WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 I want you to imagine, just for a second, a reality 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:06.160 where your entire future is effectively decided 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:08.119 by the time you're 18 years old. Right. And we're 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:10.300 talking about the absolute trajectory of your 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:14.060 life here, your career ceiling, your social standing, 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:16.579 who you marry. Yeah, exactly. Even the network 00:00:16.579 --> 00:00:19.679 you rely on in a crisis, like all of it. The 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.600 whole package. So imagine a world where all of 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.320 that hinges on getting an acceptance letter from 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:29.039 just one of three specific colleges. Wow. Yeah. 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:31.960 If you get in, the doors of society just swing 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:34.799 wide open for you. But if you don't... It's an 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:37.960 uphill battle. Oh, an incredibly steep, lifelong 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:40.979 uphill battle in like almost every professional 00:00:40.979 --> 00:00:43.579 arena. It honestly sounds like... the setup for 00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:46.280 a dystopian novel, you know, like some hyper 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.500 exaggerated fiction about a rigid cast -based 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:51.539 society. It really does, but it's not fiction 00:00:51.539 --> 00:00:54.359 at all. For our deep dive today, we are unpacking 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.820 the phenomenon of SKY, which is the unofficial 00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:01.020 acronym for South Korea's three most elite, most 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:03.820 academically rigorous institutions. It's a massive 00:01:03.820 --> 00:01:07.030 topic. It is. We're going to explore how these 00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:10.430 three universities came to just entirely dominate 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:13.430 a nation's social, economic, and even cultural 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:17.189 landscape. And more importantly, what that intense 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:19.730 concentration of prestige actually means for 00:01:19.730 --> 00:01:21.989 the society built around it. Because it is a 00:01:21.989 --> 00:01:24.629 fascinating dynamic to dissect. When you funnel 00:01:24.629 --> 00:01:27.310 that much national influence into such a narrow 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:31.939 bottleneck, the ripple effects. They touch absolutely 00:01:31.939 --> 00:01:33.799 everyone. Oh, for sure. Whether you ever set 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:35.420 foot on one of those campuses or not, you're 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:37.799 impacted by it. OK, let's unpack this. Because 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.299 before we can truly grasp the sheer societal 00:01:40.299 --> 00:01:42.819 impact these institutions have today, we kind 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:44.480 of have to look at their foundations. Yeah, we 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.200 need to understand who these three titans are. 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:48.099 Exactly who they are and where they came from. 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:52.019 So the acronym is SKY. SKY. All three are located 00:01:52.019 --> 00:01:54.450 right in the capital city of Seoul. The S stands 00:01:54.450 --> 00:01:57.969 for Seoul National University. The K is Korea 00:01:57.969 --> 00:02:01.670 University. And the Y is Yonsei University. What's 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:03.890 fascinating here is that the acronym itself is 00:02:03.890 --> 00:02:06.609 very intentional. It's heavily used by the South 00:02:06.609 --> 00:02:10.030 Korean media, the public, and even the universities 00:02:10.030 --> 00:02:12.750 themselves use it. They embrace it. Yeah. It 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:14.750 implies that being admitted is so incredibly 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:17.110 difficult. Students are literally reaching for 00:02:17.110 --> 00:02:20.300 the sky. Which is such a vile image. It is. But 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:22.620 to really understand why these three schools 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:25.439 hold this mythic status, we have to look at how 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:28.400 their individual histories map directly onto 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:30.680 the modernization of South Korea itself. Yeah, 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:32.460 I noticed that in the source material, they aren't 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:34.539 just like old schools that happen to be highly 00:02:34.539 --> 00:02:36.979 ranked now. Their roots are deeply specific. 00:02:37.159 --> 00:02:40.240 Very specific. Let's look at the S, Seoul National 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.879 University. It's a public national university. 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:45.099 And while its official founding as a national 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:48.560 university happened in August 1946, its symbolic 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:51.560 roots trace way further back to 1895. Right, 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.539 to King Gojong. Exactly. King Gojong established 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:57.060 the Judicial Training Center, which was the very 00:02:57.060 --> 00:02:59.740 first modern legal training institution in Korea. