If your kids go to middle or high school over Yongsan Garrison expect your kids to have a different school schedule next year:
Osan American Elementary School students say the Pledge of Allegiance at Osan Air Base, South Korea, on Aug. 25, 2014. Department of Defense Dependents Schools began the new school year this week.
Department of Defense Education Activity middle and high school students in Seoul will attend classes on a “hybrid” schedule next year that combines traditional seven-period days and block-scheduled days within a single week, officials announced last week.
The change will mean more time in the classroom and fewer mix-ups at Seoul American High School over which classes students should be attending on a given day, principal Kathleen Reiss said.
The school now operates on a block schedule, with “A” and “B” class schedules alternating daily.
“It’s constant confusion now,” Reiss said. “There’s not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me, ‘Is this A day or B day?’ ”
Under the hybrid schedule, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays will be seven-period days. Wednesdays and Thursdays will be block-scheduled days, with a built-in seminar period used for assemblies, makeup tests and other instructional purposes. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but I love the picture the S&S decided to add to the article.
The average apartment prices in Seoul are actually not as expensive as I was expecting, but they are still pretty high:
Apartment prices in Seoul are expected to surpass 500 million won this month.
According to Kookmin Bank’s housing prices data, the average sale price of apartments in Seoul came to 499-point-nine million won as of the end of last month.
The average sale price of apartments in Seoul marked 489 million won in April 2013 and stayed below 500 million won for the past two years, but it is moving upward recently.
The steady rise in the apartment price is attributed to a surge in prices of jeonse, or deposit-based long-term rentals. [KBS World]
If you feels like Seoul has a lot of elderly people living in it, you would be right:
Senior citizens in Seoul have outnumbered children for the first time, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday.
As of April 30, there were 1,234,181 people 65 or over in the capital, slightly surpassing the number of children under 15 ― 1,232,194.
The aging index, the ratio of elderly people to children, recorded 100.4, exceeding 100 for the first time.
“The higher index means the number of elderly citizens is increasing more than the younger generation, which will be the working-age population needed to support them,” a city official said. [Korea Times]
It looks like if you ever wanted to stay in a Seoul luxury hotel now is the time:
Luxury hotels here are struggling as profits dwindle amid a marked decline in high-rolling Japanese customers.
Lotte Hotel, the biggest hotel chain in Korea, saw operating profit fall by half last year to W24.3 billion (US$1=W1,071). Hotel Shilla, a favorite choice of visiting foreign dignitaries and heads of state, posted an operating loss of W20.6 billion last year.
The W Seoul Walker Hill Hotel on the eastern edge of Seoul, a popular destination for foreign tourists, earned a paltry W12 million in net profit last year. Shinsegae, which operates luxury hotels in downtown Seoul and the southern port city of Busan, saw operating profit fall to W4.1 billion last year, less than half of what it earned in 2013.
From 2009 to 2012, the number of Japanese visitors rose from 3 million to 3.52 million, but it fell to a 10-year low of 2.28 million last year as Seoul-Tokyo relations chilled and a weak yen made Korea more expensive.
Instead, the number of Chinese tourists soared from 710,000 in 2005 to 6.13 million last year, but they prefer to more affordable accommodation, such as business hotels or guest houses.
“A majority of five-star hotels have seen a 30-percent decline in the number of Japanese guests. In some hotels the number fell 50 percent, while the increase in Chinese guests has been minimal,” one luxury hotel staffer said. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but in response to all the empty rooms the major luxury hotels are now offering some rooms at 50% off their normal prices just to get someone in the room to make up for the losses.
People dressed head-to-toe as Darth Vader and storm troopers, characters of the film “Star Wars,” pose for a photo during a publicity event, held by Japanese retailer Uniqlo, in Seoul on May 4, 2015. The “Star Wars Day” event originated from the English expression from the movie, “May the Force be with you,” which sounds like “May the Fourth.” (Yonhap)
There would be no politicians left in the US if spreading false information during a campaign ever became a crime like it is in Seoul:
The post of Seoul education superintendent, one of the most powerful educational positions in the country, might be vacated for the third time since direct elections were introduced for the post in 2008.
On Thursday night, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Seoul Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon to pay a 5 million won ($4,640) fine for spreading false information about one of his rivals, Koh Seung-duk, during the election campaign last year. If the ruling is upheld in the Supreme Court, he will be kicked out of his job.
Cho claimed that Koh was a permanent resident of the United States, which wasn’t true.
“Superintendent Cho did not fully check the facts about Koh’s permanent residency in the United States when he held a press conference about it,” said the judge panel. “Given that Cho mentioned the issue again even after Koh released an explanation, Cho’s action was clearly the spreading of false information.”
Under local educational law, a candidate who intentionally disseminates false information about a rival can be fined 5 million to 30 million won or sent to prison for up to seven years. An education superintendent who is fined 1 million won or more or sentenced to any time in jail loses his job. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but could you imagine the money that could be raised by this law in the US in just the US Presidential election cycle?
An amphibious bus sails on the Seoul-Incheon Canal in the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, on April 21, 2015, as the operator of the bus, the first of its kind in South Korea, implemented a test run. The canal, dubbed the “Ara Waterway,” connects the Han River, flowing through central Seoul, and the Yellow Sea, enabling seagoing ships to enter Seoul. (Yonhap)
The day after the one year anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking, 4,475 people gathered in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, Apr. 17, for an event titled “The Saddest Challenge in the World”. They managed to successfully set the Guinness World Record for largest assembly of people holding a candlelight vigil. (Hankyoreh)
