Korea : Work hard, Play hard

Well, first off, I rag on Korea a lot, but let me give them some props. Public Transportation. Planes, trains, taxi's and subways. Korea does have a very good transportation system that is also pretty cheap. Of course I still have a few gripes about the system....1st is the lack of English ( although that is changing.) Many places only have signs in Korean and no one speaks English , or will admit that they do. As I mention previously, the Tourist Information booth that only spoke Korean. The 2nd problem is that so many cities have names that sound so similar, that if you don't say it just right, there is no telling where you will wind up. Jincheon, Incheon,Jaecheon and so on. I may have related before about the taxi drivers also...but if you can't say it exactly, they don't know where to go, if you say "E-Mart" they don't understand...you have to say it in Konglish (Korean-English together) and say E-Mart-uh..then they understand. Another big issue is that most places don't have street names. You can't say, "take me to 33rd and Washington." To get somewhere, you have to tell them a popular landmark and then direct them from there. For example I will tell them " Sinpo-dong...Post office" and when they get there, I direct them for another 2 blocks to my condo.
The Internet is another big shout out for Korea. I think it is the most up to date and wired country in the world. Work nice for me !

Now onto the main topic. This country works very hard, and they like to play even harder !!!!! This is actually ingrained into them starting in preschool....They will take their class in preschool, and then after that many of them attend extra classes after school at a Hagwon ( private academy) There they will take music, science,English, math etc. As they get older they spend more time in school and still keep up the Hagwons. By high school, they start around 8:30am until around 5pm, at which time the get a 1 or 2 hour break for dinner. Then they come back and continue until around 10 or 11pm. Still not enough yet, they will then go to another Hagwon for another 1 or 2 hours. Then they go home around midnight or so....do any homework or studying, play a bit and get up and do it again the next morning.
They also attend school every other  Saturday. When I first started here, it was every Saturday !
They then go to college and pretty much stay on the same track. They are smart people, but they are also raising a nation of social retards. They don't know how to interact with others and aren't very outgoing.
By the time they reach the workforce, not much has changed. Working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. Last night some of my co-teachers were here at the school until 11pm to prepare for an evaluation...I was friggin pissed cuz they made me stay 10 minutes late !

Now one of their favorite pastimes is to work a long day, then go to dinner with co-workers and eat an assload of food and get totally shit-faced. Then they go to a Noraebang (Karaoke room) drink more,puke a few times and go home around 2 or 3 am.....on a Monday or Tuesday !  LOL I have had teachers come to work still hammered from the night before. This is something some of them do 2-4 times a week !
Another nice custom is that if you are invited to do something, the person who did the inviting is expected to pay. Also in Korea you do not tip. I have actually tried to tip before and had them refuse it !
OK, more on the Korean nightlife to be continued...I actually have to go teach one class today ! The class that is being evaluated by the Board of Education, that I took about 10 minutes to throw together :)