[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I am Asian myself and to tell you the truth, if I were put through that wringer, I probably wouldn't make it. I was the Asian that hated doing math and ended up doing liberal arts and marketing in University.

Certainly, the pressure cooker of Asian educational systems causes many to burn out and fail...but it's also a form of conformism that encourages exceptionalism and teaches a very strong work ethic early on. I've considered working in Asia but I simply would not make it given the fact that I simply don't have the discipline to work as long and as hard as others would there.

I have friends that simply blow me away with how quickly they will a solve a math or engineering question, others who are tremendous successes in medicine, etc. and we agree that they aren't smarter than me, they just had a stronger foundation, know how to study hard and work hard without distraction, which is something instilled by educational learning, repetition, and cultural "fitting-in" as it were and they didn't need the ADD meds our system seems to love telling kids they need. My best years in school were all in a competitive environment where there was exceptional pressure to be the best. Whenever I lost that for a few grades or a few years in University, my grades suffered immensely. I've recently found that again and it's amazing stuff to be in that kind of environment and under that pressure.

As far as your post goes, I just found your judgment of Korean culture as nothing but a copycat one with no innovation very ignorant of reality. How do you define innovation? Korean technology companies dominate on the world stage. Korean cars are among the top sellers. Korean fashions and television, and the entertainment industry (even their plastic surgery looks awesome instead of the horror shows coming out of Hollywood) IMHO are far in advanced of that of much the western world (Europe is ahead of North America quite a bit as well). You are really judging an entire culture as being made of mindless drones by the fact that you don't think their cars are interesting or you think they are inferior?

Yes, but is all that worth it if good kids are blowing their brains out at an alarming rate, due to the stress of that culture that turns out hard working individuals?