Stereotypes & Cultural Differences: Parenting in South Korea

As my first year here in Korea inches toward a close, I feel as though I've finally experienced enough of Korean culture to comment on repeated observations I've made while living here.  Some of the biggest stereotypes of Koreans and Korean culture involve parents. If you ask someone from a western country to describe what they imagine parents in Korea to be like, you'll often get the image of some English-obsessed mother who storms into school to yell at teachers and principals for inadequate grades and forces their child into hours and hours of hagwon every day after regular school lets out.

Obviously stereotypes exist for a reason, and there are unfortunately some parents out there who try to push their kids like this I'm sure this has to do with the fact that I'm in the country and down south, but I've found the majority of these to be untrue!  Here are some of the most common stereotypes of Korean parents, and how I've found they actually manifest themselves.

South Korean parents all want their children to grow up to be doctors or business professionals.

There are countless popular dramas in Korea that take place in and glorify the medical world.

Out of all the stereotypes I have here, this one probably still hold the most truth.  There are a lot of parents who still push their children to become doctors and businessmen and women, or work for Samsung or LG.  "What do you do for a living?" and "How much money do you make?" are common questions my Korean friends are asked by both their parents' friends and even their own peers.  Even dramas seem to be obsessed with doctors and the chaebols of the business world.  I suspect this is still fairly prevalent in Seoul, but I've actually found this to not necessarily be the case in the south.

When I ask my students what they want to be when they grow up, numerous times I've gotten illustrator, diplomat, game designer or programmer, and athlete.  While some of these seem like typical childhood dreams, I find diplomat in particular to be interesting.  More than one student has mentioned this to me, at both the elementary and high school level.  If there's one thing you can say has been successful about the English program in Korea, it's that it has inspired Korea's younger generations to take more of an interest in the world outside of Korea.  Also, I think it's worth noting that none of them wanted to be Kpop stars!