A Word About Korean Air Hostesses
Miky brought up an interesting tidbit tonight. She said that Korean Air Hostesses, which was a very popular occupation when she was at uni, are a strange mob. It turns out that it is very competitive to get into that industry and so most, if not all, of the applicants are university graduates. She can't understand why people would study at uni for four years just to be a hostie.
Why do you need university qualifications? Isn't it a bit of overkill?
Think about the job of a domestic hostess.
- put your seat belts on please.
- would you like tea or coffee, or maybe juice.
- would you like a lolly.
- we're coming in to land, finish your drinks.
- thankyou for your drink container.
- you can remove your seat belts now.
- we hope you enjoyed your 15 minute flight which constituted three hours of your day to get to the airport.
Even the international hostie has it tough. They have to remember at least two dishes, chicken or beef perhaps, that you may have a choice of. Or they could just forget the name of the dishes and serve you whatever informing you that other customers had taken all of the other dish first (maybe that's just a trick of Western airlines) and then offer tea, coffee, juice or soft drinks.
Hardly rocket science and what a waste of an education system. As soon as a woman in Korea gets married she is expected to give up her job anyway. So they go to school for 12 years and never miss a day or it shows up on your record and you may never get a job, spend four years at uni, attend flight attendant school, reach their goal of becoming a glamourous hostie, and then get married a year later, settle down and have kids etc, etc. Is it really worth it?
Next time you are on a Korean airliner (Korean Air or Asiana) don't dismiss the hostie as a bimbo - she's probably better educated than you or I.
2 comments:
I saw something about this on Tv a couple of months ago, there's some weird stuff going on in South Korea (dare I say it, even more than China?), all to do with a lot of people in a small country trying to get jobs. People are getting that little thing at the back of their throats cut out just so they can talk English properly and travel overseas (always taking their mum of course and the dad stays behind on his own for 5 years!) And getting top marks at school is unbelievable pressure!
Miky missed two days of school during her lifetime. Her sister never missed a day. They had to walk to school even if there was a typhoon.
A friend from uni is Korean by birth but was adopted fairly early on and has never been to Korea. She has a perfect Aussie accent so there is no physical reason why Asians can't speak English the same as we do. They just don't use the same muscles when talking.
I reckon I saw the same program. Send the kids overseas and dad stays home. One particular dad hadn't seen his kids for seven years. We'll see if the Internet equalises the situation a bit. Remember, Aussies used to go overseas to study years ago as well but French, German etc aren't too important anymore. And the Internet seems to be shortening the divide.
I think the Japanese place the most pressure on their children to succeed. They don't so much know the material but know how to pass the test. My missus has a different learning practice to myself. She remembers so that she can pass the test where as I try to understand what it is. She may pass the test but not have a clue what it means. This is not the way we should be educating our children.
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