The three MC's introduce themselves. Jun Hyun Moo, Yoo Se Yoon and Sung Si Kyung greet the viewers.
The summit starts out with an introduction of the current members: Sam Okeyere (Ghana), Alberto (Italy), Zhang Yuan (China), Daniel (Germany), Robin (France), Julian (Belgium), Guillaume (Canada), Takuya (Japan), and Tyler (America).
New members arrive!
Ilya (Russia), Sujan (Nepal), Blair (Australia)
G9 --> G12
The three new members were previous guests on the show and were asked if their lives changed after appearing once. Blair said he got so many more followers on Twitter. Ilya said nothing really changed for him. Sujan also said more people recognized him.
A performance review by the three new members on the existing members is revealed.
- Takuya's reviews are revealed first. Ilya wrote that Takuya never made him laugh, but Daniel did. Takuya retorts by asking if Ilya is funnier than him. The other members tease Takuya because Daniel is not funny and he's ranked lower than him. Daniel's response to that confirms that he is NOT funny, LOL. Sujan wrote that Takuya seems greedy to do well on TV due to his constant hand-raising during debates. Blair doesn't know Takuya and just wrote that he wants to know what kind of person Takuya is. Takuya says that he doesn't like the new members, jokingly.
- Guillaume is next. Sujan wrote if Guillaume goes to Nepal, he will get arrested because Guillaume loves beef. Beef is sacred in Hinduism and Nepal is 90% Hindu. Ilya wrote that Guillaume looks like a player, which Gullaume denies, lol. Robin is deemed the player in G12 much to his surprise. Blair wrote that Guillaume doesn't really have anything special, haha.
- Tyler's performance review is next. ilya wrote "no comment" because the relationship between Russia and America is rocky right now. Blair wants to have a political debate with Tyler. He asked Tyler about the relationship between America and Cuba. Tyler answers that there will be a lot of change because times are changing and the outcome is uncertain. Jun Hyun Moo asks Blair why he's only asking and not having a debate, haha.
- Robin is next. Sujan wrote that Robin is handsome. He also wrote that Robin doesn't talk much, but when he does he is good. Ilya wrote that Robin's Korean is not good enough for him to express himself and calls him the worst Korean speaker in G12.
- Zhang Yuan's performance review is next. Sujan wrote that he doesn't really know because Zhang's Korean is not good and Sujan doesn't really know what Zhang thinks. Ilya wants to become closer to Zhang, but feels that Zhang wants to stay away from him (Ilya previously said that he doesn't like China and Zhang, being patriotic, took that to mean he doesn't like him.) Blair wrote that Zhang seems to have deep thoughts.
- For Sam, all three said that he's a funny guy. For Daniel, all three said that he's NOT funny, ha. For Julian, all three agreed that Julian talks a lot. They agreed that Alberto has a nice impression.
Time for a new topic: Global Issues
Blair goes first and talks about the Australian hostage situation at the cafe. There was a 17 hour hostage and 20 hostages. The two hostages who died are the cafe manager and a man who wanted to save a pregnant hostage. After the incident, Muslims in Australia were scared that they were going to get hate, but Australians helped them by starting a "I'll Ride With You" campaign so Muslims can use public transportation safely. In addition, the Australian media had many pictures and videos of the situation, but refused to release them because they didn't want to put Muslims in a bad light.
Guillaume talked about a social experiment in Canada involving three individuals. One pretended to be a Muslim and another pretended to be a racist. The third took a video of the whole event. The racist person went to the Muslim and told him that he cannot take the bus. The people around told the racist that he cannot do that. The video was released online and became viral.
In France, there was a male politician who was caught vacationing with a male reporter. This became a huge issue because the politician seemed conservative and the issue seemed contradictory with the image that the politician had.
In Japan, Takuya explained the popularity of kabe don. Kabe don is when a man puts his hand against a wall, with a woman in between the man and the wall. The man then says romantic words. There are actually events in Japan so that people can experience it.
In Belgium, there was an increase in state pension age and retirement age from 65 to 67. People became outraged and performed rallies. Even the police became involved. They know that the government did that to cut costs and they are furious.
In Russia, there was a stray cat that snuck into a store in an airport and ate lots of meat. The store owner and airport manager argued about who will take responsibility. The cat was caught and became such an issue that it was chosen as the mascot for an ice hockey team.
In America, Tyler explained the current anger over the Ferguson trial. People think that the law is too lenient towards the police and that there was definite racism involved. Other issues with racism against blacks are now commonly reported. Ilya joins in saying that people are criticizing America for promoting equality to the world when there is still so much inequality in America.
The next part of the summit begins.
A Korean representative is welcomed. His name is Kim Kwan, a JTBC reporter. He reads today's agenda that was written by a mom. The mom has a 2nd grade daughter and her child is on break. The mom knew that school was stressful so she wanted to let her child have fun during the break without making her go to an after school. However, her daughter's friends are all going to after schools so the mom felt uneasy. She decided to send her daughter to an after school in the end because she felt that she HAD to in order for her child to not fall behind. Is she abnormal for feeling that way?
The 3 MC's reveal that Korea's youth happiness is the 23rd out of the 23 countries in the OECD- so in last place. The voting begins. Five think the mother is abnormal and 8 think she is abnormal (G12 plus the Korean representative.)