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.900 And that is a crucial starting point because 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:05.460 Seoul National represents the foundation of modern 00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:08.590 law and governance for the country. Then you 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:11.569 look at the K, Cree University. This is a private 00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:14.870 institution established back in 1905 as Bosung 00:03:14.870 --> 00:03:17.069 College. Which is a big deal at the time. Huge 00:03:17.069 --> 00:03:19.870 deal. It was the first modern private institution 00:03:19.870 --> 00:03:22.870 of higher education in the country. It effectively 00:03:22.870 --> 00:03:25.310 laid the groundwork for modern civic education 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:27.939 and private enterprise. And then finally, you've 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:30.800 got the Y, Yonsei University, also a private 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:32.960 university, but its roots go all the way back 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.819 to 1885. Yeah, starting as the Severance Medical 00:03:35.819 --> 00:03:38.520 College and hospital. Right. The very first modern 00:03:38.520 --> 00:03:40.900 hospital and academic medical institution built 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.139 in Korea. So if you connect this to the bigger 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:45.879 picture, Korea's modernization was essentially 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.500 a three -pronged attack. Law, business and medicine. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:52.919 Ah, I see. These three schools were the specific 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:55.740 boot camps for those sectors. They literally 00:03:55.740 --> 00:03:58.500 grew up alongside the modern state of South Korea. 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:01.000 That makes so much sense. But, you know, to understand 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.099 why this turned into such a hyper competitive 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:05.759 bottleneck, we have to look at the period immediately 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.400 following the Korean War in the 1950s. Because 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:10.340 the country was essentially devastated at that 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:12.919 point, right? Like there was very little infrastructure 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:16.019 left. Precisely. The nation was flattened. Natural 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:19.060 resources were incredibly scarce. The only real 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:21.600 resource South Korea had left was human capital. 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:24.910 Wow. Just the people. Just the people. So in 00:04:24.910 --> 00:04:28.209 that post -war era, education was the singular 00:04:28.209 --> 00:04:31.129 most reliable engine for pulling a family out 00:04:31.129 --> 00:04:33.970 of poverty. It was a pure meritocracy driven 00:04:33.970 --> 00:04:37.649 by sheer survival. So it wasn't initially about 00:04:37.649 --> 00:04:40.129 vanity or just looking good on a resume? Not 00:04:40.129 --> 00:04:42.810 at all. If a student studied relentlessly and 00:04:42.810 --> 00:04:45.329 got into a top school, they could literally change 00:04:45.329 --> 00:04:47.389 the economic destiny of their entire extended 00:04:47.389 --> 00:04:50.050 family. That is so heavy. It was a survival tactic 00:04:50.050 --> 00:04:53.970 that over 70 years just calcified into this intense 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:57.170 educational arms race. Yes, exactly. The urgency 00:04:57.170 --> 00:05:00.050 of survival transformed into a structural monopoly, 00:05:00.529 --> 00:05:02.430 which kind of brings us to the statistical outcomes 00:05:02.430 --> 00:05:04.889 we see today, which are frankly difficult to 00:05:04.889 --> 00:05:06.689 comprehend if you're looking at them from an 00:05:06.689 --> 00:05:08.550 outside perspective. Yeah, I was actually hoping 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:10.170 you could break those numbers down because when 00:05:10.170 --> 00:05:12.170 I first saw them in our research, I had to read 00:05:12.170 --> 00:05:14.879 the page twice. They're pretty shocking. Just 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:19.360 how dominant is this SKY monopoly in the modern 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:21.500 era? Well, let's look at the data from a major 00:05:21.500 --> 00:05:25.439 2010 report. It serves as a stark snapshot of 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:29.120 this concentration of power. At that time, 46 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:32.759 .3 % of high government officials were graduates 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:36.399 of SKY universities. Wait, almost half? Almost 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:41.220 half. And exactly 50 % of the CEOs of major financial 00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:44.540 industries were SKY alumni. That's insane. It 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:47.639 gets crazier. Over 60 % of the students who passed 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:49.959 the Korean Bar Examination that year came from 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.139 just these three schools. That is staggering. 