Midterm essay - changes in Korea society

How is the Korean society changing? Is it changing for the better? How will those changes affect you personally?

Korea has historically been a powerless and poor country. In the 1950s, Korea and the three countries of Ghana and the Philippines were equally poor. In response to the question "Which country would be rich in the near future?" economists at the time were convinced that Ghana and the Philippines would become rich and Korea would remain poor forever. Because Ghana and the Philippines had a pleasant tropical climate and abundant natural resources, but there was no in Korea.
But as a result, Ghana and the Philippines are still poor countries, but Korea has grown into rich countries in nearly 50 years, and now remains the 12th-largest GDP country in 2019. Many experts say that the reasons why Korea has been able to develop are the unity of the people, the passion for education, and the system, and I agree with that idea.
But is it because it has developed dramatically compared to other advanced countries? Some of the side effects of rapid growth are forced to evaluate negatively compared to other advanced countries. And I'd like to sort out the name of the side effects as "unequality."
The first inequality is a conflict between men and women. Even in the Joseon Dynasty, which was a long time ago, women did housework, and it was always men who made money from outside. A woman had to sacrifice for her husband, even glorifying her death when her husband died. This is a story of the past, but Korean women are still more expected to marry and do housework than to rise in the workplace. In addition, there are subtle and diverse discrimination that is hard for men to Active discussions on this discrimination began about two years ago. As a result of the great interest and debate on feminism across the country, there was an invisible boundary between men and women, but women's voices grew louder, and the government became more interested in women. Personally, feminism has made it quite inconvenient to say what I think. It has become quite difficult to express an opinion against feminism in class, and in fact I have rarely heard such an opinion. The most difficult part of the conflict is that it is difficult to experience the inconvenience of each other. So it may be natural that we cannot understand each other. We have to solve this through discussion, but since we have been receiving cramming education in schools and academies since childhood, it is quite difficult in our country to argue my ideas and listen to others. Because they don't know the debate, men and women keep fighting, and eventually both are tired of fighting. So in recent years, feminism has reached a point where it is not used well, except as used as a political tool for politicians, or as some extreme feminists.
The second inequality is an academic-centered society. Many parents in Korea have to keep their money together even before they give birth. If a child can walk, he or she should be sent to an academy. And the child has to repeat the life of going back and forth between school and academy until he enters college. Until you enter college, your parents, teachers and adults say that once you enter a good university, you will be happy. Students who fail to go to a good university are frustrated. As such, Koreans continue to compete from an early age, and those who have been pushed out of the competition are branded failures. Even these competitions aren't fair, and it's an unfair game in which a rich man is far more favored. Perhaps this phenomenon in Korea will continue to be maintained. Because rich people will strongly want to maintain this system, and paradoxically, poor people believe that studying hard can be a success. This blind culture of education prevents individual imagination and uniformizes people.
Despite such inequality, proud things have continued to happen in South Korea recently. First of all, numerous idols, including BTS, are showing record-breaking success in various countries. K-pop has created its own culture, freeing itself from government influence, as well as singing. In addition, director Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" recently won awards in four categories at the Cannes Film Festival to promote Korea around the world. In fact, these are the results of individual imagination and effort, not government.
Currently, the coronavirus is causing great pain and economic stagnation around the world. However, South Korea is receiving international reviews for its exemplary handling of Corona. Moon Jae-in, the vote has been the ruling party's overwhelming victory in April 2020, likely to win the next presidential election showed that quite high.
This means that South Koreans now have high confidence in the government, although many have criticized the president for being too biased toward North Korea or China's diplomacy and "too short of jobs." I think if Korea cooperates as much as it can to prevent damage caused by corona as it does now, it will certainly be stronger than other countries if blind private education is reduced to support children's imaginations and teach them how to debate in schools.