do think that sex education is not as important as their child/children getting into college? Or is it all like this in Asia? What are the differences between Asian and Western cultures about this education?
2. If you were a Korean parent who has a child who is a senior in high school, do you think that you are able to sit him or her down and educate them about sex? (Imagine to be in a position where people hide information about sex education).

Word Count: 530

Bibliography:

1. Aeree Sohn, and Hee Jeong Han. “Adolescents’ Sexuality and School-Based Sex Education in South Korea.” Journal of Korean Society for Health Education and Promotion19 (December 2002): 45-60. Accessed October 31, 2018.

Synopsis:

Because of Ho Cheol’s death and betrayal of his beloved Ju Yeong, O Yang Chon demoted from Senior inspector to inspector and was sent to Hong-il constabulary. Unfortunately, Jang Mi asks Yang Chon for a divorce and other police officers in Hong-il constabulary do not see him as the “legendary.” On the other hand, Sang Su and Haeri are jealous of Jung-O who gets all the attention from the other police officers. However, when Jung-O went to the homicide scene, she gets devastated and cannot forget the horrible scene. In addition, Yang Chon criticizes Sang Susaying that he doesnot show any commitment to his position from the first day of work.

Discussion:

Like Dr.Saeji has mentioned in our first lecture, Korea can be described into five concepts: collectivism, hierarchy, shame, nationalism and competition. Throughout the drama, we can easily illustrate all five concepts in different way. Not only the main characters but also the sub characters indicate different perspective of lives. When I deeply look into the drama differently than the usual, I see several problems that Korea is now facing. At first, nothing seems eccentric in the drama. However, once you think and look into the issues that we, Koreans, are having, everything will start to lookodd thinking about a question such as “why would they do such a thing?”

From the beginning of the drama, it clearly shows that Korea is one of the competitive countries where it focuses on higher education, showing that people live their lives to the fullest by studying for several years to get accomplishments that they are desired of. According to Kim and Choi, people who received 4-year college education receive 150% more than the high school graduates and also there are 160% wage differences comparing what university or college he or she has graduated from and they will be treated differently in Korean society (Kim and Choi 2015, 457-458). For example, in episode 4, the drunk members of parliament commit violence toward Han Sol without any hesitation since they know that they are in higher positions than the ordinary police officers. I believed that this scene is actually showing the tragic side of Korean society in order to criticize the effects of social stratification and how the status in reality is certainly important (Ibid., 457).

Another fact that I would like to point out is the circumstance that we talked about in our lecture that elderly poverty rate is constantly rising in Korean society. The growth rate overall population aging, from 7.2% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2014 but Korea is not well prepared for the upcoming aged society, especially in terms of serious low-income issues (Jeon 2017, 175). As we see in the episodes, we can truly tell the differences between Yang Chon’s economic status and his father’s economic status just by looking at their houses. Yang Chon lives in an apartment in an urban area whereas his father lives in a rural area by himself; the society is becoming more and more difficult for the middle-aged people to live, raising their children plus taking care of their aging parents as well. Elderly parents do not want their middle-aged children’s help, knowing that they are having a hard time as well. Therefore, the single elderly in poverty is ranked as the highest in the OECD (lecture).

In conclusion, the problems in Korean society can be easily found. Overall, however, I believe that the drama itself magnifies the problems more seriously than the actual problems.

Largely, we can think about the questions such as:

1. Do you think we can see the social stratification in our daily lives? Or is it exaggerated in the dramas?
2. As a UBC student, do you think that receiving higher education really effects not only in Korea but also in Canadian society?

Bibliographies:

1. Doohwan Kim, and Yool Choi. “The Irony of the Unchecked Growth of Higher Education in South Korea: Crystallization of Class Cleavages and Intensifying Status Competition.” Development and Society44, no. 3 (2015): 435-63. Accessed September 27, 2018. doi:10.21588/dns.2015.44.3.004.

2. Jeon, Boyoung, Haruko Noguchi, Soonman Kwon, Tomoko Ito, and Nanako Tamiya. “Disability, Poverty, and Role of the Basic Livelihood Security System on Health Services Utilization among the Elderly in South Korea.” Social Science & Medicine178 (February 14, 2017): 175-83. Accessed September 27, 2018. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.013.