Are you allowanced by your parents? If you aren’t financially supported by your parents, you can be regarded as “an independent person” at least in Korea.

Recent researches show most Korean high school students depend on their parents. A survey conducted by the Korea National Statistical Office said that 90.6 % of male and 92.7 % of female high school students expect their parents to support their whole university tuition and fee.

The research also commented that nine out of ten students are entirely supported with their high school tuition fee by their parents. In addition, most respondents, 74 % of male and 71.7 % of female students, said that parents must pay for their child’s wedding expenses.

Do you think they respond like that just because they are psychologically immature?

On the other hand, another research reports that it’s still true that they are immature, and additionally Korean high school students are less independent than in other countries.

A survey, conducted by the Junior Achievement, an American education corp., said 74.1% of American youngsters earn their money by working part-time jobs. In addition, it was also commented that 64.8% of them don t receive any allowance from their parents.

On the contrary, only 15% of Korean young people cover their expenses by themselves - says a study led by Samsung Economic Research Institute. Moreover, other researches say that their attitude persists after they graduate from high schools and, according to the survey, even after entering universities, 72.6 % of students ask their parents for living expenses and tuition and fees.

The students supporting themselves are only 5.3 %. In addition, 60 % of students claim that parents should support them until they graduate from universities. Interestingly, most of them regard it a problem to depend on their parents, but continuously want to be supported by their parents. Kim Dal-ho, a junior of the Dept. of Mechanical and Information Engineering of UOS, represents a typical young Korean in his twenties.

He lives near the school apart from his family. But he receives 500 thousand won every month from his parents. He doesn t consider it as an option to financially support himself before graduation. “Current economic hardship in Korea drives young people to a situation difficult enough to stand alone.

In this situation, people tend to consider a person who achieves successful independence from his parents as a role model,” he said. “However, we shouldn’t regard young persons supported by parents as wrong. It’s because everybody, including youth, is in different circumstances. What is really important is the appreciation of their parents love for them.”

Then why is Korean youth’s lack of independency such a big deal? Korean youths rely on their parents due to some cultural factors and difficulty to find jobs.

However, whichever factors largely affect their attitude, most of Korean youth tend to hang on their parents even if their parents go bankrupt. Actually, about 78 % of Koreans in their twenties are partly or totally supported by their parents now. Moreover, this tendency makes their parents gradually exhausted.

According to the survey, around half of the parents whose children are twenties (54.7%) respond that they have a financial worry on account of their dependant children. In addition, parents (69.6%) expect they can live their lives in much more comfort economically that if they are free from their children.

Kim Kyeong-won, whose son is a 23 year-old university student, pays his university tuition and fee every half year and supports him 600 thousand won every month. She said, “I hope my child would earn his own living after he graduated from a high school. I want him to find a stable job as soon as he graduates, so that I may not need to worry about his finance.

That’s why I support most of his expenses reluctantly now.” She frankly said that she hardly meets her friends or purchases a suit, but she does everything for reducing her expenses. Now, she wants to support her son until he finds a job. Never-theless, she said that if her son can’t find a job after graduating from the college, she may be reluctant to hold up her child.

There are some independent youths at UOS. Even though they are busy, they think it is worth to do it. Cha Ji-hye, a sophomore of the Dept. of Business, gets up at seven every morning and does worship and yoga. She takes classes at school, doing a part-time job like private tutoring. She has worked her way this year.

She also takes a forum in business and discusses activities to improve her creativity. “When 9 wake up in the morning, I, at first, try to figure out a daily schedule to save time and get organized. Of course, the most important agenda in my schedule is taking classes in the school. Getting a scholarship is better than earning my living, so my biggest goal is wining a scholarship.”

Her self-determination was almost enforced by her family circumstances. After what we call the “IMF crisis,” her family got into a financial crisis. From that time, she sought for work. “As my financial ability grows up, I feel like I m maturing.

Experiencing the real world is drastically different from the knowledge gained from class. I have learned what it is to be responsible and I am also learning about the completion in life, which is not taught at school.

Every duty given to me such as paper, test, or in-class presentation is not truly related to my situation. Working experience changes my way of thinking.” The other example is Cho Hwa-ran, a sophomore of the Dept. of Social Welfare.

She took a leave of absence from school temporarily. Last semester, she made the cost of living by doing a part time job. “I have stood alone economically because my parents couldn’t support me any more. Economic independence has brought me a lot of advantages and given me various experiences. As a result, I have become free from my parents.”

While she does a part-time job, she finds but what kind of future job suits her ability and personality. She is not sure about what she is going to do, she has found what interests her through facing many kinds of work. Like these two cases of students, if you stand alone, you will get independence and feel obligation.

At the time, you will be able to find out a future plan or job that perfectly fits to you. The UOS Times met three foreign professors in UOS - Niall O’Reilly, Stephen Heinemier, and Michelle Bird and listened to their opinions about Korean students’ independence. Niall O’Reilly, from Ireland, went to university for free.

Even though he didn’t have to pay the tuition and fee, he had to support himself to pay for renting and other living expenses. So he worked at a factory just after high school and did some part time jobs after college.

Stephen Heinemier, from the United States, went to a state university but the tuition and fee was quite expensive. For that reason, he partly supported himself, and his parents somewhat supported him. Michelle Bird, from New Zealand, moved out and supported herself after her freshman year in college.

All of her friends were independent of their parents when in college. “I wanted to be independent, so I did a full-time job. It was possible to make enough money in order to be independent because the minimum wage was higher, with a comparatively lower tax.”

Stephen made a quick response “If somebody lives with their parents even when he has grown up, it is strange to Westerners, and I would tease him.” Then, why are the foreign students independent unlike Korean students? Michelle said, “It’s because social expectation is different.

In my home country, everybody is independent of his or her parents. Everybody does that, and you are expected to do that in western countries. But in Korea, you want to live with your family and your parents.

In Korea, people are expected to save money for the future and maybe for marriage. On the other hand, western people don’t think like that, but they want to move out and have a good time for now.” Niall thinks that Korean students need to adapt themselves more to social situation and problem although he thinks that they study sufficiently. “Korean students should try a lot of different things. Having diverse experiences makes them confident.”

Stephen said that Korean students find it hard to do something by themselves when they don’t have specific guidelines. He thinks that it’s because of the culture, so they have done things that way. However, he claims that the students shouldn’t be afraid of failures in making a living by themselves if they want to take advantage of having jobs.

Michelle also agrees with him. He said, “The career which I’ve had done isn’t what I wanted to do from the very beginning. Experiencing the real world, I realized what I wanted to do wasn’t what I was doing before. I took degrees from more than one university, and then I thought about money.”

Contrary to a traditional Korean culture, making a success at the cost of one’s parents’ sacrifice is no more recommended in Korea today. It’s time to jump out of the pouch with deep consideration for the future as opposed to dependence on parents.
저작권자 © The UOS Times(서울시립대영자신문) 무단전재 및 재배포 금지