Takuya thinks the mother is normal since Korea's education is similar to Japan's. Guillaume picked abnormal because although he can understand the mother, it's not like she has no choice. Julian asked Guillaume of he would send his child to an after school to help him with education if his child was really bad at school work. Tyler thinks that people are just following what everyone else is doing. Kim Kwan picked normal because outside of school education is already instilled in Korea and no parent wants their child to get bullied due to their ranking. (Korea's students are ranked from #1 to last place and the ranking is publicly available.)
Robin believes that break is break, not study time. Break is important, too. Guillaume believes that as important as school is, so is the outside world and social experiences. Zhang Yuan suddenly says that he believes Asia's education system is the best in the world, which stuns the westerners. Zhang thinks that there is a good payoff for studying like crazy as Asian students do and that if you want to be successful, the ONLY route is to study. Julian disagrees saying that people's standard for success varies.
Tyler agrees and says that there are many roads and variants to success, but Koreans think that there is only one road. Guillaume adds that stars like Kim Yuna became successful for doing something other than studying and that each person has his or her own road for success. Ilya agrees and exemplifies Steve Jobs, who became extremely successful but didn't finish his education. Daniel says that in Germany, education ends when you die. Kids need to enjoy education to continue it.
The MC's ask if other countries have after schools. Takuya says that Japan is similar to Korea. Ilya says that there are no CSATs like Korea does where everyone needs to study multiple subjects. In Russia, each university has specific tests for majors so students only need to study for the university major they want to be in. In France, there are outside-of-school education places available, but only the rich can afford them. Julian says that in Europe people question education by saying, "Why?" Kim Kwan says that Koreans do not question and just do as they are told. If students can be taught to think then the education system will be better. Daniel thinks that parents try to have their children learn too much at a time instead of focusing on one or a few subjects, which leads to ineffective learning.
Surprisingly, Ilya says that there are no report cards in Russia. Everyone can know each other's grades though a grading book publicly released, but there is no stress about it. In some countries, like Ghana, ranking is revealed on report cards. Sam said that he was so stressed by ranking since it was the first thing is parents checked.
The MC's ask a question: If you were raising a child in Korea and your child was significantly behind others at school, would you send your child to an after school? Nine answered yes and 3 answered no.
Guillaume answered yes because if his child was bad at school then as a parent he had to help the child. Ilya says that he would help his child in only the subjects he needed help in, not all subjects like in Korea. Tyler says that his definition of outside help was different. If his child was behind in school, then he would help his child, but he would send his child to an after school to learn unrelated subjects to school. Zhang believes that students in Korea are too pitiful because they study too much and if his child was incredibly bad at school work then Zhang would just let his child find something else to do.
Alberto disagrees with Zhang because Zhang thinks that education leads to success even though it's not exactly a set road. Daniel says that even if students learn a lot in after schools, if they don't want to learn then there is no point. He think students need to start learning for themselves instead of for others.
It's winter vacation in Korea right now. The MC's want to know what students in other countries do on their school breaks.
- In Belgium, there is no homework. The MC's are surprised. Blair says that the same happens in Australia. in America, many students go to camp and some have part-time jobs to make money for vacations. In Belgium, even broadcast companies go on breaks.
- Kim Kwan says that in Korea, students study for the new school year through programs in after schools. In other words, school break is nonexistent.
- Yoo Se Yoon, who is known to have been a not-so-good student, brags that he went on a 4 day vacation with his friends against his mother's wishes. The western members brag that they played or vacationed for weeks or months at a time, ha. Sung Si Kyung says that he thought 4 days was too long and can't believe that it's nothing compared to other people's vacations.
In Korea, some students live in dorms for high school so they could only study. The MC's reveal that during breaks it is mandatory for students to draw a circular time schedule for their daily lives. This is necessary to keep track of all the after schools they need to go to. G12 is surprised by a 5th grader's time schedule, which is packed.
The MC's reveal time schedules made by G12 for their children. Guillaume's schedule includes a skating time from 9 to 1pm, which is crazy. He gets teased a lot. Zhang Yuan's schedule is chock full of after schools and sports times. The MC's say that his future child will want to run away from home. Julian's time schedule is blank because he wants his child to plan his day by himself. Sujan's includes a 14 hour sleeping time, which prompts MC's to tease him for forcing his child to sleep so long.
The MC's agree that they feel pity for Korea's students who are forced to study all the time. They vote again and this time, 2 think the mother in the concern is normal. 11 thinks the mother is abnormal. Zhang and Kim Kwan are the two, unsurprisingly. Kim Kwan knows that the system is instilled in Korean education so he doesn't want to say that it is abnormal, but definitely the system has to be reformed.
The summit ends with Jun Hyun Moo's singing: You seem normal, are not normal, are normal. (Play on of the song "Some.")
My Comments:
Recapping Abnormal Summit without English subtitles was challenging because G12's Korean is better than mine. It was a great episode in my opinion. There was a lot of insight into education systems in many countries and the episode made me happy that I wasn't raised in Korea, lol. The performance reviews on the existing members was funny and was a great segment to introduce the three new members. I hope Blair will gain confidence for the next episode. Ilya was great at talking and I wish Sujan would talk more. I hope you guys enjoyed this recap.
What are your thoughts? What do you guys think about the education system in Korea and in your countries overall? Are there any global issues where you live?