00:05:52.220 --> 00:05:55.240 I mean, over 60 % of the new lawyers in the entire 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:57.500 country coming from just three campuses. Yeah. 00:05:57.540 --> 00:05:59.019 If you're listening to this in the US or Europe, 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:01.100 you might be thinking, you know, sure, Harvard 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:03.560 and Oxford produce a lot of leaders. Right, which 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:07.250 they do. They do. But imagine if Harvard, Yale, 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:10.329 and Princeton accounted for literally half of 00:06:10.329 --> 00:06:12.810 your entire country's corporate and governmental 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:15.550 infrastructure. It's a completely different scale. 00:06:15.730 --> 00:06:18.829 It's totally unprecedented. Yeah. And to even 00:06:18.829 --> 00:06:21.529 get a seat at one of those three tables, a student 00:06:21.529 --> 00:06:24.810 typically has to score within the top 1 % of 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:27.509 the Korean college scholastic ability test. which 00:06:27.509 --> 00:06:29.850 is widely known as the Sunyung, right? Exactly. 00:06:30.029 --> 00:06:32.269 I want to pause on this test for a second because 00:06:32.269 --> 00:06:34.250 I think a lot of people hear standardized tests 00:06:34.250 --> 00:06:38.290 and they think of like taking the SATs on a quiet 00:06:38.290 --> 00:06:40.470 Saturday morning with a number two pencil. Right. 00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:43.250 Maybe a little sleepy. Yeah. But the Sunyung 00:06:43.250 --> 00:06:45.110 is a completely different beast, isn't it? Oh, 00:06:45.189 --> 00:06:47.569 it is a monumental national event. It's an eight 00:06:47.569 --> 00:06:50.189 hour marathon exam. Eight hours. Eight hours. 00:06:50.529 --> 00:06:53.370 And on the day of the test, the entire country 00:06:53.370 --> 00:06:57.040 literally alters its operations to accommodate 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.899 the students. Like, what do they do? Well, the 00:06:59.899 --> 00:07:02.139 stock market opens late to reduce morning traffic 00:07:02.139 --> 00:07:05.060 so students aren't late. Wow. Police will actually 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:07.379 escort running students to test centers if they're 00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:10.600 behind schedule. You're k - No, it's true. And 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:12.939 most incredibly, during the English listening 00:07:12.939 --> 00:07:16.050 comprehension section of the exam, All commercial 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:18.149 flights are grounded. Right. The ground planes. 00:07:18.269 --> 00:07:21.670 The ground planes. And military training is completely 00:07:21.670 --> 00:07:24.589 halted just to ensure absolute silence across 00:07:24.589 --> 00:07:26.389 the nation. OK, wait. I'm stuck on something 00:07:26.389 --> 00:07:30.189 here. If these schools only take the top 1 % 00:07:30.189 --> 00:07:32.509 of test takers from an exam that requires that 00:07:32.509 --> 00:07:35.810 level of rigid high pressure memorization, Doesn't 00:07:35.810 --> 00:07:37.589 that just mean they're breeding excellent rule 00:07:37.589 --> 00:07:39.670 followers? That's a really good question. I mean, 00:07:39.850 --> 00:07:42.910 how does a country innovate or adapt if its leaders 00:07:42.910 --> 00:07:45.350 are simply the individuals who are the absolute 00:07:45.350 --> 00:07:47.910 best at filling in bubbles at age 18? And that 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:50.290 is exactly the defining critique of the entire 00:07:50.290 --> 00:07:52.769 system. But to understand how this machinery 00:07:52.769 --> 00:07:55.189 actually functions, you have to look past the 00:07:55.189 --> 00:07:57.170 academic curriculum itself. OK, so what's the 00:07:57.170 --> 00:08:00.509 real driver then? The real power of SKY University 00:08:00.509 --> 00:08:03.660 is the mechanism of its alumni network. It's 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:05.939 specifically rooted in the Korean cultural dynamic 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:08.939 of Sunbae and Hubei. Which translates to senior 00:08:08.939 --> 00:08:11.560 and junior, right? Yes. How does that dynamic 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:14.259 fast -track someone's career, like practically 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:17.100 speaking? So when you enter a SKY university, 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.500 you become part of this deeply entrenched hierarchy. 00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:23.500 Your Sunbae, the alumni who graduated before 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:28.019 you, feel a profound cultural obligation to pull 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:31.959 their Hubei, their juniors, up the ladder. Ah, 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:35.159 I see. So when the CEO needs to groom a successor 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:38.320 or, say, a politician needs a chief of staff, 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:40.279 they don't just look for a qualified candidate. 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:42.860 They look to their own university lineage. They 00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:46.470 hire their Hubei. Wow. So it's less like a traditional 00:08:46.470 --> 00:08:49.250 Ivy League networking club and more like an exclusive 00:08:49.250 --> 00:08:51.309 operating system. That's a great analogy. Like 00:08:51.309 --> 00:08:53.470 if you aren't running on SKY software, you simply 00:08:53.470 --> 00:08:55.610 aren't compatible with the hardware of the Korean 00:08:55.610 --> 00:08:57.929 government or banking sector. No matter how smart 00:08:57.929 --> 00:09:00.250 you are, the system just can't read your file. 