Cultural Practices of “Ordinary” Youth: Transitions to Adulthood in South Korea

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Notes

1. In Korea, high schools (for ages 16–18) are mainly divided into two types: academic high schools [inmun'gye] and vocational high schools [sirŏupkye]. The former prepare students for entrance to university, while the latter provide students with vocational skills. Nationally, there are 741 vocational high schools (with a total of 575,363 students), while there are 1,254 academic high schools (with 1,220,146 students) (Korean Educational Development Institute, 2002). Students passing an exam are, regardless of their exam score, allocated to a high school near their residence. In fact, the exam for high school cannot be considered a specific selection process. It can therefore be said that Korean students do not go through any clear educational selection process until the university entrance exam. This single-track system tends to foster in most students and their families high educational aspirations, and consequently to enhance the academic competition for prestigious universities (Nakamura, 2003).

2. In addition to the three major categories, there might be another type of young person in school – wangtta or tta. Among young people, wangtta is a term that indicates contemptuously a group of people who are mentally or physically “weak” and isolated at school (Park et al., 1998). Since the term wangtta refers to all types of young people who are isolated from their classmates for different personal reasons, it may be difficult to define wangtta as a group of youths whose members have a sense of belonging and show similarities in their attitudes to schooling. In this regard, the three categories – “ordinary kids”, “brains” and “slackers” – are sufficient to understand “ordinary” young people's positioning of themselves.

3. This is comparable to Western European discourses increasingly covering different phases of transition that occur between the ages of 12 and 30, or even older (Roberts, 2003), in the discussion of youth transition.

4. “Sailor Moon” is the main character in Bishôjo Senshi Sêrâ Mûn (literally “beautiful young girl soldier Sailor Moon”, which is known as Sailor Moon in Korea), the popular Japanese comic book and animation, targeted mostly at teenage girls. It is a story about a clumsy 14 year-old girl who can transform herself into a powerful fighter in a sailor suit; in later episodes, Sailor Moon becomes the story of a team of sailor-suited fighter girls. Critics have noted that the Sailor Moon series represents the world of “magical girls” and empowered girlhood (see Allison, 2000). It should also be noted that, in Sailor Moon, group work rather than individuality is emphasised.