4th podcast review

Education is a prevailing issue in Korean society. Topics of conversation between parents are always related to universities and special high school. Many educational industries are actually dominant, earning huge amounts of money annually. However, the problem is that these infrastructures are only centered in urban areas, especially in Seoul, leaving many rural areas under developed. Thus, there are many students in South Korea that resemble Carlos, waiting for a “capitalization,” a term used by Malcom Gladwell. Unfortunately, however, the situation of these students is quite hopeless since capitalization is not implemented in an effective way.

           Obviously, government tries to support these impoverished students by giving out financial aid or affirmative action. However, as Malcom Gladwell has mentioned, these policies are not applicable for entire region of the country. This might be a limit of Korean Bureaucracy. However, regardless of the causes, the government’s effort of capitalization becomes meaningless since there are many students, who are gifted just like Carlos in the podcast, who are not found by the government’s policies. These students remain insufficiently educated, contributing to loss of competent sources for the nation as a whole Gladwell strongly argued that we might find many talented students through the effort of capitalization. The reality of South Korea, however, is that the effort of searching these students is not making enough results to resolve these poor, talented students’ problems. In short, many South Korean students, who live in extremely poor or rural areas, are not even able to grab opportunities to become a “Carlos” at the first hand, a total tragedy.

           Malcom Gladwell also criticized the fact that other social problems that students are facing would also act as obstacles to block these talented students’ futures. In order for a capitalization to succeed, diverse social problems should also be resolve along with financial aid. However, Korean government mainly focuses on reducing rich-poor gap and giving out financial aid, believing themselves that they are attributing in actualizing capitalizations. However, those students will eventually go to good universities and get a higher education, without concerning financial issues, without the resolution of other social problems they face. Fundamental gap between rural and urban areas can’t be solved by mere financial aid. Social atmosphere that these poor students will face can’t be disappeared by simple financial aid system. However, the Korean government is extremely ignorant about other factors than financial issues, making so many “Carlos” with incomplete capitalization.

           Most of society members agree with the necessity of the capitalization. There are many talented students undiscovered in poor or rural areas. These students should benefit from the capitalization, contributing themselves hugely to the nation. However, in the status quo, the capitalization is incomplete. Capitalization is not accomplished by mere financial aid. It is necessary for poor students; thus, it needs to be made. Now, base on Malcom Gladwell, it is time for Korean society to deliberately come out with the resolution. We should all remember that a capitalization is a hope for these students.