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:02.779 That is a perfect way to visualize it. It becomes 00:09:02.779 --> 00:09:05.419 a closed loop where outside innovation is often 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:07.860 viewed with suspicion and internal loyalty is 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:10.100 rewarded above all else. Okay, so that makes 00:09:10.100 --> 00:09:12.600 sense for the boardrooms, you know, the courtrooms, 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:14.860 the government halls. We kind of expect that 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.879 rigid elitism in those spheres. But here's where 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:21.200 it gets really interesting. This dominance isn't 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:25.360 confined to people in suits. It bleeds heavily 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:28.460 into the subjective creative fields. It really 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:30.820 does. Specifically, it permeates the culture 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.480 that South Korea exports to the rest of the world. 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:36.379 And the cultural footprint is perhaps the most 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:38.519 surprising element for people unfamiliar with 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:41.360 the system, because you might assume the arts 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.519 would be a refuge from this kind of academic 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:45.720 sorting. Right. You'd think the arts would be 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:47.840 the one place where test scores don't matter. 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:50.830 But look at the prominent alumni. You have the 00:09:50.830 --> 00:09:53.049 Academy Award -winning director Bong Joon -ho, 00:09:53.149 --> 00:09:55.250 who directed Parasite. An absolute masterpiece. 00:09:55.529 --> 00:09:58.250 Oh, incredible film. And then you have the renowned 00:09:58.250 --> 00:10:01.350 Grammy -winning opera singer Sue Mi Jo. Both 00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:04.289 of them are SKY graduates. And it becomes even 00:10:04.289 --> 00:10:06.210 more pronounced when you examine the architecture 00:10:06.210 --> 00:10:08.230 of the Korean music industry. Yeah, the K -pop 00:10:08.230 --> 00:10:11.409 machine. Exactly. If you look at the absolute 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:15.269 juggernaut that is K -pop, the founders of three 00:10:15.269 --> 00:10:17.389 of the Big Four entertainment labels. Wait, three 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:20.259 of the Big Four? Three of them. Lee Suman of 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:24.179 SM Entertainment, Park Jin Young of JYP, and 00:10:24.179 --> 00:10:27.519 Bang Si -Yuk of HYBE. which is the agency behind 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:31.740 BTS. Wow. They are all graduates of SKY University. 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:34.320 It's wild to me. And the sources point out it's 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:36.500 not just the massive corporate pot machine either. 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.940 Right. The founders of highly respected, prominent 00:10:39.940 --> 00:10:42.980 indie -oriented labels like Mystic Stories' Yoon 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:45.899 Jung Shin and Antenna Music's Yoo Hee Yeol, they 00:10:45.899 --> 00:10:48.700 also went to SKY University. It completely challenges 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:52.120 the Western romantic ideal. of the college dropout 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:54.580 artist. It really does. In the US, the narrative 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:56.899 often centers around figures like Steve Jobs 00:10:56.899 --> 00:11:00.720 or Kanye West, where rejecting traditional education 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.860 is almost framed as a prerequisite for true creative 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:07.279 genius or disruption. Exactly. We have this image 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:10.019 of the starving artist, the rebel who bucks the 00:11:10.019 --> 00:11:12.240 system. It's like finding out that the founders 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.250 of Universal, Warner, and Sony Music plus the 00:11:15.250 --> 00:11:17.129 founders of the coolest underground indie labels 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:19.830 in the country, all went to the exact same three 00:11:19.830 --> 00:11:21.490 colleges. Right. It's hard to wrap your head 00:11:21.490 --> 00:11:24.289 around. It totally rewrites how we view the creative 00:11:24.289 --> 00:11:27.370 sector. Here, the architects of the culture are 00:11:27.370 --> 00:11:29.789 the system. Which arguably explains a lot about 00:11:29.789 --> 00:11:31.929 how these cultural exports function, honestly. 00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:35.350 What do you mean? Well... When the people designing 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:37.129 the entertainment industry have survived the 00:11:37.129 --> 00:11:40.330 most rigorous, elite academic filtering process 00:11:40.330 --> 00:11:43.769 in the country, they bring a very specific type 00:11:43.769 --> 00:11:46.889 of analytical rigor to their creative enterprises. 00:11:47.649 --> 00:11:50.490 So it's not just about the art? No. It is highly 00:11:50.490 --> 00:11:54.029 structured, deeply strategic, and meticulously 00:11:54.029 --> 00:11:56.799 managed. That makes total sense. They are applying 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.600 the relentless dedication and optimization required 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.820 to ace the Sunung test directly to the globalization 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:05.240 of their music and film. Exactly. They aren't 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:07.320 just starting spontaneous garage bands, they're 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:09.340 building highly optimized entertainment machines. