Six of 10 young S. Koreans unaware of when Korean War started

[unreal.livejournal.com]

Six of 10 young S. Koreans unaware of when Korean War started

Six out of 10 young South Koreans are not aware when the Korean War started, a government poll showed on Friday, raising concern about the fading public memory of the 1950-53 war.

In the telephone survey of 1,000 adults and another 1,000 middle and high school students nationwide by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, 57.6 percent of the adults and 55.1 percent of those in the 19-29 age bracket gave the wrong answer to a question on when the war began.

Source: yonhapnews

Comments

[platinumpair.livejournal.com]

I know that it's great to have pride in your country and such but students can't help but forget things.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

lol its the same with the teens in germany here, i bet 90% of them dont know when world war 1 and 2 started (eventhough we apparently started both of them)

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

blame ze germans 4 everything!!!!!





i'm jk ich liebe deutschland

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

Same with the teens in the US

[floppykpop.livejournal.com]

i don't either tbh
i always get it confused with the vietnam war

[sugarbunnyxx.livejournal.com]

I always got the North/South (i.e. US and communist) division lines confused.
It was like... 17th parallel and 36th parallel or something.
And the 17th is Vietnam because it's closer to the equator.

[stopthedisco.livejournal.com]

someone needs to show these kids taegukki or something

i only know when wars started because i took ap euro and watch war movies lmao
even then i only know the general period of time, not the exact date

imo people should know the history of their country and/or motherland, it's important to know where you come from

[voleur.livejournal.com]

omg i love that movie T-T

[nalty7.livejournal.com]

I think this applies to young people worldwide specially students.
I know by experience that I was learning history just to write tests.
Now that school is over I care more about history and politism, specially about World Wars.History is always repeating itself so it's better to acknowledge the past.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

Most Americans don't even know the pledge of allegiance.
I think not knowing when it started is better than not knowing it happened at all.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

only reason I know anything about Wars and dates are because of my history class...

[cruel-disorder.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that history (in North America at least) is not taught in a way that makes it relevant for students to know. Stop assuming that just because it's the history of their country it automatically means students will be committing the information to their long-term memory. The way history is taught now makes it one of the easiest subjects to memorize/write test/forget. Start teaching students to think critically and to be aware of how much history still resonates today in every part of society.

[queenhinata.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I agree completely :)

[harbour-jane.livejournal.com]

once again...such a small sample size. it reminds me of this girl in high school who gave a report on how 90% of high schoolers drank on the weekend and she interviewed 20 people. there were almost 1,000 kids in our school lol.

[voleur.livejournal.com]

LMFAO

[jia-zhang.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com?ref=2efu6n5)

That's just...pathetic.

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

beautiful icon + gif

[luckycigarette.livejournal.com]

Sounds like any other country, really.

[a-perfect-shade.livejournal.com]

9/10 Americans have never heard of the Korean war

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

while i do see it's necessary to know your own countrie's history it's no surprise many kids don't know that. it's like that everywhere. while i hope some of them educate themselves later on, i also see it in a positive light...in terms of them forgetting the hatred their grandparents or parents still carry with them.

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

lol k not surprised, we're all the same.

I have no room in my brain for old war dates when I'm trying to memorize orgo~

[x-taehee.livejournal.com]

austria is neutral muahaha

oh shit there's still turkey
i don't know a shit about turkey's history

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

austria could have been a part of germany, thats still history bb

[shisukachan.livejournal.com]

Generally, most students worldwide don't really know their country's history. It's not a Korean thing. I know here, in the States, that a lot kids tend to forget the history they have to learn.

There's also censorship. I've heard that in many German schools that they don't extensively study the Holocaust and that in many Japanese schools that they skim over the Rape of Nanking(?) and I'm sure the list can go on.

AP Euro and passionate, humorous history teachers turned me into a history lover so I'm glad I know much of history worldwide. :)

[bauci.livejournal.com]

Indeed, every country has their dark moments that either get less attention or in some cases don't get mentioned at all. Although I always assumed Holocaust would get enough attention at least in Germany due to various activist/pressure groups and the world at large ~keeping it's eye on them~. Last year when they included it in Finnish core curriculum it made many confused because being what it was it was unimaginable to leave it out of WWII classes. Thus I can't imagine things to be more lenient in Germany.

I'd love to know more, of course, if there's people here from Germany.

[pickychu.livejournal.com]

my biggest pet peeve about all the history classes i've taken is that the professors don't teach any dates half the time in order to lighten out loads when it comes to studying. i wish professors would put a bigger emphasis on dates as it really does help put all the events in perspective instead of making students go 'wait, x event and y event happened around the same time...which came first though? @__@', especially when having to write an essay on an exam.

[raiknii.livejournal.com]

Define "knowing when the war began". Not knowing the year? Pretty bad. Not knowing the exact day? Who cares.

[bauci.livejournal.com]

Well as far as the year goes it's pretty easy to remember...

[asth77.livejournal.com]

this

[pistolkrystle.livejournal.com]

People don't talk about it probably because it's a painful memory. Why make them remember.

[valieleen.livejournal.com]

Because it's important. You have to remember and learn from what happened, in order to prevent history from repeating itself. And it's not like most young Koreans have painful memories~ from that time period.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

America's "Korean war" is irrelevant to me even though I'm Korean.

That war was fought by the Americans against the Chinese and probably Russians.

The only relevant part is that it happened on our soil.

The only date that was really hammered into my brain are like 1912 or 1917 or whatever date the Korean royalty supposedly signed the most stupidiest treatest ever with Japan (though since I learned this in 5th or 6th grade in the 90s, it has a good chance of being some propaganda bullshit the government made up to antagonize Japan -- much like 95% of national history taught in Korea.)

[sugarbunnyxx.livejournal.com]

All Koreans care about is math and science. Who the fuck cares about your country's history when you could be a doctor

[seungigi.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[kmrawr.livejournal.com]

2000 people total is not a big enough sample size imo. it also depends on what neighborhoods they interviewed.

[kamakazza.livejournal.com]

Some times it takes a good teacher for a person to actually pay attention and learn it. I mean school is all about tests and u only cram it in your head when there is an exam comming up. I have alway been good with history but it wasnt until I was a junior in highschool that I found a teacher who made it interesting to me and so I enjoyed learning it. Now I am a WWII history major in college. 9 out of the 10 ppl I talk to do not like history so they don't bother to learn.. Hell I suck at math so I never bothered to really learn it. It all depends on if u have a good teacher and u find it interesting. It's not that they don't care about their countrys history, it is just that they never probably found it interesting and decided to keep the information in their head.