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.899 But a social system operating at this level of 00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:14.379 intensity, where everything from your legal career 00:12:14.379 --> 00:12:17.740 to your pop music ambitions is gated by an exam 00:12:17.740 --> 00:12:20.830 you take as a teenager. Yeah. It inevitably reaches 00:12:20.830 --> 00:12:23.169 a breaking point. The pressure on the youth is 00:12:23.169 --> 00:12:25.850 immense, and we are seeing significant fractures 00:12:25.850 --> 00:12:28.529 in the society's willingness to accept this paradigm. 00:12:29.330 --> 00:12:31.470 So what does this all mean when the pressure 00:12:31.470 --> 00:12:34.889 finally boils over? Our research highlights a 00:12:34.889 --> 00:12:37.309 growing widespread concern over what South Koreans 00:12:37.309 --> 00:12:40.480 call overheated academic elitism. And it's moving 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:43.059 beyond just quiet complaints. Right. We're seeing 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:45.639 actual public protests against the system. The 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:48.440 most striking examples are the students who fight 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:52.220 their entire lives to get into a SKY university 00:12:52.220 --> 00:12:55.519 and then publicly drop out in protest. Yes. The 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.399 manifestos. I was reading about this. There is 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:00.919 a specific anecdote from the sources about a 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:04.159 student at Korea University in 2010. Oh, right. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:06.840 The poster. Yeah. She actually put up a large 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.990 handwritten poster on campus announcing her dropout. 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:12.690 She publicly rejected the prize, stating she 00:13:12.690 --> 00:13:15.230 refused to become a corporate slave or just a 00:13:15.230 --> 00:13:17.610 mere component in a ruthless hyper -competitive 00:13:17.610 --> 00:13:19.789 machine. And that is a deeply profound statement 00:13:19.789 --> 00:13:22.809 because she had so much to lose. Everything to 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:24.850 lose. It seems paradoxical to outsiders, you 00:13:24.850 --> 00:13:27.710 know. Getting into an SKY school is the ultimate 00:13:27.710 --> 00:13:30.190 golden ticket. Parents sacrifice their life savings 00:13:30.190 --> 00:13:32.720 for private tutoring. just for a chance at it. 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:34.740 So why walk away from the finish line when you've 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.059 already won the race? Because walking away is 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:39.299 the only way to prove the race itself is flawed. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.519 Wow. When a student who has achieved the absolute 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.659 pinnacle of societal expectation tears up the 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:49.019 ticket, they are sending a message that the psychological 00:13:49.019 --> 00:13:52.379 cost of this prestige is just too high. They're 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:54.919 rejecting the fundamental premise that their 00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:57.740 human worth should be validated by this one specific 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:01.100 institutional badge. And that psychological cost 00:14:01.100 --> 00:14:03.360 isn't just an abstract concept for university 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:05.659 students either. This collective anxiety has 00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:07.960 completely spilled over into mainstream popular 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:09.960 culture. It's something the whole country is 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:12.440 actively processing. Oh, absolutely. The media 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:14.519 reflections of this tension are fascinating, 00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:16.809 particularly in television. Yeah, the source 00:14:16.809 --> 00:14:19.909 has spent a lot of time analyzing a JTBC primetime 00:14:19.909 --> 00:14:23.370 drama that aired in 2018 and 2019 called SKY 00:14:23.370 --> 00:14:25.830 Castle. Right. And this wasn't just some niche 00:14:25.830 --> 00:14:29.470 show, it was a massive record -breaking cultural 00:14:29.470 --> 00:14:32.070 phenomenon. It struck a very raw nerve by exploring 00:14:32.070 --> 00:14:34.929 the incredibly dark side of this admissions obsession. 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:38.179 The premise is so intense. It depicts obscenely 00:14:38.179 --> 00:14:41.299 wealthy parents who live in this luxurious residential 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:45.419 area called SKY Castle. And they hire these extreme 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:48.759 shadowy coordinators who act almost like ruthless 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:51.620 military generals. They control everything. Everything. 00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:54.639 These coordinators dictate every single aspect 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.080 of a child's life, their study schedules, their 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:59.580 sleep, their diet, their friendships, all to 00:14:59.580 --> 00:15:01.740 essentially force them into one of these three 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:04.559 colleges. And it portrays the devastating consequences. 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:07.799 of this arms race. Families are destroyed, students 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:10.360 are pushed to the brink of psychological collapse, 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.820 and morality is just completely discarded in 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:15.940 the pursuit of an acceptance letter. And the 00:15:15.940 --> 00:15:18.100 fact that the entire nation was glued to this 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:20.120 show tells you everything you need to know, right? 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:24.179 Media like SKY Castle isn't just soapy melodrama. 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.059 No, it's a reflection. Exactly. When a television 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:28.940 show about the horrors of college admissions 00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:30.940 becomes the most talked about thing in the country, 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.840 it functions as a critical mirror. Everyone is 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:35.919 either in the system preparing their kids for 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.139 the system or dealing with the fallout of being 00:15:38.139 --> 00:15:41.480 rejected by the system. It forces a society to 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:44.279 look at its own reflection and ask if the engine 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.320 that pulled them out of post -war poverty has 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.399 now become a trap. Man, this has been such a 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.259 revealing deep dive. We started by looking at 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:55.080 the historic roots of three universities, how 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.120 they served as the specific training grounds 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.389 for a law, private enterprise, and medicine during 00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:03.809 South Korea's modernization. We traced how that 00:16:03.809 --> 00:16:06.509 historical importance, fueled by post -war survival, 00:16:07.129 --> 00:16:09.750 morphed into a modern stranglehold on government 00:16:09.750 --> 00:16:12.470 and finance, operating through that exclusive 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:15.090 senior -junior networking loop. The Sunbae and 00:16:15.090 --> 00:16:17.970 Hubie dynamic. Right. And then we saw how that 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:20.789 same rigorous machinery actually built the modern 00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:23.549 global phenomenon of K -pop and Korean cinema. 00:16:23.710 --> 00:16:25.669 Which is still so wild to think about. It really 00:16:25.669 --> 00:16:27.929 is. And finally, we looked at the breaking point, 00:16:28.149 --> 00:16:30.669 the student manifestos, the dropouts, and massive 00:16:30.669 --> 00:16:33.769 cultural moments like SKY Castle, where a society 00:16:33.769 --> 00:16:35.750 really grapples with the dark side of its own 00:16:35.750 --> 00:16:38.370 elitism. It serves as a master class in understanding 00:16:38.370 --> 00:16:41.169 how educational infrastructure doesn't just reflect 00:16:41.169 --> 00:16:44.929 a society, it actively shapes its destiny. Absolutely. 00:16:45.610 --> 00:16:48.009 So for you listening right now, take a moment 00:16:48.009 --> 00:16:50.490 to consider the role of educational prestige 00:16:50.490 --> 00:16:53.679 in your own life or in your own country. Does 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:56.440 a specific degree from a specific institution 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.720 guarantee a path to the top where you are? Or 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:02.299 is it just one of many different equally valid 00:17:02.299 --> 00:17:05.480 operating systems? How much pressure is too much 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:07.700 pressure when it comes to defining a young person's 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:10.799 future based on a single exam? And you know, 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:12.579 this raises an important question and it's something 00:17:12.579 --> 00:17:15.019 I'd love for everyone to chew on long after we 00:17:15.019 --> 00:17:17.839 wrap up today. Yeah, let's hear it. If a society's 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:20.279 absolute highest achievers, from its lawmakers 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.339 and financial CEOs to its pop culture architects 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:25.599 and creative directors, if they're all trained 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:27.880 in the exact same three academic environments, 00:17:28.420 --> 00:17:31.160 does that shared background eventually stifle 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:34.039 national innovation? Oh, wow. By siltering everyone 00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:37.000 who holds power through the exact same SKY, do 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.240 you ultimately risk creating a monoculture of 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:41.900 thought? That is the ultimate question. Because 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.569 if every leader is looking at the world... through 00:17:44.569 --> 00:17:46.930 the exact same lens, you really have to wonder 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:49.309 what they might be missing in their blind spots. 00:17:49.950 --> 00:17:51.970 Thanks for joining us and keep questioning the 00:17:51.970 --> 00:17:52.809 systems around you.